|
 Australia's infections and deaths are well below other developed
nations, but its use of lockdowns, prompted by a sluggish
vaccination campaign, is putting pressure on the national
government, with polls at their lowest in a year and just months
before elections are due to be held.
South Australia, a state of 1.8 million, imposed a seven-day
lockdown after detecting five infections linked to a returned
traveller, just as the neighbouring state of Victoria extended by a
week a five-day lockdown that had failed to stop new cases.
"We hate putting these restrictions in place but we believe we have
one chance to get this right," South Australia premier Steven
Marshall told reporters.
The largest city of Sydney, where the latest Delta outbreak started
before spreading elsewhere, is in the fourth week of a five-week
lockdown. Three regional centres were added to areas 250 km (155
miles) inland after a positive test there.
Sydney is the capital of New South Wales, the state that recorded 78
new cases on Tuesday, down from 98 a day earlier, for its biggest
daily dip since Sydney went into lockdown.
At least 21 of the new cases were infectious in the community before
being diagnosed. Authorities have said that figure should be near
zero if Sydney's lockdown is to be lifted by a target date of July
30.
"We are seeing more hospitalisations, more admissions to ICU, more
people on ventilators - we have to stop the spread of COVID," Kerry
Chant, the state's chief health officer, said in Sydney, referring
to intensive care units.
Ninety-five people with COVID-19 are in hospital in the state, 27 of
them in intensive care and 11 on ventilators. The state's five
deaths in the latest outbreak take the national toll to 915, with a
tally of just over 32,000 infections.
INFECTIONS ONLY A FRACTION
Australia has relied on lockdowns, tough social distancing rules and
swift contact tracing to hold infections to a fraction of levels
elsewhere, such as Britain and the United States.
[to top of second column] |
 However health services are being tested by the
virulent Delta variant and low vaccine coverage
in Australia, where just over 14% of adults are
fully vaccinated. Although 13
million Australians were under lockdown, the country's health
minister defended its pandemic response as having saved thousands of
lives.
"The scope and scale between the rest of the world and Australia are
immeasurably different and we shouldn't lose sight of what has been
achieved on an extraordinary level," Greg Hunt told reporters.
A five-day snap lockdown in Victoria set to end on Tuesday night was
extended by a week until July 27, as officials sought more time to
quell the outbreak. "There are chains of
transmission not yet contained that we don't know about," state
premier Daniel Andrews said in Melbourne.
"The speed with which this has moved through the Victorian community
confirms that we did the right thing to lock down, and it also sadly
confirms that we need more time."
Victoria's nine locally acquired cases, down from 13 a day earlier,
followed a downward trend, but took its tally of infections to more
than 80. All but one of the new cases were linked to the current
outbreak, officials said.
The number of virus-exposed sites in Victoria has exceeded 300 since
the first cases detected a week ago, linked to a team of infectious
furniture movers from Sydney.
(Reporting by Renju Jose, Jonathan Barrett and Byron Kaye; Editing
by Michael Perry and Clarence Fernandez)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content |
