Australia: Adelaide will in turn be confined

As of Tuesday evening, July 20, Adelaide will be the third major Australian city subject to an obligation of containment, at a time when the immense island continent is struggling to stop the progression of the very contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus. Five cases of Covid-19 have been detected in the state of southern Australia (south), of which Adelaide is the capital, which will therefore experience the same fate as a large area around Sydney and the state of Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital.

said Prime Minister Steven Marshall, adding that this measure would be in effect for an initial period of seven days.

.

Read also: Variant Delta: like Australia, could France be forced to reconfine certain areas?

The move means 14 of 25 million Australians will be confined.

Australia has long been praised for its good initial results in dealing with the pandemic, which were mainly due to the very strict closure of the borders of the huge island continent.

But it is currently registering around 100 new cases per day, which complicate contamination tracing operations.

The figure may seem insignificant compared to the number of coronavirus cases in other major countries.

But it is a challenge for Australia, which from the start has opted for a

strategy

.

The vaccination campaign is also extremely slow - 11% of the population is vaccinated - as many developed countries begin to consider the world after.

Read also: Are the countries most advanced in vaccination all reaching a glass ceiling?

The Sydney outbreak presumably started from an unvaccinated driver who took care of airline crews and who tested positive in mid-June.

The virus has since crossed state borders and around 100 new cases are now recorded every day.

The state of Queensland (northeast) is also on guard after discovering that a woman who had visited several tourist sites was positive for the coronavirus.