Australia's Victoria state announced on Wednesday extending the lockdown for new three weeks due to the uncontrollable rise in COVID-19 daily infections.
Moreover, the state aims to lead a rapid vaccination rollout to control the emergence of the virus in Victoria, and to push infections back to near zero.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews told Reuters that those restrictions would be eased once 70% of the state's adults receive at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. He also expressed his wishing to reach this target on September 23.
Andrews told reporters: "We have thrown everything at this, but it is now clear to us that we are not going to drive these numbers down, they are instead going to increase."
The victorian premier statements came after the previously imposed one-month lockdown in the state failed to decrease the number of daily Coronavirus infections. The lockdown was supposed to be lifted on Tuesday before it was extended for three weeks.
He continued: "We got to buy time to allow vaccinations to be undertaken all the while doing this very hard work, this very painful and difficult work, to keep a lid as much as we can on cases."
Victoria reported new 120 COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, compared to 76 a day earlier.
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