Sydney Record Deadliest Day During COVID-19 Pandemic, New South Wales PM: Transmission Rate Very High

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

JAKARTA - Sydney recorded its deadliest day during the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday, with Melbourne deciding to impose a curfew and extend the lockdown for another two weeks, amid a spike in COVID-19 infections.

Sydney, which is in its eighth week of lockdown, is at the center of Australia's third wave of COVID-19 that threatens to push the country's $2 trillion economy into its second recession in as many years.

New South Wales State Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian said seven people in Sydney had died from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, surpassing the state's previous daily toll record from earlier this month.

Berejiklian said New South Wales had also detected 478 infections, the highest one-day rise since the pandemic began.

"Our community transmission rate is very high," Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.

"Every death is for those who have loved ones, who have died in tragic circumstances and our sincere condolences to all loved ones and families," he continued.

Authorities also confirmed the death of a 15-year-old boy from Sydney, who suffered from pneumococcal meningitis and COVID-19.

The toll was announced as 200 military personnel were deployed across Sydney, to put up roadblocks to enforce restrictions on movement. Last month, Australia deployed 500 troops to assist New South Wales.

Illustration of a COVID-19 vaccination center in Australia. (Wikimedia Commons/Nick-D)

However, while Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Darwin which began their restrictions on Monday are all in lockdown, cases of infection are proving very difficult to contain.

Separately, Victoria State Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said Melbourne would now remain in lockdown until September 2 after recording 22 new COVID-19 cases.

"We are at a tipping point. There is no choice today but to strengthen this lockdown further," Andrews told reporters in Melbourne.

In Canberra, the national capital, recorded 19 new cases, the biggest one-day rise in cases on Monday as the lockdown extended for another two weeks.

Australia's economy has rebounded strongly from the initial wave of the pandemic, with unemployment hitting its lowest level in more than a decade at 4.9 percent in June.

But with many of the most populous cities on the east coast now on lockdown, economists expect there will be heavy casualties.

"Unemployment could jump back up to 5.5 percent in the next few months, mainly driven by (New South Wales)," said Shane Oliver, Chief Economist at AMP.

With only about 26 per cent of people over the age of 16 having received the full COVID-19 vaccine, Australia is vulnerable to the highly contagious Delta variant that continues to spread across the country.

The slow pace of vaccination and the continuing outbreak of the virus put pressure on Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who must return to the polls before May 2022. PM Morrison said on Sunday he had purchased about 1 million doses of Pfizer vaccine from Poland.

However, he declined to specify how much Australia had paid for the vaccine, which would be in addition to the 40 million doses his government has ordered from Pfizer.

PM Morrison added that more than half of the dose from Poland would soon be injected to inject children aged 20 to 39 years in Sydney's worst-affected suburbs.