Sydney Is Getting Darker And Returns To Record COVID-19 Infections, Australian PM: Tough Fight With Delta Variant

JAKARTA - Australian authorities have announced that they will take firm action regarding Sydney's COVID-19 lockdown, after the city reported its largest daily number of infections.

However, the authorities still avoid measures such as imposing a curfew, to increase the tightening of restrictions on mobility and activities of citizens.

Despite being in lockdown for more than six weeks, Sydney has seen a surge in cases of COVID-19 infection with 343 cases in the last 24 hours, due to the malignancy of the Deltan variant. This figure is an increase of 66 cases compared to the previous day, and surpassed the largest daily infection record on Saturday last week.

Authorities in the State of New South Wales (NSW), home to Sydney, also announced three deaths from the virus and all of them have not been vaccinated. A total of 357 cases are in hospital, with 60 in intensive care, 28 of which require ventilation.

Amid questions about the effectiveness of Sydney's lockdown, under which residents are supposed to stay at home except for the necessities of life, New South Wales authorities said police had been asked to step up checks on how many people were allowed into small shops at the same time, still see a lot of unnecessary movement of people.

"What I'm concerned about is crowds in shopping malls and places where we've seen outbreaks of contagion in small shops," state Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant told reporters.

Meanwhile, neighboring Victoria reported 20 new cases, up from 11 the day before, with 15 infections as of Tuesday having spent time in the community, raising prospects of an extended lockdown in Melbourne, the country's second-largest city, after Thursday.

With fewer than 36,700 cases of infection and 942 deaths from COVID-19, Australia has handled the pandemic far better than many other developed countries.

However, a wave of Delta variants has disrupted Australia's reopening plans, as authorities seek to ramp up the rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday said Sydney was in a tough fight with the Delta variant. He hopes Kangaroo Country will return to near normalcy by the end of this year, when all Australians over 16 will be offered at least one dose of the vaccine under his plan.

"I want Australia to celebrate Christmas, I want everyone around the table at Christmas time," Morrison said in Canberra.

Meanwhile, New South Wales officials have set a target of six million vaccinations by the end of the month, when Sydney's current lockdown is scheduled to end, if restrictions are to be relaxed.

So far more than 4.5 million total injections have been given, with more than 23 percent of people over 16 fully vaccinated, slightly higher than the national figure.

"This is why we have a sense of urgency about vaccination, because it gives us the opportunity to see what people can do in September and October," State Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.