Australia's Victoria state has extended COVID-19 lockdown for a second week in Melbourne on Wednesday to combat an outbreak of the highly contagious virus strain first detected in India. Munia Iffat reports.

• Australia's second-most populous state, Victoria was tumbled into lockdown last Thursday, until June 3. It happened after the first locally acquired cases were detected in three months, infections rose steadily and close contacts reached several thousand.
• Victoria State Acting Premier James Merlino told reporters in Melbourne on Wednesday said, "If we let this thing run its course, it will explode. This variant of concern will become uncontrollable and people will die."
• "No-one wants to repeat last winter," he added, referring to one of the world's strictest and longest lockdowns imposed in Victoria last winter to contain the second wave of COVID-19.
• More than 800 people died in the state's outbreak, accounting for roughly 90% of Australia's total deaths since the pandemic began.
• Health authorities have said the strain could only take one day to pass from person to person, compared with earlier strains where transmission could take about five or six days of contact.

Meanwhile, World Health has said that only one version of the Covid19 variant first found in India should now be considered of concern. The B.1.617 variant, which has now been found in 53 countries, was called the triple mutant because of its three sub-lineages.