Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The surge in cases related to Covid-19 disease is high in the state of Victoria, Australia, Tuesday (06/30/2020), making the City of Melbourne government ordered hundreds of thousands of people to stay at home.
The state of Victoria recorded an additional 233 cases have been infected since last Thursday. Most appear in the second largest city in Australia, namely Melbourne.
Prime Minister Victoria Daniel Andrews said, more than 30 neighborhoods in Melbourne will be locked (lockdown) starting Wednesday (1/7/2020) midnight local time until 29 July.
“This is an extraordinary step,” Andrews said.
“This is the nature of the virus, very contagious. If we don’t take this step, we will resolve the situation by locking up the whole area. I don’t want to get to that point,” he continued.
Most of the surge in Covid-19 cases in Melbourne is related to unscrupulous staff violating virus control protocols in Australian quarantine-specific hotels returning from overseas.
The area where the lockdown applies is home to more than 300,000 people. Residents will be allowed to leave home only for work or school, exercise, or buy food and other important items.
Police and officers have also been mobilized to stop vehicles that will enter the Melbourne area, which has around five million residents.
Furthermore, in an effort to control the spread of the virus, Andrews said he had asked Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to divert international flights to Melbourne to other cities in Australia.
With 25,498,156 populations, Australia now has 7,836 infected cases, an increase of 69 cases a day. While the death rate is 104 cases, and 7,008 patients have recovered, according to Worldometers data.
