10 2GM Monday August 3 2020 | the times
News
Melbourne, Australia’s second largest
city, has entered a strict six-week
“shock and awe” lockdown with a
police curfew as cases of coronavirus
surge in 80 care homes.
The southeastern state of Victoria
was declared a disaster zone as its six
million people were told to stay at
home. In Melbourne, the state capital
of five million, police will enforce an
8pm curfew with fines expected to
reach thousands of pounds.
The authorities in Victoria said that
there were nearly 2,000 cases of Covid-
19 for which contact tracers could not
find the source of infection. Brett
Sutton, the state chief health officer,
compared the curfew and lockdown to
“shock and awe” tactics, a phrase used
to describe the US invasion of Iraq.
“I think everyone can see how seri-
ous this is,” Professor Sutton told
9News. “A state of disaster that’s being
declared; there’s a curfew in place; sig-
nificant changes in education and sig-
nificant changes in workplaces tomor-
row. In part, there’s shock and awe here
for people to understand that it’s a super
challenging phase that we’re in.”
Professor Sutton said that people had
experienced “fatigue” and become
complacent about observing precau-
tions such as social distancing. “I think
the message is loud and clear now.”
The Australian department of health
said yesterday that the death toll from
Covid-19 had risen to 209, with almost
half linked to the country’s second
wave. The World Health Organisation
put the tally at 200.
The virus flared in Melbourne a
month ago when security guards at
isolation facilities mingled with their
infected charges and took the virus into
the outer suburbs.
Nearly 70 deaths in the past month
have been linked to care homes across
Victoria. Health officials said that more
deaths were certain.
The state reported 671 new infections
yesterday and seven more deaths. The
rising numbers of community trans-
missions and cases of unknown origin
forced officials to impose Australia’s
A 20,000-strong protest against Ger-
many’s hygiene rules has been broken
up as one of the country’s political
leaders warned that the second wave of
Covid-19 had arrived “in all but name”.
Demonstrators, many sporting sym-
bols of the extreme right, marched on
Berlin’s central avenue for the largest
anti-government demonstration since
the start of the pandemic.
Some chanted “We are the second
wave” and “We are the people”, a slogan
from the fall of the Berlin Wall that has
been appropriated by the radical right,
as they marched down Unter den Lin-
den towards the Brandenburg Gate.
For several months a protest move-
ment comprised of far-right and “alt-
right” activists, anarchists, conspiracy
Hard-right rally broken up in Berlin
theorists, anti-vaxxers and other ele-
ments has been building in German
cities, including Stuttgart and Cologne.
Berlin has become a focal point, part-
ly because it contains a cluster of sym-
bolic buildings such as the Reichstag
and the chancellery.
The centrepiece of the weekend’s
protests was a gathering on Saturday
billed as “The Day of Freedom”, the title
of a notorious 1935 propaganda film by
the Nazi director Leni Riefenstahl.
The rally in the Strasse des 17 Juni, a
broad boulevard between the Branden-
burg Gate and the Victory Column, was
organised by Querdenken 711, a Stutt-
gart-based group that dismisses the
coronavirus as fake. It was addressed by
Stephan Bergmann, who has promoted
extreme material warning against a
plot to reduce the IQ of Europe’s whitepopulation through the “mixture of ra-
ces”, and Kilez More, an Austrian rap-
per and conspiracy theorist.
Police dissolved the rally and an
earlier march involving many of the
same participants. Michael Müller,
Berlin’s centre-left mayor, said the pro-
tests had angered him “immeasurably”.
The average number of new cases de-
tected each day has risen to nearly 700,
the highest level since mid-May, but re-
mains well below the peak of more than
5,800 recorded at the start of April.
Markus Söder, the centre-right chief
minister of Bavaria and considered a
strong contender to replace Angela
Merkel as chancellor next year, said a
second wave was “creeping” through
the country. “Many people have be-
come more cavalier in the way they deal
with the virus,” he told Bild am Sonntag.Oliver Moody Berlin
toughest restrictions so far, approach-
ing those used in New Zealand to end
community transmission.
