While the coronavirus pandemic appears to be leveling off in certain parts of the world, other areas such as Australia are still living in complete lockdown or at least some type of restrictions affecting their everyday lives.
We reported how even the Australian Olympians weren’t immune to the strict re-entry procedures traveling into the country from Tokyo. The highly successful group of swimmers are held up in Howard Springs, Northern Territory for a mandatory two weeks before being able to formally celebrate with family and friends.
As with other states, Victoria, in which Australia’s largest city of Sydney is situated, is entering its sixth statewide lockdown in the hopes of simmering down the spread of the Delta variant. State premier Daniel Andrews said in a press conference this week, “None of us want to be in a situation where we have to lock down again, but this Delta variant moves so fast, there is no alternative for us but to listen to our public health experts.” (NY Times)
At the time of publishing, Victoria had reported 8 new coronavirus cases, per New York Times.
Just north of Victoria is New South Wales, with that state also taking precautions to keep any spread at bay. Specific to competition, Swimming New South Wales has announced the cancellation of the following competitions within their Winter Short Course season:
- 2021 NSW Metropolitan SC Championships
- 2021 Combined NSW State Age SC Championships
- 2021 NSW Country SC Championships
Swimming NSW says that it is planning on holding two “Winter Country Regional” events at two separate regional locations for country athletes who are not in lockdown areas. Dates and locations are to be determined at this point.
Few fact corrections here. I think you mean Melbourne, the largest city in Victoria. Sydney is very much in NSW!
Sydney has been in lockdown for 6 weeks now, with daily cases escalating – 319 recorded today.