7-day lockdown in Victoria 

Special Desk

Aiming to curb spreading covid outbreak in its capital, Melbourne, Australia has imposed a 7-day lockdown for its second most populous state Victoria.

Authorities have so far found 26 cases, and identified 150 hotspots where people may have been exposed to the virus. There is growing anxiety over the outbreak which reminds many locals of a devastating second wave that swept the state last year.

Victoria’s acting Premier James Merlino said the outbreak involved a highly contagious strain of the virus, the B.1.617 variant. A returned traveller was infected with the strain, which Merlino said was spreading faster than we have ever recorded.

Cases have been found across the state with links to a large number of venues, including packed football games at stadiums in Melbourne. “With 10,000 primary and secondary contacts of cases, with more than 150 exposure sites right around the state of Victoria, we need to act now,” said Merlino.

There is a great deal of nervousness and anxiety in Australia’s second city this evening as it prepares for another strict lockdown. Compared to the rest of the world, 26 cases is extremely low – but there are a number of worrying factors.

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There are 10,000 primary and secondary contacts, so there’s big potential for the number of community cases to increase. The circle of exposure sites has also widened including regional Victoria which will be a big and complex job for contact tracers.

In some areas there’ve been complaints that people show up and there aren’t enough jabs. In others the vaccines have been lying in fridges unused.