For the first time since the coronavirus pandemic started, the people of Central West NSW have woken to a lockdown.
Orange, Blayney and Cabonne local government areas are now under the tight restrictions after a COVID-positive delivery driver visited the area and infected another person.
Residents of the three affected council areas can leave home for just four reasons - shopping for essential items, medical care or compassionate needs, exercise in groups of no more than two, and work or tertiary education which cannot occur at home.
Masks must also be worn in all indoor settings and outdoors where social distancing cannot be maintained, while schools will remain open with restrictions, including mandatory face masks for all teachers. Funerals in the areas will be limited to 10 people from Friday.
The announcement of the seven-day lockdown came late yesterday, as did news that South Australia would lockdown, also for seven days, following its fifth COVID case and 35 exposure sites including major shopping centres and schools.
All in all, more than half of Australia's population is now in lockdown, with calls for more federal support growing.
All the lockdowns and border closures sent the AFL into a spin as they tried to rearrange games and camps for teams.
Overseas and heavy flooding has hit central China following unusually heavy rains, with the subway system in the city of Zhengzhou inundated with rushing water.
Just to the north, the famed Shaolin Temple known for its Buddhist monks' mastery of martial arts was badly hit.
There was no immediate word on possible deaths or injuries on Tuesday.
In Olympics news there are concerns the "isolation bubble" has been broken, while Tunisia's double Olympic swimming gold medallist Oussama Mellouli has announced his international retirement, saying he had decided to "boycott" Tokyo despite qualifying for his sixth Games, while major sponsors will reportedly not attend the opening ceremony.
Kim Chappell
As Senior Producer - Digital for ACM's regional titles I assist newsrooms in digital best practice. Before this role, I was the digital journalist with ACM's national team and prior to that, the digital specialist with ACM's Agricultural division. I started as a general rounds journalist with The Land in 2006, moving up to hold the title of chief of staff before switching to digital reporting in 2015.
As Senior Producer - Digital for ACM's regional titles I assist newsrooms in digital best practice. Before this role, I was the digital journalist with ACM's national team and prior to that, the digital specialist with ACM's Agricultural division. I started as a general rounds journalist with The Land in 2006, moving up to hold the title of chief of staff before switching to digital reporting in 2015.
