© Reuters / Loren Elliott
The state's capital, Sydney, was placed under strict Covid restrictions until at least midnight on Friday 9 July amid a rise in infections linked to the Delta variant, first detected in India.
Despite residents having been asked to follow 'stay at home' rules and social distancing measures to slow the spread of the virus, authorities reported 24 new cases on Thursday, with half of those infectious individuals believed to have spent time in the community.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian described the growing number of cases as "a cause of concern," suggesting that people with Covid-like symptoms are ignoring the lockdown order.
With the current measures failing to halt the emergence of new clusters, the regional premier stated that officials would be weighing the impact of the lockdown orders in "the next few days," and considering whether they have been effective enough.
The Australian government is facing an outbreak of infections in a number of areas across the country, despite strict border control measures designed to prevent the nation from importing new strains of the virus.
Sydney is in lockdown, alongside Brisbane, Darwin, and Perth, in an attempt to stamp out infections. Alice Springs, the outback town that is home to the Uluru world heritage site, was added on Wednesday amid concern over an infected individual who was in the city's airport for several hours.
While Australia has largely managed to contain the virus during the pandemic, reporting only 30,562 cases and 910 deaths from the disease, its ability to halt the spread of the virus has been hampered by a slow vaccine rollout. With the federal inoculation drive underway, officials have only managed to fully vaccinate 8% of the country's adults in four months.
Reader Comments
Oh, by the way. Westfield Burwood (Sydney) is supposedly an "infection hotspot." Every single person I work with goes in there almost every day when on layover from some bus route. Why haven't we all caught this "highly infectious" Delta variant? Why isn't coughing and fever ripping through my depot?
They say that a limo driver got it from an international passenger. If this variant is so "highly contagious", how come no-one else on the plane caught it? 300 people in a cramped space for 12 hours - zero cases.
Anyways, I am with you on the subject with whatever strain that comes up and the lies of how contagious it is. I feel for the Australians and New Zealand people as well as the Canadians and the British because they have had the worst lock downs with the least amount of cases which mos likely were flue cases that are the norm. Sometime last year I had read a medical report on strains of viruses and how it worked, come to find out they are ever mutating every ten or so hours so even if one was to make an actual vaccine for it, it would not work because it would be useless by the time it came out to be applied. That is why flue strains and flue vaccines are a fraud and either a money making scheme or some more sinister issue. Besides we would all have been exposed to all of it since before it was even discovered. Most of us lived and those who had something we do not know if they were not given basic treatment and left to die in the hospital all part of the ruse because they were keeping people separated and manipulating everything.
Sorry to go on so long, your response really rings true with me and I can relate. Everyone I know and including my family have been everywhere exposed and traveled all over since the beginning; non one got sick except with colds and nobody was hospitalized. The key is not to test because if you have your sinuses or seasonal allergies acting up you might test positive. A lot of people test positive without being sick and they have to quarantine like idiots. I will never consent to a test unless I'm forced.
Hopefully it won't work. The more of us who don't get injected means the more they are going to fail with their diabolical scheme.
Unless you can self-represent competently, or get a no-win no-fee deal (you'll need a water-tight case for that one) you might be better off saving your money and using it to get out of Dodge!