Australia: a region quarantined after summer …

State authorities Western Australia decreed a five-day lockdown in Perth, Peel and Southwestern parts of the country after the first case of community transmission of the coronavirus in this state after ten months. He’s a man who works as a security guard in an authorized hotel for people who need to quarantine.

“Starting at 6 p.m. tonight, the entire Perth metro area, region of Peel and the South West region will enter a full lockdown. This lockdown will last until 6 p.m. Friday,” the Prime Minister said. Western Australia’s Mark McGowan on his Facebook page.

Back to schools, that the authorities had planned this Monday, will be delayed and Perth’s two million people – like the rest of their neighbors in the southwest of the country – will only be able to leave their homes to exercise, get medical care, do essential jobs or buy food .

“Our model is to deal with the issue very, very quickly and harshly so that we can get it under control and the community spread of the virus does not occur, as has been seen in other countries around the world,” McGowan said.

Australian authorities estimate first coronavirus case in ten months It was born when a traveler returning to the country had to self-quarantine at a Perth hotel where the security guard who tested positive for covid-19 works.

The traveler would have been infected with the British variant of the virus, which are believed to be more infectious than those previously detected in Australia.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison posted on his Twitter account that “the next few days will be difficult for many people in Western Australia”, before giving his confidence that the state “will be able to overcome the current epidemic”.

To date, the state of Western Australia has 903 cases, including 15 active, 878 recovered and nine deaths.

Meanwhile, national authorities They authorized from this Sunday flights with New Zealand without quarantine. The air route was unilaterally cut off on Monday last week due to a possible case of community-transmitted coronavirus in the neighboring country.

According to Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt, health authorities have recommended lifting the suspension because they did not consider the extension of the measure necessary.

Last weekend, a foreign woman tested positive for the coronavirus in New Zealand after completing her isolation and two other people who were in the same facilities got the same diagnosis. This has worried the government led by Prime Minister Jacina Ardern about the possibility of a new epidemic of covid-19.

Australia has so far recorded 28,800 cases of contagion and 909 deaths linked to the virus for a population of around 25 million people.