© STEVEN SAPHORE/ANADOLU AGENCY VIA GETTY IMAGESA view of the empty forecourt of the Sydney Opera House during the first day of lockdown in Sydney, Australia on June 26.
Cases of the Delta variant were reported to have grown to at least 80 by Saturday, according to Reuters.
The U.K.'s Sky News reported Monday that Delta variant cases had reached triple digits.
According to the latest report on the New South Wales Health government website, there are at least 130 "active local cases" in the Australian state, as of 8 p.m. local time Sunday, June 27.
The website notes: "Active cases are defined as people who have tested positive for COVID-19, are in isolation and are being clinically monitored by NSW Health. A person will no longer be an active case when they are clinically released from isolation."
The NSW government website says everyone in the Greater Sydney area "must stay home unless you have a reasonable excuse," as outlined at the website.
"From 6pm [local time] on Saturday 26 June 2021, if you have been in Greater Sydney, including the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour for any reason since Monday 21 June 2021, you must follow the stay-at-home rules and must continue to follow them for 14 days after you were last in Greater Sydney.
Comment: In just two weeks they should be able to flatten the curve!
"If you live in, usually work in, or usually attend a university or other tertiary education facility in Greater Sydney you must also follow the stay-at-home rules, unless you have not been in Greater Sydney for the last 14 days," the website adds.
The mask mandate in the Greater Sydney area, which requires a face covering in all indoor areas as well as in other select settings, has been extended to all of NSW, the government website said.
In addition to all indoor areas, masks are also required in the following settings, as outlined by the NSW government website:
- at certain outdoor gatherings
- if you are on public transport
- in a major recreation facility such as a stadium, or
- if you are working in a hospitality venue.
"There was no point doing it for three days or five days because it wouldn't have done the job," Berejiklian said, according to FRANCE 24, with Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
Reuters reported Monday that Berejiklian said: "We have to be prepared for the numbers to bounce around and we also have to be prepared for the numbers to go up considerably."
"With this strain, we are seeing almost 100 percent transmission within households," she added.
The Greater Darwin area of Australia's Northern Territory also entered a lockdown from 1 p.m. local time on June 27 following a Delta variant infection.
The Northern Territory government website said the lockdown was extended for a further 72 hours until 1 p.m. local time on July 2. The regions under lockdown include Darwin, Palmerston and Litchfield Council areas as well as Wagait and Belyuen Shires.
The Greater Darwin area lockdown was triggered after a gold mine worker tested positive for the Delta variant.
France 24/AFP/Reuters reported Saturday that over 1,600 people who had contact with the worker across three states were ordered to be isolated.
Sky News reported Monday that officials are attempting to trace 900 mine workers across the country who could have been infected by the initial case.
According to Reuters, around 80 percent of the Australian population (over 20 million) are under some form of lockdown or other restrictions, with COVID-19 cases reportedly rising in nearly every state or territory.
Reuters reported Australia's federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the country is facing a "critical time" in its battle against COVID-19.
"I think we are entering a new phase of this pandemic, with the more contagious Delta strain," he said.
The latest lockdowns come as total confirmed cases in Australia approach 30,600, with 910 total reported deaths. Over 7.3 million vaccine doses have been administered across the country, as of Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The wider picture
Coronavirus has infected more than 181.1 million people since it was first reported in Wuhan, China, including over 33.6 million in the U.S.
More than 3.8 million people have died and over 2.9 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, as of Monday, according to Johns Hopkins.
The graphic below, produced by Statista, shows the share of the vaccinated population in different countries.
Reader Comments
There are three things I can think of that have no known limits: time, space, and human stupidity.
[Link]
Today we have smartphones, social media, and ubiquitous internet ...
"NO-ONE IS SAFE UNTIL WE'RE ALL SAFE. VACCINATE."
I'd rather run myself over than participate in this bullshit existence
I envision some type of Speed (the movie) scenario there. Maybe get some counsel from Dennis Hopper as to the planning of this, and of course, live stream it: Speed style
one colleague said " school holidays are next week, bet ya it goes to shit",
well well, now WA is in the 2nd day of a 4 day lockdown, and school holidays start on friday !!
a predictable yet deceivable time we all are living in!!
and now the job assistance effected by covids been stopped, no covid assistance given, millions unable to go to work, yet rent and mortgages due on friday!! and end of tax year today, the government wants all its money back it handed out last year when this bollox began, some hard bad difficult times are more than on its way for millions..
