Half of Australia hit by COVID-19 lockdowns

More than half of Australia’s 25 million people were under lockdown after a third state adopted movement curbs to rein in the highly contagious Delta variant of coronavirus. South Australia,a state of 1.8 million, imposed a seven-day lockdown after detecting five infections linked to a returned traveller, just as the neighbouring state of Victoria extended by a week a five-day lockdown that had failed to stop new cases. Sydney capital of New South Wales, the state that recorded 78 new cases on Tuesday, down from 98 a day earlier, for its biggest daily dip since Sydney went into lockdown.

On Wednesday, Victoria reported the biggest daily rise in locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in more than a week. Twenty-two local cases were detected, up from nine a day earlier, taking the total cases in the latest outbreak to more than 100. All new cases are linked to the current outbreak. Australia has been battling the fast-moving Delta strain, first detected in a limousine driver who transported overseas airline crew in Sydney over a month ago. Australia’s infections and deaths are well below other developed nations, but its use of lockdowns, prompted by a sluggish vaccination campaign, is putting pressure on the national government. Australia has fared much better than many other developed economies in keeping COVID-19 numbers relatively low, with just over 32,100 cases and 915 deaths, but a slow vaccine rollout and stop-and-start lockdowns have frustrated residents.

South Australia, a state of 1.8 million, imposed a seven-day lockdown after detecting five infections linked to a returned traveller, just as the neighbouring state of Victoria extended by a week a five-day lockdown that had failed to stop new cases. Although 13 million Australians were under lockdown, the country’s health minister defended its pandemic response as having saved thousands of lives.