Concerning over a rise in COVID-19 case, Australia expanded its lockdown to a rural town and the coastal region of Byron Bay on Monday, as fears grew that the virus has spread from Sydney to the northern tip of the country's most populous state. According to a Reuters report, Tamworth, a farming town 414 km (257 miles) northwest of Sydney, and Byron Bay, a tourist spot about 770 km north of Sydney, will both enter a seven-day lockdown, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
Neither Tamworth nor Byron Bay has yet recorded a COVID-19 case, but Berejiklian said two infected people had contravened travel bans and travelled there.
New South Wales reported 283 locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, up from 262 cases a day earlier.
The state has struggled to contain a surge of the highly infectious Delta variant despite a lockdown of Sydney now in its seventh week.
Melbourne would remain in lockdown - for the sixth time since the pandemic begun - until at least August 12.
In Brisbane, capital of Queensland, authorities reported four new local cases on Monday, the first day after the city came out of stay-at-home restrictions.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is under fire for a sluggish vaccine rollout, with only 22% of Australians above 16 fully vaccinated.
Australia has reported about 36,250 cases and 939 deaths, including a woman in her 90s whose death in Sydney was reported on Monday.
