Sydney Experiences Worst Day During Pandemic, Prints Highest Daily COVID-19 Infections

Illustration of the atmosphere of the COVID-19 lockdown in Australia. (Wikimedia Commons/Kgbo)

JAKARTA - Sydney reported the worst day of the COVID-19 pandemic on Thursday, with five deaths and a record increase in locally-acquired infections as the lockdown entered its seventh week to combat the highly contagious Delta variant.

Four in five people who died were not vaccinated while one had a dose, New South Wales State health authorities said, as they asked residents to be vaccinated as early as possible.

Authorities also announced a one-week lockdown starting Thursday in the area around the state's second-largest city, Newcastle, 140 kilometers north of Sydney, after six cases were reported there.

That would put an additional 615,000 people under lockdown, raising the total population of New South Wales under strict stay-at-home restrictions to 6 million people from 8 million in the state, or about a quarter of Australia's population.

Authorities suspect the outbreak started with a beach party near Newcastle, after people traveled from Sydney, in violation of city lockdown provisions.

"Our strongest focus is understanding how the disease was transmitted and into Newcastle," New South Wales Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant told reporters.

Illustration of COVID-19 in Australia. (Wikimedia Commons/Kgbo)

Health authorities reported there were 259 new COVID-19 cases in Sydney, out of 262 across New South Wales, daily records for the city and state. This is a new record, well above the previous record of 239 cases on Sunday.

There were more than 4,300 cases in total in New South Wales during the latest spike that began seven weeks after the first case of the Delta variant was detected in an unvaccinated limousine driver carrying an overseas airline crew.

Separately, the state capital of Queensland, which is under lockdown, reported another 16 cases of COVID-19 infection this Thursday. Meanwhile, the State of Victoria is trying to track down three new cases with no connection to previous infections, which were among eight reported on Thursday.

Regarding the COVID-19 vaccination, New South Wales health officials are urging residents, especially those over the age of 60, to be vaccinated. This reflects that four of the five deaths reported in the country have not yet received the vaccine, while another has just received the first dose.

"Please now is the time to strongly consider getting vaccinated. I implore you, register immediately to get the COVID-19 vaccination," said Chant.

New South Wales Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian has set a target of delivering 6 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, half of the state's total adult population by the end of the month, to ease the lockdown by August 28. To date, 4 million doses have been administered.

To note, so far the Kangaroo Country has only recorded about 20 percent of the total population aged over 16 years, who have received two full doses of COVID-19 vaccinations.

Meanwhile, the total infection cases since last year's pandemic reached 35,390 cases, with 932 deaths and 30,397 patients declared cured, as quoted by Worldometers.