(Reforms with official confirmation)
SYDNEY, Feb. 12 (Reuters) – Australia’s second most populous city will enter a five-day coronavirus blockade, officials said on Friday, preventing viewers from the Australian Open tennis tournament.
A new COVID-19 cluster linked to a quarantine hotel in Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria, hit 13 cases at midnight on Thursday, as authorities rushed to halt the spread of the virus.
Victoria’s premier Daniel Andrews announced the blockade for the state, calling it a “short and sharp circuit breaker”, banning public meetings, house auctions, weddings and religious meetings.
“There will be no crowds” at sporting events in the state, said Andrews. The tournament runs until February 21. The audience has already been limited to 50% of the normal capacity for the Grand Slam event.
“We must assume that there are more cases in the community from which we have had positive results, and that it is moving at a speed that has not been seen anywhere in our country over the past 12 months,” Andrews told reporters.
Victoria suffered one of the toughest and longest blockages in the world last year.
Prior to the announcement, Prime Minister Scott Morrison offered his government’s full support for Victoria’s decisions to contain the outbreak.
“We have been dealing with (outbreaks) in the last few weeks in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth and therefore a proportionate response … allows trackers to be able to overcome it and achieve the same successful result that we have seen in other states”, Morrison told reporters.
(Reporting by Renju Jose and Swati Pandey; Writing by Sam Holmes; Editing by William Mallard)
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