Australia's Victoria imposes fines to enforce COVID-19 isolation

Military personnel will be deployed to enforce COVID-19 isolation orders in Australia's Victoria, according to the state's premier, with anyone caught in breach of those rules facing fines as high as 20,000 Australian dollars ($14,250).

The tough penalties on Tuesday came as Australia's second-most populous state struggles to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Daniel Andrews, Victoria's premier, told reporters that military and health teams had randomly visited more than 3,000 homes of people who should have been self-isolating because they had tested positive or were awaiting test results for the virus.

But in "more than 800 of those homes, the person who should have been isolating could not be found," Andrews said in Melbourne, the Victorian capital. "That is completely unacceptable."

Some 500 military personnel will this week deploy to the state to bolster enforcement of self-isolation orders, the premier said, with fines of nearly 5,000 Australian dollars ($3,559) for breaching stay-at-home orders.