Australia's Largest City Heads For Lockdown Amid Delta Variant Spike

Australia: Health officials in Sydney have been alarmed by the rapid spread of Delta variant, noting instances of people passing on the virus during fleeting encounters in shops and then quickly infecting close family contacts.

Central Sydney and its popular eastern beaches around Bondi were ordered into lockdown Friday as authorities try to contain an expanding outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19 in Australia's largest city. Sixty-five coronavirus cases have been reported so far in the flare-up linked to a limousine driver infected about two weeks ago when he transported an international flight crew from Sydney airport to a quarantine hotel. But authorities have since identified scores of potential infection sites visited by thousands of people across a swathe of Sydney, from wealthy beachside suburbs to the city's main business district. Health officials have been alarmed by the rapid spread of the Delta variant first seen in India, noting instances of people passing on the virus during fleeting encounters in shops and then quickly infecting close family contacts.