Sydney: Australia’s COVID-19 response committee is set to hold an emergency meeting on Monday as outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant across the country prompted a lockdown in Sydney and renewed restrictions elsewhere.

A Covid outbreak in Sydney has grown to 128 cases, linked to the highly contagious Delta strain first detected in India.

A small number of positive infections have also been recorded in the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia.

This is the first time in months that cases have emerged in multiple parts of the country at the same time.

Sydney began a two-week lockdown on Sunday as a cluster of cases of the highly infectious coronavirus Delta variant rose here, while an outbreak in the northern city of Darwin prompted a hard two-day stay-at-home order.

Australia has been more successful in managing the pandemic than many other advanced economies through swift border closures, social distancing rules and high compliance.

But the country has confronted an increasing number of small outbreaks in recent months. These have been contained so far through speedy contact tracing, isolation of thousands of people at a time or snap hard lockdowns.