The sixth COVID-19 lockdown was announced by Premier Daniel Andrews at an emergency press conference on Thursday afternoon.

The lockdown will last for seven days.

The rules will exactly the same as previous lockdowns, with only five reasons to leave home.

OTHER NEWS:

It comes after the state recorded eight new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, including two new cases on Friday.

At least five of the eight cases were not in isolation while infectious.

The three other cases from Thursday's numbers are linked to the Moonee Valley testing site cluster.

See the exposure map here.

"None of us want to be in a situation where we have to down again but the Delta variant move so fast that with even a handful of positive cases that can't be linked, that haven't been in isolation through their infectious period, there is no alternative for us but to listen to our public health experts, take their advice, and make the decision the very difficult decision my cabinet colleagues and I have made on the advice, it is tricky will have to lockdown again," Mr Andrews said.

"I would prefer to wait two or three days, I would prefer we didn't have to make this decision now.

"But my fear is if we were to wait a few days and the advice to me from the experts if we were to wait even just a few days, there is every chance, instead of being locked down for a week, this gets away from us, we are potentially locked down until we all get vaccinated."

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