Australia expands confinement in Sydney, surrounding areas due to Covid-19
Sydney, Australia, Jun 26 (EFE).- Australia extended a confinement order Saturday to the entire city of Sydney, the largest in the country, and surrounding areas for the next two weeks, authorities reported in a statement.
The New South Wales government tightened the confinement announced Friday, which affected only three districts of Sydney and whose duration was one week, after registering 29 infections linked to the delta variant of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours.
The restrictions prevent Sydney residents, as well as neighboring Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Wollongong, from leaving their homes, with some exceptions such as buying food or essentials or going to work or study when it is not possible to do so remotely.
Other exceptions are for medical reasons and doing sport as long as it is in groups of less than 10 people.
In the rest of the state, there are also restrictions such as the obligation to wear a mask indoors and at events organized outdoors, the reduction of social visits to five people and the limitation of capacity at venues and events.
According to the photographs of EPA, an agency owned by EFE, queues of cars could be seen Saturday morning to get tested for Covid-19 in Sydney, while some did sport or bathed on the beach before lockdown began Saturday afternoon.
Restrictions were imposed after an outbreak was declared last week in the touristy Bondi neighborhood of Sydney, with 64 active cases so far which caused New Zealand to suspend the travel bubble with this jurisdiction for 12 days.
Australians have been living normally for months, only broken with short and localized confinements to quickly control sudden outbreaks. The country has registered more than 30,400 cases, including 910 deaths, and has vaccinated about 5.7 million inhabitants, of which more than 1 million have received the complete dosage. EFE
wat-grc/lds
