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HEALTH-VIRUS-AUSTRALIA
Brisbane locks down as new strains put Australia on high alert
BRISBANE, Australia, Jan 9, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Australia’s third-largest
city of Brisbane entered its first day of a snap lockdown on Saturday, with
officials on “high alert” over the emergence of more contagious strains of
Covid-19.
The streets were quiet Saturday morning, with only a small number of masked
locals venturing out for essential reasons after the city was ordered into a
three-day lockdown beginning Friday evening.
The stay-at-home order for Brisbane’s more than two million residents was
triggered after the UK strain of the virus spread from a returned traveller
to a cleaner at a quarantine hotel — Australia’s first recorded local case
of the variant.
The UK strain is among a number of emerging variants around the world
believed to be more infectious.
Authorities also issued a warning for passengers of a flight that arrived
in Brisbane from Melbourne earlier this month, after a woman tested positive
for the UK strain despite already undergoing a period of isolation.
“The risk is extremely low — very, very, very low — because she (the
traveller) is right at the end of her potential infectious period,”
Queensland’s Chief health officer Jeannette Young told media.
“But because of this new variant we’re just being ultra cautious.”
The news comes as parts of Sydney prepared to end a weeks-long lockdown at
midnight, following an outbreak which emerged last month.
New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the state remained on
“high alert” due to an increasing number of quarantined travellers testing
positive for new variants of Covid-19.
“Obviously, there was a hope we might have entered 2021 with no Covid, but
it’s here to stay,” he added.
Australia has recorded more than 28,500 Covid-19 cases and 909 deaths
linked to the virus, in a population of about 25 million.
BSS/AFP/SSS/0919 hrs