Australia news LIVE: NSW records 239 new local COVID-19 cases as harsher restrictions implemented for eight Sydney LGAs

Before COVID-19 arrived in Australia, about 5 per cent of Australians typically reported moderate to severe symptoms of depression in the previous two weeks.

By August last year, one in five people had had at least occasional thoughts in the previous two weeks “that they would be better off dead”.

Monash University research has found strict lockdowns led to the highest levels of depression and anxiety on record.

At the height of Victoria’s harsh restrictions in 2020, 44 per cent of people in the state reported moderate to severe symptoms of depression and 34 per cent reported moderate to severe anxiety.

Clinical psychologist Professor Jane Fisher said the study’s findings were concerning and showed “Australia needs a pathway to psychological recovery that complements the national cabinet’s current economic and pandemic management plans”.

Melbourne woman Zoe Vafiadis said worry about her autistic son’s welfare during lockdown caused the onset of anxiety. She had not previously experienced such symptoms.

“I tend to find myself thinking in circles ... there is really no way to plan while things are up in the air. I’ve never really laid awake at night worrying about things before,” Ms Vafiadis said.

Read more here.

Western Sydney residents will be required to wear masks outdoors in a change to lockdown settings that epidemiologists say will likely have little impact on transmission.

From midnight, anyone living in the Blacktown, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool or Parramatta local government areas will need to wear a mask at all times when outside their home.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the new rules were designed to ensure people were not caught out without a mask. The public health order in operation across Greater Sydney already required people to carry a mask when leaving home.

Professor Greg Dore, infectious diseases physician at St Vincent’s Hospital and epidemiologist at the Kirby Institute, said he did not support the measure given the lack of evidence of benefit and minor role outdoor transmission had played in Sydney’s outbreak.

ANU infectious diseases physician Professor Peter Collignon said the chance of catching COVID-19 from someone outside while social distancing was “extremely minimal”.

There have been only a handful of confirmed instances of transmission of the Delta variant outside in recent months, all while seated for an extended period.

Read more here.

Australia’s major banks are projecting up to 300,000 Sydney jobs will be lost as a result of the protracted lockdown which will run until at least the end of August.

It comes as prices for staples such as fruit, vegetables and petrol rise at double the rate of wages growth.

The Commonwealth Bank has predicted as many as one in 10 people in greater Sydney will become unemployed while ANZ now expects earlier forecasts of tens of thousands of job losses to be exceeded.

Annual inflation has risen to 3.8 per cent according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Today on Please Explain, economics correspondent Jennifer Duke joins Nathanael Cooper to discuss what this grim outlook means for our lives.

The latest NSW Health list of venues of concern includes close contact (tier 1) exposure sites in Sydney’s inner west and trains between Sydney and the Central Coast, while an apartment building is a casual exposure site for five days in a row.

The Health Space Clinic in Pyrmont, Chambers Cellers in Forest Lodge and Booth Street Bakery have each had windows of close contact exposure to a person infectious with COVID-19. Trains from Strathfield to Tuggerah and Gosford to Central were also tier one exposure sites on July 23.

Among the list of casual exposure sites is the Goldsbrough Apartments in Pyrmont, with all residents and any visitors who were there from Friday July 23 to Tuesday July 27 told to immediately get a test and isolate until a negative result is received.

There are also new casual exposure sites in Belmore and Chester Hill in Sydney’s west, along with several Sydney train services.

For the full list of new exposure sites and times, check the tweet below. The entire list is available here.

Police have released images of two men suspected of throwing pot plants at mounted officers and their horses during the anti-lockdown protest in Sydney’s CBD.

NSW Police have launched an investigation into the event held last Saturday that saw thousands of participants march through the city in defiance of COVID-19 public health orders.

As part of efforts to identify people to be fined and charged for their participation, investigators are calling for information on a handful of men believed to be involved in throwing the projectiles.

Police said officers attached to the force’s mounted unit came to the assistance of an officer between 1-2pm on George Street near Town Hall.

“The officers and horses were then struck by projectiles, including pot plants,” police said.

Read more here.

The Australian Defence Force will assist with enforcement of Sydney’s lockdown following a formal request to Prime Minister Scott Morrison from NSW Police.

While NSW has previously declined an offer for military assistance with the operation to enforce public health orders, police said an escalation of efforts over the coming days justified the request.

Commissioner Mick Fuller made the formal request to the federal government for 300 Defence Force personnel, police said in a statement.

“With an increase in enforcement activity over the coming week, I have now made a formal request to the Prime Minister for ADF personnel to assist with that operation,” Mr Fuller said.

“The assistance of the ADF has been essential over the past 18 months – particularly during last year’s border operation, the ongoing hotel quarantine operation and the assistance provided with logistics support in the Police Operations Centre.”

Last week, Mr Fuller said NSW had passed on an offer of Defence Force assistance in early July because transmission in south-west Sydney was taking place between household contacts, not in public places, and police already had an operation in planning.

Read more here.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said COVID-19 will be around for a long time.

“The world will be living with COVID for decades – that’s an honest answer,” he said.

“It’s a pandemic that’s become endemic in many countries.

“Vaccinations will remain an ongoing feature of life in Australia in just the same way flu vaccination is, but we manage this.”

Mr Hunt said to his knowledge no Australian has died of the flu this year.

He also promised to investigate reports that a GP is reportedly charging patients for a vaccine, pledging to “throw the book at them” if the claims were substantiated.

Mr Hunt reiterated that by end of this year “every Australian will be given the opportunity to be vaccinated” if they want to be.