Four inner city areas in Sydney will go into a snap one-week lockdown to curb the spread of the infectious Delta coronavirus variant as cases numbers continue to climb. There is large number of Mauritian living in these areas. These restrictions, which were scheduled to end on Wednesday, are now extended until midnight on July 2. Downtown Sydney and the city’s eastern suburbs, which include Bondi Beach, will go into a one week lockdown from midnight Friday as authorities struggle to contain a spike in the highly contagious Delta COVID-19 virus variant in the city.
NSW announced 22 new cases on Friday, with the Bondi cluster growing to 65 cases. Speaking to reporters on Friday morning, NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian said anyone who works or lives in Woollahra, Waverley, Randwick or the City of Sydney will only be allowed to leave their home under strict rules.
They include going to work if you cannot work from home, attending an education facility, exercise, healthcare, taking care of a relative, and buying essential items. “You need to stay at home unless absolutely necessary,” Ms Berejiklian said.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA), which represents doctors, said the move was not enough and called for a complete lockdown of the country’s biggest city to prevent the virus spreading and causing possible deaths.
People who live or have worked in the four local government council areas in Sydney in the last two weeks have been ordered to stay at home except for urgent reasons, New South Wales (NSW) state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.
Officials have issued health alerts overnight for more than a dozen new venues scattered across Sydney, Australia’s largest city and home to a fifth of Australia’s 25 million population, as total infections in the outbreak topped 60.
NSW has held off calls for a hard lockdown, instead imposing mandatory masks in all indoor locations in Sydney, including offices, restricted residents in seven council areas from leaving the city and limited home gatherings to five.
Sydney outbreak could get out of control and reminded officials the devastating wave of COVID-19 in Melbourne last year, which resulted in more than 800 deaths.
“What happened in Melbourne is they tried last year to get ahead slowly and were not able to get ahead of it and it resulted in deaths … that must not be allowed to happen in Sydney,” Khorshid said.
The outbreak has prompted New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to postpone her trip to Australia scheduled in early July. “We are deferring the PM’s trade mission until later in the year,” a spokesperson for the prime minister said.
Lockdowns, swift contact tracing, strict social distancing rules and a high community compliance have largely helped Australia quash prior outbreaks and keep its COVID-19 numbers relatively low, with just under 30,400 cases and 910 deaths.
NSW has been effectively isolated from the rest of the country after other states reinstated tough border rules in response to the latest outbreak, including a total ban for visitors from Sydney’s virus-hit suburbs.
Neighbouring Queensland and Victoria authorities on Friday said several passengers from Sydney who attempted to enter the states by air without exemptions were sent back to Sydney.
Victoria reported no new local COVID-19 cases beyond the two announced on Thursday, likely linked to the Sydney outbreak. Two local cases were detected in Queensland overnight, both in home quarantine.
A conference of Australian Banking Association in Sydney where Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe was due to speak next week has been postponed by the organisers due to COVID-related curbs.
