Australia lifts lockdown in Brisbane while Delta variant outbreak grows in Sydney

The authorities of Australia announced this Saturday the end of the confinement decreed on the city of Brisbane, while the outbreak of coronavirus continues to rise in Sydney, the country’s most populous city and confined until July 9.

Annastacia Palaszczuk, regional governor of Queensland, pointed out that the exceptional measure decreed last weekend on Brisbane, with 2.28 million inhabitants, ends tonight after extending it the day before for 24 hours.

The head of the regional government indicated that the decision was adopted after not detecting new local infections of the covid-19 during the last five days.

Australia seeks to completely eliminate the virus and therefore applies brief and concise measures, which interrupt the normal practice in which the country lives.

However the outbreak in Sydney, which encompasses more than 20% of the 25 million inhabitants of Australia, continues to rise and 35 new cases were reported today, the highest daily number in 2021.

Despite this, Gladys Berejiklian, governor of New South Wales, pointed out that the lockdown on the Australian city that began a week ago is having the “desired effect” to stop the outbreak linked to the Delta variant of covid-19.

“As we expected, the number of cases is increasing. But most of them among people in isolation, which is exactly what we were looking for.” Berejiklian told the media.

Australia has accumulated almost 30,700 infections since the beginning of the pandemic, including 910 deaths, and has vaccinated more than 30 percent of its population with the first dose, while only 6 percent have the full schedule, a slower rate than the foreseen by the Executive in its national vaccination plan.