SYDNEY (AP) – The outbreak in Sydney’s northern suburbs has grown to 70 cases with a further 30 in the past 24 hours, and authorities say they may never be able to trace the source.
As the numbers rise, New South Wales Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian said on Sunday that there is no evidence of massive seeding outside the northern beach community. However, a new list of cases shows that the virus had spread to greater Sydney and other parts of the state.
The government has imposed a lockdown in the area until Wednesday. Residents are only allowed to leave their homes for five basic reasons, including medical care, exercise, grocery shopping, work, or for compassionate care reasons.
Kerry Chant, the state’s chief health officer, said contact investigators should not find a patient zero just yet, but an extensive investigation is underway.
Elsewhere in the Asia Pacific region:
South Korea has registered more than 1,000 new cases of coronavirus for the fifth consecutive day, putting pressure on authorities to enforce the strictest aloofness rules that would further harm the economy. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency says it has found 1,097 additional cases in the last 24 hours, the highest daily figure since the start of the pandemic. That brings the national workload to 49,665, including 674 deaths. About 70% of new cases come from the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, which was at the center of a viral resurgence. The pace of the spread already meets the conditions set by the government to bring the rules for social distancing to the highest level. But officials were reluctant to go ahead with the measure over concerns about the economy. The new move would ban a gathering of more than 10 people and shut down hundreds of thousands of non-essential businesses.
Thailand reported two new local infections on Sunday, a day after identifying more than 500 cases south of Bangkok in a country that had largely brought the pandemic under control. The 548 cases on Saturday, most of which were related to the country’s largest wholesale market for fish and seafood products, came after Thailand had seen only a small number of infections in recent months due to strict border and quarantine controls. On Sunday, a 78-year-old fishmonger in Bangkok who had visited the shrimp market in Samut Sakhon province tested positive. The other case was a woman in central Thailand who worked in a beauty salon in the north. Health officials say most of the cases in the fish market are migrant workers from Myanmar. The governor imposed a curfew and other travel restrictions in Samut Sakhon province until January 3.
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