ACT authorities today announced the Territory’s “snap seven-day” lockdown will be extended a further two weeks until Thursday 2 September.

The ACT lockdown was extended due to the growing number of cases and exposure sites, with numbers expected to grow in the coming days “until we start to see the impacts of lockdown”, according to ACT Chief Health Officer Dr Kerryn Coleman.

“We will see a rise in cases and then as the impact of lockdown starts to work progressively moving forward, those cases will fall,” Dr Coleman said.

According to the Chief Health Officer there was a window of “four to six days” when infectious cases were in the community before it was detected.

“We picked it up early,” she said.

Dr Coleman said every case detected will have been infectious in the community for at least the first seven days of the outbreak.

“Just need to ride out that wave,” she said.

While Chief Minister Andrew Barr said he will end the ACT lockdown earlier than 2 September, if possible, Dr Coleman said her “feeling is we will need another two weeks on top of this one”.

Arrangements and details of the extension are being finalised, with a “comprehensive set of information” for businesses and the community to be made available at tomorrow’s press conference.

Mr Barr said it will include continued “economic and social support” in conjunction with the Commonwealth government as agreed upon in discussion with Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

“If we can end the lockdown earlier than 2 September, we will,” Mr Barr said.

All officials at today’s press conference assured the public that the ACT lockdown is not being extended due to recalcitrance.

The efforts of the Canberra community to adhere to the restrictions was universally praised, with ACT Chief Police Officer Neil Gaughan said compliance has been “extremely high”.

Despite this, yesterday was a record day for rule breaking, with eight infringement notices issued by ACT Policing – the highest number issued on a single day throughout the pandemic.

Six of the notices were issued on a residential construction site in Taylor, Gungahlin.

“We will be doing substantial workplace compliance with Worksafe ACT across the Territory,” CPO Gaughan said.

Over the weekend 14-15 August, ACT Policing stopped approximately 1,000 motor vehicles for compliance checks, with 145 businesses and houses also checked.

Around 140 complaints were received from Crime Stoppers and the public in relation to compliance.

About 8,500 people are in quarantine in the ACT, with that number expected to rise as the exposure site list grows.

“The vast majority of people are doing right thing,” CPO Gaughan said.

Failure to wear a face mask in the ACT incurs a $200 fine.

There is a $1,000 fine for individuals and $8,000 fine for corporations who fail to adhere to the other health directions.

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