Delta puts Australia Covid-Zero strategy at breaking point

Prime minister Scott Morrison, who earlier this year frequently contrasted Australia’s often coronavirus-free status with the plight of other countries suffering huge outbreaks, is now signalling the nation’s Covid-Zero strategy is over

At the weekend, authorities in Sydney said they would tighten restrictions, increase fines and ramp up policing to deter rule-breakers. File picture

Australian authorities are ramping up lockdown restrictions and extending stay-at-home orders in a bid to beat down a spread in the Delta-variant that’s creating the nation’s most serious Covid-19 crisis since the pandemic began.

With the variant spreading hundreds of miles from its epicentre in Sydney, which on Monday suffered the bulk of New South Wales’ record 478 new cases as well as at least seven more deaths, other cities are further bunkering down.