MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australian health officials said on Saturday they were on high alert after cases of new highly communicable variants of the coronavirus, discovered in the UK and South Africa, arrived in the country.
Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, entered a strict three-day blockade on Saturday after the discovery of a virulent strain of the virus that causes COVID-19, linked to Great Britain. A variant that appeared in South Africa was found in Sydney, the largest city in Australia, in a hotel quarantine.
Australia was more successful than most advanced economies in pandemic management, with total infections at approximately 28,600 and 909 deaths, while each state at one time recorded zero COVID-19 transmissions.
But given the new options, the government on Friday reduced the number of passengers from abroad and demanded negative COVID-19 tests from those boarding planes and more tests at local quarantine facilities.
“As long as people travel, the risk of the virus infiltrating the community is already there,” Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian of New South Wales told a news conference.
“Anything we can do to reduce this risk is really important, especially now that we understand what these strains are doing, and all experts recommend in a timely manner that these mutant strains will become the dominant strain.”
Australia closed its borders in March, but allowed a limited number of Australians to return, putting them in a mandatory two-week quarantine on arrival.
New South Wales, the largest state, reported a new case to the community on Saturday, as a three-week blockade is set to end for about a quarter of a million people in northern Sydney after an outbreak there in December.
Queensland, where a UK case was reported last week, did not report any new cases. But officials said they could not rule out extending the three-day blockade if more cases occurred.
“This is because this new variant is also the first time this new variant has come out in a community anywhere in the country,” said Queensland Health Director Jeannette Young.
Reporting by Lidia Kelly; Mountainous of William Mallard