Australia begins world's toughest lockdown, only 1 from family allowed to step out

Adelaide : Australia has begun one of the toughest lockdowns in the world to contain the cluster of COVID-19 infections. Outdoor exercise and dog-walking has also been banned till further orders.

For six days, only one person from a household will be allowed to leave home each day, and only for essential reasons, authorities said. Schools, universities, cafes and restaurants are closed, weddings and funerals are banned and mask-wearing is mandatory.

"We want to go hard, go early, but get out of it as quickly as we can," State Premier Steven Marshall said of the measures.

Marshall claimed that it is important to break the chain as many of the infected people are not showing symptoms and are only acting like a carrier of the virus.

"It's a real worry, especially because people who become infected are not showing the typical symptoms that we are used to," he said.

He also mentioned that it was highly likely to be transmitted from surfaces and that the incubation period was as low as 24 hours.

The state of 1.7 million people, who are spread out over a landmass five times the size of the U.K., had largely eradicated community transmission of the virus after a nationwide lockdown earlier this year.