On Wednesday, Australia’s two largest states reported high rises in new COVID-19 cases, dashing expectations that lockdown restrictions would be removed, despite the fact that more than half of the country’s population is under stay-at-home orders.
Nearly four weeks after a lockdown of the city and neighbouring regions to contain an epidemic of the deadly Delta strain, New South Wales state, home to the country’s most populated metropolis Sydney, reported 110 new cases, up from 78 the day before.
Even as the epidemic enters its second week under nationwide lockdown, Victoria state reported 22 new cases, up from nine the day before. This is the state’s largest rise since the outbreak began this month.
“Had we not gone into the lockdown a few weeks ago, the 110 number today would undoubtedly have been thousands and thousands,” said NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian at a televised news conference.
“But we need to work harder and, of course, all of us need to be on guard,” she added.
Health leaders have said their greatest concern is the number of people active in the community before receiving their coronavirus diagnosis, and that the number should be near zero before lifting lockdown.
Berejiklian said that number jumped to 43 on Wednesday, double the previous day, and that she could not say until the following week whether the city would exit lockdown by a July 30 target.
Victorian authorities, however, said 16 of its 22 new cases were in quarantine during their infectious period, while exposure sites for the remaining six were “reasonably low” due to lockdown restrictions.
A third state, South Australia, also went into its first full day of a weeklong lockdown on Wednesday, and reported one additional case.
