MELBOURNE – The Covid-19 lockdown imposed on Australia’s second-biggest city of Melbourne will be extended, authorities announced today, as they struggle to quash a stubborn Delta variant outbreak.
Almost seven million people in Melbourne and the surrounding Victoria state had been scheduled to exit a four-week lockdown on Thursday, but state Premier Dan Andrews said this is no longer possible with case numbers rising by 92 overnight.
It is the city’s sixth lockdown of the pandemic, and includes a curfew, the closure of playgrounds, and strict limits on exercise.
“We still have too many cases in the community for too long for us to be able to open up and give back... those freedoms that we cherish and those freedoms that we desperately want back,” said Andrews.
He did not reveal how long the stay-at-home orders will remain in place, only saying officials will “look at all the different options”.
Meanwhile, neighbouring New South Wales state, which includes Australia’s most populous city of Sydney, posted 1,218 fresh infections today – pushing the country’s overall daily caseload to another all-time high.
Almost 19,000 cases have been detected in the state of about eight million people since the Delta outbreak began in mid-June.
But with vaccination rates now surging in New South Wales and authorities predicting that 70% of adults there will be fully vaccinated by October, residents weary of prolonged restrictions have been promised some modest freedoms.
In non-hotspot areas, five fully vaccinated adults will be able to gather outside for up to an hour from mid-September, while authorities have also signalled that small weddings will soon be allowed.
Australian leaders have agreed on a national road map on reopening the country once inoculation targets of 70% and 80% are reached in each state and territory.
The nation has recorded more than 51,000 Covid-19 cases and almost 1,000 deaths in a population of 25 million since the start of the pandemic. – AFP, August 29, 2021
