New South Wales has recorded 239 new locally acquired Covid-19 cases as of last night, while Queensland recorded the highest number of local cases since August 2020.
Health workers taking swab samples from residents at a Covid-19 drive-through testing clinic in Sydney on 28 July, 2021. Photo: AFP or/ Saeed Khan
Twenty-six of NSW’s cases were infectious in the community, while 35 cases were in isolation for part of their infectious period and the isolation status of 98 cases remains under investigation.
NSW Health said the source of 124 cases was under investigation.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was beginning to see the virus was being mostly contained in the regions which were under enhanced lockdown orders.
“The one positive take out is at the virus has not [breached the] outside of those eight local government area’s of concern,” she said.
Queensland records nine cases on first day of lockdown
Queensland has recorded nine new locally acquired cases of Covid-19, all linked to known cases in the community.
There are now 18 cases linked to the cluster of the highly infectious Delta variant that was first detected in a student at a Brisbane school.
It comes as millions of residents remain under strict stay-at-home orders on the first day of a snap three-day lockdown across 11 local government areas in the state’s south-east.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles said this was the most number of new community cases Queensland has had in almost a year.
“The last time we were at this level was August 2020,” he said.
New Zealand’s Ministry of Health is warning anyone who has travelled to the country from Queensland since 26 July to check locations of interest on the Queensland Health website and monitor for symptoms.
The quarantine travel bubble from all of Australia was suspendedlast month for eight weeks, in response to the spread of the Delta variant but there have managed flights in operation.
Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said the cases were “rapidly escalating” and “deadly serious”.
There are now thousands of Queenslanders including students, staff and parents who are subject to home quarantine directions, including contacts linked to five schools.
Meanwhile, Victoria has recorded four new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 as the state works to wrap up the tail end of its Delta outbreak.
The state’s health department says all of the cases have been linked to known outbreaks and all were in quarantine throughout their infectious period
The state is entering its fifth day out of a lockdown prompted by the rapid spread of the highly infectious coronavirus variant.
