In Sydney, the Coronavirus exceeds containment. While the inhabitants of the Australian capital are locked in their homes for the third consecutive week, the epidemic focus continues to expand. The first Australian city has set a record since the start of this new wave with 112 new cases in the last 24 hours.
The virus has also spread to many neighborhoods in the city, which has five million inhabitants. The Prime Minister of New South Wales, the state whose capital is Sydney, explained that many of the new cases were family members or friends of infected people who had encountered them despite instructions dissuading contact in outside the home.
First death
Sydney residents are currently only allowed outside their homes to do their shopping, see a doctor or play sports outdoors. “If you take risks, you take risks for your whole family,” warned Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian.
On Saturday, a nonagenarian died a few hours after being diagnosed positive for the new coronavirus. This is the first death linked to local transmission of the coronavirus in Australia since the start of the year.
A different strategy from the rest of the world
The lockdown is supposed to end on Friday but authorities have warned it will likely be extended. As it stands, Sydney is almost completely cut off from the rest of the country. New South Wales has totaled 678 infections since the start of this epidemic wave in mid-June.
This figure is significantly lower than the balance sheets of most major cities in the world. But it poses a significant challenge for Australia, which has adopted an approach aimed at achieving zero cases of local transmission.