Immediate containment of millions of Melbourne residents

After an outbreak appears Covid-19More than five million inhabitants are Melbourne, the second largest city
From AustraliaAnd they were ordered to confine themselves to midnight Thursday.

This seven-day lockdown belongs to a city Melbourne In addition to the surrounding state of Victoria, Acting Prime Minister for this state, James Merlino, announced that the number of cases associated with this group has doubled to 26. “We are dealing with a highly contagious virus strain, which is a worrisome one, that is spreading faster than anything we have ever recorded, Merlino said.

Circuit breaker

This variant B.1.617, first detected in India, shows increased portability. This containment measure, intended to have a “circuit breaker” effect, should allow health authorities to track contact cases as effectively as possible. For a week, residents will only be allowed to leave their homes for urgent needs, in particular for vaccination.

James Merlino accused the conservative federal government of being behind the shutdown, in part because of Coronavirus vaccination campaign slow. If more people were vaccinated, the conditions would be very different from what we know today. Unfortunately, this is not the case. It is the fourth containment of Australia’s second-largest city since the start of the pandemic.

Criticism of the slowness of the vaccination campaign

Thousands of Melbourne residents have already been ordered to lock themselves up after cases were recorded at dozens of locations, including the stadium and nightclubs. In recent months, Australians have faced few restrictions as the huge island continent has curbed the epidemic. However, voices rose to denounce the slowdown in the vaccination campaign that is making the country vulnerable.

Labor opposition blames the government Failure to review the quarantine system for travelers coming from abroad, Which showed failure. James Merlino said: “If we had had an alternative to hotel quarantine (…), we would not have reached where we are today.” Only 3.7 million doses were given to a population of 25 million. The total number of Covid-19 cases in Australia has reached fewer than 30,000 since the start of the pandemic, with fewer than a thousand deaths in the country.