From tonight people in Victoria must
stay at home for six weeks and go to
work only if it is essential. Residents can
take an hour of exercise, travel no more
than 5km from their houses and leave
home only to buy essentials at the near-
est supermarket.
Police have orders to stop and ques-
tion anyone outside their homes during
the curfew between 8pm and 5am.
Even during the world wars Melbourne
did not have a curfew.
Officers can also suspend acts of
parliament and take possession of
properties under the state of emer-
gency declaration.
Daniel Andrews, the state premier,
announced the curfew in Melbourne.
He said: “Police will be out in force and
you will be stopped and you will be
asked and need to demonstrate that
you are lawfully out and you are not
breaching that curfew. Going to a
mate’s place, visiting friends, being out
and about for no good reason — all that
will do is spread this virus.”
Penalties for breaking curfew are
being finalised but would probably
include a fine of A$10,000 (£5,450).
Home visits are banned and public
gatherings will be limited to two people.
All schools will move to remote learn-
ing from Wednesday. Restaurants,
already closed for dining, can continue
to serve takeaway meals. Mr Andrews‘Shock and awe’
curfew from 8pm
for Melbourne
Bernard Lagan Sydney said further announcements would be
made today about industries. He indi-
cated that some would be forced to
close for the next six weeks.
“There will be a third category of
business,” he said. “They’ll close and
move exclusively to a work-from-home
[position] and if they can’t work from
home, the work simply won’t be done.
We have no choice but to make these
decisions and to push on. This is the
only option we have.”
Scott Morrison, the prime minister,
said it was imperative that people fol-
lowed the rules. “The lives of your fel-
low Australians depend on it,” he wrote
on Facebook. “These measures are
regrettably necessary given the high
rate of community transmission in the
state. Victoria now has more than 6,
active cases and new cases show little
sign of slowing down.”
Melbourne is halfway through a
series of social-distancing restrictions
that forced the second closure of pubs,
many restaurants and cafés six weeks
ago. The imposition of a tighter
lockdown was an admission that the
previous measures were failing.
“The current rules have avoided
thousands and thousands of cases each
day and then thousands of people in
hospital and many more tragedies than
we have seen,” Mr Andrews said. “But it
is not working fast enough.”
In Sydney, Australia’s largest city and
the capital of New South Wales, the
most populous state, shoppers and
commuters were told to start wearing
facemasks.
Gladys Berejiklian, the state premier,
said that the region was entering a
“very critical stage”. New South Wales
reported 12 new infections yesterday.
Ms Berejiklian urged those facing the
highest health risks to wear masks in
public at all times. “The next few weeks
will make or break us,” she said. “I can’t
stress enough that whilst we are hold-
ing the line, we are in a very critical
phase.”
Josh Frydenberg, Australia’s treasur-
er, said that the impact of the second
wave would be felt beyond the borders
of Victoria, which accounts for a quar-
ter of the national economy.
There was no escape from coronavirus
messaging at Bondi Beach in SydneyNews Coronavirus
Mexico now has the
third-highest number
of coronavirus deaths
mexico
Mexico has surpassed Britain as
the country with the third-highest
Covid-19 death toll. So far 46,
people have died during the
pandemic, with 424,637 confirmed
cases, according to World Health
Organisation figures.
The local authorities say that the
official figures underestimate the
situation owing to poor testing
rates. Infection rates could be up to
five times higher.
Critics blame President López
Obrador’s government, which
was slow to impose lockdown
measures and then lifted
restrictions too quickly. In
Mexico City, the capital, hundreds
of thousands of factory workersreturned to their jobs in
mid-June.
Mr López Obrador has chosen to
put the country’s flagging economy
first. He has repeatedly avoided
wearing a facemask in public.
Despite Mexico’s soaring death rate,
he pledged that he would only wear
a mask when the country had
eradicated corruption. Ten Mexican
state governors have called for the
resignation of his coronavirus chief,
Hugo López-Gatell.italy
The government has reinstated
social-distancing rules for high-
speed trains two days after allowing
them to operate at full capacity. The
reversal came after a row betweenDaisy, a medical worker, Nabila Kirtti, right, a doctor, and medical personnel, top, at