After the three-week lockdown failed to curb the Covid cases in Sydney, the administration has increased the restrictions starting Saturday.

The New South Wales authorities ordered more businesses to close on Saturday.

Any retail deemed not “critical” would be forced to close across Sydney and its surroundings while those in hard-hit suburbs would be placed under stricter stay-at-home orders from midnight on Saturday, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told media in Sydney.

“It’s not good enough for us to tread water which is what we’re doing now; we’ve to some extent stabilized it, but we’re not managing to quash that curve,” Berejiklian said.

Authorities clamped down on people’s movements out of virus hotspots in the city’s southwest, banning locals from leaving their neighborhoods unless they worked in emergency services or health care.

The tighter restrictions include a pause of all construction works in the city. 

The State Premier Berejiklian said, “I can’t remember a time when our state has been challenged to such an extent,” saying the state has been witnessing more than 100 cases a day with most of the cases being on the city.