Victoria Sets Record For COVID-19 Infection: Police Tighten Security, COVID-19 Anti-lockdown Demo Fails

Illustration of Australian police standing guard in anticipation of anti-COVID-19 anti-lockdown protesters. (Wikimedia Commons/Matt Hrkac)

JAKARTA - The streets of Melbourne, Australia were mostly deserted on Thursday after three days of anti-COVID-19 anti-lockdown protests, with hundreds of police officers patrolling the city to prevent another rally as COVID-19 cases in Victoria hit record daily infections.

Police in Melbourne, Victoria's capital, are examining people's reasons for being out, footage on social media shows, after violent protests on Wednesday in Australia's second-largest city resulted in more than 200 arrests.

The COVID-19 vaccination center at Melbourne City Hall will be closed until Monday after some of its staff were physically and verbally abused on their way to work, operator Cohealth said Thursday.

"Why do you abuse, as I said, why do you spit on people who do such work?" Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said at a news conference in Melbourne, citing Reuters on September 23.

"It's ugly, it's inappropriate," he insisted.

Hundreds of protesters have taken to the streets in the city of 5 million, since officials earlier this week ordered a two-week closure of construction sites, mandating a COVID-19 vaccine for construction workers to limit the spread of the virus.

Police and union officials said extremist and far-right groups joined the demonstrations.

Victoria on Thursday reported 766 new locally acquired cases, surpassing the pandemic's previous daily high of 725 hits on August 5, 2020, with four new deaths.

Meanwhile, the neighboring state of New South Wales with the capital Sydney, reported 1.063 new infections, up from 1.035 the day before, with six new deaths.

Australia is battling the third wave of infections from the Delta variant outbreak in its two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, as well as the capital Canberra, forcing nearly half of the country's 25 million people to stay at home.

Authorities have promised to relax lockdown rules once 70 percent of adults are fully vaccinated, which is expected next month. To date, about 55.5 percent of people aged 16 and over have been fully vaccinated in New South Wales and about 45 percent in Victoria.

Double-dose vaccination in New South Wales is increasing by about 1 percent per day, said state Health Minister Brad Hazzard, putting it on track to reach 70 percent around October 8. Officials have pledged to ease lockdown restrictions on Monday once the target has been reached.

As of Thursday, Australia recorded 92.204 COVID-19 infections, with 1.196 deaths and 68.054 patients declared cured since the pandemic, Worldmeters data reports.