NSW daily COVID cases tipped to pass 100
Premier Gladys Berejiklian has issued a grim prediction that daily COVID-19 cases will hit 100 as NSW recorded its first COVID-19 death of 2021.
A 90-year-old southwest Sydney woman died on Saturday, hours after being diagnosed as COVID-positive.
She was a close contact of a locally acquired case and was believed to be unvaccinated.
Her death is the first since the Bondi cluster emerged on June 16, and the first connected to COVID-19 in NSW since a man died in December.
It came as NSW recorded its highest daily total of infections of the current outbreak, with 77 new local COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday.
Of the 77 new cases, only 32 were in isolation for all of their infectious period.
The premier expects the daily record will not last long, anticipating more than 100 new local cases will be announced on Monday.
"I'll be shocked if it's less than 100," Ms Berejiklian told reporters on Sunday.
In light of that, she said it was "highly unlikely" lockdown provisions in Greater Sydney and surrounds will be lifted as scheduled on Friday.
There are 15 COVID-19 patients in NSW in intensive care, with five on ventilators.
Federal Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said one of the six SummitCare Baulkham Hills aged care residents who caught COVID-19 from an infected staff member was "seriously unwell" in hospital.
That person was the only infected resident who was unvaccinated.
Professor Kelly also announced a "graphic" COVID-19 advertisement would air on Sydney television screens from Sunday night to highlight the seriousness of the disease.
In the short commonwealth-funded TV ad, a young woman in a hospital bed gasps for air as a message reads: "COVID-19 can affect anyone. Stay home. Get tested. Book your vaccination."
"It is quite graphic and it is meant to be graphic - it is meant to really push that message home," Prof Kelly told reporters in Canberra.
NSW Police on Saturday issued 106 infringement notices due to public health order non-compliance, including to attendees of gatherings in Marrickville, Sydney Olympic Park and Merrylands.
NSW Health, meanwhile, has this weekend issued numerous alerts for venues exposed to COVID-19 across Greater Sydney including a medical practice at Greenacre and several Kogarah stores late on Sunday.
