Coronavirus: Sydney widens lockdown as Delta variant cases rise; New Zealand suspends travel bubble
- Sydney entered a two-week lockdown as authorities try to contain an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant in Australia’s largest city
- More than 80 cases have been reported so far in an infection surge linked to a flight crew transported to a quarantine hotel from the airport
More than 80 Covid-19 cases have been reported so far in an infection surge linked to an international flight crew transported to a quarantine hotel from the airport.
The flare-up was a shock for a city that had returned to relative normality after months with very few local cases.
More than five million people across Sydney are subject to the movement restrictions, in addition to hundreds of thousands of others living in nearby coastal communities and the Blue Mountains towns that divide the city from Australia’s farming hinterland.
The lockdown had originally only applied to Sydney’s business district and affluent eastern suburbs, but the spread of the outbreak elsewhere pushed authorities to take a more drastic step.
“When you have a contagious variant, like the Delta virus, a three-day lockdown doesn’t work – if we’re going to do this we need to do it properly,” said Gladys Berejiklian, the premier of New South Wales state.