Australian states close borders to battle virus
A sign on a truck warns people to stay home in Melbourne on Wednesday, as the city enforces strict lockdown restrictions after a fresh outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
Australia’s Queensland state on Wednesday said it would close its border with New South Wales state to hold back a second wave of COVID-19, while the country’s second-largest city, Melbourne, was set to shut most businesses.
A surge in coronavirus cases in Melbourne has forced the state of Victoria to impose a night curfew, tighten restrictions on people’s movements and order most businesses to stop trading from last night.
Other states are imposing new restrictions of their own to prevent any spillover from Victoria and an even bigger hit to the national economy, which has plunged into its first recession in nearly three decades.
Australia has recorded 18,729 cases and 232 deaths in a population of 25 million.
Victoria, which accounts for about a quarter of the nation’s economy, has nearly two-thirds of Australia’s coronavirus cases and was expected to report more than 700 new infections yesterday, according to media reports.
Queensland State Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who has already shut her northeastern state’s border to Victorians, said travelers from New South Wales and the capital Canberra would also be restricted from Saturday.
“We have seen that Victoria is not getting better, and we’re not going to wait for New South Wales to get worse. We need to act,” she said.
After two months of no community transmission in the state, two travelers who returned from Melbourne last month tested positive and there have been at least three cases of local transmission.
“It is clear now that Australia is experiencing a second wave of COVID-19 and we cannot afford to have that second wave here in Queensland,” Deputy Premier Steven Miles said.
Queensland, a popular holiday destination for people from the colder southern states, reported one new and 11 active cases as of yesterday.
Victorians are bracing for the shutdown of a range of businesses from hair salons to furniture stores, and curbs on construction, meatworks and warehouses, hitting 250,000 jobs.
