MELBOURNE: More than six million people were ordered into a snap, five-day lockdown Friday to contain a new coronavirus outbreak in Australia’s second most populous state, forcing the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne to shut fans out.
The lockdown across Victoria state from midnight (1300 GMT) was ordered out of fear a small outbreak of the “hyper-infectious” UK strain of the virus would undo Australia’s so-far successful battle to contain the pandemic, Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews said.
It dealt another blow to the year’s first Grand Slam, which started three weeks late to allow international players to quarantine and had already welcomed tens of thousands of socially distanced fans in the biggest crowds seen in…
