It’s another big day with regards to COVID-19 news across Australia. Here’s The Greek Herald‘s lowdown on what’s happening with borders and in the three lockdown states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
New South Wales:
NSW recorded 124 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm yesterday. It’s the highest daily number of new infections since the current Delta variant outbreak began on June 16.
The NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said she expected numbers to continue to rise.
“We hit another record of 85,000 tests, which means in the last two days alone, we’ve had around 170,000 people get tested. As a result, unfortunately, case numbers have gone up again,” she said.
She said of the new cases, 48 were infectious while in the community.
“Now, given that number of infectious in the community, I’m expecting case numbers to go up even higher,” she said.
The Premier said the virus had, as predicted, continued to spread into the Canterbury-Bankstown local government area, spilling over from the Fairfield local government area.
The two main areas of transmission are in homes and workplaces, and the Premier warned there would be more hospitalisations.
“Unfortunately, when our health experts are interviewing families within households, we’re learning that they have visited families in other households and the disease is spreading through that way but unfortunately, also, in workplaces,” she said.
The Premier said the case numbers were “very concerning.”
Victoria:
Victoria has recorded 26 new local COVID-19 cases, the highest daily figure this year.
All the new cases are linked to known outbreaks, and 24 of the 26 cases were in quarantine throughout their entire infectious period.
There were 43,674 test results received on Wednesday.
It brings the number of active infections in the state to 146, including those in hotel quarantine.
There are now more than 380 exposure sites across Victoria, with new locations being added late last night.
South Australia:
South Australia has today recorded two new cases connected to its latest COVID–19 outbreak, as the statewide lockdown continues.
They are a brother and sister in their 20s who went to the Tenafeate Creek winery north of Adelaide on Sunday afternoon.
This comes after the state reported six new cases of COVID-19 during a late night press conference on Wednesday.
Health authorities said five of the cases were at the Tenafeate Creek Winery in Yattalunga, north of Adelaide, which was visited by someone with Covid on Sunday afternoon.
They included a man aged in his 40s, a woman and a man in their 50s, a woman in her 60s and a woman in her 80s.
The sixth new case was a young child under five, who attended the Greek on Halifax restaurant in Adelaide’s CBD on Saturday night.
“I would say that both the Greek on Halifax and this winery are examples of super-spreading events and yes it is very serious,” Chief Public Health Officer, Professor Nicola Spurrier, said on Wednesday.
Professor Spurrier said the winery at Yattalunga was often busy and The Greek on Halifax had a busy night on Saturday.
“So I think people in South Australia do need to prepare themselves for more cases, that’s certainly my expectation,” she said.
Queensland:
Queensland’s border will close to New South Wales from 1:00am tomorrow, acting Premier Steven Miles says.
There were no new cases of COVID-19 recorded in Queensland on Thursday.
Mr Miles said masks would still need to be worn for seven more days in 11 council areas around south-east Queensland, but other restrictions would be eased.
The Sunshine State also shut its border to South Australia and parts of New South Wales overnight due to the worsening COVID situation.
Western Australia:
Western Australia is imposing a hard border with South Australia, Premier Mark McGowan says.
It has been reclassified as a medium risk state, meaning only travelers with an exemption can enter WA. The hard border comes into force at midday today.
WA recorded zero new cases of COVID-19 overnight.
Source: ABC News.
