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Brisbane enters three-day lockdown, businesses to close for the weekend

Regions of Greater Brisbane are entering into a three day lockdown, ending Monday 11 January, starting tonight after a virulent stain of Covid-19 started spreading in the city.

As of 6pm on Friday new restrictions will be placed on the business community, with cafes, pubs and restaurants limited to takeaway only, and other businesses and places of worship being forced to close.

The areas entering lockdown are the council areas of Brisbane, Logan, Ipswich, Moreton and Redlands. Residents in these areas can leave their homes for essential work, essential shopping or exercise.

“Everybody, let’s be in this together. Let’s stay home [and] look at is as a long weekend at home with your family and friends,” said Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk at a briefing on Friday morning.

“I think everybody in Queensland, especially the Greater Brisbane area knows what we are seeing in the UK and other places around the world is high rates of infection from this particular strain … and that is why we are taking those strong actions today.

“It is 70 per cent more infectious and we are going to go hard and we are going to go early and do everything we can to stop the spread of this virus. It’s incredibly contagious.”

Supermarkets across the region are already seeing increased demand, according to the ABC.

Queues that stretch throughout stores have formed as consumers look to stock up ahead of a long weekend at home, mirroring what the industry saw in March.

Some supermarkets have stopped letting customers inside until queues have settled within the stores to maintain social distancing guidelines, having been caught unaware by the announcement of a lockdown this morning.

More to come.

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