Australia’s capital will join Sydney and Melbourne in lockdown as coronavirus continues to spread around the nation.
Surging case numbers in NSW remain stubbornly high with 345 new local infections and two deaths reported on Thursday.
Canberra will enter a seven-day lockdown from 5pm AEST after the ACT recorded its first local case in more than a year.
There were 21 new local cases in Melbourne where a lockdown has been extended until at least next Thursday.
Brisbane’s cluster grew by 10 local cases but Queensland health authorities believe the outbreak is under control.
Sydney and surrounding regions will be in lockdown until at least August 28.
Northwest NSW, Dubbo, Armidale, Tamworth, Byron Bay and the Hunter region are also under snap restrictions.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has defended the federal government’s vaccine rollout which remains behind most developed countries.
The Nationals leader said the Delta variant sparked reimposed restrictions on highly vaccinated populations in other parts of the world.
“You have to judge whether people die,” he told the ABC on Thursday.
“You have a vaccination for the purpose of trying to stay healthy and not dying. Australia has been incredibly, incredibly lucky, blessed, and well managed in that process.”
Australia has fully vaccinated 23.7 per cent of its population aged 16 and above with 14.2 million doses administered nationally.
Across the globe, 4.3 million people have died from COVID-19 out of 204 million cases, while there have been 946 deaths in Australia.
Business and unions continue to call for federal and state governments to take a more prominent role in setting mandatory workplace vaccination rules.
Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox is expecting employers to receive workplace regulator guidance about asking staff for their vaccination status in coming days.
“Vaccines is going to be a huge issue,” he told the Nine Network.
“It’s going to end up almost certainly in the courts.
Mr Willox said businesses had been taken to discrimination tribunals over face masks and expects similar cases with vaccine mandates.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions wants high-level talks with businesses and government to work out how to achieve 80 per cent vaccination coverage.
But unions have pushed back on leaving mandatory vaccination decisions to employers.
By Matt Coughlan in Canberra, AAP
