SYDNEY (Reuters) – The Australian city of Perth was ordered to enter on Sunday after a security guard working in a hotel quarantine tested positive for COVID-19, taking the longest run in the virus-free country.
From Sunday afternoon to Friday, 2 million people in the city have to stay at home, excluding essential work, health care, grocery shopping or exercise, with hospital and nursing home visits prohibited, the Australian Prime Minister of State said West, Mark McGowan.
Australia’s fourth most populous city had not reported any cases of the virus for 10 months, and Australia had just hours earlier 14 days declared no locally acquired disease.
Restaurant-ordering restaurants, cafes and cinemas were closed in Perth and the surrounding areas were closed, while a scheduled return from a summer school holiday was extended by a week, after the security guard carried out a progressive trial returned late Saturday, McGowan said.
The large, relatively remote state has been known in Australia for the harsh response of COVID-19 which included keeping its border closed to the rest of the country until recently when it reopened to some regions.
“I know a lot of Western Australians are going to be surprised,” McGowan said at a briefly recorded press conference. “We cannot afford to forget how quickly this virus can spread, or the destruction it can cause.”
The security guard, aged 20, worked at a hotel where four people in quarantine had active cases of the virus, inflicted with highly contagious strains that have been linked to Britain. and South Africa, health authorities said.
The man had a second job with an unnamed cycling division company but had not worked out his driving career since reporting symptoms Thursday. Others in the man’s home had tested negative but were put on their own and were expected to be positive in the coming days, they said.
The lockout affected four-fifths of Australia’s largest state population, and the rest were told not to travel. People from other states, but some who have recently been released into the state, have been told to stay away.
Police would set up roadside checkpoints to question people’s movements, Police Commissioner Chris Dawson told reporters, saying police would also be enforcing a new rule requiring people to wear masks there. their indoor public spaces and on public transport.
Australia’s borders have been closed since March to reduce the spread of the disease that has killed 29,000 in the country and killed 909.
State governments have closed internal borders for the first time in a century, an attempt to keep out the virus that is at times a terse exchange between state leaders over disagreements over people’s ability to move around the country .
Earlier on Sunday, Australia opened its “travel bubble” with New Zealand, meaning New Zealand travelers are exempt from 14-day hotel quarantine, after the neighboring country failed to deliver. report of new locally acquired COVID-19 cases.
But New Zealand has kept its border closed to Australia.
Reciting with Byron Kaye; Edited by William Mallard and Sam Holmes