Australia on high alert after recording cases of new variants from Britain, South Africa and World News

Australia has been put on high alert again after cases of new coronavirus variants were spotted in the country. The newer variants, from Britain and South Africa are considered to be more infectious than the original strain from China.

A strict three-day lockdown has been imposed on Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, after one of the new strains was spotted in the city. While Queensland has the strain of Great Britain, Australia’s largest city – Sydney has the South African variant.

Compared to other advanced economies, Australia has done better in tackling the pandemic. Currently, the total infections in the country are 28,600, with 909 deaths.

At some point in the past few months, every state has not recorded any cases of the coronavirus.

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The new variants of the virus have forced the government to reimpose strict measures against the spread of new variants. On Friday, the government reduced the number of travelers coming from overseas. In addition, negative coronavirus tests are now mandatory for people entering the country, with further testing to follow at local quarantine centers.

“As long as people are traveling, the risk of the virus seeping into the community is already there,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told a press conference.

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“Anything we can do to reduce this risk is really important, especially now when we understand what these strains are doing, and all experts are advising in due course that these mutated strains will become the dominant strain,” added Berejiklian.

In March 2020, the country closed its borders and slowly allowed the return of a limited number of citizens. Upon their return, they were all placed in a mandatory two-week hotel quarantine.

The country’s largest state, New South Wales, reported a case of the community-transmitted virus on Saturday, just before the end of a three-week lockdown for residents of northern Sydney, which has been sealed off after an epidemic in December.