The Australian population, as many as 13 million people that constitute about half of the population have to endure new lockdown restrictions to put an end to the novel delta variant Covid outbreak.
The third state was ordered to be locked down this Tuesday. Stay at home orders are now mandated in South Australia, Victoria and some regions of New South Wales.
Frustrated Aussies
Many people have expressed frustration with returning to the highest intensity closure after 18 months when outbreak began last year.
And the reopening of the UK and US is putting even more pressure on the Scott Morrison government.
Less than 14% of people in Australia are vaccinated – the worst rate in OECD countries.
PM Scott Morrison Speaks
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been widely called out by the Aussies due to the the slow vaccination campaign progress but he has resisted calls for apologies.
“No country has been 100% accurate in fighting with COVID,” he told reporters on Wednesday. (Paraphrased)
He also spoke of Australia’s success in keeping total infections significantly lower compared to many other nations.
915 people have died by Covid in Australia. Mr Morrison highlighted that the UK recorded more than 90 fatalities in one day on Tuesday.
Contagious Delta Variant
Until recently, Australia’s strategy for border closures, hotel quarantine programs and other restriction schemes helped keep cases low. But Delta’s highly contagious variant challenged all of this last month.
The outbreak in Sydney – Australia’s largest city – has infected more than 1,500 people and authorities reported more than 110 new cases on Wednesday, although the city has been under lockdown measures for last four weeks.
There are fears that Sydney’s closure could widen until September.
Lockdowns
Australian authorities have said they intend to eliminate local cases completely until the majority of the population is vaccinated, but in Sydney the cases could take months.
Victoria – which saw 22 new outbreaks on Wednesday – will remain closed for at least Tuesday.
And in southern Australia a seven-day closure has been announced after five separate Delta cases were discovered.