28 Jun 2021

Covid-19: Australia grapples virus outbreak across several states

From Morning Report, 8:39 am on 28 June 2021

Australian states are closing down to one another, and two are in lockdown, as the highly infectious delta variant spreads 'like wildfire'.

On Friday night, a worker at a Central Australian gold mine tested positive, potentially exposing more than 1600 other workers.

Unfortunately, 900 fly-in, fly-out workers had flown out before they knew about the case.

One such colleague flew home to Darwin, where he's tested positive. Fourteen other people who worked in the same mine, and also flew to Darwin, are now uncontactable.

As a result, Greater Darwin in the Northern Territory announced a snap, two-day lockdown yesterday, assuming the worst while authorities urgently try track down the mine workers.

Meanwhile, New South Wales has 12 days to go on its lockdown.

The Bondi Cluster stands at 110 cases and is expected to keep rising.

There are also three cases in Queensland and one in Western Australia.

ABC's Sydney correspondent Alison Xiao spoke to Susie Ferguson.