New ACT coronavirus travel rules for people coming from Victoria

Non-ACT residents leaving Victoria on Friday onwards will be banned from travelling to the territory unless they are granted an exemption.

ACT residents returning from Victoria after 11.59pm on Thursday will be required to complete an online declaration form 24 hours prior to arriving, or by midnight on Friday.

All travelers are required to go directly to the residence where they will spend the stay-at-home period and should only leave for an essential purpose.

Those entering the territory from Victoria who are aged over 12 must wear a mask when leaving the house, unless undertaking vigorous exercise outdoors, ACT Health has advised.

ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said about 6800 people had declared they had been in greater Melbourne in the past 14-days.

There is one person in quarantine who attended a close-contact exposure site. Forty casual contacts have been identified.

ACT Chief Health Officer Kerryn Coleman said the huge number of high-risk exposure sites in Victoria was particularly concerning.

"A lot of these venues have high-risk of transmission within them, so we anticipate a higher number of cases to come from each of those sites," she said.

Dr Coleman said there were still missing links to understand how the virus moved from the initial case of a man who entered Victoria after completing hotel quarantine in Adelaide.

She said ACT Health would contact 149 people who had declared they had been in the City of Whittlesea, where the outbreak began, to ensure they got a COVID-19 test in the next 24 hours.

Dr Coleman said those people should isolate until they received a negative test result.

ACT Health has reiterated advice to Canberra residents who have been to areas identified as of risk in Victoria, that they should get tested and self isolate until they receive their results.

Any non-ACT residents who have attended a close contact exposure site will not be allowed into the territory without an approved exemption.

There has been 973 tests conducted in the ACT in the past 24 hours, and Dr Coleman said that number should surge to round 1300 per day.

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COVID-19 testing centres are available at EPIC and Weston Creek, plus respiratory clinics in Crace and Greenway and the Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service.

Capacity has diminished in recent months as the Garran centre was turned into a vaccine clinic.

"I'm really comfortable that we have a really good ability to provide a baseline ... but our clinical staff are able to surge up at both [EPIC and Weston Creek] ... we're also able to have pop-up sites," Dr Coleman said.

Health officials have been meeting flights from Melbourne into Canberra Airport to ensure passengers were aware of the latest directions.

The advice from ACT Health came just days after it formally lifted all travel requirements with greater Melbourne.

Victorians have entered a seven day "circuit-breaker" lockdown from midnight with travel restricted within a five-kilometre radius of houses.

The response follows the identification of another 12 cases of coronavirus in the state over the past 24 hours.

Linked to a breach of hotel quarantine in Adelaide, there are currently 34 active cases of coronavirus across the state, with greater Melbourne and Bendigo reporting outbreaks.

More than 10,000 people have been identified as primary and secondary contacts of those infected, due to a delay in diagnosing the first case.

In response, restaurants, pubs and cafes will only be permitted to provide takeaway. Schools and higher education will move to remote learning.

Most jurisdictions have imposed restrictions on travel from Victoria.

The Northern Territory declared Greater Melbourne and Bendigo hotspots from 12:01am on Thursday.

People arriving in the Northern Territory will need to quarantine at either the Alice Springs or Howard Springs facilities.

Following the update, Western Australia announced it would close its border to Victorians from 10am Perth time on Thursday, in an effort to prevent the virus entering the state.

Tasmania soon followed suit, with Premier Peter Gutwein announcing Tasmania would close the border with Victoria from 2pm.

South Australia slammed shut its border for any travellers from Greater Melbourne on Wednesday evening.

The Queensland government will close its border to Victoria at 11.59pm on Thursday, and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says anyone who has been in Victoria since May 11 will be ordered into hotel quarantine on arrival from 1am on Friday.

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Victorian Acting Premier James Merlino announced on Thursday that vaccination eligibility had opened up to 40- to 49-year-olds in the state.

"If more people were vaccinated we might be facing a very different situation then we are today," Mr Merlino said.

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