MELBOURNE, VICTORIA TO ENTER COVID LOCKDOWN

• Australia’s secondmost populous state of Victoria will enter a one-week COVID-19 lockdown, forcing its nearly seven million residents to remain home except for essential business as authorities struggle to contain a highly infectious outbreak.

“We’re dealing with a highly infectious strain of the virus, a variant of concern, which is running faster than we have ever recorded,” Victoria state acting premier James Merlino told reporters in Melbourne. “Unless something drastic happens, this will become increasingly uncontrollable.”

Merlino said contact tracers have identified more than 10,000 primary and secondary contacts who would need to quarantine, test and self-isolate, adding “that number will continue to grow and change.”

The fresh cluster of infections in Melbourne detected early this week swelled to 26 on Thursday after 12 new cases overnight, while the number of virus-exposed sites rose above 150.

Victoria state Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said he “absolutely expects” more positive cases to emerge in the coming days.

Under the lockdown, from 11:59 p.m. local time on Thursday until June 3, people will only be allowed to leave their homes for essential work, health care, grocery shopping, exercise or to get a coronavirus vaccination.

Several infected contacts have visited crowded hot spots that included sports stadiums and one of the largest shopping centres in the country, raising concerns of a significant outbreak.