Coronavirus Asia-Pacific

Brisbane extends lockdown and soldiers patrol Sydney as Australia ramps up curbs

The deserted site of the cancelled Royal Queensland Show in Brisbane, the largest annual event in the Australian state, yesterday.
The deserted site of the cancelled Royal Queensland Show in Brisbane, the largest annual event in the Australian state, yesterday. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

SYDNEY • Australia's Queensland state has extended a Covid-19 lockdown in its capital Brisbane, while soldiers began patrolling Sydney in New South Wales to enforce stay-at-home rules as the country struggles to stop the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus from spreading.

Queensland yesterday said it had detected 13 new locally acquired coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours - the biggest one-day rise the state has recorded in a year.

The lockdown of Brisbane, Australia's third-biggest city, was due to end today but will now stay in place until late on Sunday.

Queensland has yet to establish how a schoolchild contracted the virus, but has forced students at several schools and their families, including that of Australia's Defence Minister Peter Dutton, to stay home.

Mr Dutton said yesterday that he would miss two weeks of Parliament after he was told he must quarantine at home for 14 days because his two sons attend a school linked to the outbreak.

The rising new case numbers in two of the country's biggest cities come amid growing disquiet over how the government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison is handling the pandemic.

Australia is going through a cycle of stop-start lockdowns in several cities after the emergence of the fast-moving Delta variant, and such restrictions are likely to persist until the country reaches a much higher level of vaccination coverage.

Mr Morrison has promised that lockdowns would be "less likely" once the country inoculates 70 per cent of its population above 16 years old - up from 19 per cent now.

He expects to hit the 70 per cent mark by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the lockdown of Brisbane and several surrounding areas comes as Sydney, the biggest city in the country, begins its sixth week under stay-at-home orders.

New South Wales, of which Sydney is the state capital, said yesterday that it detected 207 coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours as daily new cases continue to linger near a 16-month high recorded late last week.

The state has recorded more than 3,500 infections since the outbreak began in June, when a limousine driver contracted the virus while transporting an overseas airline crew, and has asked for military personnel to aid efforts to enforce the restrictions.

Some 300 army personnel, who will be unarmed and under police command, yesterday began door-to-door visits to ensure people who have tested positive for Covid-19 are isolating at home.

The soldiers also accompanied police officers patrolling the areas of Sydney where most of the Covid-19 cases have been recorded.

REUTERS

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on August 03, 2021, with the headline Brisbane extends lockdown and soldiers patrol Sydney as Australia ramps up curbs. Subscribe