Australia's second-most populous state Victoria reported its lowest rise in new COVID-19 cases in more than a week on Thursday, a day after a snap lockdown in state capital Melbourne was extended for another week.
Melbourne is seven days into a hard lockdown, now scheduled to run until June 10, spurred by the latest outbreak of a virus variant first detected in India, which authorities said is highly contagious and could become uncontrollable.Though Victoria's daily cases have remained in the single digits for a week now, officials fear even minimal contact could help spread the virus variant.
Melbourne's five million residents, however, will only be allowed to step outside their homes for essential work, healthcare, grocery shopping, exercise or to get COVID-19 vaccination until the end of next week. Victoria reported three new locally acquired cases overnight from record daily tests of more than 57,500. Thursday's cases bring the total number of infections in the outbreak to 63.
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