SYDNEY -- The highly contagious delta strain of COVID-19 is threatening to upend an Australian economy that has weathered the pandemic well, forcing an extension of Sydney's lockdown on Wednesday and raising the possibility of a double-dip recession.
Half the country's 25 million people have been under strict stay-home orders across the state capitals of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide after infections leaked into the community from returning citizens. A botched vaccine rollout, meanwhile, has further exposed the island nation even as the U.S., U.K. and Europe rush to reopen their economies.
