GEIS-新闻详情

Australian apartment blocks placed in hard lockdown

2021-07-13 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-亚洲原网页

SYDNEY (AFP, BLOOMBERG) - An Australian apartment block have been placed under strict lockdown with police posted outside Tuesday (July 13), as authorities stepped up efforts to curb a fast-growing coronavirus outbreak.

Police guarded both the front and rear exits of an apartment block in Sydney’s Bondi neighbourhood, where nine people have tested positive for Covid-19, with movement in and out of the building restricted.

A sign taped to one apartment window read "Send Beer" while another asked, "where is the vaccine?"

Sydney is currently in its third week of a partial lockdown as authorities try to stamp out the spread of the virus in the community.

Most residents of Australia’s largest city are allowed to leave home for exercise, essential shopping, work or health reasons, but are encouraged to remain at home.

Tougher restrictions are placed on people who have visited locations that are declared a virus hotspot, which may include mandatory 14-day quarantine.

Australia’s latest Covid-19 outbreak began in mid-June and has since grown to 767 cases.

An entire apartment block in Melbourne was also placed under isolation for 14 days, after removal workers who visited from Sydney tested positive.

Authorities are now asking Australians living in other apartment buildings to wear a mask when in common areas.

“When you’re in apartment buildings, we’re not wanting you to congregate in any shared spaces,” said New South Wales chief health official Kerry Chant. “We are really requiring under a public health order that you wear masks when you’re transiting through common areas.”

Residents in one southwest Sydney neighbourhood, where the virus is currently spreading most quickly, are now required to get tested every three days if they leave the area for work.

Under 10 per cent of Australians have been fully vaccinated, leaving the population highly vulnerable to the quick-spreading Delta variant.

Sydney’s lockdown had been scheduled to end on Friday, but an extension is now looking likely, despite a drop in new infections to 89 in the past 24 hours.

Travel bubble with Singapore

Meanwhile, Australia's top diplomat to Singapore said the country has a "firm commitment" to launch a quarantine-free travel bubble with Singapore, which is more likely to now occur by the end of the year due to Sydney's coronavirus outbreak.

"There's a very strong commitment for officials, both governments in Australia and here in Singapore, to progress the systems - the operational capabilities, the requirements - that will be necessary to ensure safe travel," High Commissioner to Singapore Will Hodgman said in an interview with Bloomberg Television's Juliette Saly on Tuesday.

"Given the outbreak in Australia, the unpredictability of this virus, it is more likely that travel will be possible towards the end of this calendar year."