The state of Victoria in Australia enforced a one week lockdown to curb the new cases of COVID-19 cluster in the state but there have been contemplations as to whether the one-week lockdown is enough to contain the fresh outbreak.

The one-week lockdown will end by Thursday night as it started this past week Friday but the number of cases is on the rise and this is causing a serious concerns in the state.

Victoria is Australia’s second-most populous state in the country and was swiftly sent into lockdown back in May 27th after a report of a locally transmitted case was reported. This will be the first in the state since nearly three months.

The new cluster which was first reported in India is said to be much virulent and without swift action, it could lead to a serious health crisis in the country and that is why the near 7 million residents in the state were enjoyed to stay at home unless they’re going for essential businesses.

There are new cases of the locally acquired COVID-19 which were reported on Tuesday increasing the number to 54 according to reports.

“I don’t know if there is going to be an extension or not,” Victoria state Health Minister Martin Foley told reporters in Melbourne. He said “significant concerns” remained about community transmission as several venues were added to the hotspot list.

“We are not yet in a position to make that call … and as soon as we are, we will be sharing that with all Victorians,” said Foley.

The state has commenced another contact-tracing measure with some 4,800 primary contacts traced being tested. The good news is that almost 75% of those who took the obligatory test came negative.

Officials said they could trace all three clusters to the overseas traveller who tested positive days after finishing quarantine.

Australia was able to combat the pandemic back in 2020 by issuing lockdowns, stricter border controls as well as enforcing tough restrictions on movements all which have helped the country battle the pandemic swiftly.

There were over 30,000 cases reported with less than 1,000 deaths.

But the lockdown doesn’t come without its detriment on the economy as data from ANZ bank made it clear that the spending in the state of Victoria plummeted by 49% in the first three days of the lockdown unlike the week prior to the lockdown.

Another big fear is the fact that new cases were linked to a care center for senior citizens in the city. This is also relative to the slow COVID-19 vaccine rollout nationwide.

The Australian government defended the pace of the vaccine rollout in care centres for seniors, though authorities have not yet disclosed how many workers and residents in the care centres have been inoculated.

“We’re comfortable about where we’re at, everybody would have liked to have done it faster, but logistically, we’ve done it as quickly as we possibly could,” Federal Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck told ABC Radio on Tuesday.

And with that said, more than 700 deaths were recorded from the Victoria’s care centers for seniors after the second wave of the pandemic in the state back on 2020 making majority of the fatalities senior citizens of the state.

Victoria then placed the state under a strict lockdown which lasted for 100 days making it a really long period. The outcome was indeed positive.

One of the factors that affected Australia’s nationwide vaccination was because of the vaccine policy changes for people under the age of 50 due to blood clot concerns.

This had an effect on the nationwide rollout of the vaccine in the country but the government was able to administer more than four million doses last Thursday even though that target should have been hit since the ending of March.