More than 1,000 police have set up posts in 36 suburbs.
SYDNEY / MELBOURNE:
Australian police set up suburban checkpoints at coronavirus hotspots in Melbourne on Thursday and plan to use drones to enforce house arrest orders as authorities try to contain new ones epidemics in the second largest city in the country.
More than 1,000 police have set up posts in about 36 suburbs, which have regained control after an outbreak of new infections.
While the rest of Australia has opened state borders and eased restrictions on social distancing, the state of Victoria in Melbourne has promised to amend those in affected areas that have broken restrictions on non-essential movements.
Victoria reported 77 new cases, up slightly from the previous day and online with weeks of double-digit daily increases.
The state government has also launched an investigation into the application of hotel quarantine for people returning from abroad, fearing that new infections may come from people who had avoided the two-week mandatory segregation .
“I am obviously concerned about the epidemic, and I am pleased that the Prime Minister has taken the steps he has taken by putting a stop to the epidemic in these suburbs,” said Prime Minister Scott Morrison during a televised press conference, referring to the Victorian state government.
“We have seen some leveling (in new cases), although they remain at high levels, which is cause for concern and this means that the lockout is now in place, we hope to see these numbers drop again.”
Victoria Police Commissioner Shane Patton has promised a strong presence in “high volume public places” and said the police could even use drones to track people traveling for reasons other than work, travel or business. school, health care and grocery store.
“People will not know where we will be, they will not know how long we will be there, but they will be intercepted,” he said.
Australia has weathered the pandemic better than many countries, with approximately 8,000 cases and 104 deaths. However, the recent jump to Victoria has fueled fears of a second wave of COVID-19, echoing concerns expressed in other countries.
Most states have declared that they will reopen their internal borders, except in Victoria. Neighboring New South Wales (NSW), the most populous state, has kept its border open, except for those arriving from targeted Victorian suburbs.
A director of the Phat Milk cafe in Travancore in Melbourne, one of the affected suburbs, said that the sudden return to closure had left him with a kitchen full of food.
“What do you do with this stock? You have to close the kitchen because it’s take-out,” said the director, who only gave his first name, Hach.
“From four to six people, you only have one team. It’s difficult, but you just have to find the passion, the drive, be a little creative and hang on to it.”
WEAK LINK
The Victorian epidemic has raised concerns about the effectiveness of state quarantine procedures.
In neighboring New South Wales, the Woolworths Group supermarket chain has put 50 employees in a Sydney store in solitary confinement after a worker tested positive for the virus despite the removal of a mandatory two-week quarantine in Victoria, authorities said.
Meanwhile, the distant Northern Territory reported its first infection in two months after a traveler who entered the country via Melbourne and completed quarantine showed symptoms after returning to his homeland.
“People will be impatient to hear this news … but we have put in place measures to protect our community (and) these measures have been followed,” said the Minister of Health for the Northern Territory, Natasha Fyles.
The 30-year-old infected person was isolated in hospital, she added.
Overall, coronavirus cases exceeded 10 million on Sunday, a milestone in the spread of a disease that has killed more than half a million people in seven months.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
