The Acting Premier of Victoria James Merlino has just announced a seven day ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown of Victoria.

The lockdown covers “Hotels, clubs, TABs and the casino will be closed, indoor and outdoor entertainment venues, swimming pools, spas, saunas, indoor and outdoor springs, community venues, drive in cinemas, amusements parks, creative studios, art galleries and museums, tourism, tours, and transport, and auctions can only happen online.”

Sources in Melbourne told ASE that event organisers were cancelling events from early this morning in anticipation of the announcement.

This comes as another blow to the barely recovering events sector in Victoria just as they were cautiously celebrating the return of events over the last couple of weeks.

James Merlino has pleaded for people who can get vaccinated, and also pleads with the federal government to move forward with a proper quarantine facility.

“If we had – if we had an alternative to hotel for this particular variant of concern, we would not be here today. If we had the vaccine, the Commonwealth’s vaccine program effectively rolled out, we may well not be here today, talking about these circuit breaker restrictions that we must impose to keep our community safe” he said.