Bad News From Australia: Daily COVID-19 Cases Reach 1,900 For The First Time, Ambulance Workload Rises

JAKARTA - Australia's daily COVID-19 cases hit 1,900 for the first time during the pandemic this Friday, triggered by outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant continuing to spread in Sydney and Melbourne despite being under lockdown.

Australia is in the grip of a third wave of infections with the Delta outbreak forcing officials to abandon its zero COVID strategy, turning to increased vaccinations to suppress the virus.

Local authorities have now opted to begin easing the strict restrictions, having reached a higher proportion of the population with double-dose vaccination.

New South Wales (NSW), the epicenter of Australia's worst outbreak, reported 1,542 new daily local cases this Friday, surpassing the previous high of 1,533 reached last week. Nine new deaths were registered.

"So far, this trajectory is what was predicted," NSW Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian told a news conference in Sydney, the state capital, where cases are expected to peak next week.

Berejiklian said daily COVID-19 media briefings would be canceled from Monday and updates would be detailed in online videos, an approach previously used when case numbers were low.

The rise in cases in Sydney has increased the burden on ambulance staff, with the number of COVID-19 patients transported doubling in the past two weeks, to a total of nearly 6,000, officials said.

About 1,156 people are hospitalized in the state, with 207 in intensive care, 89 of whom require ventilation.

Although cases hold near record levels, New South Wales authorities said Thursday businesses in Sydney could reopen once 70 percent of the state's adult population is fully vaccinated.

The target will be achieved around mid-October. So far, 76% of people over 16 in the state have received at least one dose, while 44% have been fully vaccinated.

The state of Victoria recorded 334 new cases, the biggest increase for this year, and one death. Some restrictions in the capital Melbourne will be relaxed when 70 per cent of the adult population have received at least one dose of the vaccine, expected to be reached around September 23.

The four-stage nationwide reopening plan, unveiled by the federal government in July, aims to ease some of the tightest restrictions once the country hits its COVID-19 vaccination target of 70 to 80 percent, from currently just around 40 percent. However, some virus-free states have flagged they may delay easing interstate travel restrictions and other restrictions.

For information, Kangaroo Country recorded a total number of COVID-19 infections as many as 69,912 cases with 1,076 deaths and 36,173 patients recovered since the pandemic. Higher vaccinations have kept the death rate at 0.41 percent in the Delta variant outbreak, data show, below the previous outbreak.