The Latest: Australia's 2nd largest city to begin lockdown

MELBOURNE, Australia — Australia’s second-largest city will begin its third lockdown due to a rapidly spreading COVID-19 cluster centered on hotel quarantine.

The five-day lockdown will be enforced across Victoria state to prevent the virus spreading from the state capital Melbourne, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says.

Only international flights that were already in the air when the lockdown was announced would be allowed to land at Melbourne Airport.

A population of 6.5 million people will be locked down from 11:59 p.m. until the same time on Wednesday because of a contagious British variant of the virus first detected at a Melbourne Airport hotel has infected 13 people.

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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

Germany reinstates some border controls to fight variants. Dr. Fauci expects coronavirus shot categories to open up by April in U.S. California’s virus death toll surpasses New York. African nations still encouraged to use AstraZeneca vaccine. President Joe Biden's virus-fighting team is on a war strategy to defeat the coronavirus.

— Follow AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

CARSON CITY, Nev. -- Nevada plans to gradually loosen its current coronavirus restrictions over the next three months before delegating decisions about business closures to local governments on May 1.

Gov. Steve Sisolak said Thursday that the state’s recent progress in containing the...