Lockdown protests trigger COVID-19 surge in Sydney; train and taxi services banned

A week after thousands of people took to the streets of Sydney and other Australian cities to protest lockdown restrictions, police, on Saturday cordoned off the city’s central district in order to control the spread of the deadly virus. Since last week, Sydney and other parts of the country have been reeling under a massive COVID-19 surge after a mob of over a thousand people broke barriers and threw plastic bottles and plants on the streets in order to protest against the ongoing lockdown. Police confirmed a number of arrests had been made after objects were thrown at officers. 

Train and taxi services suspended in Sydney

In Sydney, there were 210 locally acquired cases of COVID-19 reported since the violent protest broke out. On Saturday, the administration has ordered to ban taxi and train services in the areas where protests are going on. The local administration has set up checkpoints and deployed over 1,000 police officers in order to disperse crowds. According to a report by an Australian news agency, the rally organisers asked the protestors to avoid gathering due to the recent surge and were directed to assemble on some other dates.

Till now, Australia managed to control COVID-19 

It is worth noting that Australia has managed to keep the pandemic under control with a total of just over 34,000 cases and 924 deaths reported since the country reported its first case. New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard informed that there are 198 people in the hospital, 53 of them in ICU and 27 are using breathing aid. He also informed that one people was died due to COVID who was reportedly involved in the ongoing protest.

"We live in a democracy and normally I am certainly one who supports people’s rights to protest ... but at the present time we’ve got cases going through the roof and we have people thinking that’s OK to get out there and possibly be close to each other at a demonstration,” state Health Minister Brad Hazzard had said on July 24. Further, the health minister informed that 15.4% of the nation's population aged 16 and above have received both jabs for coronavirus.

(Image Credit: AP/Pixabay)