Sydney imposes night curfew while Australia fights Delta outbreak

SYDNEY / CANBERRA, Aug. 20 (Reuters) – Two million Sydney residents will take a night curfew from next week to curb the infectious variant of the Delta coronavirus that spreads across the state of Nova South Wales, authorities said on Friday as they issued blocking orders.

The third wave of COVID-19 infections in Australia, centered in Sydney, has forced the closure of more than half of the population of about 26 million people and pushed the 13th world economy to the brink of its second recession in so many years. Read more

NSW Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian extended Sydney’s closure until the end of September and imposed new restrictions, including curfews, a requirement to wear a mask when out and limits on exercise.

“I asked the health and the police to work together, to give me a final list of what we can do, not to leave any shadow of a doubt about the seriousness of lowering the growth rate, the cases are decreasing,” Berejiklian he said at a press conference.

A curfew from 9pm to 5am would take effect from Monday in the 12 most affected areas of the borough, which would cover around 40% of Sydney’s 5 million population. Anyone trapped entering these areas would be fined and would have to be isolated for 14 days.

With a curfew similar to Melbourne, more than a quarter of Australia’s population will be confined to their homes at night from Monday, with the exception of essential workers.

The state of NSW reported 644 new infections on Friday, most in Sydney. Daily cases in NSW have exceeded 400 over the past seven days despite eight weeks of closure in Sydney, Australia’s largest city.

With only 28% of people over the age of 16 fully vaccinated, Australia has been unable to contain the outbreak in Sydney, which has now spawned cases in other cities in Australia and New Zealand. Read more

The Australian state of Victoria registered 55 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases and warned that it was at risk of being flooded by infections.

“We are on the verge of this distance from us and it is not because contact tracking is not doing everything it can. It is. It is not because we did not block ourselves fast enough. We did,” the prime minister said. of the state of Victoria, Daniel Andrews told reporters in Melbourne.

The Australian capital, Canberra, is also closed, with 16 cases recorded in the last 24 hours out of a population of about 430,000, authorities said.

AT THE LIMIT

The Australia Lifeline Suicide Prevention Helpline said there had been a 40% increase in calls in recent days compared to pre-pandemic times.

“What it shows is the level of anxiety, the rising levels of anger in the community and of course the stress and pressure,” John Brogden, president of Lifeline Australia, told ABC on Friday.

Australia has timidly recorded 12,000 infections since the first Delta case was reported in Sydney on 16 June. Four new deaths were confirmed in NSW on Friday, bringing the total to 65 in the latest outbreak.

However, high vaccination levels among Australia’s most vulnerable mean the mortality rate is 0.54%, according to official data, below previous outbreaks.

Despite a third wave of Delta variant infections, Australia’s COVID-19 figures are relatively low, with about 42,100 cases and 975 deaths.

(1 $ = 1.4025 Australian dollars)

Reports from Renju Jose in Sydney and Colin Packham in Canberra; Edited by Stephen Coates

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