Australia’s Delta outbreak worsens despite lockdown

SYDNEY: The prospect of an extended lockdown in Sydney loomed on Monday as Australian health officials reported yet another record daily rise in COVID-19 cases for the year, fuelled by the highly infectious Delta variant.

New South Wales state reported 112 new locally transmited COVID-19 cases, almost all in Sydney, despite the country’s biggest city entering its third week of lockdown.

Case numbers have been at record levels for at least three days.

There was, however, a glimmer of light as the number of newly-infected people who were out in the community while infectious dropped to 34 from 45 on Sunday.

State Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the progress of that figure in coming days would determine whether Sydney’s lockdown, due to end on Friday, would be extended.

“That’s the number we need to get as close to zero as possible,” Berejiklian said during her daily televised briefing.

“It is really up to us. The health expert advice will be based on what those numbers look like. I can’t be clearer than that.”

Berejiklian said most of Monday’s cases were family members or close friends of already infected people, and pleaded with residents to comply with lockdown rules, which were tightened over the weekend.

Total infections in the outbreak are nearing 700, less than a month since the first was detected in mid-june.

Sixty-three people are in hospital, with 18 in intensive care, officials said, while a woman in her 90s became the country’s first COVID-19 fatality this year.