Australia, Melbourne in lockdown another 7 days
The lockdown Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, will be extended for another seven days, authorities announced today, trying to stem the recent outbreak of local Covid-19 cases. The week-long lockdown of Melbourne’s five million residents was supposed to end overnight today and tomorrow. “We have to get rid of this virus, otherwise people are going to die,” warned James Merlino, Victoria’s acting prime minister, adding that the city is dealing with a variant of the virus that is “more transmissible than what we’ve known so far.”