That's what Murtoa-born Matthew Tepper did after learning he lived close to Al Taqwa College, in Melbourne's west.

As of Sunday, 169 cases have been linked to the school, two streets away from where he lives in Truganina with his aunt Marlene Selvidge, cousin Stephanie and her partner Theo.

"I didn't really have a reaction, I was just like 'Obviously we'll be next with lockdowns', and pretty much the whole city went into lockdown the following week," he said.

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"Now it's pretty much become normal to not be able to go out."

Mr Tepper said the hardest thing was not being able to return to the Wimmera to see his two new nieces, born in April and July of this year.

"No one in my family has been sick, but it just goes to show it does impact everyone," he said. "It can be annoying when people don't take it seriously, when they don't think about the consequences: The situation could be worse regionally because there is not the same workforce to deal with a lot of cases."

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Mr Tepper had left his job at a cafe in preparation for moving to Adelaide to study a pharmacy degree before the lockdowns hit, keeping him housebound in Melbourne.

Truganina was not in one of the ten postcodes locked down before the rest of Melbourne was on July 8.

"The Al Taqwa cluster was found a week or so after the initial lockdowns," he said.

Mr Tepper said he so far hadn't had any visits from police or the Department of Health and Human Services while the lockdowns were taking place.

"I think the few times you go to the supermarket, people are either very complacent and don't seem to think about it, or people are almost afraid to walk by you," he said. "I think people can be quite selfish. They can think 'we're young, we're not going to get sick', when there is evidence of more people around our age being sick and carrying the virus.

"But even there's been a rise of conspiracy theories. I've heard Victoria is quite bad for thinking the virus is a conspiracy, and the fact we are back in lockdown shows maybe Victorians are a bit more complacent than elsewhere.

"When restricitons eased I would go grab a coffee or visit friends, but no major parties or anything like that."

Mr Tepper said he was keeping busy by growing a herb garden while in lockdown.

He said people needed to be sympathetic to those from Melbourne that did travel to other parts of the state, when they had a valid reason for doing so.

"I'm blessed to have an aunt and cousin here," he said. "If I didn't I would have gone home (to see his nieces) and for a sense of safety. I think people need to take that into consideration when they spread rumours about what people in the Wimmera who have the virus were doing."

Mr Tepper said he planned to get tested this week.

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