Fresh Lockdown In Australia's Perth After Virus Escapes Quarantine Hotel

Australia has been among the world's most successful countries in containing the pandemic, with fewer than 30,000 cases and just over 900 deaths for a population of 25 million.

Australian authorities ordered a snap, three-day lockdown in the western city of Perth Friday after the coronavirus escaped from a quarantine hotel housing infected international travellers. Western Australia state Premier Mark McGowan said a man who was allowed to leave the hotel on April 17 after testing negative for the virus at the end of the standard 14-day quarantine period tested positive several days later. One of his close contacts in Perth tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday in the first case of community transmission of the disease in the state in 12 months, prompting the lockdown order, McGowan said. Authorities are tracking other people who came into contact with the man during five days he spent in Perth before flying to Melbourne, on Australia's southeast coast, where he tested positive on Wednesday and was put into isolation.