On Thursday, Sydney had its deadliest day of the Covid-19 epidemic, with five deaths and a new high in locally acquired infections, as a weeks-long hard lockdown struggles to keep the extremely dangerous Delta variant of the coronavirus at bay.
New South Wales state health officials said four of the five people who died had not been vaccinated and one had just received one dosage, urging citizens to get inoculated as soon as possible.
After six cases were recorded in the area surrounding Newcastle, the state's second-largest city, 140 kilometers (87 miles) north of Sydney, authorities imposed a one-week lockdown beginning Thursday.
This will put an extra 615,000 people on lockdown, bringing the total number of people in New South Wales subject to tight stay-at-home restrictions to 6 million, or roughly a fifth of the country's population.
Authorities believe the outbreak started at a beach party in Newcastle when people traveled from Sydney, despite the city being under lockdown.
As most cases were still being found in Sydney, the state capital and Australia's largest city, New South Wales Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant told reporters, "Our strongest focus ... is getting to the bottom of how the disease was transmitted and introduced into Newcastle,"
According to health officials, there were 259 new Covid-19 cases in Sydney, out of a total of 262 in New South Wales, according to daily records for the city and state. The previous high was 239 on Sunday.
During the most recent outbreak, which began seven weeks ago after the first case of the Delta strain was discovered in an unvaccinated, unmasked limousine driver who drove abroad airline workers, there have been over 4,300 cases in New South Wales.
On Thursday, another 16 Covid-19 instances were recorded in Queensland, whose city Brisbane is under lockdown, the same as the previous two days.
Officials in Victoria are investigating three new cases that have no ties to previous infections and were among eight reported on Thursday. On Wednesday, the state recorded zero cases for the first time in a month.
A teacher in a school in Melbourne, the state capital, is one of the three unrelated incidents.
Health officials in New South Wales are urging residents, particularly those over the age of 60, to be vaccinated.
Three men in their 60s, one man in his 70s, and a woman in her 80s were among the five people who died in Sydney, bringing the total number of deaths in New South Wales to 21.
"Please consider being vaccinated as soon as possible... I'm pleading with you to make an appointment. Vaccinate yourself "Chant remarked.
Australia has avoided the significant caseloads of other industrialized countries, with roughly 35,200 Covid-19 cases and 932 deaths, but its immunization rates are among the lowest, with only 20% of its people over the age of 16 fully vaccinated.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian of New South Wales has linked the vaccination rate to the lifting of lockdown restrictions on August 28, aiming for 6 million shots by the end of the month, which would cover half of the state's adult population. In New South Wales, around 4 million doses have been administered thus far.
However, the rising list of new places where Covid-19-positive people have gone while infected is putting any hope to the test. On Thursday, about one-fifth of the cases reported in New South Wales was active in the community, which has been the trend for several days.
Victoria also demonstrated how active community cases are more likely to result in new instances.
The eight new cases are largely tied to at least 3,000 close contacts, according to the state, which only concluded a lockdown a few weeks ago. Authorities warned that this figure will skyrocket, implying tighter restrictions.
"Given our understanding of the school community as well as the other exposure sites that are coming online," Victoria Health Minister Martin Foley said in Melbourne, "we would pass 5,000 to 10,000 primary and secondary close contacts within hours, if not days."
