By Contributor - May 27, 2021
Australiaâs second most populous state is entering the highest level of restrictions for the fourth time.
Melbourneâs CBD and Flinders Street Station at sunrise. (Photo: Urlaubstracker/Unsplash)
Authorities in Victoria are pulling out all the stops to stamp out a fast-growing coronavirus outbreak in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Acting Premier James Merlino has announced that âcircuit breakerâ restrictions will take effect across the entire state from just before midnight tonight, and remain in place for the next seven days, until 11:59 p.m. on June 3. He says the number of local cases have doubled in just 24 hours to 26 infections, with one patient now in ICU. Contact tracers have so far identified 10,000 primary and secondary contacts linked to the outbreak, and more than 150 exposure sites have been found across the state, including the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Docklands Stadium.
Victoria will enter lockdown that will last for seven days starting at midnight
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Virus Outbreak Australia (AAP IMAGE) Australia’s second-largest city was set to enter its fourth lockdown Thursday as concern grew over the rapid spread of infections from a coronavirus variant.
The seven-day lockdown for Melbourne and the rest of Victoria state comes after a new cluster in the city rose to 26 infections, including a person who was in intensive care. Another 10,000 people have had some degree of contact with those already infected.
“Unless something changes, this will be increasingly uncontrollable,” Victoria Acting Premier James Merlino said.
The federal government declared Melbourne a hot spot, which entitles the city to additional federal resources. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said 218 military personnel were in Victoria helping in pandemic operations and more would be sent if Merlino asked.
2 minutes read
Sydney, Australia, May 27 (EFE).- Australia’s second-most populated state of Victoria will enter lockdown at midnight Thursday for seven days due to an outbreak of a “highly infectious strain” of Covid-19 detected this week.
In the city of Melbourne, the state’s Acting Premier James Merlino announced Thursday that 11 new cases were detected in the last 24 hours, coming to a total of 26 infections, including one person who is in intensive care on a ventilator.
Merlino clarified that the measure seeks to avoid a “third wave” in the state of 6.6 million inhabitants and which accounts for 68 percent of total infections and 90 percent of deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Published May 27, 2021
From midnight tonight, Victoria is heading into a seven-day circuit breaker lockdown until June 3. It’s a huge measure to keep this recent bout of COVID-19 cases under control.
The reason for such dramatic action across the entire state, not just Melbourne, is because of how fast the virus is spreading in the community this time around.
“In the last day, we’ve seen more evidence that we’re dealing with a highly infectious strain of the virus, a variant of concern, which is running faster than we have ever recorded,” Victoria’s Acting Premier
James Merlino said at a press conference on Thursday morning.