Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
As covid cases are on the rise the Sydney lockdown has been further extended by a month fearing outbreak from the Delta variant of the virus. The lockdown was supposed to be relaxed from Friday.
Australia’s largest city has been under stay-at-home orders since late June due to an outbreak of the Delta variant. More than 2,500 people have been infected in Sydney’s worst outbreak this year.
New South Wales – of which Sydney is the capital – reported 177 new cases on Wednesday, the maximum in a day since March 2020 when the pandemic began. Premier Gladys Berejiklian said it was not possible for the city to exit lockdown as had been planned from Friday.
She announced further curbs on movement – including a 10km (6.5 miles) limit on essential shopping. Victoria and South Australia both came out of lockdowns, after containing smaller outbreaks. Sydney’s five million residents had enjoyed a fairly normal lifestyle this year until the outbreak happened.
Number of people under stay-at-home has reached around 12 million in Australia after Melbourne went in to snap lockdown recently in July following two more local cases of covid.
This was the fifth lockdown for Victoria since the pandemic began and authorities say this was inevitable keeping in view the fast spreading of the infection. Melbourne and the rest of Victoria will join Sydney lockdown, state premier Dan Andrews said, as Australia battles an outbreak of the Delta variant.
For most of the pandemic, Australia has kept infections relatively low by closing its borders and ordering hotel quarantine for arrivals. State governments have plunged cities into rapid lockdowns to curb outbreaks, using aggressive contact tracing. There have been over a dozen snap lockdowns in the past year.
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Experts warn that restrictions in Sydney could last until September or even later. Authorities say they cannot re-open until the transmission rate is back to near zero. At least one in three cases from the past week had been infectious in the community. Reasons included undertaking critical work and grocery shopping. The highly policed lockdown has fuelled discontent among some in the community.
Just 16% of Australia’s adult population is vaccinated. Critics have blamed the low rate on the federal government’s failure to secure more supplies of the vaccine. Prime Minister Scott Morrison apologised for his government’s handling of the rollout last week, following months of criticism.
