CANBERRA – The Australian state of Victoria extended on Wednesday a snap coronavirus disease 2019 (CVID-19) lockdown in Melbourne for a second week as it scrambles to rein in a highly contagious variant first detected in India.
Last Thursday’s lockdown will run until today, following the detection of the first locally acquired cases in three months, but infections rose, and the number of close contacts reached several thousand.
More than 800 people died in that outbreak, accounting for about 90 percent of Australia’s total deaths since the pandemic began.
Snap lockdowns, regional border curbs, and tough social distancing rules helped Australia suppress prior outbreaks and keep its COVID-19 figures relatively low, at just over 30,100 cases and 910 deaths.(Reuters)
