NSW breaks COVID-19 case records with 825 infections, three deaths
NSW’s COVID crisis reached a new low after authorities announced a record 825 new infections and Premier Gladys Berejiklian urged citizens to “stay calm” and “accept that Delta is here”.
It’s the highest number recorded by any Australian jurisdiction in a 24-hour period.
Of today’s record cases, only 149 were linked to known cases or clusters.
The isolation status of 637 cases remains under investigation, while 58 were infectious in the community.
NSW Health said up to 80 per cent of cases were isolated to just eight local government areas (LGAs) of concern.
Of the 825 new cases recorded in the 24 hours to 8:00pm yesterday, 290 were from the Western Sydney Local Health District (LHD) and 253 were from the South Western Sydney LHD.
Ms Berejiklian said the state had to be “real about” the state’s COVID crisis, and now was not the time to become “fixated and panic”.
“We accept that Delta is here, we accept heading to zero across the nation, especially once you open up and live freely will be an impossible task,” she said.
“If NSW has had to go down this journey the earliest because of the size of our state because of the way the outbreak has grown in NSW, so be it.
“But we are up to the task. We have been through a lot in the last few years and not just with a pandemic, and we will get through this.”
She also urged people to “get the vaccine now”.
“Don’t be fussy on the vaccine. Go forth and get your vaccine with any vaccine offered to you,” she said.
“Please make sure you do it as soon as possible to protect you and your loved ones and make sure we get quicker to our goals.”
Three people have also died from COVID-19, bringing the total number of deaths during the Delta outbreak to 68.
A woman in her 90s from south-west Sydney became the 10th death linked to an outbreak at Liverpool Hospital, where she was a patient in the geriatric ward.
The other two deaths were men in their 90s and 80s from northern Sydney, who were residents of the Greenwood Aged Care in Normanhurst.
They were infected there by an unvaccinated employee.
The state’s total number of fatalities since the start of the pandemic is 124.
NSW deputy chief health officer Marianne Gale said 16 people who attended a gathering in Maroubra last weekend had since tested positive for COVID-19.
“A number of their contacts have also tested positive,” she said.
“Contact tracing and further testing is under way and I’d like to particularly ask residents of Maroubra, Malabar and the Matraville area to come forward for testing and isolate should you have even the mildest of symptoms.”
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard laid the blame for the state’s “precarious position” and soaring case numbers on non-compliance.
“I am hearing that could be up to about 60 people who attended the Maroubra party,” he said.
“Another funeral that occurred in western NSW, I am hearing that they could have been up to between 350 to 500 people at the funeral.
“I would just say to them, you are ransoming our future, you are making sure that none of us can get back to a normal life.”
The Premier said authorities were “shocked” to learn a majority of the attendees at the illegal party at Maroubra had come from one of the 12 LGAs of concern.
There were 38 new cases in Western NSW, including 32 in Dubbo, two in Bathurst, two in Wellington and one each in Walgett and Narromine.
Meanwhile, the outbreak in the state’s far west continued to grow, with 12 new infections in Wilcannia and two new cases in Broken Hill.
There are currently 516 COVID-19 cases admitted to hospital, with 85 people in intensive care, 29 of whom require ventilation.
ABC
