The area around Sydney in Australia enters a two-week hard lockdown as the authorities struggle to control the rapidly increasing outbreak of the rapidly growing Delta variant.

According to reports, 80 cases of the delta variant have been detected in the region.

"Even though we don't want to impose burdens unless we absolutely have to, unfortunately, this is a situation where we have to,"  said New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

Australia has been more successful in managing the pandemic than most of the advanced economies through swift border closures, social distancing rules, and high compliance, reporting just over 30,400 cases and 910 Covid-19 deaths.

But the country has confronted small outbreaks in recent months. These have been contained through speedy contact tracing, isolation of thousands of people at a time or snap hard lockdowns.