Melbourne’s lockdown has been extended for another seven days as authorities scramble to investigate the source of five mystery cases among Wednesday’s 20 new cases.
Melbourne had been due to exit the lockdown on Thursday, the sixth for its five million people in stop-start battles against the coronavirus also seen elsewhere across the country have triggered frustration and discord. In Sydney police are stepping up lockdown enforcement, while some labourers are being allowed to return to construction sites – if vaccinated.
Premier Daniel Andrews has also tightened the restrictions in border towns near the Murray River and assured businesses that further support would be unveiled on Thursday.
Of the 20 new locally acquired cases reported on Wednesday, 15 were linked to current outbreaks and five are under investigation. Six of those cases were
“I’d like to be open and have a degree of freedom that’s simply not possible because of this Delta variant, the extreme infectivity of this virus,” he said.
“Within a very short space of time, if we were to open, then we would see cases akin to what’s happening tragically in Sydney right now.”
New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney, reporting another 344 new infections in the past 24 hours, close to the city’s single-day record.
Berejiklian said the Sydney lockdown, which has grown to include several areas north of the city, will also be expanded to include Dubbo, a small city about 400 kilometres (248 miles) northwest of Sydney.
The latter is scheduled to remain in lockdown until the end of August. Most expect the restrictions to be extended, despite a recent surge in people seeking vaccinations. Desperate to restart some major employment industries, New South Wales has allowed some in the most-affected Sydney suburbs to return to construction jobs around the city, but they must first be vaccinated.
“I didn’t want to get the vaccine … but I needed to get the jab or I don’t have a job,” said Nick, a 31-year-old man who drives for an engineering company..
Byron Bay, a popular tourist spot near the New South Wales border with Queensland and nearly 500 miles north of Sydney, was this week plunged into lockdown when a man allegedly drove there with his two teenage children.
