源 稿 窗
在文章中双击或划词查词典
字号 +
字号 -
折叠显示
全文显示
More stringent COVID-19 containment measures were being imposed in Sydney, Australia, starting Saturday, as cases of infections continued to rise in the third week of a citywide lockdown.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters Saturday the new restrictions would take effect at midnight local time Saturday and remain in effect until the end of July.
Officials ordered the shutdown of building sites and non-essential retail businesses, restrictions that also apply to Sydney's surrounding communities in New South Wales.
Residents in the Sydney suburbs of Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool are prohibited from traveling outside their communities unless they are health care workers or emergency responders.
Vietnam is also reportedly imposing new restrictions as it grapples with its worst COVID-19 outbreak to date.
The government announced Saturday that it would impose two-week travel restrictions in 16 southern provinces beginning Monday, according to Reuters.
"The curbs are to protect people's health," the government reportedly said in a statement.
Frustration mounted Saturday among travelers one day after Britain announced it was reversing plans to ease coronavirus travel restrictions on Monday. British officials said the plans were scrapped over concerns about the beta variant first identified in South Africa.
Travelers arriving from France must stay in isolation for 10 days upon entering Britain even if they are fully vaccinated, the UK government announced as it also fights to contain the highly contagious delta variant that is driving a spike in infections in the country.
Meanwhile, the UK's health secretary who leads the country's coronavirus response, Sajid Javid, said Saturday he has tested positive for COVID-19 and is self-isolating.
Elsewhere, the first of 11,000 athletes are just starting to arrive for the Summer Olympic Games that are set to kick off next week in Tokyo, but there is worry that the Games could become a superspreader event after an unidentified person inside the Olympic Village tested positive for the coronavirus. The person is reportedly not an athlete, but someone from abroad helping to organize the games.
"The case is one of 15 new positive results among games participants and workers reported on Saturday, the highest daily count since the committee started compiling figures on July 1," Kyodo news service reported.
"There have been a total of 45 COVID-19 infections announced by organizers since July 1," according to Kyodo.
The U.S. is experiencing a rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths. The highly transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus among unvaccinated people is largely responsible for the outbreak.
Four states with low vaccination rates were responsible for 40% of last week's new cases, but cases have risen in all 50 states, officials say.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday that last week the U.S. had a daily average of 26,000 new cases. She said the outbreak has become "a pandemic of the unvaccinated." Later Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden repeated Walensky's assessment, saying, "The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated."
A group of international government advisers say they are concerned about England's plans to lift virtually all its pandemic restrictions Monday. The advisers believe that would leave Britain susceptible to new coronavirus variants, possibly transforming the country into a superspreader location.
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said Saturday that there have been more than 4 million global COVID-19 deaths. Nearly 190 million cases have been confirmed, according to Johns Hopkins.
Some information for this report came from Associated Press and Reuters.