SYDNEY (AP) – Outbreaks in Sydney’s northern beach suburbs have increased to 70 cases with an additional 30 in the past 24 hours, and officials say they may never be able to locate the source.
While the numbers are increasing, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berekklian said there has not been a large seedbed outside the North Beach community on Sunday. However, a new list of cases suggests that the virus had spread to Sydney and other parts of the state.
The government has blocked the area till Wednesday. Residents will only be allowed to leave their homes for five basic reasons, including medical care, exercise, grocery store, work or compassionate care reasons.
State Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said contact tractors are yet to locate the patient’s void, but a comprehensive investigation is ongoing.
Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region:
– South Korea has recorded more than 1,000 new coronovirus cases for the fifth consecutive day, pressuring the authorities to implement the toughest regulations that would further damage the economy. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency says it has found 1,097 additional cases in the past 24-hour period, the highest daily tally since the epidemic. Which puts the national caseload at 49,665 including 674 deaths. About 70% of the new cases come from the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, which has been at the center of a viral resurgence. The pace of dissemination has already met government conditions to increase social removal rules at its highest level. But officials have been reluctant to move forward with a measure of concerns for the economy. The new move would ban the mobilization of more than 10 people and shut down hundreds of thousands of non-essential businesses.
– Thailand reported two new local infections on Sunday, after identifying more than 500 cases south of Bangkok in one day, which had largely brought the epidemic under control. On Saturday, 548 cases, most of them linked to the country’s largest wholesale seafood market, saw a small number of infections in the last several months due to strict border and quarantine controls in Thailand. On Sunday, a 78-year-old seafood seller in Bangkok, who visited the shrimp market in Samut Sakhon province, tested positive. The second case was of a woman from central Thailand who worked in a beauty parlor in the north. Health officials say most of the cases in the seafood market are migrant workers from Myanmar. The governor imposed a night curfew and other travel restrictions in Samut Sakhon province until 3 January.
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