Australia: Melbourne reconfigures after an increase in coronavirus cases

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In Melbourne, the second largest city in Australia, the number of cases of coronavirus has been increasing for the past ten days. So much so that local authorities announced Tuesday the reconfiguration of all of its 5 million inhabitants.

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With our correspondent in Sydney, Grégory Plesse

191 new cases of Covid-19 identified during the single day of Monday. A record for the State of Victoria since the start of the pandemic.

After having reconfigured a dozen districts of Melbourne  in recent days, the head of government of this state has just announced the confinement of the entire metropolis, for a period of at least six weeks.

Isolated state of victoria

The Victoria will also live this evening as a recluse, since from midnight the border with the most populous state in Australia, New South Wales, will be closed and guarded by the military. Australia, which hoped to reopen its international borders as part of a bubble with its neighbor New Zealand , is currently forced to postpone its project.

For her part, Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, suggested this weekend to reopen the borders with the Australian states least affected by the pandemic. According to a study published by Ernst and Young, the establishment of this bubble in September would inject 2.5 billion euros into the Australian economy.

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• Australia
• Coronavirus

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