Flights cancelled, holidays in disarray as Sydney battles pre-Christmas COVID-19 outbreak

More than 50 locations including cafes, gyms, casinos and supermarkets across Sydney have been infected so far and authorities urged anyone who had visited the venues to immediately get tested and self-isolate.

Reuters

December 21, 2020 / 07:16 AM IST

Dozens of domestic flights due to leave Sydney were cancelled on Monday and authorities issued more health alerts across the city, as Australia battled to contain a fresh COVID-19 outbreak in its largest city four days before Christmas.

More than 50 locations including cafes, gyms, casinos and supermarkets across Sydney have been infected so far and authorities urged anyone who had visited the venues to immediately get tested and self-isolate.

A new virus cluster, which was detected in Sydney's northern coastal suburbs last week, grew to nearly 70 cases, prompting all other states and territories to close borders to Sydney's 5 million residents, throwing their Christmas travel plans into disarray.

Qantas Airways Ltd said several customers had cancelled their bookings between Sydney and Melbourne - one of the busiest routes in the world before the pandemic - and on a number of other domestic routes from Monday.

"A number of flights will be cancelled ... we'll be contacting customers directly impacted by any flight changes," Qantas and its low-cost arm, JetStar, said in a statement.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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