Faced with the renewed epidemic of coronavirus in Australia, Brisbane has declared a three-day confinement, from this Tuesday evening, announced the local authorities of the fourth city of the immense island-continent to take this measure.

In recent weeks, Australia, whose response to the pandemic had been hailed, has been facing an outbreak of cases due to flaws in the quarantine systems for travelers coming from abroad.

An extremely cautious approach

The inhabitants of Sydney (south-east), Darwin (north) and Perth (west) are already subject to an obligation of confinement for several days. The move for Brisbane and parts of Queensland state means that after it goes into effect, around 10 million Australians will be living in confinement. “These are tough decisions,” said Annastacia Palaszczuk, Premier of Queensland. “There are lockdowns in big cities because the virus comes in with arrivals from abroad. Residents of Perth were also banned from leaving their homes Tuesday morning under the start of a four-day lockdown.

Only three positive cases have been detected recently in the large western city, but it has long had an extremely cautious approach in the event of an outbreak.

"We know the risks of Covid and we know from watching the world that the Delta variant is a new creature that should not be given a chance," Western Australian Prime Minister Mark McGowan said during a press conference on the night of Monday to Tuesday.

Too slow vaccination

While handling the pandemic fairly well before, Australia is facing cases of the highly contagious Delta variant, which has emerged in India. The Conservative government has been criticized for the slowness of the vaccination campaign and for the failure to improve quarantine systems. Under pressure, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that vaccination would be compulsory for staff in institutions dealing with the elderly and in quarantine centers.

The government has also been criticized for not making public the number of fully vaccinated Australians.

Approximately 7.4 million doses have been administered.

But some media report that less than 5% of the 25 million Australians have received their two injections.

Since the start of the pandemic, Australia has recorded just over 30,000 cases, including 910 deaths.

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