SYDNEY (AP) – Sydney’s northern beaches will undergo a lockdown similar to the one imposed during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March as a cluster of cases in the area has increased to 41.
From late Saturday afternoon to Wednesday midnight, residents are only allowed to leave their homes for five basic reasons: medical care, exercise, grocery store, work, or for compassionate care reasons.
In the 24 hours, a further 23 cases were registered, including 10 already announced, bringing the new cases to 41. All but two have occurred in the so-called Avalon cluster, named after a community of about 10,000 people on the northern beaches about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from central Sydney.
New South Wales State Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian says the restrictions are essential if Sydney has any hope of a semi-normal Christmas.
“We hope this will give us enough time to get the virus under control so we can relax over Christmas and New Year,” she said.
The new cases came when health officials asked hundreds of gym goers on Sydney’s northern beaches to get tested and insulated immediately. The gym adds to a long list of venues, including a bocce club, frequented by confirmed cases published by authorities on Friday.
Other states stepped in to prevent the cases from jumping across the border, with more barriers for New South Wales residents set by Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Most of these involved fourteen-day quarantine periods for people from the Northern Beaches traveling to those states.
Elsewhere in the Asia Pacific region:
– Long lines meandered around coronavirus testing sites in the South Korean capital of Seoul, as the country reported a further 1,053 cases, the fourth consecutive day of more than 1,000. The viral resurgence has raised questions about how the government is dealing with the outbreak. Governments are still deciding whether to increase social distance to the maximum level for fear that this will put further pressure on the economy. The figures released by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on Saturday brought the national caseload to 48,570, with nearly 7,000 cases in the past week alone. Fourteen COVID-19 patients died in the past 24 hours to bring the death toll to 659. There is concern that the number of fatalities will continue to rise due to a shortage of intensive care beds in Seoul’s worst-hit metropolitan area. The KDCA said at least 275 of the 13,577 active patients are in a serious or critical condition, most since the outbreak of the pandemic. Officials say at least six died in their homes or long-term care facilities because hospitals ran out of beds. Thousands of people have lined up in testing centers outside Seoul City Hall and other public spaces as health authorities are expanding a massive testing program to find more virus carriers. Authorities are temporarily offering free tests to everyone in the capital, regardless of whether they have symptoms or clear reasons for suspecting infection.
– The number of coronavirus cases in India has exceeded 10 million with new infections falling to the lowest level in three months as the country prepares for a massive COVID-19 vaccination in the new year. Additional cases in the past 24 hours have fallen to 25,152 from a peak of nearly 100,000 in mid-September. The epidemic has infected nearly 1% of India’s more than 1.3 billion people, after the hardest hit United States. A government health expert says India is keeping its fingers crossed as cases increase in the winter months. India is home to some of the world’s largest vaccine producers and there are five vaccine candidates at various stages of research in the country. India aims to deliver vaccines to 250 million people by July 2021.
– China says it will soon begin coronavirus vaccinations for healthcare, transportation and border control workers. The Deputy Secretary of the National Health Commission says the government is prioritizing those most at risk. Workers in logistics and in markets selling fresh meat and seafood would also rank higher among those receiving vaccines, along with the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions. Vaccines produced by Chinese companies are now awaiting approval in Turkey, Indonesia and Brazil as manufacturers continue to test the vaccines in more than a dozen countries, including Russia, Egypt and Mexico. The United Arab Emirates announced last week that the vaccine was 86% effective with the first public release of such information. Even before final market approval, more than a million people received vaccination shots in a program that critics say have not been transparent about safety, efficacy or scientific merits.
___
Follow AP’s reporting at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak