Australian officials reinstated social distancing measures in Sydney as New Zealand partially suspended the "travel bubble" between the two countries, amid fears a case involving the variant first detected in India could lead to a significant outbreak.
The swift action was taken a day after a 50-year-old man became the first reported local transmission case in New South Wales state in more than a month, with the source of his infection baffling health officials.
Further testing determined the man was infected with the Indian variant and genomic sequencing had linked the case to a returned traveller from the United States, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said, but there was no clear transmission path between the two people. "We can't