MELBOURNE – Australia’s bid to quash a fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak sees its second-largest city locked down late today, bringing the total number of the population under stay-home orders to some 12 million.
Melbourne and the rest of Victoria will join Sydney in a “hard and fast” lockdown, said state Premier Dan Andrews, as the country battles an outbreak of the Delta variant.
The largely Covid-19-free country has recorded nearly 1,000 cases of the strain nationwide in the last month.
Andrews said he took the decision to return Melbourne to its fifth lockdown “with a heavy heart”, but it is an “absolute necessity”.
“Nothing about this virus is fair,” he said, describing how just 18 cases in Victoria mixed with thousands of contacts, who must now be traced and tested.
“You get only one chance to go hard and go fast.
“If you wait, if you hesitate, if you doubt, then you will always be looking back wishing you had done more earlier.”
The lockdown will begin shortly before midnight local time and last five days.
Australia’s largest city, Sydney, is already in its fourth week of lockdown, after the virus spread from overseas aircraft workers to their local driver in mid-June.
Sydney authorities today said the situation has “stabilised”, with 65 fresh cases reported in the last 24 hours.
But, the lockdown is set to continue for two more weeks to try and eliminate community transmission.
Australia had been widely lauded for its early handling of the pandemic and successful “Covid zero” strategy.
However, a painfully slow vaccine roll-out has left just 10% of the population protected as many other developed nations start to reopen.
The lockdown rules are less stringent than in some other nations.
Sydney residents are allowed to leave home for exercise, essential shopping, and work or health reasons, but schools are closed and people encouraged to remain home.
Since March last year, the country’s borders have been largely closed to all non-essential travel.
From this month, the number of people allowed to enter Australia is cut to 3,000 a week. Before any constraints were introduced, around 250,000 visitors arrived weekly.
Despite the restrictions, and the mandatory 14-day quarantine for most arrivals, Covid-19 repeatedly broke free from inadequate quarantine hotels and into the community.
A quarantine-free travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand has been suspended several times due to local outbreaks.
Today, authorities in Wellington announced that flights from Melbourne will be paused for at least four days.
Quarantine-free travel from Sydney has already been suspended. – AFP, July 15, 2021
