Disinfectant products are seen on a car while motorists fill out paperwork for police as they cross back into South Australia from Victoria during the COVID-19 outbreak, in Bordertown, Australia, Mar 24, 2020.
SYDNEY: Australian police set up suburban checkpoints in new coronavirus hotspots in Melbourne on Thursday (Jul 2), as authorities struggled to contain new outbreaks in the country’s second-largest city, even as travel restrictions eased elsewhere.
Images published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Thursday showed police flagging down cars in suburban streets after 36 suburbs in Melbourne in Victoria state went into lockdown following a spike in new infections there.
“Over 300,000 Australians … are going into a difficult situation, which we’ve all been through,” said Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt in a media conference, referring to the residents of the affected suburbs.
“We know we can get through it but nevertheless it’s a huge imposition on their lives,” Hunt added.
Australia has fared better than many countries in the pandemic, with around 8,000 cases, 104 deaths and fewer than 400 active cases. However, the recent jump in Victoria has stoked fears of a second wave of COVID-19, echoing concerns expressed in other countries.
Most states have said they will reopen their internal borders except to Victoria. Neighbouring New South Wales, the most populous state, has kept its border open except to people arriving from the 36 Victorian suburbs.
Victoria reported 77 new cases in the 24 hours to Thursday morning, up slightly from the previous day, continuing a run of double-digit daily increases over several weeks while new infections in most other states stay at zero or low single digits.
“Though these restrictions are in place in those restricted postcodes, there’s an obligation on all of us to consider how we minimise our interactions with other people,” Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton told reporters.
“All of us across Victoria have to really consider whether we need to see people in other settings, other households, including family members and friends. That will be the best mitigation.”
On the other side of the country, remote Northern Territory reported its first infection in two months after a traveller who had entered the country via Melbourne and completed the mandatory two-week quarantine showed symptoms after returning to his home territory.
“People will be anxious hearing this news … but we have measures in place to protect our community (and) these measures have been followed,” Northern Territory Health Minister Natasha Fyles told reporters.
The infected person, aged in their 30s, has been isolated in hospital, she added.
Globally, coronavirus cases exceeded 10 million on Sunday, a major milestone in the spread of a disease that has killed more than half a million people in seven months.
