Australian authorities extended a lockdown in Sydney on Wednesday (Jul 14) by at least 14 days after three weeks of initial restrictions failed to stamp out the biggest outbreak of Covid-19 this year in the country's largest city.
Australian authorities extended a lockdown in Sydney on Wednesday (Jul 14) by at least 14 days, after three weeks of initial restrictions failed to stamp out an outbreak of Covid-19 in the country's largest city.
New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said that restrictions would need to remain in place until at least Jul 30 after she reported that there were 97 new locally transmitted cases, representing a slight increase in daily infections from a day earlier.
"It always hurts to say this, but we need to extend the lockdown at least a further two weeks," Berejiklian said in Sydney on Wednesday.
Of the 97 new cases, 24 people were infectious in the community.
Berejiklian has repeatedly said that the lockdown, that has been in place since Jun 26, will only be lifted when the number of newly reported cases that were circulating in the community while infectious were close to zero.
The harbour city of 5 million residents was plunged into an initial two-week lockdown in late June as the the highly contagious Delta variant started to take hold in a country that has otherwise largely avoided mass infections.
Many non-essential businesses are closed, and most school students are staying home, with residents only allowed outside their homes for essential activities and some exercise.
(Compiled)
