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An apartment building in Sydney's south-west is in lockdown with more than 100 people isolating after several people inside the complex tested positive. 

The block in Blacktown is under police guard with a mass testing operation underway after the building on Devitt Street was listed as a high-risk exposure site.

Officials have discovered several cases inside the flats are linked, leading to New South Wales Health taking over, with pathology teams onsite and further calls for vaccines to be prioritised for the area.  

Sydney’s gruelling coronavirus lockdown is likely to be extended and even tightened after an explosion of Covid exposure sites was declared across the Harbour City.

Of most concern to contact tracers is an entire south-west Sydney shopping centre in Campsie, which was exposed to the virus for 11 days between Wednesday July 14 and Saturday July 24. 

The shopping complex has become the scene of multiple transmissions of the virus, forcing thousands of shoppers and staff into isolation.

Meanwhile, there are calls for supermarket staff in the city's south-west to be pushed to the front of the vaccine queue as they attempt to stop transmission to essential workers. 

Scroll down for the full list of exposure sites 

An apartment building in Sydney's south-west is in lockdown with more than 100 people isolating after several people inside the complex tested positive

The block in Blacktown is under police guard with a mass testing operation underway after the building on Devitt Street was listed as a high-risk exposure site

Despite four weeks of stay-at-home orders to try and curtail the highly contagious Indian Delta variant, NSW recorded another 145 infections on Monday, including two deaths (pictured, a small group is pictured in Sydney's Surry Hills)

Residents of the Blacktown apartment building are all being tested as health officials in full PPE remain stationed outside.

Police officers will remain outside the flats for the two week period to ensure no one leaves or enters.

A similar situation unfolded in Bondi earlier in the latest outbreak when an apartment building saw eight residents test positive.  

The government are looking to push supermarket workers to the front of the Pfizer queue, particularly for south-west Sydney, as the state looks to get on top of its current outbreak which has brought the city to its knees.

Essential workers like supermarket employees who are at risk of infection will have the recommended jab made available for them as they look to push through numbers of vaccinations.

There have also been calls for Year 12 exams to be cancelled as it appears the ongoing battle with the highly-infectious Delta variant means students will not be back at school in the near future.

The head of the Sydney Catholic Schools said final results should be based off their already completed assessments, maintaining pushing through the exams will be particularly impacting disadvantaged children. 

Worryingly for health officials and policymakers, 51 of Monday's new cases were out in the community while infectious (pictured, a woman on an eerily quiet George Street in Sydney on Monday)

An urgent health alert has now been sent out to shoppers and staff who attended the busy Campsie Centre Shopping Mall (pictured) from anytime between July 14 to 24

The Campsie Centre Shopping Mall was one of a whopping 67 new exposure sites listed by health officials on Monday night, including supermarkets, takeaways and chemists. 

Despite four weeks of stay-at-home orders to try and curtail the highly contagious Indian Delta variant, NSW recorded another 145 infections on Monday, including two deaths, bringing the total number of cases since the outbreak began last month to 2,226.

Worryingly for health officials and policymakers, 51 of those new cases were out in the community while infectious and 79 have no known source.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her crisis cabinet are now considering the introduction of tighter restrictions, fearing the lockdown is still not driving case numbers down, but the proposal has caused a bitter divide. 

The 67 Covid exposure sites are mostly clustered across the west and southwestern suburbs of Sydney, but with some concerning venues in the Central Coast.

Five people from a household in Budgewoi have tested positive to the virus, sparking a list of exposure sites 100km from Sydney. 

Another person living in the home, who tested negative but should have been isolating, is understood to have visited 25 different shops in just five days. 

Several venues in Tuggerah and Sam Remo on the Central Coast were visited by infected people, including Westfield Coles, Dan Murphy's and Smokemart. 

Among the most concerning health alerts was the Campsie Centre Shopping Mall, with anyone who visited on the days listed at any time now considered a close contact and having to immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days, regardless of the result. 

The exposure is likely to plunge thousands into isolation.  

'This venue was visited by confirmed cases of Covid-19 and onwards transmission has been detected,' NSW Health confirmed.  

Among the huge number of other venues added to the ever-growing list was the Lobster Tail Fish Market in Bankstown Central, Prospect and Seven Hills Woolworths, Fairfield Coles, Paramatta Centrelink and T2 of Sydney's Domestic Airport.

