Australia’s New South Wales state on Friday reported its biggest daily rise in new COVID-19 cases this year, prompting state officials to tighten lockdown measures in Sydney in what they called a ”national emergency.”

Australia’s most populous city recorded its deadliest day of the COVID-19 pandemic on Monday, as hundreds of unarmed military personnel were deployed across Sydney in a desperate attempt to quell a ”disturbing high” World number of infections.

Sydney, which is in its eighth week of lockdown, is the epicentre of third Australia’s COVID-19 wave that threatens to push the country’s A$2 trillion ($1.5 trillion) economy into its second recession in as many years.

New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said seven people had died from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, surpassing the state’s previous record day from earlier this month.

Berejiklian said New South Wales has also detected 478 infections, the highest one-day rise since the pandemic begun.

”Our community transmission numbers are disturbingly high,” Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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Sydney records deadliest day of COVID-19 pandemic, more lockdowns announced

Sydney, which is in its eighth week of lockdown, is the epicentre of third Australia’s COVID-19 wave that threatens to push the country’s A$2 trillion ($1.5 trillion) economy into its second recession in as many years.

Australia’s New South Wales state on Friday reported its biggest daily rise in new COVID-19 cases this year, prompting state officials to tighten lockdown measures in Sydney in what they called a ”national emergency.”

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