Sydney's Covid cases hit a record 172 - including five 120km away on the Central Coast - as two die and a weary Gladys Berejiklian admits infections are soaring in the city's west and rushes vaccines into chemists
- Sydney has recorded another 172 cases of Covid-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm
- Premier Gladys Berejiklian said 60 cases were in community while infectious
- Said epicentre of outbreak had now shifted to western Sydney from south-west
- Hopes to announce on Wednesday whether the lockdown would be extended
Sydney has recorded another 172 cases of Covid-19 as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian ramped-up the roll-out of coronavirus vaccines in pharmacies across the state.
Ms Berejiklian said 60 of the cases - recorded from 84,468 tests in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday night - were out in the community while infectious.
In an alarming sign Sydney's outbreak had spread to regional NSW, five of the cases were recorded on the Central Coast - more than 120km away from the Harbour City.
NSW Health also confirmed the deaths of two residents from Covid-19 - both of which were announced on Monday. Neither of them were vaccinated against the virus.
The deaths bring the number of Covid-related fatalities during Sydney's Delta outbreak to 10.
Thirty-two of the cases are mystery infections which have not been linked to known outbreaks and are still under investigation.
Tuesday's increase in cases is the highest daily rise in NSW since April 2020. There are now 2,397 infections linked to the cluster of cases that began on June 16 when an airport limousine worker tested positive to Covid-19 in Sydney's eastern suburbs.
Ms Berejiklian said she hoped to announce as early as Wednesday whether or not she would extend Greater Sydney's five-week stay-at-home lockdown beyond July 30.
She hinted though the seven-day snap lockdown introduced last week in the Orange, Blayney and Cabonne local government areas in NSW's central west could be lifted on time at 11.59pm on Tuesday night.
'The health advice is very promising in that regard, there will be a message sent out later today,' she said.
Ms Berejiklian said the epicentre of the outbreak was starting to shift from western Sydney to the city's south-west.
'We are now seeing the virus becoming more prevalent in western Sydney than south-west Sydney,' she said.
Of the new cases, 65 were found in south-west Sydney and 54 detected in the city's west.
At her daily press conference on Tuesday, Ms Berejiklian called on Sydneysiders to get vaccinated against the virus as she rolled out a new pilot program to make the jabs available at the state's chemists and pharmacies.
From this week, chemists can administer the AstraZeneca Covid-19 jab to all NSW residents over the age of 40 as part of a pilot program to boost vaccination rates across the state.
Tuesday's increase in cases is the largest in Sydney's latest outbreak and the highest daily rise since April 2020
Pictured is a resident at the locked-down Devitt Street apartment building in Blacktown in Sydney's west. The city has recorded another 172 cases of Covid-19 overnight
Pictured is the entrance to the newly-opened south-western Sydney vaccination centre at Macquarie Fields on Monday
Sydneysiders walking through the city on Monday as the Delta Covid-19 outbreak continues to grow
Pictured: Tuggerah Westfield on the NSW Central Coast. Venues at the shopping centre were on the overnight list of sites across the state exposed to Covid-19
'My message to everybody is please come forward and get the vaccine,' Ms Berejiklian said.
'Not only are you protecting yourself but you’re protecting those closest to you.'
Health Minister Brad Hazzard repeated calls for the federal government and other states and territories to give NSW more Pfizer vaccine doses to help fight Sydney's outbreak.
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'We need more Pfizer,' he said.
'We are entirely dependent on the federal government supply of the vaccine. We know for a fact we will not have enough Pfizer in the next few weeks to do what we want to do.
'We would have liked some help from our state colleagues, but that hasn’t happened.'
On Tuesday morning it was revealed that a five-storey apartment building in Blacktown, in the city's south-west, is in lockdown with more than 100 people isolating after an outbreak of cases in the unit block.
Pictured is a queue at a pop-up Covid-19 vaccination clinic in the western Sydney suburb of Merrylands on Tuesday. Ms Berejiklian called on Sydneysiders to get vaccinated against the virus as she rolled out a new pilot program to make the jabs available at the state's chemists and pharmacies
The complex is under police guard after the building on Devitt Street was listed as a high-risk exposure site.
NSW Health's Dr Jeremy McAnulty said six cases had been detected across three households at the apartment and all residents had now been tested for the virus.
A separate outbreak has been detected at Liverpool Hospital in the city's south-west, where three nurses and eight patients have tested positive to the virus.
NSW Health said five infections had been found in the same house in the Central Coast suburbs of Budgewoi, and that authorities are concerned about two close contacts who were also living under the same roof.
Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper said the two contacts have tested negative, but one visited 25 shops in five days when they should have been isolating.
Cleaners in HAZMAT suits are pictured at a locked-down apartment building at Devitt Street in the south-west Sydney suburb of Blacktown on Tuesday
The announcement came after it emerged authorities could split Sydney in half to contain the outbreak by tightening lockdowns in the virus-ravaged south-west while letting the rest of the city roam free.
The NSW government held a five-hour crisis cabinet meeting on Monday to decide whether to strengthen restrictions only in areas hit hardest by the virus - such as Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool.
There were also conversations about whether to ease public health orders for the Northern Beaches, Wollongong and Shellharbour - all of which have not seen any new cases in about a month.
Sydney could be split in two, with people from Covid-ravaged areas facing tighter lockdowns under plans being considered by the NSW Government. Pictured: A woman walking along Bondi Beach on Monday
Government sources told The Australian attendees were allowed to deliberate on their positions overnight, before key decisions were made on Tuesday.
Economic modelling commissioned by Treasurer Dominic Perrottet projected the fallout of keeping the city locked down until mid-September would result in mass job losses.
Other members of the crisis cabinet, including the state's chief health officer Kerry Chant, would like a restrained approach and told reporters on Monday that restrictions should stay 'as tight as possible'.
Covid-addled parts of the state could be in lockdown for longer than other areas, depending on figures this week. Pictured: Police walking down the street in south-west Sydney
Pictured: Police on horseback in south-west Sydney, after a spike in positive cases in the city
On Monday, Ms Berejiklian was tight-lipped about what lockdown will look like post July 30, but she said risk factors would be weighed against residents' freedoms.
'Our mission is to keep the community as safe as possible, but also to make sure we allow the community to live as freely as we can as well,' she said.
'There's no doubt that some restrictions have better effects than others, and that is the advice we'll get from our health experts in consultation with other officials.'
Despite the concentration of cases in the city's south-west, of most concern to contact tracers on Monday night was an entire shopping centre in Campsie, which was exposed to the virus for 11 days between Wednesday July 14 and Saturday July 24.
Police officers will remain outside the flats for the two week period to ensure no one leaves or enters
As many as 100 residents will be locked inside their flats for the next two weeks after several linked cases have been recorded in the building
Residents of the Blacktown apartment building are all being tested as health officials in full PPE remain stationed outside
Officials have discovered several cases inside the flats are linked, leading to New South Wales Health taking over, with pathology teams onsite
FIND THE LATEST EXPOSURE SITES NEAR YOU
The shopping complex has become the scene of multiple transmissions of the virus, forcing thousands of shoppers and staff into isolation.
It was one of 67 new exposure sites listed by health officials on Monday night, including supermarkets, takeaways and chemists.
The sites are mostly clustered across the west and south-western suburbs of Sydney, but with some concerning venues in the Central Coast.
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
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
Woolworths in Sydney's Prospect (pictured) was listed as a Covid exposure site on Monday
Sydney's CBD is pictured almost empty on Monday as the brutal lockdown continued unabated
Several supermarkets were listed as casual contact sites, including San Remo Coles (pictured)
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)
