Close to half the population of Australia locked down as multiple Delta outbreaks take hold

Close to 4 million Queenslanders are among 11.8 million Australians forced into lockdowns across the country as authorities battle to contain multiple outbreaks of the highly infectious Delta Covid-19 variant.

Nearly half of Australia’s population is now in lockdown as the nation grapples with multiple outbreaks of the highly infectious Delta variant of Covid-19.

Queenslanders in the southeast will wake on Wednesday to their third snap lockdown of the year as an unlinked Covid-19 case plunged Townsville and its two island hubs into its first scare of the pandemic.

There were 25 new locally-acquired Covid-19 infections across the country as of midnight Tuesday, with federal health minister Greg Hunt saying the government was on “high alert and high watch”.

“Difficult, challenging times, but Australians stepping forward to do what they’ve done (and get tested), to protect themselves and to protect each other,” he said.

About 3.8 million people in parts of the Sunshine State will join the more than 8 million Australians across Greater Sydney, Perth and Darwin who are already under strict stay at home orders.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned more cases would emerge from the state’s growing outbreak, which on Tuesday swelled by 19 new infections to a total of 149 cases.

Of those cases 17 were linked to known sources while two mystery cases were detected in people who either live or work in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

She said a conversation about what “Covid normal” life looked like cannot happen until vaccination rates hit 80 per cent.

“What we want to do is prevent ever having to go into lockdown again. That is the first issue,” she said.

Mr Hunt confirmed about 7.1 per cent of the Australian adult population was now fully vaccinated.

The Northern Territory’s Tanami mine cluster, which was sparked by a worker catching Covid-19 during a nine-hour stay in a Queensland hotel, grew to 10 cases after an infected miner’s wife and daughter tested positive.

Territory authorities, who have never before dealt with an outbreak in the jurisdiction, are scrambling to locate 25 participants of a Zumba class that are considered close contacts of a positive case.

“It would appear that the timing of the lockdown, acting straightaway rather than waiting until the end of the day, has paid off massively fast,” Chief Minister Michael Gunner said.

Residents of Perth and Peel in WA are also in a four-day lockdown, but the state had no new cases on Tuesday.

Lockdown restrictions were brought on after three people tested positive to the highly transmissible Delta variant of the virus, with the original infection linked to NSW’s Bondi outbreak.

South Australia recorded no local cases but has implemented Covid-19 restrictions including mask-wearing and limits on hospitality venues.

The spate of outbreaks across the country has led to states and territories slamming their borders shut to virus hot spots.

But the travel bubble with New Zealand has been partially restored, with people from South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and the ACT allowed to enter the country.

Originally published as Close to half the population of Australia locked down as multiple Delta outbreaks take hold