SYDNEY – Australia’s third largest city of Brisbane will enter a three-day lockdown from Friday afternoon after a local resident was found to be infected with the mutant strain of Covid-19 that has emerged in the United Kingdom.
According to the Queensland health department where Brisbane is located, the Greater Brisbane area will enter lockdown from 6pm (local time) today to 6pm Monday, Xinhua news agency reported.
Local residents can only leave home for essential purposes, including for groceries or medication, working or studying if not able to do so from home, exercising, and healthcare or providing care.
“We are doing this to keep Queenslanders safe. We know this strain is highly infectious – 70% more infectious. We are going to go hard and early, do everything we can to stop the spread of the virus,” Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told a press conference.
“If we do not do this now, it could end up being a 30-day lockdown... I know this is going to be tough on businesses over the next few days but I am thinking about your long-term future as well. So it is incredibly important that we take these strong measures.”
The tough restrictions came after a young cleaner working in Brisbane’s quarantine hotel was found to be infected with the mutant strain of coronavirus that was detected in Britain.
She is also the first locally acquired case of the highly infectious Covid-19 strain.
As supermarkets and essential businesses will remain open during the Greater Brisbane area lockdown, Queensland Health urged local residents to avoid panic buying.
At the same time, all other states will declare the Greater Brisbane area as a hotspot according to reports by The Australian, citing South Australian Premier Steven Marshall, who just attended the special meeting of the national cabinet on Friday.
He said isolation requirements will be enforced nationwide, and the suggestion for pre-flight testing out of the UK “has now been adopted by the national cabinet”.
South Australia also enforced stricter border rules with the Greater Brisbane area. From midnight Friday, anyone coming into South Australia from the Greater Brisbane area will be required to quarantine for 14 days.
The state of New South Wales, where the biggest city of Sydney is located, recorded four new locally acquired cases and seven in returned travellers in the 24 hours to 8pm (local time) Thursday night. Three of the local cases are related to two clusters in Sydney, and one was under investigation for an infection source.
The state of Victoria recorded no local cases but one on Friday, who was on hotel quarantine. – Bernama, January 8, 2021
