After a hotel security guard tested for the coronavirus disease or COVID-19, parts of Western Australia involving at least 2 million people were placed under a five-day lockdown.
Premier Mark McGowan announced on Sunday that the Perth metropolitan area and the Peel and South West regions of the Australian state are now under “full lockdown”.
This means that people can only leave their homes for essential shopping, medical needs, exercise and jobs that can’t be done at home.
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Schools, most businesses, entertainment venues, and places of worship are all closed.
“This is a very serious situation and each and every one of us has to do everything we personally can to help stop the spread in the community,” McGowan said in a statement.
There are two million people living in the Perth metropolitan area and the Peel and South West regions.
The security guard works at the Sheraton Four Points, a hotel quarantine facility.
There are four active cases in the hotel, two of them are carrying the UK COVID-19 variant while the other one has the South African variant.
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“We are told the guard was working on the same floor, as a positive UK variant case,” McGowan said.
Officials are calling on all people who visited a specified list of venues on a certain date to get tested.
“Western Australians have done so well for so long but this week it is absolutely crucial that we stay home, maintain physical distancing and personal hygiene and get tested if you have symptoms,” McGowan said.
