Covid: Brisbane lockdown to end ahead of Easter weekend
Easter #Easter
image copyrightEPA image captionBrisbane’s two million residents will exit lockdown on Thursday
The Australian city of Brisbane will exit its snap three-day lockdown on Thursday after only one local Covid-19 case was reported in the previous day.
The outbreak in Queensland’s capital – home to two million residents – has grown to 16 infections in total.
State Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the low number of new infections meant the lockdown could be lifted in time for the Easter holiday weekend.
Some restrictions will still apply including mask-wearing in indoor areas.
Gathering numbers are also limited to 30 people in a household, while church services will be able to operate at full capacity if people remain seated and have tickets.
“This is really important that we are doing this for the next two weeks because we are not out of the woods yet,” said Ms Palaszczuk.
In Australia – where infections are very low – snap lockdowns have proved to be an effective health measure to help suppress outbreaks early on. But the unpredictable shutdowns have also left an economic toll, experts say.
image copyrightEPA image captionBrisbane Airport on Monday was bustling as people flew out of the city prior to its lockdown
Ms Palaszczuk noted the impact of the sudden lockdown on businesses, but said “the consequences of not acting are far worse”.
“You only have to see what is happening around the world,” she said, referencing infections in France and the US. “We don’t want to see that here.”
The lockdown will lift at midday on Thursday (02:00 GMT). It affected the Greater Brisbane region – which includes the councils of Brisbane, Logan, Moreton Bay, Ipswich and Redlands.
Brisbane’s clusters have been linked to a nurse and a doctor who contracted the virus from a Covid ward at the Princess Alexandra Hospital. It then spread among their friends and family.
The virus has also spread to Byron Bay, a popular tourist town in neighbouring New South Wales.
Authorities have cancelled a major music festival, Bluesfest, which was set to run this weekend, after detecting an infection in the local community on Wednesday.
More on Covid in Australia:
media captionI cycled every street allowed under Melbourne’s tough lockdown
Lockdowns have hit Australia’s domestic tourism industry particularly hit hard, with states often shutting their borders to people from declared hotspots. Queensland’s economy is heavily reliant on tourism.
The recent shutdown did not affect popular spots such as the Gold Coast and Cairns. Ms Palaszczuk said both cities had seen more airport arrivals this week than at any time since the pandemic began.
Prior to this outbreak, Queensland had seen very few locally acquired cases since Australia’s first wave of the virus a year ago.
The Brisbane cases also marked the first cluster of community transmission in Australia in about a month.
Australia has reported 909 deaths and about 29,300 cases in total – a number far lower than many nations.
The government began its inoculation programme in February but has so far fallen far short of the four million vaccinations goal it set for the end of March.
Australia has so far administered about 700,000 vaccines for a population of 25 million.