The Australian Open tennis tournament will proceed without crowds over the next five days after the state of Victoria was placed under a snap lockdown from midnight on Friday to contain a fresh outbreak of COVID-19.

State Premier Daniel Andrews announced the measures after the highly transmissible strain of COVID-19 linked to Britain infected 13 people in Melbourne.

Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley said the tournament would continue with crowds for the rest of Friday but fans would be excluded from Saturday.