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The country is struggling to contain the spread of the virus as 60% of the population is placed in containment.
Australia reported a record number of new coronavirus cases for the year on Saturday, with the highly infectious delta variant continuing to spread in the country’s most populous states, New South Wales (NSW), Victoria and Queensland.
With around 15 million people in the tri-states, or 60% of Australia’s population, under strict lockdown, the country has also reported five coronavirus-related deaths, one of the highest tolls this year.
NSW has reported 319 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases, the most since the pandemic began in early 2020, with Sydney and neighboring regional centers stretching 200 km (120 miles) of coastline under a stay order at home for six weeks already.
There are 345 people hospitalized in NSW, including 56 in intensive care and 23 on a ventilator, state authorities said.
As the virus continued to spread through the sprawling Sydney suburb, State Health Minister Brad Hazzard expressed frustration that people seemed to be ignoring the restrictions and urged residents to stay at home.
“This is the greatest thing you can do for all of us and for yourself, to make sure we beat this Delta virus that is wreaking havoc across the world,” Hazzard told media.
Neighboring Victoria has seen the biggest daily jump in cases this year, with 29 new infections, as the state remains under a seven-day snap lockdown imposed earlier this week, the state’s sixth since it began of the pandemic.
Victoria Premier Dan Andrews urged people to follow public health rules that allow residents to leave their homes only for essential jobs, shopping, care, a vaccination or two hours of exercise in the middle of air.
“This Delta variant is spreading so fast,” Andrews said.
“We don’t have enough people vaccinated, we will end up with younger people in the hospital, if not fit and healthy people. Our system will be outdated if we don’t get it under control.
Protesters rally against a lockdown to curb the spread of a coronavirus disease outbreak in Melbourne on Thursday [Daniel Pockett/Reuters]Contact tracers were still working to trace the source of his outbreaks, Andrews said.
“It’s very, very important to see so many cases… we don’t know where these two outbreaks started.”
Meanwhile, Queensland has registered 13 new cases, all but one of which is infectious, raising hopes that the eight-day lockdown in parts of the state will be lifted as scheduled on Sunday afternoon.
With just over 36,000 cases of COVID-19 and 937 deaths, Australia has avoided the high number of cases in other developed countries, but its vaccination figures are among the lowest, with just 20% of people from over 16 years fully vaccinated.
Now, the effectiveness of the government’s ‘zero COVID’ policy is under scrutiny as lockdowns struggle to clear the highly infectious variant of the Delta.
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