Sydney, Australia’s largest city, is in its sixth week of lockdown as it struggles with a surge in infections that added nearly 3,500 cases since the first was discovered on a limo driver hauling overseas airlines.
Officials in New South Wales, the capital of which is Sydney, have pleaded with residents to stay home to prevent further surges and called in the military to help police enforce lockdown rules. Continue reading
About 300 members of the army who are unarmed and under police command will go door-to-door to ensure that those who test positive are isolated in their homes.
After a steady spike in new cases, lockdown rules in southeast Queensland, which includes Brisbane, will apply until Sunday as officials fear there may be more undiscovered cases in the community and residents are urged to get tested. The restrictions should end on Tuesday evening.
13 locally acquired cases were identified in the state of Queensland, up from nine the day before.
Australia is going through a cycle of stop-and-start bans in several cities with the emergence of the fast-paced Delta tribe, and such restrictions are likely to continue until the country achieves a higher vaccination rate.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has promised that lockdowns would be “less likely” once the country vaccinated 70 percent of its population over the age of 16, which is now 19 percent. Morrison expects to hit that mark by the end of the year.
Although Australia’s vaccination campaign is lagging behind many other developed economies, it has done much better so far, at just under 34,400 cases and 924 deaths, in keeping coronavirus numbers relatively low.