UK armed forces chief tests positive; Oz tightens curbs as Delta cases rise
LONDON/SYDNEY: Britain’s senior military commanders and the defence secretary are self isolating after the head of the armed forces tested positive for Covid-19. Ben Wallace, secretary of defence, and the heads of the navy, the royal air force and strategic command were all ordered to isolate for a 10-day period last week, the Telegraph newspaper has reported.
It added that the head of the army, Mark Carleton-Smith, also spent the weekend in self-isolation as he awaited the results of a Covid-19 test. They had all come into close contact with the chief of defence staff Nick Carter at a summit in Shrivenham in England on Thursday.
The meeting came a day after Britain and Russia squared up over a naval incident off the coast of Crimea.
Cases spread in Australia New coronavirus cases popped up in cities across Australia on Monday, prompting local authorities to impose restrictions in areas not used to living under strict Covid-19 rules.
Brisbane, Darwin, Perth and Sydney have all reported new cases of the highly contagious Delta variant, which first emerged in India and has spread in Australia after escaping from hotels used to quarantine returning travellers.
The largest outbreak is in Sydney, where 130 people have tested positive for Covid-19 since a driver for an international flight crew was diagnosed in mid-June, with the city’s residents now under stay-at-home orders for two weeks.
A 48-hour lockdown of Darwin and surrounding areas was extended to Friday after a cluster linked to an outback gold mine grew to seven cases.
Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, meanwhile, has tested positive for Covid-19 with mild symptoms and will self-isolate for 10 days, the government of the Grand Duchy said. Bettel, 48, did a self-test that came out positive and the result was confirmed by a PCR test.