Restrictions tightened

SYDNEY: Australian states yesterday tightened restrictions on movement as authorities struggle to contain a fresh outbreak of Covid

19 in the southeast that has pushed the national tally of cases beyond 10,000.

With growing fears of a second coronavirus wave nationally, two states extended border restrictions and Australia’s most populous state imposed limits on the number of people allowed in large pubs.

The changes come as scores of new cases were uncovered in hot spot Victoria, despite a return to lockdown last week for nearly 5 million people in Melbourne.

Active cases in the state rose to nearly 2000 after another 270 infections were detected in the past 24 hours, authorities said, taking Australia’s total number of cases to about 10,000.

Australia’s death toll hit 110 yesterday, when two people in their 80s died in Victoria.

‘‘We haven’t turned the corner yet. I hope to see that this week, but there are no guarantees,’’ Victoria’s Chief Medical Officer Brett Sutton told reporters in Melbourne.

The spike in communitytransmitted cases in Victoria and a rise in new cases in New South Wales has worried other states.

South Australia cancelled plans to reopen its border to New South Wales on July 20, and Queensland introduced a mandatory twoweek quarantine for people who have visited two areas in Sydney’s western suburbs.

The Northern Territory said it would decide today whether to allow anyone from New South Wales to enter when its domestic borders reopen later this week.

New South Wales said pubs would now be limited to no more than 300 people, responding to an outbreak centred at the Crossroad Hotel in southwestern Sydney.

Authorities believe 600 people visited the hotel on July 3, when the outbreak is believed to have begun. — Reuters