The Perth metropolitan area and the Peel and Southwest regions of the Australian state are now under “full lockout,” Premier Mark McGowan announced Sunday, with residents simply unable to leave their homes for essential purchases, medical needs, exercise , and for jobs that cannot be done at home or remotely.
Schools, most businesses, leisure centers and places of worship are all closed, and restaurants are limited to takeaway only.
“This is a very serious situation and we all need to do everything we can to stop it spreading in the community,” McGowan said.
The Perth metropolitan area and the Peel and South West regions have a combined population of over 2 million people, most of whom live in the state capital of Perth.
The big steps come after a twenties man who worked as a security guard at the Sheraton Four Points, a hotel quarantine facility, became positive for the coronavirus. Of the four active cases at the hotel while the man was moving, two carried the United Kingdom snoring and one of them the South African viral strain, which is believed to be more contagious than other changes.
“We are told that the guard was working on the same floor, as a differently variable issue in the UK,” McGowan said. As the man had performed two 12-hour maneuvers on 26 and 27 January, it was possible that he had recovered from UK stress, the Premier said, although he said “there is a direct investigation into how the disease was contracted. to get. ”
Officials are urging everyone who visited a designated list of centers on a specific date to get tested. All close contact with the person requires quarantine for 14 days.
“Western Australians have done so well for so long but this week it is absolutely vital that we stay home, maintain physical speed and personal hygiene and get tested if you have symptoms,” McGowan said.
Australia has recorded 28,811 cases, with 909 deaths, most of which occurred in the southeastern states of Victoria and New South Wales. The country has been successful in controlling the coronavirus through tight locks and border controls, and all international visitors must undergo testing and quarantine.
But while the broader measures were effective, officials in the state opposed criticism for a “hard lock” imposed against nine public housing towers in Melbourne. About 3,000 residents of the towers did not receive advance warning of the lock, which prevented them from leaving their homes for any reason for more than five days.
Jessie Yeung from CNN and James Griffiths reported.