On Thursday, the COVID-19 Delta epidemic in Sydney, Australia's largest city, rose by 239 cases, the highest daily increase since the pandemic began, prompting authorities to increase police powers to shut down companies that do not comply with lockdown procedures.
More than two million people in eight Sydney hotspots will be required to wear masks outside and stay inside a 5-kilometer (3-mile) radius of their homes.
Sydney is in the fifth week of a nine-week lockdown that is set to conclude on August 28th, but the highly transmissible Delta form continues to spread.
“It only takes a few people, or a small percentage of the population, to do something wrong and cause a setback for all of us. We can't afford setbacks,” Gladys Berejiklian, the state premier, told reporters in Sydney.
In Sydney, the majority of new locally acquired cases were discovered, with at least 66 of them having spent time in the community while infectious. Authorities have stated that the lockdown in Sydney will not be lifted until the number of cases in the community is reduced to zero.
A total of 177 cases had been reported in New South Wales the day before.
Sydney, which is home to a fifth of Australia's 25 million people, is experiencing its biggest epidemic this year, prompting authorities to prolong lockdown restrictions for another month on Wednesday.
So far, over 2,800 instances have been identified, with 182 people admitted to hospitals. Fifty-four people are in intensive care, with 22 of them needing to be ventilated. Two more deaths have been reported, bringing the total number of people who have died in this epidemic to 13.
Despite Greater Sydney being under lockdown since June 26, infections have progressively increased due to only about 17% of people over the age of 16 being completely vaccinated in New South Wales.
The extended lockdown in Greater Sydney, which is expected to affect around six million people, is expected to have a significant impact on Australia's A$2-trillion ($1.50-trillion) economy, with many businesses forced to close, raising the country's chances of experiencing its second recession in as many years.
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the national economy will contract in the September quarter, but that Australia might avoid a recession if the epidemic in New South Wales was contained quickly.
“How successful New South Wales, our largest state economy, is in getting on top of this virus will depend to a large extent on the December quarter,” Frydenberg told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
