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Australia: 300 soldiers will ensure compliance with containment in Sydney

2021-07-30T08:28:00.221Z


About 300 soldiers will be deployed in the streets of Sydney in the coming days to ensure compliance with containment in the largest city ...


About 300 soldiers will be deployed in the streets of Sydney in the coming days to ensure compliance with containment in the largest Australian city, in the grip of an epidemic, authorities announced Friday (July 30).

Read also: Australia, a decried fortress of zero Covid

Mick Fuller, police chief of the State of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, had asked Thursday for reinforcement of the military "

to boost our operational footprint

".

Police said on Friday that they would be "

supported by 300 members of the Australian Defense Force in the coming days to conduct verification operations in Sydney

".

This mission could begin as early as Monday evening, said Mick Fuller.

It will consist mainly of door-to-door operations to verify that the people supposed to be confined are in fact confined.

More and more fines

The agglomeration of five million inhabitants is in its fifth week of confinement. This measure should last until the end of August. Residents are only supposed to be able to leave their homes to play sports, to go to work if their job is deemed essential, for medical reasons or to do their shopping. But for weeks now, waterfront parks and boardwalks have been crowded with locals chatting with friends over coffee.

The police are increasingly fining those who violate the restrictions.

The deployment of the military must contribute to this effort.

The police defended this recourse to the army on Friday, noting that a similar deployment, last year, had "

made it possible to boost the operational capacities and made that the police had carried out more checks

".

Hundreds of new cases every day

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

But it is currently registering hundreds of 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 “

zero cases

strategy

.

Read also: Australia: confinement in Sydney extended by one month

The Sydney outbreak presumably started from an unvaccinated driver who took care of airline crews and who tested positive in mid-June. Thursday, New South Wales had announced 236 new cases in 24 hours, a record for this new wave of contaminations. The figure was “

only

” 170 on Friday, but State Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian said she feared “

a rebound

”.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-07-30

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