Australia introduces stringent lockdown rules amid new COVID cases

Published on : Wednesday, August 11, 2021

With 344 new cases in New South Wales in the last 24 hours and 20 new cases in Melbourne, the Delta variant is seemingly taking a toll on several Australian cities. As Covid-19 continues triggering discord and frustration among the civilians, Melbourne had been due to exit its lockdown on Thursday for the sixth time in a stop-start combat against the deadly coronavirus.

In Sydney, police are speeding up lockdown enforcement while vaccinated labourers are allowed to return to work. Victoria State Premier, Dan Andrews enforced a strict stay-at-home order until August 19 at least for the citizens of Melbourne after authorities were unable to trace the sources of 20 newly infected people.

In a press meet, Andrews stated that there will be similar cases as to what Sydney is facing at the moment. New South Wales’ State Premier, Gladys Berejiklian gave a statement to the reporters in Sydney that they had seen a spike in the number of new cases and that is expected to happen.

The Sydney lockdown which has covered several areas to the north of the city will also include Dubbo, a small settlement located about 400 kilometres northwest of Sydney. Australia has so far fared much better than many developed countries in handling the pandemic and restricting their Covid cases to just 37,000. The death toll hiked to 944 on Wednesday after two people including a man in his 30s died of the virus.

Federal and state governments have decided to end lockdown when 76% of the country’s 26 million of the populace will be vaccinated. Australia’s Treasurer Josh Frydenberg gave a statement which says the country’s economy would shrink in the current quarter and a recession would depend on the duration of the lockdown.