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Coronavirus: Sydney may call in more troops to enforce lockdown; expert says impossible to control Tokyo outbreak

  • The move comes as Australia’s capital Canberra announced a snap one-week lockdown from Thursday evening
  • A government task force expert said it was now impossible to control the spread of Covid-19 in the Japanese capital

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People sunbathe at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. Photo: AAP Image/DPA

Extra Australian military personnel may be called in to ensure compliance with lockdown rules in Sydney, the New South Wales state government said on Thursday, as the highly infectious Delta coronavirus variant spreads into regional areas.

The move comes as Australia’s capital, Canberra, 260km southwest of Sydney, announced a snap one-week lockdown from Thursday evening after reporting its first locally acquired case of Covid-19 in more than a year.

Australia is battling to get on top of the fast-moving Delta strain that has plunged two of its largest cities – Sydney and Melbourne – into hard lockdowns.

“We are making sure that we do not leave any stone unturned in relation to extra [military] resources,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said at a media conference in Sydney.

A spokesperson for Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the NSW government has indicated it would soon formally request additional military support.

Some 580 unarmed army personnel are already helping police enforce home-quarantine orders on households in the worst-affected suburbs of Sydney.

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