Australia's Victoria extends Melbourne Covid-19 lockdown for 2nd week
- 3 years ago
The Australian state of Victoria extended on Wednesday a snap coronavirus lockdown in its capital of Melbourne for a second week, as it scrambles to rein in a highly contagious variant first detected in India, but will ease some curbs elsewhere.
Though Victoria's daily cases have been in the single digits since the lockdown was imposed, officials fear even minimal contact could help spread the variant involved in the latest outbreak.
Six new locally acquired cases were reported on Wednesday, versus nine a day earlier, taking to 60 the tally of infections in the latest outbreak.
Last Thursday's lockdown in Australia's second most populous state was to have run until Thursday, following the detection of the first locally acquired cases in three months, but infections rose and the number of close contacts reached several thousand.
"If we let this thing run its course, it will explode," the state's acting Premier James Merlino told reporters in Melbourne. "This variant of concern will become uncontrollable and people will die."
Though Victoria's daily cases have been in the single digits since the lockdown was imposed, officials fear even minimal contact could help spread the variant involved in the latest outbreak.
Six new locally acquired cases were reported on Wednesday, versus nine a day earlier, taking to 60 the tally of infections in the latest outbreak.
Last Thursday's lockdown in Australia's second most populous state was to have run until Thursday, following the detection of the first locally acquired cases in three months, but infections rose and the number of close contacts reached several thousand.
"If we let this thing run its course, it will explode," the state's acting Premier James Merlino told reporters in Melbourne. "This variant of concern will become uncontrollable and people will die."