The Australian city of Brisbane is going to implement a three-day lockdown after a worker in its hotel quarantine system tested positive for Covid-19, BBC reported.
The officials of Queensland state announced the lockdown for five populous council areas in the state capital. They revealed that a cleaner had tested positive for the highly contagious United Kingdom variant of the coronavirus.
The city, however, reported very few cases of Covid-19, except the quarantined travellers, since the first wave last year.
State Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk noted that the lockdown aims to stop the virus from further spreading.
Palaszczuk said, as cited in the BBC report: “Doing three days now could avoid doing 30 days in the future. I think everybody in Queensland... knows what we are seeing in the UK and other places around the world is high rates of infection from this particular strain. And we do not want to see that happening here in our great state.”
The lockdown will be put in place at 18:00 on Friday (08:00 GMT) in the Brisbane city, Logan, Ipswich, Moreton, and Redlands local government areas.
During the lockdown, residents will be allowed to leave home only for buying essential items and seeking medical care.
So far, the country has reported 28,500 coronavirus infections and 909 deaths since the inception of the outbreak.
Meanwhile, the roll-out of a coronavirus vaccine in Australia will begin during mid-to-late February. The first jab of the vaccine will be given to frontline workers, old people, and specially-abled citizens, as per media reports.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, as cited in the ABC report: “We anticipate, optimistically, that we would hope to start the vaccination with 80,000 people a week.”