Sydney, Australia’s largest city, begins two weeks of confinement today after more than 80 cases of Covid-19 linked to the contagious Delta variant have been recorded. The infection originated from the crew of a plane being transported from the airport to a hotel for quarantine. The new cases took Sydney by surprise, who had returned to normal after months of very few cases.
More than five million citizens and hundreds of thousands of residents in the coastal district will have to stay at home and will only be able to go out to buy essential goods, get medical care, exercise, go to school or go to work if they cannot carry out their occupation by remote.
“The Delta variant is proving to be a truly formidable enemy,” South Wales State Health Minister Brad Hazzard told reporters, “no matter what defensive measures we take, the virus seems to know how to fight back.” Australia is one of the countries in the world that has been most successful in containing the pandemic, with 910 deaths and less than 30,000 cases in a population of 25 million people.
And as a result of the worsening situation in Sydney, New Zealand has suspended the “air bubble” that allowed un-quarantined air links with Australia for three days. This was announced by the New Zealand minister responsible for the fight against Covid-19, Chris Hipkins, who explained that the suspension serves to adopt the necessary countermeasures to “make the bubble safer”.
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