Curfew imposed on parts of Australia's Sydney with lockdown extended one more month

SYDNEY, August 20: Australia's most populous state of New South Wales (NSW), the epicenter of the country's current COVID outbreak, announced Friday to extend the lockdown on Greater Sydney until the end of September and to impose a curfew on some areas of concern.
    
For residents and businesses in the local government areas of concern, the curfew will be introduced from 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. local time except for authorized workers, emergencies or medical care from Monday, Aug. 23. Outdoor exercise will be limited to one hour per day.
    
In Greater Sydney, mask-wearing will be mandatory when the residents are outside home, except when exercising, from Monday, Aug. 23.
    
The current lockdown on Greater Sydney and surrounding areas, which is scheduled to end on Aug. 28, will be extended until the end of September.
    
The announcement came after the state recorded 644 new locally acquired cases and four deaths in the past 24 hours to 8:00 p.m. Thursday local time.
    
There have been 10,582 locally acquired cases reported in NSW since June. 16, when the first case in this outbreak was reported, accounting for roughly one-fourth of Australia's total COVID-19 cases since the initial outbreak early last year.
    
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the tightened restrictions came as a response to two factors.
    
"The first was the sudden escalation of cases, and secondly the feedback from police about a handful of people flagrantly disregarding the rules," she told the daily press conference on Friday.
    
The government also announced some new restrictions around workplaces and authorized workers from the areas of concern, such as childcare workers and disability support workers who live or work in these areas must have their first vaccination dose by Aug. 30.
    
Authorized workers who work outside these areas are only permitted to work if rapid antigen testing is implemented at their work-site or they have had their first vaccination dose by Aug. 30.
    
Authorized workers from these areas and people entering these areas for the purposes of work have to carry a permit from Service NSW from Aug. 28.