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Australia’s Covid-19 response team holds urgent meeting amid outbreak
Australia’s Covid-19 response committee is because of maintain an emergency meeting on Monday as outbreaks of the extremely contagious Delta variant throughout the nation prompted a lockdown in Sydney and renewed restrictions elsewhere.
Sydney: Australia’s Covid-19 response committee is because of maintain an emergency meeting on Monday as outbreaks of the extremely contagious Delta variant throughout the nation prompted a lockdown in Sydney and renewed restrictions elsewhere.
Around 18 million Australians, or round 70% of the inhabitants, are actually beneath some kind of lockdown or Covid-related restrictions as officers grapple with Covid-19 flare-ups in nearly each state or territory.
“I think we are entering a new phase of this pandemic, with the more contagious Delta strain,” federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg informed the Australian Broadcasting Corp on Monday, including Australia was dealing with a “critical time” in its battle towards Covid-19.
The nationwide safety committee, chaired by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, can be briefed by the nation’s chief medical officer in a while Monday, Frydenberg mentioned.
Sydney, Australia’s most populous metropolis and residential to a fifth of Australia’s 25 million individuals, was plunged right into a two-week lockdown over the weekend.
Eighteen new native instances had been reported in New South Wales state on Monday, in contrast with 30 a day earlier, taking the whole infections within the newest outbreak to 130 for the reason that first case was detected practically two weeks in the past in a limousine driver who transported an abroad airline crew.
“We have to be prepared for the numbers to bounce around and we have to be prepared for the numbers to go up considerably,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian informed reporters within the state capital Sydney.
“With this strain, we are seeing almost 100% transmission within households.”
The northern metropolis of Darwin entered a two-day lockdown on Sunday, prompted by the detection of the Delta variant of the virus – unrelated to the Sydney outbreak – in a fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) gold mine employee after he had left the power.
Queensland state on Monday reintroduced necessary masks and restricted house gatherings in a number of areas, together with state capital Brisbane, following an analogous transfer by Western Australia officers for state capital Perth. Restrictions stay in place in Victoria state capital Melbourne and nationwide capital Canberra.
A well being alert was issued over the weekend for a whole lot of passengers after an contaminated Virgin Australia cabin crew member labored on 5 completely different flights masking Brisbane, Melbourne and Gold Coast. Australia has up to now fared significantly better than many different developed international locations in tackling the unfold of the coronavirus, with simply over 30,450 instances and 910 deaths.
Lockdowns, powerful social distancing guidelines and swift contact tracing have helped the nation efficiently suppress prior outbreaks however the quick-transferring Delta variant has alarmed well being authorities.(Reuters)