Australia extends COVID lockdown of Sydney until September
Australian authorities have extended Sydney’s lockdown for another month due to the increase in COVID-19 cases in the most populated city of the oceanic country by the irruption of the Delta variant in the middle of the year.
Australia continues to record hundreds of cases daily despite long lockdown in Sydney, which began on June 26 and it was to end on August 27.
New South Wales has registered 644 local infections and 4 deaths, most of them in the southwest and west of Sydney, where twelve municipalities will be subject from Monday to a night curfew and a one-hour outdoor exercise limit.
The New South Wales authorities also announced the mandatory use of face masks outdoors, except for people who play sports throughout the state, which has rural areas confined until the end of the month.
The head of government of the state of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, has announced that in Sydney that the Police “will have additional powers to maintain compliance” with the restriction measures, which include ordering people to isolate themselves at home.
In the other states or territories, restriction measures have been imposed, mainly on domestic movements to prevent the entry of COVID-19 from sources of contagion.
Australia, which has vaccinated only 25% of its population over the age of 16 with the full regimen, accumulates more than 42,000 COVID-19 infections, which includes 975 deaths, since the start of the pandemic.
The Australian government hopes to vaccinate 70 to 80 percent of its population over 12 years of a total of 25 million inhabitants to avoid lockdowns and reopen its international borders, which closed in March 2020.
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