Australian states may set tougher restrictions
Medical staff facilitate a COVID-19 coronavirus testing station in Picton, some 80 kilometers southwest of Sydney on Wednesday.
Australia’s two most populous states will impose harsher rules on movement if a COVID-19 outbreak is not bought under control, state premiers said on Wednesday.
In the past 10 days, the number of new cases daily has been in triple digits.
Victoria state reported another 238 cases in the past 24 hours, even after reimposing a lockdown last week on about 5 million people in Melbourne, Australia’s second-biggest city.
State Premier Daniel Andrews singled out a minority of people for defying lockdown orders — which require people to stay home except for a small number of permissible activities — warning restrictions could be extended.
“If, however, people do not do the right thing then we will have to move to additional restrictions being put in place and potentially prolong ... these restrictions,” Andrews told reporters in Melbourne.
More than 500 people have been fined for breaching lockdown rules, including two men caught driving around to play the Pokemon GO video game, Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent said.
Australia has now recorded about 10,500 cases. The death toll rose to 111 yesterday after a woman in her 90s died.
In New South Wales, which has seen several dozen COVID-19 cases in the past week, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the state will likely need new restrictions. She ruled out a blanket lockdown, however, citing the economic damage.
The Northern Territory said it would keep its borders closed to people from distant New South Wales and Victoria.
The possibility of new restrictions is a blow to Australia’s hopes of a speedy economic recovery as curbs implemented to slow the spread of COVID-19 push the country to its first recession in nearly three decades.
The Westpac-Melbourne Institute index of consumer sentiment fell 6.1 percent in July from June, when it had bounced 6.3 percent. Victoria’s sentiment index alone dived 10.4 percent.
The Australian Rules Football league said it would move its 10 teams based in Victoria to northern Queensland state, where the virus has nearly been eliminated.
