CANBERRA, Oct 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Lockdown in Australia’s capital has ended, after more than two months, as the country continues to battle the third wave of COVID-19 infections.
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) today emerged from a lockdown that started on Aug 12, and was initially meant to last only seven days.
As of today, Canberrans are allowed to gather in groups of up to 25 people outdoors and have five visitors to their homes.
Cafes, restaurants, bars, personal care services and non-essential retail have re-opened, subject to strict patron density restrictions.
Nationally, Australia recorded more than 2,600 new cases and 11 deaths this morning.
The ACT reported 35 new locally-acquired COVID-19 infections today, taking the number of cases linked to the outbreak that triggered lockdown to 1,394.
ACT Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, said that, the government’s focus would shift from the daily number of cases to the number of hospitalisations.
“A potential concern for us would be, if fully vaccinated people were finding themselves in hospital or intensive care, but the evidence so far is that, the vaccines have been working to reduce the proportion of cases that require hospitalisation or intensive care,” Barr said.
Restrictions will ease further on Oct 29, under Barr’s plan to reopen slowly.
So far, about 83.6 percent of Australians aged 16 and over have received one COVID-19 vaccine dose and 65.4 percent were fully vaccinated, according to the latest data, released by the Department of Health.
Australia’s medical regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), recently announced it has approved three COVID-19 rapid antigen self-tests.
Starting from Nov 1, the Chinese-made antigen tests from Hangzhou Alltest Biotech Co Ltd will become available as the at-home tests used in Australia.– NNN-AGENCIES
