Downtown Sydney, Bondi head for lockdown as Delta infections spike

SYDNEY - Downtown Sydney and the city's eastern suburbs, which include Bondi Beach, will go into a one week lockdown from midnight Friday as authorities struggle to contain a spike in the highly contagious Delta COVID-19 virus variant in the city.

The Australian Medical Association (AMA), which represents doctors, said the move was not enough and called for a complete lockdown of the country's biggest city to prevent the virus spreading and causing possible deaths. People who live or have worked in the four local government council areas in Sydney in the last two weeks have been ordered to stay at home except for urgent reasons, New South Wales (NSW) state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.