Australia's second-most populous city Melbourne entered its sixth coronavirus lockdown on Thursday after Victorian officials discovered "several mysterious cases" of what they suspect is a coronavirus outbreak. Delta bodies are highly contagious.
The weeklong lockdown comes just a day after the state reported its first 24 hours without a new infection in nearly a month, stoking hopes that the most recent battle with the Delta variant is behind it.
Authorities on Thursday announced eight new infections, some of which are unrelated to previous cases. Victorian Prime Minister Daniel Andrews told reporters that mysterious cases were still being investigated, but that immediate lockdown was the only way to prevent the outbreak from spiralling out of control.
Because the variant is moving too fast, or it will lock it. . . or it goes wild and it withdraws from you and there's no way to get it back,” he said of the delta variation. International borders closed to Australia's strict contact tracing and immediate lockdowns have made it a vibrant success story, with a total of around 35,000 cases and 932 deaths.
But the country has struggled to contain an outbreak of lowland variants. And a slow vaccination program has left its population of around 25 million vulnerable.
Andrews said he wanted to avoid a larger outbreak like the one in Sydney, where health officials on Thursday reported a record 262 new cases and five deaths.
“We don't want that to happen here,” he said of the Sydney outbreak, which started in June and has recently averaged over 200 new cases a day. "We've been through this before, and worse."
The country has stepped up its immunization program in recent weeks as supply issues improve, but only about 20% of eligible adults receive two doses.