National Emergency, New South Wales Again Record COVID-19 Infections

Illustration of the Bondi Beach area, Sydney being one of the regions that is under tight lockdown. (Wikimedia Commons/Nick Ang)

JAKARTA - The Australian state of New South Wales on Friday reported its biggest daily rise in cases of COVID-19 infection this year, prompting local authorities to tighten lockdowns in Sydney in what it called a 'national emergency'.

Seeing this condition, State Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian did not rule out the possibility of the lockdown, which will end on July 30, to be extended again.

"There is no doubt that the numbers are not heading in the direction we expected at this stage," Berejiklian said as he announced the 136 new cases in New South Wales.

Total infections in Australia's worst outbreak since the peak of the pandemic last year have soared to more than 1,900, since the first case was detected in a Sydney limousine driver carrying an international flight crew in mid-June.

The outbreak of the fast-moving Delta variant spread across the border into the neighboring states of Victoria and South Australia, leading to actions that have put more than half of the country's population into lockdown. Causing the closure of most economic activity.

Crucially, at least 53 of Sydney's new cases were infectious in the community before being diagnosed. Authorities say the figure must be close to zero for the lockdown in the New South Wales capital to be lifted.

Meanwhile, the state's chief health officer Kerry Chant said the national vaccination program needed to be refocused on a number of hot spots for the spread of COVID-19 infection in Sydney.

"I have informed the government today that this is a national emergency and requires additional measures to reduce the number of cases," Chant said. Formal 'national emergency' status will usually open up federal government funding and other assistance.

In contrast to New South Wales, Victoria State officials reported a drop in new daily cases on Friday to 14, adding 10 of them were in quarantine for the entire period of their infection.

With more than 32,500 cases of COVID-19 and 916 deaths, Australia has fared far better than many other developed countries. But the stop-and-go lockdowns and the slow rollout of a vaccine have frustrated residents.

To date, only about 15 per cent of Australian adults have received a full dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, a figure far behind many other developed countries.

This led Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday to apologize for the slow rollout of vaccinations. Meanwhile, his government is targeting full vaccination of the adult population by the end of the year.

Separately, Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Friday the Kangaroo State's drug regulator had approved the use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 12 to 15, though there were no immediate plans to add the group to the national vaccination program.

In the wake of recent conditions in Australia, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today announced the suspension of her 'travel bubble' with Australia for the next eight weeks.