holiday inn outbreak had increased to 22, one person was admitted to intensive care, and about 3,515 contacts were quarantined. residents were not to leave their homes except for essential shopping, exercise, caregiving, essential work, or participating in a professional sporting event. they were also limited to shop or exercise within five kilometres of their homes. during this time, face masks were mandatory at all times out-of-home, with all public gatherings banned, and all schools closed. as they accounted for the majority of uk variant cases, international arrivals into victoria were also suspended. all australian states and territories placed travel restrictions upon victoria. premier andrews stated that these infections were "moving at a velocity that has not been seen anywhere in our country over the course of these last 12 months." special dispensation was given to the 2021 australian open, which became crowdless effective 11:30 pm aedt on 12 february in the midst of the night's final match (play was temporarily suspended at that time to remove all spectators from the court). the lockdown was lifted as anticipated at 11:59 pm on 17 february. despite this, victoria did not allow any incoming international flights "indefinitely". remaining restrictions included: masks mandatory inside, masks outdoors when unable to keep social distance, 5 person limit on home visits, 20 person limit for outdoor gatherings. may as of 9 may 2021 victoria had no cases of community transmission for 72 days. on 24 may in northern melbourne, 4 cases of covid-19 in the community were reported; this broke victoria's streak of 86 days with no community transmission. another 5 community cases, for a total of 9, were reported on 25 may. 4 of them were family contacts of a man, who may have been the source of the outbreak, who tested positive on 2 may. as a result, restrictions in greater melbourne were again tightened from 6pm on tuesday, 25 may, to at least friday, 4 june. restrictions included: mandatory wearing of masks indoors (children under 12 exempted) private gatherings, limited to 5 people public gatherings, limited 30 people limits on visitors to hospitals and aged care reinstated melbourne residents were allowed to travel out of the city, but had to observe restrictions as if they were still in melbourne no changes to the number of people allowed in workplaces, shops, bars, or beauty services. relaxation of "density caps" in hospitality venues which had been planned, was put on hold. cultural and sports event were allowed, but the afl "paused" ticket sales for victorian-based games. fourth lockdown by 27 may the melbourne outbreak had risen to 26 cases. there were over 150 exposure sites and 11,000 contacts had been linked through contact tracing to the outbreak. as a result of the growing outbreak victoria entered its fourth lockdown, statewide, as of 11:59pm on 27 may. the restrictions were initially planned to last for at least 7 days until 11:59pm on 3 june. by 1 june the number of cases in the victorian outbreak had reached 60 and on 2 june the lockdown was extended for another 7 days. by june 7 there were 81 active covid cases in the outbreak. the lockdown ended, with some restrictions remaining, just before midnight on 10 june. during the lockdown leaving home was initially only allowed for 5 reasons: food and supply shopping (only within 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) of home) authorised work care and caregiving, health exercising, for up to two hours: with no more than one other person within 5 km of home to get a covid-19 vaccination. afternoon peak hour in bourke street, melbourne, 4 june 2021, during the fourth lockdown otherwise: schools closed (some exemptions) higher education, online only childcare centres and kindergartens, stay open hairdressers, beauty salons and similar, closed entertainment venues, closed only take-away food allowed from cafes and restaurants no public or private gatherings no hospital or nursing home visits (some exemptions) funerals limited to 10 people, plus those running the event weddings not allowed (some exemptions) masks mandatory outside the home, unless exempted. there were anti-lockdown protests in melbourne on 28 may. due to the outbreak, all australian states imposed a range of restrictions on travellers from victoria, either banning entry, only allowing state residents back in, requiring home isolation for 7 days under victorias' rules, 14 days hotel quarantine, or other measures. new zealand paused the travel bubble with victoria from 7:59pm on 25 may. as a result of the pausing of the travel bubble, the melbourne rebels' scheduled super rugby trans-tasman match against the highlanders was forced to be relocated from queenstown, new zealand to sydney. on 3 june the stay-at-home order from nsw health, for anyone in nsw who had been in victoria since may 27, was extended by a week. the fourth lockdown meant that a number of other interstate professional sporting matches that were due that week had to either be played in empty stadiums, or relocated to alternative venues. the a-league match between western united and melbourne victory on 28 may, the afl match between the western bulldogs and melbourne on 28 may and the afl matches scheduled on 29 may (collingwood against geelong at the mcg and st kilda against north melbourne at marvel stadium) were played in empty stadiums, while the afl match between richmond and adelaide scheduled for sunday 30 may and the nrl match between the melbourne storm and the gold coast titans scheduled for 5 june were both relocated interstate, to sydney and the sunshine coast respectively. after the number of cases in the victorian outbreak had reached 60 by 1 june, on 2 june the lockdown in metropolitan melbourne was extended for another 7 days. some restrictions were eased: the 5 km travel limit was extended to 10 km (6.2 miles), school attendance allowed for years 11 and 12, authorised work now includes some outdoors work. use of the service victoria qr code check-in was required across victoria for places like supermarkets and shops. the victorian outbreak rose to 63 cases by 3 june, all in greater melbourne. as a result, from 11:59 pm that day