Sydney beaches on lockdown in order to contain the spread of the coronavirus as the number of Covid infections soars.
Authorities will implement further restrictions on the rest of Sydney, Australia’s most populous city.
“I want to make that clear, to say to greater Sydney, please, please, do not go out tonight or the next few days unless you really have to,” New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said at a news conference on Saturday.
The outbreak on the beaches in Sydney leads to 39 cases with two more still under investigation. This up from five only two days ago, but authorities have not yet figured where it started.
With Sydney beaches on lockdown, people in the designated area can only leave home for one of four essential reasons: work, grocery shopping, emergency medical treatment, or visiting an isolated relative.
Authorities have pointed at two clubs at Avalon beach as the origin of the outbreak but have cited more than 30 potential secondary transmission sites, as far away as Bondi and Cronulla beaches in the east and south of the city. With this, people queued in Sydney for hours on Saturday to get tested.
“That is the community responding in the way we want them to respond,” Australia’s Deputy Chief Medical Paul Kelly said.
Major public facilities in the “hotspot” area, such as beaches, swimming pools, and playgrounds, have been shut down and visitors banned from age care facilities. Many restaurants, cafes, and hotels in the area have voluntarily closed.
Vaccine in Australia
Australia coronavirus vaccine is expected to be available in January 2021, according to the announcement by Prime Minister Scott Morrison in September.
Morrison mentioned the deal signed by the government with CSL for the manufacturing of two vaccines: one produced by rival AstraZeneca and Oxford University and another developed in CSL’s own labs with the University of Queensland.
“Australia needs some hope,” Morrison said. “Today, we take another significant step to protect the health of Australians against the coronavirus pandemic.”
Health Minister Greg Hunt noted that the scientists in charge of developing both vaccines have revealed that recent evidence shows both will offer “multi-year protection.”
Moreover, Morrison said CSL will provide 3.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is at the late-stage clinical trials in Britain, Brazil and South Africa, in January and February next year.
AstraZeneca’s candidate, AZD1222, is regarded as a frontrunner in the race to come up with an effective Covid-19 vaccine to kill the virus.
Morrison also mentioned Australia’s plan to buy the CSL drug if trials became successful. The vaccine will start the second stage clinical trials in late 2020, meaning the earliest it could be available in the market would be mid-2021.
The cost of the vaccines, should they pass clinical trials, is A$1.7 billion ($1.24 billion) for a total of nearly 85 million doses, according to Morrison.
Meanwhile, the New Zealand travel bubble with Australia will take effect in the first quarter of 2021 following coronavirus pandemic lockdowns.
According to New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, the cabinet agreed in principle for the trans-Tasman, quarantine free New Zealand travel bubble with Australia, and no changes in circumstances of either country.
“It is our intention to name a date … in the New Year once remaining details are locked down,” Ardern said during a news conference in Wellington.
