Delta Variant Continues To Spread: Sydney Extends Lockdown, Suicide Prevention Services Increase 40 Percent

JAKARTA - Sydney's two million residents will be under a curfew starting next week, to slow the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, local authorities said when announcing an extension of the lockdown.

Australia's third wave of COVID-19 infections, centered in Sydney, has forced more than half of the population of nearly 26 million people into prolonged lockdown.

Most recently, New South Wales Prime Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, announced an extension of Sydney's lockdown until the end of September, the imposition of new restrictions including a curfew, a requirement to wear a mask when outdoors, and restrictions on exercise.

"I ask the health and police to work together, give me a final list of what we can do, to leave no doubt about how serious we are about bringing down the growth rate, the number of cases is going down", Berejiklian told a news conference citing Reuters on Friday, August 20.

A curfew from 9 pm to 5 am will take effect Monday in the 12 worst-affected council areas, accounting for about 40 percent of Sydney's population of 5 million. Anyone caught entering the area will be fined and required to self-isolate for 14 days.

With a similar curfew already in place in Melbourne, more than a quarter of Australians will be confined to their homes at night starting Monday, except for essential workers.

The State of New South Wales reported 644 new infections on Friday, mostly in Sydney. Daily cases across New South Wales have averaged 400 over the past seven days despite eight weeks of lockdown in Sydney, Australia's largest city.

With only about 28 percent of people over the age of 16 having received the full COVID-19 vaccine, Australia has failed to contain the Sydney outbreak which has now become the case in other cities across Australia as well as New Zealand.

Meanwhile, Australia's state of Victoria recorded 55 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases, warning that the country was at risk of being overrun by infections.

"We're on the verge of moving away and it's not because of contact tracing, not doing everything they can. They're doing it. It's not because we didn't lock down fast enough. We did it," Victoria State Prime Minister Daniel Andrews told reporters in Melbourne.

The Australian capital, Canberra, is also on lockdown, with 16 cases recorded in the last 24 hours out of a population of around 430,000, authorities said.

Surprisingly, the Lifeline Australia suicide prevention helpline says there has been a 40 percent increase in calls in recent days compared to pre-pandemic.

"What it shows is the level of anxiety, the increasing level of anger in society and of course the stress and pressure", Lifeline Australia Chairman, John Brogden, told broadcaster ABC on Friday.

Australia has recorded around 12,000 cases of the infection since the first Delta variant was reported in Sydney on June 16. Four new deaths were confirmed on Friday, bringing the total to 65 in the latest outbreak.

Even so, a high vaccination rate among the most vulnerable in Australia means the death rate is 0.54%, official data show, below previous outbreaks.

To note, the total country of Kangaroo to date has recorded around 42,100 cases of infection and 975 deaths since the pandemic, which is low compared to other developed countries.