Melbourne locked down for 3rd time

MELBOURNE/PARIS: Australia’s second largest city, Melbourne, will begin its third lockdown due to a rapidly spreading Covid-19 cluster centred on a quarantine hotel, while the Covid-19 pandemic’s economic cost was laid bare in badly-hit Britain.

The five-day lockdown will be enforced across Victoria state to prevent the virus from spreading from the state capital Melbourne, Victoria premier Daniel Andrews said. A population of 6.5 million people will be locked down from 11.59pm until the same time on Wednesday because a contagious British variant of the virus, first detected at a Melbourne airport hotel, has infected 13 people.

In the UK - which has Europe’s highest coronavirus death toll - has reported a record contraction in its economy. Official data released on Friday showed the economy shrank by a record 9.9% last year on the fallout from the coronavirus crisis, despite a 1% gain in the fourth quarter.

Single dose suggested for previously infected

France on Friday recommended that people who have already recovered from Covid-19 should receive a single dose of the coronavirus vaccine, becoming the first country to issue such advice.

All three Covid-19 vaccines approved for use in the European Union are administered in the form of two doses, delivered several weeks apart.

France’s public health authority said on Friday that people who had already been infected with Covid-19 develop an immune response similar to that bestowed by a vaccine dose, and that a single dose after infection would likely suffice.

Meanwhile, the number of Covid-19 cases in eastern Europe surpassed 10 million on Friday.