For more than twelve months, there had not been a single corona case in the Australian capital Canberra and the surrounding area.
But this time of relative bliss has now come to an end.
As the health authorities announced on Thursday, an infection with Sars-CoV-2 has been confirmed for the first time in a year.
The local government responded promptly.
Without wasting time, she imposed a seven-day quick lockdown on the territory: The residents are only allowed to leave the house for essential errands.
The new measures took effect at 5 p.m. local time.
It is the first curfew in the capital area since the early stages of the pandemic.
As then, there were panic buying on Thursday.
Till Fähnders
Political Correspondent for Southeast Asia.
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Prime Minister Andrew Barr spoke of the greatest public health risk to date since the Canberra pandemic began. Shortly after the lockdown came into force, the authorities actually reported three more cases. According to you, the strict measures have become necessary mainly because the origin of the latest outbreak is still unclear. In any case, due to ongoing lockdowns in cities like Sydney and Melbourne, when it would be Canberra's turn, said Labor Party politician Katy Gallagher on Australian television. It is now necessary to react decisively and quickly, "to protect people and ensure that the number of cases is kept low or brought back to zero, where they were in the past twelve months".
The quick reaction in Canberra is also taking into account the situation in the neighboring state of New South Wales with the metropolis of Sydney.
There, despite a lockdown that has been going on for weeks, the authorities continue to record relatively high infection rates with around 1,000 cases within the past three days.
On Thursday alone there were 345 new infections.
The regional government there, headed by the head of the country, Gladys Berejiklian, has been criticized for being too hesitant and not tough enough with its measures.
Now it may be too late to get the situation under control.
Only 19 percent fully vaccinated
Against the background of the persistently high number of infections, Berejiklian is now signaling a change in strategy that is almost a taboo break in Australia. The country manager no longer wants to focus on the complete containment of the virus, but on vaccinating as many people as possible, as in Europe. Accordingly, she is aiming for significant easing as soon as 50 percent of the residents have been vaccinated as planned by the end of August. In doing so, she receives criticism from the other country leaders. According to a newspaper report, they want to bring criticism during a meeting with Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday.
The central government also assumes that with a vaccination rate of 70 to more than 80 percent there should no longer be a need for permanent lockdowns. But the other heads of state consider their colleague's advance to be premature. They fear that it will then become more difficult to keep the numbers under control nationwide. Above all, Australia succeeded in preventing the virus from spreading through rigorous border closings, strict local lockdowns and intensive contact tracing. However, this has become much more difficult with the more contagious Delta variant. Australia also lags behind other industrialized countries with its vaccination quota. So far, only 19 percent of the population have been completely vaccinated.