Australia reinstates Covid curbs in Sydney as officials trace mystery case of Indian variant

The measures were put in place after the detection of Covid-19 in a 50-year-old man, who passed the infection to his wife. Testing determined the man was infected with a variant first detected in India.

Australian officials reinstated social distancing measures across greater Sydney on Thursday, as they scrambled to find missing tranmission links in a Covid-19 case connected to an Indian variant of the virus. With many people expected to gather over the weekend for the annual Mother's Day celebrations, the New South Wales state government restricted household gatherings to 20 guests and limited aged care facility visitors to two people per resident. Masks will be mandatory on public transport and at indoor venues. All the restrictions, which cover around 5.3 million people in the country's biggest metropolitan area, take effect at 5 p.m. local time and are scheduled to last until Monday morning.