SYDNEY (AP) – Fire in suburbs north of Sydney’s beach has risen to 70 in 30 cases in the past 24 hours, and authorities say they may not be able to track the source.
As the number grows, Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian of New South Wales said on Sunday that there was no evidence of mass sowing outside the North Beach community. However, a new list of cases shows that the virus has spread to Sydney and other parts of the state.
The government imposed a blockade in the area until Wednesday. Residents will be allowed to leave their homes for only five basic reasons, including medical care, exercise, grocery, service, or compassionate care.
Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said contact tracking devices have not yet located the zero patient, 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 day in a row, putting pressure on authorities to implement the toughest spacing rules that would continue to affect the economy. The Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency says it has found an additional 1,097 cases in the past 24 hours, the highest daily number since the pandemic began. This brings the national number of cases to 49,665, including 674 deaths. About 70% of new cases come from the densely populated metropolitan area of Seoul, which has been at the center of a viral recurrence. The pace of spreading has already met the government’s conditions for raising the rules of social distancing to the highest level. But officials have been reluctant to go ahead with the measure out of concern for the economy. The new step would ban the gathering of more than 10 people and close hundreds of thousands of non-essential companies.
– Thailand reported two new local infections on Sunday, a day after more than 500 cases were identified south of Bangkok in a country that has largely brought the pandemic under control. Saturday’s 548 cases, mostly related to the country’s largest seafood wholesale market, come after Thailand saw only a small number of infections in the past few months due to strict border and quarantine controls. On Sunday, a 78-year-old seafood seller from Bangkok, who visited the shrimp market in Samut Sakhon province, gave positive results. The other case was a woman from central Thailand who worked at a beauty salon in the north. Health officials say most cases in the seafood market are migrant workers from Myanmar. The governor imposed a night travel restriction and other travel restrictions in Samut Sakhon province until January 3.
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