Roadblocks were erected in Sydney as Australia battles delta outbreaks

August 17, 2021: -On Monday, hundreds of unarmed defense personnel joined thousands of extra police to set up roadblocks and enforce Covid-19 lockdown rules in parts of Sydney, whereas dozens of new venues were adding to a list of exposure sites in Melbourne.

Australia is in the grip of the third wave, with its most prominent cities like Sydney and Melbourne in lockdown along with the capital Canberra between a slow vaccination rollout that has inoculated almost 26% of people above 16 years of age.

More onerous restrictions took effect in Sydney, the epicenter of Australia’s outbreak, after seven weeks of stay-home orders failed to stop spreading the contagious delta variant of the novel coronavirus.

With the virus spreading into towns apart from Sydney, the capital of New South Wales state, the restrictions of lockdown were imposed statewide for a week till Saturday.

On Sunday, in Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, authorities detected 21 locally acquired cases, down from 25 as virus-exposed venues in the city topped 500.

On Sunday, Australia said that it had bought about 1 million doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine from Poland, with over half rushed to inoculate the 20- to 39-year-olds in the worst-affected suburbs of Sydney.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison downplayed suggestions that the United States did not volunteer to give emergency supplies of coronavirus vaccines from its stockpile for Australia, one of its nearest allies.

On Monday, “We have an excellent relationship with the United States, but you have to focus on what is in front of you and what you need to do. That is what Sydney needed,” Morrison said.