Australia's Victoria state to enter Covid-19 lockdown after 'highly-infectious' outbreak

People wait in queues at a Covid-19 vaccination centre in Melbourne as Australia's second biggest city scrambles to contain a growing Covid outbreak.

* Lockdown for a week starting Thursday night * 12 new cases reported in Victoria * More than 10,000 contacts identified Australia's second most populous state of Victoria will enter a one-week Covid-19 lockdown forcing its near seven million residents to remain home except for essential business as authorities struggle to contain a highly-infectious outbreak. ‘We're dealing with a highly infectious strain of the virus, a variant of concern, which is running faster than we have ever recorded,’ Victoria state Acting Premier James Merlino told reporters in Melbourne. ‘Unless something drastic happens, this will become increasingly uncontrollable.’