VICTORIA'S sudden five-day, statewide lockdown until midnight on Wednesday is in response to the latest security breach from a quarantine hotel - the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport - with at least 13 COVID cases diagnosed: all of them of the UK variant that Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews yesterday described as "hyper-infectious" and moving at "hyper-speed".
Tensions were already high in Victoria over the Australian Open tennis tournament and its squadron of more than 500 players, officials and support staff arriving from overseas.
With debate still simmering over the merits of continuing with international sporting events - especially while "ordinary" Australians stranded overseas are facing severely rationed spaces to fly home - this latest Victorian outbreak will again test the Andrews Labor government.
CORONAVIRUS NATIONALLY:
- Latest COVID snapshot
- Vics who arrive in NSW must follow 'stay at home' orders
- PM again rejects Canberra running quarantine hotels
- COVID: Valentine's Day massacre for Vic flower shops
- Grog sales soared during pandemic says ABS
That's without the added health concerns of the clearly more infectious UK virus variant making its way into the Victorian community.
Hopefully, the "short, sharp blast" of lockdown restrictions, as Mr Andrews called them yesterday, will be enough to curtail the spread.
There are ramifications for the Hunter Region with what's happening in Victoria, given that a sizeable squad of international arrivals from the surfing world are scheduled to arrive in Newcastle for the World Championship Tour contest, set down for April 1 to 11 to replace the cancelled event at Bells Beach, also in Victoria.
Right now, we are reaching close contacts well within the 48-hour benchmark. But the time between exposure, incubation, symptoms and testing positive is rapidly shortening. So much so, that even secondary close contacts are potentially infectious within that 48-hour window. In short: this hyper-infectious variant is moving at hyper-speed
Daniel Andrews yesterday
It's an inescapable reality, now, that all travel into Australia carries risks for this nation.
With fewer than 29,000 cases, we have avoided the truly catastrophic outbreaks of COVID that have wreaked havoc globally: confirmed case numbers are approaching 108 million, with more than 2.3 million coronavirus-related fatalities.
Arguments over whether to continue with professional sport at such a fraught time in history will continue to bounce back and forth.
COVID GLOBALLY:
- South Africa steps up fight against its variant
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Brazil says Amazon variant 'three times more contagious'
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New UK online quarantine booking system crashes offline
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China virus numbers lowest for five months
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13 million Brits had first jab in population of 66 million plus
Highly paid athletes make easy targets for those who don't share the view that sport provides a welcome public service by distracting, us, if only momentarily, from the pandemic's pervasive gloom.
Yes, there is good news.
The vaccines are coming, and COVID daily case numbers and death rates are, finally, falling - and hopefully for good.
But we are by no means out of the woods.
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