Photo/Illutration A woman looks out a window from a locked-down public housing tower in Melbourne on July 6. (AP Photo)

CANBERRA--Australia’s prime minister says a shutdown of the nation’s second-largest city is necessary and promised continuing financial support for businesses that fear they won’t survive a second lockdown.

The Victoria state government said Melbourne and part of its surrounds will lock down for six weeks from Wednesday night because the rate of coronavirus spread was unsustainable.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the federal government’s medical advice agreed with the Victorian government that the move was necessary.

He says “I hope it isn’t for that long. I hope it’s for a shorter period as possible.”

Morrison says Australia’s seven other states and territories would continue to relax pandemic restrictions.

Victoria authorities announced another 134 cases in the latest 24 hours.

Breaches of infection controls at Melbourne hotels where international travelers are required to isolate for 14 days have been blamed for much of the disease spread. The state government last week responded by banning new arrivals at Melbourne Airport for two weeks.

Morrison said he wanted to reduce the numbers of Australian citizens, permanent residents and foreigners exempt from Australia’s travel ban landing at Australian airports because of the strain on hotel quarantine.

In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:

SOUTH KOREA has reported 63 new cases of the coronavirus as health authorities scramble to stem transmissions tied to places such as churches, temples, restaurants and workplaces. The figures on Wednesday brought the national caseload to 13,244 infections, including 285 deaths. Twenty-nine of the new cases came from the densely populated Seoul area, which has been at the center of a virus resurgence since late May. At least 33 cases were linked to international arrivals.

A NEW ZEALAND politician has resigned after admitting he leaked the names of coronavirus patients to news media. Conservative opposition lawmaker Hamish Walker said Wednesday he was sorry for his actions and was withdrawing his candidacy for the September general election in a seat he was expected to win. Walker sent the details of 18 patients to several news outlets on condition he remained anonymous as the source. He said he was exposing a “significant privacy issue” for the government because the patient names weren’t password secured. But news organizations said he’d given them the information to refute claims he was racist, after he’d earlier said that active cases were coming into the country from India, Pakistan and South Korea. The news organizations did not publish the names. National Party leader Todd Muller said there was a “clear breach of trust” by Walker, which went against the party’s values. A former National Party president, Michelle Boag, also resigned from several political and nonpolitical roles after acknowledging she’d leaked the names to Walker.

NEW ZEALAND authorities said Wednesday they will press charges against a coronavirus patient who escaped quarantine in Auckland and went shopping at a supermarket. Air Commodore Darryn Webb, the head of managed isolation and quarantine, said the 32-year-old man escaped through a fence at the Stamford Plaza hotel and was gone for just over an hour before returning. The man later tested positive for the virus. Webb said the man was a New Zealander who’d recently returned from India and his actions were “completely unacceptable.” New Zealand has eliminated community transmission of the virus and is trying to contain cases at the border by placing new arrivals into a 14-day quarantine at various hotels. Depending on exactly what charges are brought, the man could face a fine or a maximum of six months in jail if found guilty. Webb said that CCTV footage indicated the man had not been in close contact with others at the Countdown supermarket and had used a self-service checkout. Nevertheless, the supermarket has been closed for a deep clean.

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