‘Literally a war’: Australian state enters COVID lockdown | Coronavirus pandemic News

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New South Wales is increasing fines for those breaking state lockdown rules, with police issuing fines of up to $ 3,700 “on the spot.”

Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales (NSW), was quarantined on Saturday as cases of COVID-19 continue to rise.

The order comes as locally transmitted infections jumped by 466 in the previous 24 hours in the country’s most populous state.

“To minimize travel and protect our communities from the evolving COVID situation in Sydney, stay-at-home orders will be introduced for the entire NSW region from 5 p.m. tonight,” the deputy wrote. -First Minister of State, John Barilaro, on social media.

The lockdown began at 5 p.m. (07:00 GMT) and will last for at least seven days, according to the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

NSW will increase fines for those violating state foreclosure rules, where police will issue fines of up to A $ 5,000 ($ 3,700) “on the spot” for violating stay-at-home orders or for lying to contract research officials, the state prime minister said. Gladys Berejiklian.

“We have to accept that this is the worst situation New South Wales has found itself in since day one. And it is also unfortunately, because of this, the worst situation in which Australia finds itself, ”said Berejiklian on Saturday.

As the situation worsens, it becomes increasingly unlikely that Australia’s largest city, Sydney, will end its nine-week lockdown on August 28, as originally planned. Authorities had spoken of relaxing some restrictions if enough people were vaccinated and the number of cases declined.

“I wish things would improve, but that’s the nature of the Delta variant,” Berejiklian said at a press conference. “We’re going to get through this but September and October are going to be very difficult.”

Hundreds of additional troops will be deployed to Sydney next week to help enforce the city’s lockdown as the outbreak spreads beyond Australia’s largest city.

Several cities in the state are also on lockdown due to people breaching the Sydney lockdown and spreading the virus.

Heavy fines

A new fine of AU $ 3,000 ($ 2,200) will also apply to people entering regional areas of the state without an official permit. The permit will only be granted for certain reasons, including authorized work, property inspections or urgent repair work on a second home.

“The fines are some of the biggest fines I have ever seen and we will impose them from today,” said NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller. “These people who bypass orders, take family vacations to other premises – it’s over.”

Fuller said he asked for increased powers after seeing high levels of movement and having “difficulty gaining compliance from some members of the community.”

Some violations of public health orders in the state were previously punishable by a fine of A $ 1,000 ($ 737).

The new cases eclipse the previous daily high of 390 set on Friday, with daily infections surpassing 300 in the past five days. Four deaths were recorded on Saturday, bringing the state’s total in the most recent outbreak to 42.

“It’s literally a war and we know we’ve been at war for some time, but never at this point,” Berejiklian said.

In neighboring Victoria, where the state capital Melbourne is in its second week of extended lockdown, authorities reported 21 locally acquired cases, up from 15 a day earlier.

Despite recent outbreaks, Australia still has a much lower COVID-19 count than many other countries in the developed world, with more than 38,600 cases and 952 deaths.



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