SYDNEY (AP) – The outbreak on the outskirts of Sydney’s north beach has grown to 70 cases with an additional 30 in the last 24 hours, and authorities say they may never be able to trace the source.
As figures rise, New South Wales Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian said on Sunday that there was no evidence of mass planting outside the North Beach community. A new list of cases, however, shows that the virus had spread to Sydney and other parts of the state.
The government has imposed a closure in the area until Wednesday. Residents will only be able to leave home for five basic reasons, such as medical care, exercise, grocery store, work, or compassionate care.
State health chief Kerry Chant said contact tracers have not yet located the zero patient, but that extensive investigation is underway.
Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region:
– South Korea has registered more than 1,000 new cases of coronavirus for the fifth day in a row, putting pressure on authorities to enforce tougher distancing rules that would further harm the economy. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency says 1,097 additional cases have been found in the past 24 hours, the highest daily count since the pandemic began. This brings the number of national cases to 49,665, including 674 deaths. About 70% of new cases come from the densely populated metropolitan area of Seoul, which has been at the center of a viral resurgence. The pace of propagation has already met government conditions to raise the norms of social distancing to its highest level. But officials have been reluctant to move forward with the measure out of concern for the economy. The new step would ban a gathering of more than ten people and close hundreds of thousands of non-essential businesses.
– Thailand reported two new local infections on Sunday, a day after identifying more than 500 cases south of Bangkok in a country that had largely controlled the pandemic. Saturday’s 548 cases, most related to the country’s wholesale seafood wholesale market, come after Thailand has seen a small number of infections in recent months due to strict border and quarantine controls. On Sunday, a 78-year-old seafood vendor in Bangkok who had visited the shrimp market in Samut Sakhon province tested positive. The other case was a woman in central Thailand who worked in a beauty salon in the north. Health officials say most cases in the seafood market are migrant workers from Myanmar. The governor imposed a night curfew and other travel restrictions in Samut Sakhon province until January 3.
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