Victoria state logs biggest rise in Covid-19 cases in a week
Melbourne residents wait to hear if an extended snap lockdown will end as planned on Thursday night
SYDNEY: Australia's Victoria state yesterday reported its biggest rise in locally acquired Covid-19 cases in nearly a week as the authorities scramble to track the source of the highly infectious Delta variant.
The authorities reported 11 cases, up from just two a day earlier, but noted that all were linked to existing clusters, as residents of state capital Melbourne wait to hear if an extended snap lockdown will end as planned on Thursday night.
"Nothing is on or off the table," Victoria state chief health officer Brett Sutton told reporters in Melbourne, when asked if some areas of the city could remain locked down while other areas start to ease curbs.
Melbourne entered its 11th day of a hard lockdown yesterday after officials on Friday found the Delta virus variant, which they said was likely to spread more easily than many other strains.
The source of the Delta variant infections has yet to be identified and there has been no genomic match so far with any other cases in Australia.
The new case numbers take the total number of locally acquired cases in the latest outbreak in Victoria, the country's second-most populous state, to 83.
Yesterday's data includes two cases announced on Sunday that were recorded after the midnight cut-off deadline.
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All of yesterday's locally acquired cases are linked to existing clusters, officials said, with eight being close contacts who were isolating while infectious.
The Delta variant, which has been classified by the World Health Organisation as among the four Covid-19 variants of concern because of evidence that it spreads more easily, likely caused the latest devastating outbreak in India.
Australia has largely reined in prior outbreaks with snap lockdowns, regional border restrictions and tough social distancing rules keeping Covid-19 numbers relatively low with just more than 30,150 cases and 910 deaths.
About 20 per cent of Australia's adult population have received a first vaccine dose, with more than five million total shots administered so far.
Victoria endured a hard lockdown for nearly three months last year to suppress a second wave of Covid-19 that killed more than 800 people, about 90 per cent of all coronavirus deaths in Australia since the pandemic began. - REUTERS
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