Asia Today: Outbreak grows in Australia's 2nd-largest city

A coronavirus outbreak in Australia's second-largest city continued to grow Thursday and the Northern Territory detected its first case in three months.

Northern Territory Health Minister Natasha Fyles said the man came home to Darwin on Monday from Melbourne before a one-month lockdown was imposed on 36 of its suburbs Wednesday night.

Before the man tested positive Wednesday, the Northern Territory had last detected a case on April 6.

Fyles said the man had spent two weeks in hotel quarantine in Melbourne on returning from overseas then spent “a couple of days“ with family in one of the city's suburbs identified as a coronavirus hot spot.

Fyles did not say whether the man was likely infected in Melbourne or overseas.

Victorian state Chief Health Minister Brett Sutton said 77 cases had been detected in the past 24 hours in Melbourne, mostly in the locked-down suburbs.

A retired judge is holding an inquiry into breaches of infection control in Melbourne hotel quarantine, which has been blamed for some of the spread in the city while much of Australia is virus-free.

The Herald Sun newspaper reported allegations that security firms charged the state government for hotel guards that were not provided, guards had sex with quarantined hotels guests and allowed families to go between rooms to play cards.

In other developments around the Asia-Pacific region:

— South Korea reported 54 new cases as the virus continues to spread beyond the capital area and reach cities like Gwangju, which has shut schools and tightened social restrictions after dozens were found infected this week. Health Minster Park Neung-hoo during a virus meeting expressed alarm over the rise of infections in Gwangju, which had one of the smallest caseloads among major South Korean cities before this...