COVID scare reaches Alice Springs, deep in Australia's outback

The town of Alice Springs, in the middle of Australia's vast outback wilderness and gateway to UNESCO World Heritage-listed Uluru, on Wednesday joined four major cities by locking down, to prevent a potential outbreak of the Delta coronavirus variant. In the past few days, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Darwin imposed lockdowns, though the number of cases recorded daily nationwide were still being counted in tens rather than hundreds. Around one in two Australians are now under stay-at-home orders, with millions of others subjected to movement curbs and mandatory mask-wearing amid flare-ups of the highly contagious strain in several locations.