Melbourne extends sixth coronavirus lockdown

A lockdown of Australia’s second-biggest city Melbourne will be extended, authorities announced on Sunday as they struggle to quash a stubborn coronavirus Delta variant outbreak.

Almost seven million people in Melbourne and surrounding Victoria state were scheduled to exit a four-week lockdown on Thursday, but state premier Dan Andrews said it would no longer be possible with case numbers rising by 92 overnight.

It is the city’s sixth lockdown of the pandemic, and includes a curfew, the closure of playgrounds and strict limits on exercise.

‘We still have too many cases in the community for too long for us to be able to open up and give back… those freedoms that we cherish and those freedoms that we desperately want back,’ Andrews said.

Andrews did not reveal how long stay-at-home orders would remain in place, saying officials would ‘look at all the different options’.

Meanwhile neighbouring New South Wales state, which includes Australia’s most populous city of Sydney, posted 1,218 new cases on Sunday — pushing the country’s overall daily caseload to a fresh all-time high.

Almost 19,000 cases have been detected in the state of about eight million people since the Delta variant outbreak began in mid-June.

But with vaccination rates now surging in New South Wales and authorities predicting 70 per cent of adults there will be fully vaccinated by October, residents weary of prolonged restrictions have been promised some modest freedoms.

In non-hotspot areas, five fully vaccinated adults will be able to gather outside for up to an hour from mid-September while authorities have also signalled small weddings will soon be allowed.

Australian leaders have agreed on a national roadmap for reopening the country once vaccination targets of 70 and 80 per cent are reached in each state and territory.

The nation has recorded more than 51,000 cases of Covid-19 and almost 1,000 deaths in a population of 25 million since the start of the pandemic.

The coronavirus has killed at least 44,92,854 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 1000 GMT on Sunday.

At least 21,58,76,370 cases of coronavirus have been registered. On Saturday, 8,734 new deaths and 5,35,547 new cases were recorded worldwide.

Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were Russia with 797 new deaths, followed by Mexico with 756 and Brazil with 684.

The United States is the worst-affected country with 6,37,237 deaths from 3,87,57,191 cases.

After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 5,79,010 deaths from 2,07,28,605 cases, India with 4,37,830 deaths from 3,26,95,030 cases, Mexico with 2,57,906 deaths from 33,28,863 cases, and Peru with 1,98,167 deaths from 21,48,419 cases.

Latin America and the Caribbean overall have 14,35,209 deaths from 4,31,22,529 cases, Europe 12,45,266 deaths from 6,27,78,172 infections, and Asia 7,72,903 deaths from 4,97,86,441 cases.

The United States and Canada have reported 6,64,134 deaths from 4,02,44,467 cases, Africa 1,94,123 deaths from 77,27,561 cases, the Middle East 1,79,529 deaths from 1,21,00,673 cases, and Oceania 1,690 deaths from 1,16,534 cases.

Two Japanese regions suspend the use of some Moderna Covid-19 shots after more cases of contamination are spotted, the local governments say.

The move comes a day after the Japanese health ministry said it was investigating the death of two men who received doses from tainted Moderna batches — though the cause of death is unknown.

Kosovo will delay the start of the school year by two weeks and introduce a night-time curfew as infections soar.

The government says the curfew will take effect on Monday from 10:00pm until 5:00am while the school year will begin in mid-September instead of September 1.

The United Arab Emirates announces it will resume issuing visas to all tourists fully vaccinated against Covid from Monday, a month before Dubai hosts the delayed Expo 2020 trade fair.

A total of 1,60,000 people protested across France on Saturday, the interior ministry says, angered at the country’s Covid health pass system which they say unfairly restricts the unvaccinated.

AFP