God help us whom are true and simple, and yet throw those evil plandemic billionaires and the 4 marketeering competitive so called vaccine players to the fire, as in the life to come, they will feel every individuals pain and suffering they have caused to line there own pockets etc for this apparent new age that dawns upon us all,
something is wrong, and its more than this plandemic at play!!
anarchy and chaos will run the earth!!
I am a bit annoyed with Sky news Australia however, they seem to be pushing the jab now. Paul Murray still tells it like it is, which is great to see.
i have a mask exempt, have lung issues etc, and il take my chances with the whatever it is, standing alone as most are like happless sheep these days, ive been abused in the shops 6x in the last 2 days here in Perth since lockdown cos i dont wear a mask, and if this mask mandate wasnt in order, these people wouldnt look at me 2x, never mind ask me what freakin time of day it is.. makes my blood boil, but no matter, as it was said before, " Father forgive them for they know NOT what they do", and im no religious nut or freak etc, i just know the difference between right and wrong, and sticking my nose in other people affairs if it doesnt bother me.
look up " The Georgia stones"..
looks like its in full play now..
citizen vs citizen, no matter what race, what religion or what ever tickles your fancy!!
The rules for Ontario, where I am: [Link]
There's no medical documentation required to claim an exemption.
It even says a face covering won't protect you from getting covid!
I know someone who says he can't wear a mask due to anxiety. If anyone asks me for a reason I plan on saying asthma, COPD, and anxiety that all exacerbate each other like a feedback loop.
I don't know if some places would still send me away as some have "Face coverings required" posters.
My worry is that what the US does, Australia usually follows; vaxxs at all cost. You know it is turning into clown world here when Pauline Hanson is the most reasonable and logical politician. (side note: she has never been as bad as people made her out to be)
I wear a bandana around my neck in the shops but do not use it as a mask (it is mainly for show and if the overzealous Rangers moving the local homeless guy along say something). Masks outdoors is ridiculous and I refuse to wear a mask outside (haven't received any flack about it), and the ones in their cars wearing masks, well, that is a special kind of fear.
very small minute fibres from these millions of non medically approved masks worn many hours, and the fibres breaking down and being inhaled, getting stuck in the throat and lungs, i take it these peanut gallery monkeys didnt think the long term effect of this global joke they threw out on its civilians, and yet these other breeds of peanut shell cracking monkeys that had a brilliant thought of making shitloads of cash by making them, more than likely wear the medically approved mask, not the crap they sell and have effected many many lives in the long term for there own greed,
it seems the entire planets governments foreign and local have all stooped to an entire new low, whilst again with the pathetic leeching media spin many storys now in Australia of the wrong age groups getting the wrong jab cos it could kill the younger ones, but sod the older generation..
could go on but wont, and some good news, the AUSTRALIAN and BRITISH pollies got together via video link to release Julian Assange, just imagine if he wasnt banged up 18 months or so ago, we the normal hard working citizens of Earth would of had the heads up on this covid shit before it all went to hell, only one can think, as he only was banged up for exposing the Nazi evils committed by the mighty American forces, and they are protected from persecution by the global court of justice.. go figure!!
Saw Max Igan's new vid just a while ago. Sounds like everything's locked down everywhere in Australia. Many places are requiring a QR scan to enter. Here? I dunno. I won't go into large crowds until I see how the government will operate. I don't want to be traced, tracked, and forced into a PCR test. I also, until I know more about how vaxxed people may be physically affecting unvaxxed, don't want to be near vaxxed people right now.
They have closed the highway near here as they build a new roundabout at the intersection formerly regulated by a simple stop sign. All the traffic is being diverted to the country lane in front of my mother's house. I am over there quite often as we live nearby and we have animals there and she is quite elderly. I have a chair that I sit on in front of an outbuilding with a shady porch facing this road....
I take a break and have a beer or sip from a thermos filled with cool water, water from our precious wells, which we drink and our animals drink, if they are not açcessed to a waterhole.
And I now watch the traffic!
It is amazing.
When I was a kid and my parents first bought this place, there were only farmers and a few others, very few. There was lots of free space where a kid could go. A kid like me. Very few rules or boundaries.
Now it is filled with houses and with cars everywhere, trucks and semi-trailers.
And I watch.
Where is everybody going?
This is crazy, everything about modern, hi-tech 'living' (and crowding and pushing and shoving) is crazy.
Madness.
ned,
OUT