South west Sydney resident sadly passes as Covid cases in NSW rocket to 77

There were 77 locally transmitted of Covid-19 in NSW during the latest reporting period with Premier Gladys Berejiklian again urging people to follow lockdown measures.

Sadly, a woman in her 90s from south west Sydney died yesterday at Liverpool Hospital. She was a close contact of a locally acquired case and was tested for COVID-19 on Friday, returning a positive result early yesterday morning.

“Tragically we’ve seen one older person die and I want to extend my deepest condolences to their families and loved ones and Dr Chant will provide further details,” she said.

“Regrettably, that person did acquire it within the household, within the home setting.

She added, that she expected to see case numbers soar into triple-digits.

“Given the number of people exposed in the community overnight, I’m anticipating the numbers in New South Wales will be greater than 100 tomorrow,” she said.

Premier Berejiklian again pleaded with the community to stay at home.

“To 8:00pm last night, we had over 48,000 people getting tested for COVID. We have to keep that number high. It’s so important, given we had 77 cases of community transmission,” she said

“Now, out of these 77 cases, there are two facts I want to highlight. Firstly, 33 of those have been exposed in the community whilst infectious.”

Of the 77 locally acquired cases, 55 are linked to a known case or cluster – 39 are household contacts and 16 are close contacts – and the source of infection for 22 cases remains under investigation.

Thirty-two cases were in isolation throughout their infectious period and nine cases were in isolation for part of their infectious period. Thirty-three cases were infectious in the community, and three cases remain under investigation.

NSW Health administered 15,310 COVID-19 vaccines in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, including 7,073 at the vaccination centre at Sydney Olympic Park.