Delta's Spread From Sydney Triggers Another Australian Lockdown

Dubbo is the latest to have stay-at-home orders enforced for at least one week after two cases of the infectious variant were detected, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters.

The spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus from Sydney into regional areas of New South Wales state -- which had 344 cases on Wednesday -- has forced another Australian city into lockdown. Dubbo, a city of about 50,000 people some 240 miles from Sydney, is the latest to have stay-at-home orders enforced for at least one week after two cases of the infectious variant were detected, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters. Meanwhile Melbourne, Australia's second-largest city, extended its lockdown for another week. "Over the last two days we have seen a surge in the number of cases and we expect that to continue," Berejiklian said after the state detected a record 356 delta cases the day before. There were two new fatalities in the state on Wednesday, with at least 17 of the new infections recorded in its regional areas. Dubbo joins Sydney -- Australia's largest city with almost 6 million people -- which has so far failed to bend the curve of new cases despite enforcing stay-at-home orders for more than six weeks. In the past week, cities including Newcastle, Byron Bay and Tamworth also entered snap lockdowns after being exposed to delta, isolating them from the rest of the nation.