Sydney’s gruelling coronavirus lockdown is likely to be tightened even further after an explosion of Covid exposure sites were declared across the Harbour City on Monday night (pictured, a locked down Bondi Beach)

Aldi supermarket at Guildford in Sydney (pictured) was flagged as an exposure site for Saturday July 24

In the midst of the explosion of exposed venues, the Premier's crisis cabinet held marathon five-hour talks, trying to find ways to curb the relentless spread of the virus without crippling the state's business sector.

The cabinet was presented with economic modelling commissioned by Treasurer Dominic Perrottet spelling the catastrophic job losses that would follow if the lockdown is to remain in place until mid-September, The Australian reported.

But despite the economic fallout, some cabinet members called for harsher measures to be introduced, particularly in Covid-ravaged Local Government Areas like Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown, Liverpool, Cumberland and Blacktown - the new epicentre of Sydney outbreak that originated in Bondi.

It was also discussed that areas which have seen limited spread, such as the Northern Beaches and Shellharbour area, could have some of their restrictions eased.

In this scenario children would be allowed to return back to the classroom and retail and hospitality venues would be allowed to reopen with a limit on patrons. 

A final decision on the matter is set to made on Tuesday. 

Woolworths in Sydney's Prospect (pictured) was listed as a Covid exposure site on Monday

Pictured: A graphic showing the number of infections per day in Sydney's current outbreak, which grew by 145 cases on Monday

It comes amid renewed calls for Sydneysiders to go out and get the Covid vaccine, with pharmacists now able to offer AstraZeneca to people over 40 without a referral from their doctor.

Key workers at supermarkets across the Covid-ravaged south-west suburbs are also being offered priority access to the Pfizer vaccine. 

Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said the number of unvaccinated people over the age of 60 is 'distressing' and urged everyone in the age bracket to make an appointment immediately. 

It is not yet known if the two latest deaths announced on Monday, a man and a woman both in their 80s, had received a jab or if they had any underlying medical conditions. 

The woman's body was found at a home in Pendle Hill in the south-west where a family had recently had an illegal gathering to mourn the loss of a different relative. 

Sydney's CBD is pictured almost empty on Monday as the brutal lockdown continued unabated 

'When I review the numbers, to see how few over even 60-year-olds and over 70-year-olds we have managed to reach,' Dr Chant said.

'For me, anyone who is over 60 or over 70 should be going to their doctor as a matter of urgency, or their pharmacist which will be opening up across the state in coming days and get a dose of vaccine.'

Dr Chant speculated that NSW could administer more than 350,000 vaccines a day if there were no issues with supplies, but that the state would have to make do with the current shortage of Pfizer. 

'There are priority groups, some of which are the responsibility of the Commonwealth, such as disability and aged care that we want to make sure are absolutely vaccinated,' she said. 

Several supermarkets were listed as casual contact sites, including San Remo Coles (pictured)

Several venues at Westfield Tuggerah (pictured) on the NSW Central Coast are also on the list

She also said the jab will be available on a walk-in basis in some health clinics in an effort to target vulnerable groups, in a policy shift that will be announced on Tuesday.

It is unclear as to whether people under 40 will be able to get AstraZeneca without an appointment.

Ms Berejiklian said she 'argued her little heart out' for more Pfizer jabs during National Cabinet on Friday, but that health authorities would focus on the distribution of the jabs - ensuring they are given to young workers, which Dr Chant agreed with. 

'It makes sense. The only people that are actually moving about are those essential workers,' the health officer said.

Despite the economic fallout, some cabinet members called for harsher measures to be introduced, particularly in Covid-ravaged Local Government Areas (pictured, a man is seen in a face shield at Auburn in Sydney)

'People that are working in logistics and distribution, critical workers that come from that area that supports Sydney and even NSW and beyond.

'It is important that we consider how vaccinating that group would potentially prevent transmission.' 

Ms Berejiklian did not specify whether Greater Sydney would come out of lockdown after July 31.

'Please be assured that our mission is to keep the community safe as possible, while allowing people to live as freely as possible,' she said.

'In the next few days we will continue to look at the existing settings to give people certainty on what life in New South Wales beyond July 31 looks like.

'It is really important for people not to leave home unless they absolutely have to and, in particular, do not mingle.'