The health crisis is not calming down in Australia. The confinement in force since the end of June in Sydney will therefore be extended by “at least” two weeks for the five million inhabitants of the first city of Australia, announced Wednesday the Prime Minister of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian. Above all, it did not rule out a tightening of restrictive measures in the event of soaring contaminations.
The epidemic focus due to the Delta variant continues to spread in Sydney despite the containment imposed on June 26, with 97 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours. After a first extension of one week, confinement was scheduled until July 16, but will therefore be extended at least until July 30.
“Send beer”
Sydney’s people are currently only able to go out to buy essentials, get medical care, exercise or go to work when needed, but schools are closed and residents are encouraged to stay in their homes. Some neighborhoods are subject to even more severe restrictions, especially in the suburb of Bondi where a building was completely cordoned off after the detection of nine positive cases. Police were guarding the entrance and back of the building on Tuesday to prevent residents from exiting. A sign affixed to the window of an apartment also read: “Send beer”.
Since the resumption of the coronavirus epidemic in mid-June, Australia has recorded 864 positive cases, of which 20 are hospitalized in intensive care and two have died. This figure is significantly lower than the balance sheets of most major cities in the world. But it poses a significant challenge for the country, which has adopted an approach aimed at reaching zero cases of local transmission. This strategy means that the country’s international borders have been closed for fifteen months, and that localized confinements have been ordered on an ad hoc basis in certain cities.
Australia’s policy was hailed at the start of the pandemic, but the sluggishness of the vaccination campaign left the majority population unprotected as other parts of the world gradually eased restrictions.