The government of the Commonwealth of Australia announced the lockdowns in the Greater Sydney area will be extended to the end of September on Aug 20.

The country has basically closed its borders since March 2020. Its tourism industry, which relied on the domestic market to offset international losses due to the COVID-19 epidemic, faces another heavy blow.

In the report titled "Value of Tourism" released in late June, Tourism Australia said Australia lost almost A$80 billion in tourism revenue in 2020 because of a variety of lockdown measures and travel restrictions to contain the virus. Such a loss cast a serious shadow over the recovery of the economy and improvement of people's livelihood.