After a new cluster of cases linked to a more virulent version of the coronavirus emerged, the Australian state of Victoria will undergo another seven-day lockdown, confining seven million citizens to "critical" work and travel.
On Thursday, the state's acting premier, James Merlino, issued a second weeklong "circuit breaker" lockdown, telling media that the current epidemic would become "increasingly unmanageable" unless "drastic" action was taken.
“We're dealing with a highly infectious strain of the virus, a variety of concern, that's spreading at a rate we've never seen before,” Merlino said at a press conference in Melbourne, the state capital.
The additional limits are the result of 26 instances connected to a virus strain first identified in India being reported in Victoria in the last week, 12 of which were reported overnight between Wednesday and Thursday. The number of active cases in the state now stands at 34.
More than 10,000 people have been identified as needing quarantine by contract tracers after potentially seeing one of the new patients, according to Merlino, who expects the number to “continue to rise and change” in the coming days.
Victoria has been under lockdown four times since Covid-19 first appeared on the global stage in late 2019. The new limitations go into effect at 11:59 p.m. local time on Thursday, requiring millions of people to stay at home for seven days unless they need to travel for "essential products and services," "authorized work," or health reasons. Victorians were advised to stay within 5km (three miles) of their houses even back then.
Additional exceptions are permitted in specific instances, such as when a person intends to see an "intimate partner" or someone in their "bubble" of direct connections. Schools will be closed for the week, and in-person weddings, burials, and religious events will be completely prohibited.
As a result of the "circuit breaker," other Australian states have tightened their border controls with Victoria, with Western Australia and Tasmania closing their borders with the state on Thursday, following South Australia's decision the day before. Travelers traveling from Victoria will also be required to quarantine for two weeks in Queensland and the Northern Territory.
Victoria's vaccine push was recently expanded for people aged 40-49, after previously only permitting immunizations for people over the age of 50, due to an increase in verified cases. Merlino, on the other hand, bemoaned a sluggish campaign earlier this week, saying that if doses had been distributed more quickly, "we could be facing a different set of circumstances." Approximately 400,000 vaccines have been provided in Victoria to date, with less than 63,000 persons fully immunized.
While the state is no stranger to lockdowns, having been subjected to some of the world's most severe restrictions in the last year, officials and citizens have criticized its prior containment practices. Last December, Victoria's Ombudsman Deborah Glass released a damning report, claiming that a "hard lockdown" placed on multiple public housing towers in July 2020 was "incompatible with tenants' human rights" and may have been "in violation of the law." Last year, a local company owner filed a constitutional challenge to the restrictions, but it was ultimately dismissed by the courts.
