It is 'highly likely' more Melbourne suburbs will be forced into lockdown, epidemiologists say, as authorities outline criteria that put an area back into stage three restrictions.
Playgrounds have been cordoned off, gyms closed and restaurants back to offering only take-away as restrictions return to the highest level yet imposed.
Professor Allen Cheng, director of the infection prevention and healthcare epidemiology unit at Alfred Health, said while he supported the hotel quarantine idea in theory, it should be done on case-by-case basis and not used as a blanket rule. Fresh data revealed the municipality of Hume had 85 active cases of the virus, Brimbank had 49 and Moreland had 32.
Of the new cases on Thursday, two were linked to Al-Taqwa College in the city's west, bringing the total to 15.
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