Sydney Locks Down Amid COVID Surge

SYDNEY - Workers and residents in Sydney were ordered to stay home for a week on Friday, as authorities locked down several central areas of Australia's largest city to contain an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19.

Sixty-five COVID-19 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 central Sydney, including the city's main business district. Authorities have been alarmed by instances of people passing on the virus during fleeting encounters in shops and then quickly infecting close family contacts.