Gatherings in the home will be reduced from 30 to 15 from 5pm tonight across Victoria in an attempt to stem the spread of coronavirus that has come from the Sydney northern beaches cluster.
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Acting Premier Jacinta Allan apologised to those planning New Year's gathering but said the step was necessary to stem the risk from a number of transmissions with six new cases identified from NSW contacts.
Another three locally acquired coronavirus cases have been identified in Victoria, on top of three women whose positive tests ended a two-month streak.
Two women in their 40s and a woman in her 70s from Mitcham, Hallam and Mentone were revealed on Wednesday night as having tested positive. Two of the women are family members.
It's believed the cases are tied to outbreaks in Sydney.
More than 52 primary close contacts of the new positive test cases, who will undergo further testing, had been contacted and ordered to self-isolate.
The close contacts of the women, who are isolating at home include locations in regional Victoria at Leongatha and Barwon Heads.
Victoria's testing chief Jeroen Weimar said the three new cases had been found via contact tracing overnight.
New testing sites have been set up in the western suburbs of Melbourne to accommodate the high number of people who may have been at the exposure sites.
Masks will also return to being mandatory indoors as another precautionary measure.
A two-month long streak with no locally acquired coronavirus cases in Victoria has come to an end last night with three women diagnosed in Melbourne.
Victorian authorities have added two new exposure site for the Victorian cases, at the Smile Buffalo Thai restaurant in Blackrock on the evening of December 21 .
Holy Family Parish Church in Doveton was also identified as a possible place of contagion on December 26 and anybody who has visited these places must get tested.
Other high risk sites include Katlialo restaurant in Eaton Mall in Oakleigh; Mentone/Parkdale Beach; Century City Walk and Mocha Jo's in Glen Waverley; Kmart, Big W Target, Millers, King of Gifts and Lo Costa stores at the Fountain Gate Shopping Centre.
The border to NSW remains closed.
Health Minister Martin Foley has urged Victorians not to travel to NSW and for any Victorians in the NSW green zone to return immediately.
"Anybody thinking of going to NSW, we say don't and anybody who is in NSW now, we say come back," he said.
"You do not want to be caught on the wrong side of a rapidly evolving situation," he said."Now that we have links to the NSW outbreaks in Victoria, we are having to respond really quickly to get on top of that and a part of that is to make sure that as a situation seemingly continues to deteriorate in NSW, that we respond appropriately."
More to come
