Australia – Authorities in the virus-stricken city of Melbourne have warned of a “dangerous” rise in people resisting lockdown measures, sometimes violently.
Police said this trend included so-called “sovereign citizens” being combative with officers in recent days.
Authorities have increased fines for repeated rule breaches as Melbourne endures a deadly virus second wave.
More than half of Australia’s 18,300 cases have been recorded in the past month in Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital. There have been 226 deaths nationally.
The city has recently mandated wearing masks and tightened a stay-at-home order to reduce transmission. But authorities said a lot of people were breaking rules, including some who claimed to be “above the law”.
“Most Victorians are doing the right thing, no question,” said Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews.
“But we have this continual minority of people who are knowingly – not by mistake, but are knowingly – doing the wrong thing and putting people’s lives at risk by doing so.”
Random checks by police on 3,000 infected people had found that more than 800 were not home isolating, as they were supposed to.
On Tuesday, the state government increased fines for repeated lockdown breaches from A$1,652 to A$5,000.
