The most populous Australian state of NSW has recorded 30 new locally acquired cases of coronavirus as the Greater Sydney area and surrounding areas enter the first day of a 14-day lockdown.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian has confirmed new local cases were recorded between 8 p.m. Friday and 8 p.m. Saturday, taking the total number in the outbreak to 110 cases.
More than 52,000 people were tested in the same period.
Berejiklian says all of the cases have been linked to the Bondi outbreak. She noted that 11 were self-isolating throughout their infectious period. A further three cases were in isolation for part of their infectious period.
Ten of the new cases are linked to seafood distributor Great Ocean Foods in Marrickville, bringing the cluster to 11.
Anyone who received a delivery from the business between June 21 and June 25, plus their household members, are being urged to contact NSW Health, immediately isolate and get tested.
Berejiklian said she expected case numbers to increase in the coming days, given the infectiousness of the Delta variant.
“Case numbers are likely to increase even beyond what we have seen today because we are seeing that people in isolation, unfortunately, would have already transmitted to all their house contacts,” she told reporters on Sunday morning.
“The measure of our success won’t be so much the people in isolation get the disease but the measure of our success will be to limit the number of people who went out and about into the community with the disease.”
It is the first day of a strict lockdown for Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour, which is scheduled to end at 11:59 p.m. on July 9.
NSW residents in the lockdown zone are only allowed to leave home for work that can’t be done at home, to shop for essential items, for exercise, to seek medical care or for caregiving or compassionate reasons.
Anyone in NSW who has been to Greater Sydney since June 21 is also being asked to stay at home for the lockdown period.
Exercise outdoors is allowed in groups of up to 10 and COVID-safe funerals can proceed with up to 100 people.
Brisbane Cluster
Meanwhile, the state of Queensland has recorded two new local cases of COVID-19, a couple who have been active in the Brisbane community for several days.The new cases are believed to be part of the Brisbane cluster linked to a Portuguese restaurant, and not the Sydney outbreak.
If the new cases are linked to the existing Brisbane cluster, involving the Alpha variant, they would take that outbreak to nine known cases.
Dr Young said there is “a lot happening” in the state, and urged anybody with symptoms to get tested as soon as possible.
“That is just critical,” she said.
Queensland will also revert back to previous venue density requirements and cap guests at private homes at 100 for the two-week duration of NSW’s current restrictions.
Meanwhile Queensland recorded one additional case in hotel quarantine, bringing the active total to 40.
