The Australian state heads back into a 7-day lockdown after suspected "highly infectious" Delta variant cases were out in the community while infectious.
The Australian state heads back into a 7-day lockdown after suspected "highly infectious" Delta variant cases were out in the community while infectious.
Why has the lockdown been extended?
The premier said the state had no choice but to extend the lockdown due to climbing case numbers in outbreaks yet to be brought under control.
While the state was making promising progress and the trend was good , the premier said it was not possible to leave the Delta outbreak smouldering . As promising as our progress has been, avoiding a New South Wales-style long, lengthy, very challenging lockdown, where you just lose control of cases, we have avoided that - but, we need more time, Mr Andrews said.
The number of alerts for exposure sites has also ballooned out to more than 300, meaning there may be virus transmission still going undetected in the community.