Melbourne, Australia enters 6th lockdown

Along with Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane are also major Australian cities that have gone into a lockdown because of the spread of the Delta variant.

Melbourne and nearby state of Victoria are going to be in lockdown for a week after eight new infections of the delta variant were detected.

According to CP24, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews gave residents only four hours notice that Victoria would be in lockdown. Andrews has said that his government didn't have a choice – just 20 percent of Australian residents have been fully vaccinated as of last Wednesday.

"To be really frank, we don't have enough people that have been vaccinated and, therefore, this is the only option available to us," Andrews said. "The time will come when we have many more options. But that isn't now."

Melbourne was the most impacted city in Australia during the pandemic throughout last year. The number of infections among Melbourne residents peaked in August of 2020 when 725 positive COVID-19 infections arose in one day. Additionally, out of the 925 COVID-19 related deaths in Australia since the pandemic started, 820 happened in the state of Victoria.