Covid: Australian capital Canberra enters snap lockdown after recording first case in over a year

Long supermarket queues and stockpiling of goods have been reported after the snap lockdown announcement

The Australian capital Canberra has entered a week-long lockdown after recording its first Covid cases in over a year.

The lockdown, which came into effect today at 5pm local time, was triggered after the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) - home to around 400,000 people- reported its first locally transmitted case in more than a year on Thursday.

The ACT outbreak has grown to four cases after the initial case, a man in his 20s, tested positive for coronavirus. The other three cases are all close contacts of his.

Andrew Barr, the chief minister of the ACT, which encompasses Canberra, said the source of the positive case in the city was not yet clear. This is why the whole area was placed under the restrictions.

Reports have emerged of shoppers stockpiling goods amid long queues at supermarkets, as the curbs restrict residents to only being able to leave their homes for essential purposes.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said anyone who arrives in Queensland from the ACT from 1am on Saturday will be required to enter hotel quarantine for two weeks.

Australia is battling to contain the highly infectious Delta strain, which has resulted in two of its largest cities - Sydney and Melbourne - going into strict lockdowns.

Melbourne’s sixth lockdown will be extended for a second week until the end of August 19, the Victoria state government said on Wednesday, as it reported 20 new infections in the latest 24-hour period. “This is very challenging, I know, for every single Victorian who would like to be going about their business. They’d like to be open and have a degree of freedom that’s simply not possible because of this delta variant,” Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said.

Sydney, Australia’s largest city, reported 344 new infections on Wednesday.

Swathes of New South Wales are also locked down, with residents in Victoria experiencing similar restrictions on Melbourne for at least another week.

Australian authorities agree that at least 70% of the population must be vaccinated before lockdowns will no longer be needed.

Only 24% of Australian adults had been fully vaccinated by Wednesday.

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