The Australian state of South Australia will go into lockdown from Tuesday evening (local time). The state’s premier, Stephen Marshall, announced this after five local coronavirus infections were identified. South Australia includes the city of Adelaide with a population of over 1.3 million.
The decision will soon mean that more than 14 million Australians will have to stay at home as much as possible. Previously, the states of New South Wales and Victoria were closed. These states include Sydney and Melbourne.
The measures will be in place in South Australia from 6pm local time and are expected to remain in place for at least a week. “We hate having these restrictions imposed, but we think we only have one chance to get this right,” Marshall said.
Deltavariant
Only 11 per cent of Australia’s 25 million population has so far been vaccinated against Covid-19, but the country has largely contained the virus so far. But last month, Australia had to contend with a delta-variable outbreak. Since then, more than a hundred infections have been recorded daily.
Sydney has been closed for more than three weeks now, but new infections are still being discovered. On Tuesday, there were 78 new cases. City residents are only allowed to go out for exercise, shopping, or if they have another valid reason.
Melbourne also extended the lockdown, which was originally meant to last five days, by at least seven days.
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