Sydney: New strain of coronavirus is wreaking havoc in Australia. In view of increasing cases, The country's third-largest city of Brisbane will enter a three-day lockdown from Friday afternoon after a local resident was found to be infected with the mutant strain.

According to the Health Department of the state of Queensland where Brisbane locates, the Greater Brisbane area will enter lockdown from 6:00 pm Friday to 6:00 pm ( next Monday). Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told a press conference, "We are doing this to keep Queenslanders safe. We know this strain is highly infectious, 70 per cent more infectious. We are going to go hard and early, do everything we can to stop the spread of the virus."

Now, people can only leave home for essential purposes including buying essentials like groceries or medication, working or studying if not able to do so from home, exercising and healthcare, or providing care.

The overall number of global coronavirus cases has topped 86 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 1.86 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

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