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Empty supermarket shelves in Melbourne.(Getty)
Shelves were emptied across Victoria ahead of the new lockdown, despite authorities maintaining that panic-buying and stockpiling were not necessary.
The circuit-breaker lockdown has been put in place following a new outbreak of rapidly-spreading COVID-19 in Melbourne.
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The decision has not been well-received by all, with protests over the lockdown taking place outside Flinders Street Station overnight.
As the number of exposure sites passed 150 and contact tracers linked 10,000 primary and close contacts to the cluster, Acting Premier James Merlino said yesterday very strong advice from public officials had compelled a statewide lockdown.
Untangling Australia s COVID vaccine rollout timetable
Victoria s COVID vaccine booking hotline has been inundated. But when will the country be vaccinated? We ve tracked more than a dozen targets, revisions and updates to Australia s vaccine timetable. 28 May 2021
As Victorians head back into lockdown, the slow pace of Australia s COVID-19 vaccine campaign has again been thrust into the spotlight . If more people were vaccinated, we might be facing a very different set of circumstances than we are today, Victoria s Acting Premier James Merlino told reporters on Thursday.
Even before the AstraZeneca shakeup in April threw the entire strategy into disarray, Australia s vaccine rollout had fallen short of every target.Â
The Latest: UK says variant could extend government-imposed restrictions
LONDON The British government says a fast-spreading new coronavirus variant could delay its plans to lift remaining social restrictions next month.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday that “we may need to wait” beyond the planned date of June 21.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it was “too early now to say” whether the step could take place.
Hancock said a variant of the virus first identified in India was spreading throughout the U.K. Scientists say the new strain is more transmissible than Britain’s previously dominant variant, but it’s not yet clear by how much. They say existing vaccines appear to be largely effective against it.
CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA 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.