Melbourne will remain in lockdown for a second week after 20 more COVID-19 cases have been reported during its bid to fight the highly transmissible Delta Variant. 

Australia’s second-biggest city, Melbourne, was due to exit the lockdown on Thursday. However, the lockdown enforcement is being stepped up as this marks the sixth lockdown since the beginning of the pandemic. Stay-at-home orders have been strictly issued by the government and are expected to last till August 19, confirmed Victoria state, Premier Dan Andrews. 

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“If we were to open, then we would see cases akin to what is happening, tragically, in Sydney right now,” Andrew said in a press conference. Sydney is on its seventh lockdown, observing the outbreak that has affected thousands of people so far. 

“We have seen a surge in the number of cases and (that is) expected to continue,” New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said in a statement. Sydney reported another 344 new infections in the past 24 hours.

He further informed that the Sydney lockdown will be extended to Dubbo, a small city about 400 km northwest of Sydney. 

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New South Wales has allowed construction Sydney suburbs to return to construction jobs, only if the employees are fully vaccinated. “I didn’t want to get the vaccine … but I needed to get the jab or I don’t have a job,” Nick, a 31-year-old man who drives for an engineering company, told Reuters.

The country’s economy is expected to contract this quarter. On Wednesday Matt Comyn, the Chief Executive of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA.AX) told analysts, “While Australia faces near-term challenges due to the lockdowns we expect growth will simply be pushed back by six months, with the economy rebounding in late 2021 and growing strongly in 2022,” as per Reuters’ report. 

The curbs have put a dent in consumer sentiments in the past year, as per official data.