COVID-19: Sydney and Melbourne extend lockdown as Delta variant cases soar in Australia

As several states in Australia are reeling under the highly contagious Delta variant of the COVID-19, the authorities of New South Wales have decided to tighten COVID related restrictions. This comes after the state reported its worst Coronavirus tally of 633 new infections and three COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, August 17. According to the Health Ministry, three people died on Tuesday, bringing the death toll from the outbreak first detected in Sydney in mid-June, to 60. "I can't express enough my level of concern at these rising numbers of cases," state Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said. 

Deputy Premier John Barilaro said that the infections were also reported in towns in the west, north and central regions of the state. "The delta strain is really putting regional New South Wales on that knife-edge,” Barilaro said. It is worth mentioning that Sydney has been in lockdown since June 26 and the entire state has been locked down since Saturday.

Melbourne extends lockdown

According to the data released by the Australian health ministry, residents aged 16 to 39 are responsible for most of the virus spread in Sydney. The data said that 26% of Australians aged 16 and older had been fully vaccinated by Saturday. The country has one of the slowest vaccine rollouts among wealthy nations, which is making the spread of the Delta variant particularly dangerous. On Tuesday, Melbourne reported 22 new infections. Subsequently, Victoria state Premier Danial Andrews announced the extension of lockdown till 2 September. Earlier, Melbourne was expected to ease restrictions by 19 August. "We’ve seen people turning the footpath into an impromptu beer garden and doing pub crawls," Andrews said, adding, "We’ve seen lots of people flouting these rules, not doing as they should, making really poor choices."

New South Wales Premier appeals to citizens to take COVID vaccine 

Despite a record rise in infections, the New South Wales Premier said some lockdown restrictions could be eased for vaccinated residents from next month. "I am really calling out to everybody to say please get vaccinated because ... there will be opportunities in September and October for us to be able to say to the community if you are vaccinated, you might be able to do a certain level of activity which you can’t now,” Berejiklian said. "September and October will be the most challenging months for us in terms of public policy, in terms of how we move forward, because we wouldn’t have reached the 70% but yet we would have increased vaccination rates," the New South Wales Premier added.

With inputs from AP

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