Sydney Faces Tougher Curbs as Australia’s Delta Outbreak Grows

(Bloomberg) -- Sydney will impose new restrictions, including compulsory mask-wearing at all indoor venues such as workplaces and shops, as an outbreak of the Delta variant of the coronavirus spreads in Australia’s most populous city.

From 4 p.m. on Wednesday, households will be limited to hosting five guests, Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney. Residents in eastern and inner-west areas of the city won’t be allowed to travel outside metropolitan Sydney for non-essential reasons for at least a week.

The surge in cases has created “a very real and present danger,” New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard told reporters. “This is a very serious situation.” The stricter measures come as 13 new cases were recorded in Sydney, bringing the cluster to at least 30 infections.

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Since an initial nationwide lockdown imposed when the pandemic began in March 2020, Berejiklian hasn’t enforced a strict city-wide lockdown for Sydney, even as the neighboring state of Victoria has endured more than 120 days of tough restrictions. On Wednesday, she didn’t rule out taking further measures later this week if required.

Her decision so far to avoid putting Sydney under a lockdown comes as sections of the business community ramp up demands on the nation’s federal and state leaders to abandon a strategy of eliminating Covid-19 cases within the community, saying enforced shutdowns put too more pressure on affected businesses.

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The so-called “zero-case” strategy is under pressure because of virus leaks from hotels used to quarantine Australians returning from overseas that have triggered localized lockdowns.

The Sydney outbreak will also increase pressure on Prime Minister Scott Morrison to ramp up the nation’s tardy vaccine rollout. Only about 6.7 million out of 26 million Australians have had at least one shot, and the federal government has abandoned its original October target to inoculate the population.

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