some lockdown restrictions in regional victoria were eased: movement in regional areas was unrestricted (to melbourne was still restricted) students could return to school there were 81 active covid cases in the outbreak by june 7. there were also 3 separate clusters with unknown sources in victoria by then: 32 cases in whittlesea; 9 at the arcare aged care centre in maidstone; and 14 at a cluster in west melbourne. the west melbourne cluster was found to be of the fast spreading delta covid variant, raising the possibility the fourth victorian lockdown could be extended again. the lockdown ended on 10 june at 11:59 pm, with some restrictions remaining. no visitors in the home must wear a mask both indoors and outdoors travel limited to 25 km (16 mi) radius of home. june due to a growing cluster in bondi, sydney, from 11:59pm on 24 june, border entry was barred to non-victorian residents who had been in greater sydney and wollongong in the previous 14 days as those areas were considered to be red zones. returning victorians had to get a red zone permit and quarantine at home for 14 days. july from 11:59pm on july 11, victoria closed its border to all new south wales and australian capital territory residents to try to prevent the delta variant entering the state. act chief minister andrew barr tweeted that it was "incredibly disappointing and frustrating" after more than a year with no local covid-19 cases that the border was being closed to canberrans. 'border bubble' arrangements for border towns remained in place. fifth lockdown on 14 july, after 11 covid cases were detected in the state, victoria reintroduced the requirement to wear face masks in workplaces, in schools, and when social distancing was not possible, outdoors. most cases were linked to removalists from nsw who picked up from the ariele apartments in maribyrnong on 8 july without face masks. on return to nsw the removalists tested positive. as a result, the apartment block, with 130 residents, was put into a 14-day lockdown on 13 july, which was 'reset' by the new cases. on 15 july, it the premier announced that victoria would enter a snap lockdown for 5 days from 11:59pm on 15 july (thursday) until 11:59pm on 20 july (tuesday). this was the third victorian lockdown in 2021, and the fifth since the start of the pandemic in australia. there were 18 cases in this outbreak in victoria, 4 recorded on this day, all of which linked back to "incursions" from nsw. there were 1,500 primary close contacts and 75 exposure sites in victoria. on 20 july the premier announced that victoria's snap lockdown would be extended, with current settings to continue for the next seven days until tuesday, 27 july at 11.59pm - the delta variant was confounding victoria's public health experts and is moving faster than anything they've seen before. on 22 july, the death of a 48-year-old woman from victoria the previous week was linked by the therapeutic goods administration (tga) to "probable" thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (tts), after vaccination with astrazeneca. on 24 july there was an anti-lockdown protest in melbourne. there were 6 arrests, 4 people charged, and 74 infringement notices issued. there were also protests in brisbane, and in sydney where several people were arrested, infringement notices issued and over 50 people charged. assistant police commissioner luke cornelius responded: "it beggars belief that the protest today could, if mass spreading occurs, result in an extension of the very thing they are protesting for: an end to the current lockdown and a reopening of business, which is something we are all working so hard to achieve." on 27 july at 11:59pm the 5th lockdown was lifted with strict restrictions still remaining. no visitors in the home must wear a mask both indoors and outdoors students can return to school public gatherings are limited to 10 people pubs, restaurants, bars, gyms and retail can reopen with density limits community sport is back but spectators not allowed sixth lockdown police immediately after anti-lockdown protests on flinders street (around 8:30pm on 5 august 2021) on 5 august 2021, in response to the detection of six new community cases, the victorian government announced their sixth lockdown, commencing that evening at 8 pm for seven days. at about 7pm that day there was an anti-lockdown protest of up to 400 people in flinders street, melbourne. regional victoria was released from its sixth lockdown at 11:59pm on 9 august. on 11 august the lockdown was extended for 7 days. this followed the state having 20 new cases, 5 with an unknown source. on 16 august the lockdown was extended for another 14 days, with the overnight curfew reinstated and a target end date of 2 september. on 19 august, melbourne marked 200 days of lockdowns since the beginning of the pandemic. on 4 october, melbourne marked 245 days of lockdowns and became the city with the longest cumulative time in lockdown in the world. regional victoria - seventh lockdown on 21 august at 1pm, regional victoria was also placed into its seventh lockdown and other restrictions tightened, such as the 5 km limit for essential shopping, and exercise activities. hospitality was again takeaway only, most retail stores closed and schooling online only. sporting venues, skate parks, playgrounds, and outdoor exercise equipment all closed. construction statewide returned to a 25 per cent capacity limit. the 9pm-5am curfew in metropolitan melbourne was not enacted in regional victoria. this action followed 61 new state cases of covid-19 on 19 august, one in shepparton. by the afternoon of 20 august rapid pcr testing brought the cluster in shepparton at least 21 cases. 48 of the new locally acquired cases from 19 august were linked to known outbreaks, 22 were in isolation during their infectious period. 11 separate "mystery cases" were in suburbs including airport west, frankston, keysborough, docklands and yarraville. after there were 27 cases in 2 days at a childcare centre in broadmeadows, among others, childcare centres were restricted to essential workers. the same day there was another anti-lockdown protest in melbourne city, which became violent. up to 4,000 people marched and over 200