NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned that COVID-19 case numbers may escalate dramatically as Sydney battles to bring its 100+ caseload under control.
The city recorded 18 new cases yesterday, considerably less than the 30 cases it recorded in the previous 24 hour period, but Ms Berejiklian said Sydneysiders needed to brace themselves for worse, not better.
“We have to be prepared for the numbers to bounce around and we have to be prepared for the numbers to go up considerably,” she said yesterday.
The State’s Chief Health Officer backed up the Premier’s statement, saying she didn’t expect to see case numbers drop for at least another five days.
It’s hoped a National Cabinet meeting decision to open up access to the AstraZeneca vaccine to all eligible Australians who request it from their GP will help with the current crisis.
The new arrangement will give indemnity to GPs who administer the AZ jab to people aged under 60 who ask for it.
The National Cabinet also agreed to make it mandatory for residential aged care workers to be vaccinated.
Meanwhile, WA Premier Mark McGowan has announced that Perth and the Peel region has entered a four-day lockdown after three new cases in the state were likely linked to the Delta variant from Sydney.
The state’s latest case if a man aged in his 30s who worked at Perth’s Indian Ocean Brewery.
“We’re engaging in a lockdown to kill it as soon as we can,” Mr McGowan said on Monday.
“We hope this will be a circuit breaker which will give our testers and contact tracers time to nail down a picture of how far this latest outbreak has spread.”
