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A snap lockdown in Melbourne has been extended for another week as part of efforts to curb an outbreak of the highly contagious Covid-19 variant first detected in India.
The Australian city’s residents face another seven days of only being allowed to leave home for essential reasons, which includes getting a coronavirus vaccine, authorities have confirmed.
It comes after the whole of Victoria, the second-most populous state, was sent into lockdown for the fourth time since the start of the pandemic towards the end of last month.
Authorities tightened restrictions amid concern over a cluster of new Covid-19 cases, which doubled to 26 infections over the course of a day and saw thousands identified as contacts.
The “circuit-breaker” lockdown was initially set to run for seven days, ending on Thursday.
But officials have said that in Melbourne, lockdown will continue for another week.
This means residents must stay at home unless it is to go to work, get groceries, for healthcare reasons, to exercise or get vaccinated against Covid-19.
Restrictions will likely be relaxed for people in other regions in the state – depending on any local transmission in the next 24 hours – though other measures like mandatory mask-wearing will remain in place.
The cluster of cases involving the Delta variant, previously known as the India variant, with officials fearing this variant could spread even through minimal contact.
Health authorities have said the variant could only take one day to pass from person to person, compared with earlier strains where transmission could take about five or six days of contact.
Six new locally acquired cases were reported on Wednesday, versus nine a day earlier, taking the total infections in the latest outbreak to 60.
“If we let this thing run its course, it will explode,” James Merlino, the Victoria state’s acting premier, said on Wednesday. “This variant of concern will become uncontrollable and people will die.”
“No-one… wants to repeat last winter,” he said, referring to one of the world’s strictest and longest lockdowns imposed in Victoria last winter to contain a second wave of Covid-19.
More than 800 people died in its outbreak, accounting for roughly 90 per cent of Australia’s death toll since the pandemic began.
Snap lockdowns, regional border restrictions and tough social distancing rules have largely helped Australia to suppress all prior outbreaks and keep its Covid-19 numbers relatively low at just over 30,100 cases and 910 deaths.
Victoria also went into lockdown in February, with measures introduced in response to a cluster of cases of a Covid-19 variant first identified in the UK, which were detected at a quarantine hotel.
The lockdown – which saw public gatherings banned and residents allowed to leave home only for essential reasons – was lifted a week later.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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