Concern at spread in NSW

Community Covid cases: ‘Things are going to get worse’

New South Wales yesterday recorded 50 new community Covid-19 cases — the highest daily number of new infections in this latest outbreak.

Of those 50 cases, 26 were infectious in the community prior to their diagnosis, 11 were in the community for part of the time they were infectious, and 13 were in isolation.

It’s the highest number of daily infections since April last year and brings the state’s total number of cases to 489.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the number of cases who were infectious in the community was concerning.

“When you know that there are 26 cases infectious in the community, the only conclusion we can draw is that things are going to get worse before they get better,” she said.

“One message I really want to get across to people who have been diagnosed with Covid, please tell us the truth the first time around. When people withhold information, it means that their contacts are potentially infectious in the community.”

NSW chief medical officer Dr Kerry Chant said the majority of new cases were linked, but the source of more than a dozen new infections was unknown.

Forty-seven patients are in hospital and 16 are in intensive care — among them a teenager, someone in their 20s and someone in their 30s.

Chant said of the 47 cases admitted to hospital, 79 per cent were unvaccinated.

“Five have both doses of the Pfizer, but they were the Summit Care residents whose have been admitted for observation and monitoring,” Chant said.

“Four have received the first dose of [AstraZeneca] vaccine and one has received first dose of Pfizer . . . No one who has had two doses [of vaccine] is in hospital.

Earlier, a leading health expert said Sydney wouldn’t be getting out of lockdown any time soon, amid reports that NSW Government ministers were preparing the state for a winter of Covid.

Speaking on ABC Breakfast, strategic health policy consultant and University of NSW adjunct professor Bill Bowtell said the state’s leaders needed to “get real”, as the current lockdown restrictions didn’t go far enough.

Bowtell said the state’s numbers were “pretty avoidable”, but “every step of the way politics got over the science”.

“We got into this problem because there is too much politics. Too much influence by big business.

“But what’s going to get us out of it is following the science.”

The Australian newspaper reported yesterday that NSW’s Government is preparing for lockdown to potentially last into August, with some now calling on Berejiklian to announce longer stayat-home orders.

It comes as Chant confirmed on Friday there were now 14,000 close contacts across the state, doubling from the 7000 close contacts listed on Thursday.