LATEST WAVE NOW SYDNEY’S ‘SCARIEST PERIOD’

SYDNEY— Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales (NSW), reported a double-digit rise in new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 for the third straight day as officials fight to contain an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant.

“Since the pandemic has started, this is perhaps the scariest period that New South Wales is going through,” state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

NSW has imposed tough restrictions in Sydney, Australia’s largest city and home to a fifth of the country’s 25 million population, with health officials saying transmission could be happening even through minimal contact with infected persons.

NSW officials have so far resisted calls for a hard lockdown although Australia has a good record of successfully suppressing past outbreaks through snap lockdowns, tough social distancing rules and swift contact tracing.

‘Crush and kill’

Australia has reported just under 30,400 cases and 910 deaths since the pandemic began.

Western Australia state premier Mark McGowan has urged NSW authorities to place the state in a lockdown to “crush and kill” the virus, warning “light touch” curbs could trigger a spike in infections. Western Australia has closed its border to NSW.

NSW authorities have imposed mandatory masks in all indoor locations in Sydney, including offices, restricted residents in seven council areas in Sydney’s east and inner west from leaving the city, and limited home gatherings to five.

Eleven new local cases were reported on Thursday, taking the total infections in the latest outbreak to more than 40.