CANBERRA, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Chief Minister of Australia's Northern Territory (NT) Michael Gunner said on Sunday that NT "is now facing its biggest threat" since the COVID-19 crisis began, adding that its capital city Darwin would enter a lockdown for 48 hours.
The full lockdown was effective from local time 1:00 p.m. on Sunday at Darwin, Palmerston and Darwin rural areas, following confirmation of four new COVID-19 positive cases linked to a mine, according to the NT government's statement.
According to Australian media, the virus could be highly infectious Delta strain.
The lockdown period means people living in these areas are only permitted to leave home for five reasons, including medical treatment, essential goods and services, essential work and so on. Masks must be worn if people leave their place of residence.
"The Northern Territory is now facing its biggest threat since the COVID crisis began. I cannot rule out the lockdown being longer," Gunner said.
The announcement came after Australia's most populous state of New South Wales (NSW) on Saturday extended lockdown to more areas as local transmission in the biggest city of Sydney still increased.
Jamie Chalker, NT's police commissioner, assured local people that no positive cases were found in remote communities.
As of Sunday afternoon, there had been 30,499 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, and the numbers of locally and overseas acquired cases in the last 24 hours were 35 and nine respectively, according to the latest figures from the Department of Health.
