Victoria declares 'state of disaster,' locking down millions in Melbourne to fight a soaring...

[Nevilledog]

Victoria declares 'state of disaster,' locking down millions in Melbourne to fight a soaring coronavirus outbreak

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/02/australia/victoria-coronavirus-state-of-disaster-intl/index.html

(CNN)The premier of Victoria plunged the region into a "state of disaster" on Sunday, announcing even stricter lockdown measures, introducing a nightly curfew and banning virtually all trips outdoors after Australia's second largest state recorded 671 new infections in a single day.

Daniel Andrews told Victorians at a news conference that "we have to do more, and we have to do more right now," as the state battles to contain a devastating coronavirus outbreak that had already stripped residents of their freedoms, livelihoods and social interactions and made it an outlier from the rest of the country.

"Where you slept last night is where you'll need to stay for the next six weeks," Andrews said, announcing a curfew between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. beginning Sunday evening and moving Metropolitan Melbourne into stage four lockdown measures.

In that part of the state, only one person per household will be allowed to leave their homes once a day -- outside of curfew hours -- to pick up essential goods, and they must stay within a 5 kilometer radius of their home. Melburnians had already been under strict measures for most of July after the area was identified as the epicenter of Australia's second wave.

*snip*

[Greybnk48]

1. I long for this kind of competency here.

Sooner of later (too late?) people in the US will get the urgency needed.

[virgogal]

4. Many Americans would ignore it.

[DrToast]

2. That's a serious lockdown

They aren't messing around.

[roamer65]

3. It's winter down there.

This a harbinger of what is to come for us in about 3 months, but far worse.

[DrToast]

5. So far there's nothing to indicate it's seasonal

[Hekate]

8. Winter is the time buildings are closed up and recirculate their air while the heater's on...

I think that may have something to do with the seasonality of flu, but that’s just my guess.

[DrToast]

11. Florida, Texas, Arizona....

It might be worse in the summer in some places if people are stuck indoors because of the heat.

Or the seasons may not matter at all. We don’t really know for sure yet.

[Hekate]

12. True. Air conditioning produces the same conditions. We don't know enough at all.

[canetoad]

6. I'm a couple of hours SE of Melbourne metro area

We are back to Stage 3 restrictions and compulsory masks but the metro area is now Stage 4 as noted above.

My town has been packed with plague rats in city clothes the past couple of weeks. It's easy to see how the virus is spreading when people are not taking the lockdown seriously.

[Nevilledog]

7. Yikes! Be super safe.

[Hekate]

9. Stay safe and well, canetoad

[canetoad]

10. Thanks Hekate and ND