SYDNEY (AP) – The beaches north of Sydney will enter a blockade similar to the one imposed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, as a group of cases in the area has increased to 41.
From late Saturday afternoon through Wednesday at midnight, residents will be allowed to leave their homes for only five basic reasons: medical care, exercise, grocery, service, or compassionate care.
An additional 23 cases were registered in the 24 hours, including 10 already announced, bringing the new cases to 41. All but two are from the so-called Avalon cluster, named after a community of about 10,000 people on the beaches. 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Sydney city center.
New South Wales Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian says restrictions are essential if Sydney hopes for a semi-normal Christmas.
“We hope this will give us enough time to get over the virus so we can relax for Christmas and New Year,” she said.
New cases have emerged as health officials have called on hundreds of gym participants on the beaches of northern Sydney to be tested and isolated immediately. The gym adds to a long list of places, including a grass bowling club, visited by confirmed cases released by authorities on Friday.
Other states have acted to prevent cases from crossing borders, with several barriers for residents of the New South Wales established by Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Most of them involved quarantine periods of 14 days for people on the northern beaches who travel to those states.
Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region:
– Long lines meandered around coronavirus testing sites in the South Korean capital Seoul, as the country reported another 1,053 cases, the fourth day in a row, of more than 1,000. The viral renaissance has raised questions about how the government has treated the outbreak. Authorities are still deciding whether to increase social distance to maximum levels, fearing that it could further strain the economy. The numbers released by the Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency rose to 48,570 on Saturday, with nearly 7,000 cases added in the last week alone. Forty patients with COVID-19 have died in the last 24 hours to bring the death toll to 659. There are concerns that deaths will continue to rise due to a lack of intensive care beds in the worst-affected metropolitan area in Seoul. The KDCA said at least 275 of the 13,577 active patients are in serious or critical condition, most since the pandemic. Officials say at least six died at their homes or long-term care units because hospitals ran out of beds. Thousands lined up at test centers in front of Seoul City Hall and other public spaces, while health authorities are expanding a massive testing program to detect more carriers of viruses. Authorities are temporarily offering free tests to anyone in the capital area, regardless of whether they have clear symptoms or reasons to suspect the infection.
– Coronavirus cases in India have exceeded 10 million, with new infections falling to their lowest levels in three months as the country prepares for a massive COVID-19 vaccination in the new year. Additional cases in the last 24 hours fell 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, the second most affected by the United States. A government health expert says India is keeping its fingers crossed as cases tend to rise in the winter months. India is home to some of the largest vaccine manufacturers in the world and there are five vaccine candidates in various study phases in the country. India aims to provide vaccines to 250 million people by July 2021.
– China says it will soon start coronavirus vaccinations for health, transport and border control workers. The Deputy Minister of the National Health Commission says that the government gives priority to those who are most at risk. Logistics and market workers selling fresh meat and seafood would also be placed on the list of 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 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 in the first publication of this information. Even before the final approval of the market, more than one million people received vaccines in a program, critics say it was not transparent in terms of safety, efficacy or scientific merit.
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