MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Victoria, Australia’s second most populous state, entered a five-day blockade on Saturday as authorities rushed to avoid a third wave of COVID-19 cases caused by the UK’s highly infected variant.
A new case acquired locally has been confirmed in the past 24 hours, health officials said on Saturday, bringing the number of cases linked to a quarantine hotel at Melbourne airport to 14 and the total number of active cases in the state to 20.
“Many people will be suffering today. This is not the position the Victorians wanted, but I cannot have a situation where, in two weeks, we look back and wish we had made those decisions now, ”Prime Minister Victoria Daniel Andrews told reporters on Saturday.
International flights to Melbourne will be stopped until Wednesday, after five flights en route, with about 100 passengers, landing on Saturday.
All 14 cases in the airport cluster are due to the highly infectious British variant of the new coronavirus. So far, only direct contacts by hotel workers have had positive results.
“It is contained in that sense. There is concern in Victoria about spreading through the community, ”Australia’s chief physician Paul Kelly told reporters.
The streets of downtown Melbourne, the state capital, and its suburbs were almost empty on Saturday, with people being forced to stay home for everything except essential shopping, two hours of outdoor exercise, care or work that they didn’t. can be done at home.
Among the “essential” jobs, playing at the Australian Open, the first tennis Grand Slam of the year, which runs until February 21, continued, but fans were banned until Wednesday. Thousands were forced to leave the games before midnight on Friday.
The players lost the buzz of the crowd.
“It was a little unsettling – in some ways sad. … I just tried to focus on my game, ”said Elina Svitolina after winning her match in the third round.
The blockade, which closed restaurants and cafes for everyone except take-out food, happened just as Melbourne prepared for the biggest weekend in almost a year, with the celebrations of Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day and Australian Open crowds .
Melbourne suffered a 111-day block last year, one of the toughest and longest in the world at the time, to contain a coronavirus outbreak that led to more than 800 deaths.
“It is the busiest weekend of the year for us. I’m sitting here making 178 heartbreaking calls to see if I can make a new reservation, ”said Will Baa, owner of Lover, a restaurant in the trendy Windsor neighborhood.
“Just crossed fingers that only extend for a short period of five days,” he said.
More broadly, Australia is considered to be one of the most successful countries in the world in combating the pandemic, largely because of decisive roadblocks and closed borders for almost all travelers. With a population of 25 million, there were about 22,200 cases in the community and 909 deaths.
New Zealand reported on Saturday the death of a patient with COVID-19. This case has not yet been included in the total of 25 deaths by COVID-19 in the country.
Reporting by Sonali Paul; Michael Perry / Peter Rutherford edition