Australia confines thousands to home quarantine.The coronavirus has isolated North Korea’s economy.. China has laid the groundwork to dominate the market for protective and medical supplies for years to come.

Australia confines thousands to home quarantine

Officials in Victoria have locked down nine public housing towers in Melbourne, the state capital, ordering 3,000 residents to not leave their homes for any reason for at least five days.

The strict quarantine, which started on Saturday, is the first of its kind in Australia during the pandemic and is being monitored by hundreds of police officers.

Dr. Paul Kelly, Australia’s acting chief medical officer, has described the towers as “vertical cruise ships” with the potential to cause a major surge in coronavirus cases.

Details: Australia’s total case count remains relatively small, but public health officials have become increasingly alarmed by the outbreak in Melbourne. About 200 new cases emerged in and around the city over the past two days, a growth rate not seen since March.

Here are the latest updates and maps of the outbreak.

In other developments:

■ The coronavirus has isolated North Korea’s economy as no sanctions could. It has devastated the regime’s ability to bring in money through legal and illegal trade, leaving it scrambling to protect the country’s diminishing foreign currency reserves. ■ Despite attempts by countries to set up their own factories to cope with the pandemic, China has laid the groundwork to dominate the market for protective and medical supplies for years to come.