NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian will consider introducing military checkpoints to ensure safe travel out of "hot zones". Photo / File
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian will consider introducing military checkpoints to ensure safe travel out of "hot zones". Photo / File
While New Zealanders in Australia make their way home, the Covid-19 situation in Australia has worsened.
Sydney Covid-19 case numbers
NSW has recorded 141 new local cases of covid-19. Of those 141 new cases, 38 cases were infectious in the community.
This brings the total number of locally acquired casesto 2,081 since 16 June when the first Bondi cluster.
The state has also reported two new covid-19 death, a woman in her late 30's and a woman in her 70's. There have now been eight covid-related deaths in NSW during this current outbreak.
The NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirmed the woman in her 30s had no existing medical conditions.
There are almost 150 people in hospital suffering the effects of Covid-19, including one teenager.
"Of those 141, 60 are under the age of 55, and 28 under the age of 35. And of the 43 people in intensive care, one is in their teens, seven are in their 20s, three in their 30s, 14 are in their 50s, and 12 are in their 60s, and six are in their 70s" said NSW Health's Dr Jeremy McAnulty
The figure is an alarming climb from the previous day's record of 136, which prompted Premier Gladys Berejiklian to declare a state of emergency and openly plead to the Prime Minister for more vaccines.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard announced the figure at yesterday's daily briefing, saying: "What it is telling us is we have a continuing and growing problem, particularly in southwest and western Sydney."
Of the 163 cases, 66 were household contacts, 25 were close contacts and "very worryingly" 45 were infectious out in the community.
Victoria Covid-19 case numbers
Victoria has recorded 11 new covid-19 cases. However, all cases are linked to the current outbreaks. This brings the state's number of active cases to 179.
All positive cases were in quarantine throughout their entire infectious period.
"There are changes of transmission that are not yet contained that we don't know about and if we would open up we would see how quickly this runs, we see how challenging this can become in a very short space of time," Premier Daniel Andrews said.
Yesterday the state recorded 12 new cases.
Queensland has recorded no new cases in the community.
Broken glass bottles littered streets, and one police officer was shown to be covered in ink after a clash with an objector.
Speaking to media on Saturday, Police Minister David Elliott said a strike force of 22 detectives had been set up to track down more than 3500 people who ignored coronavirus restrictions to march in the city's CBD.
"This is not a time for people to be out of their homes. This was a disgraceful action today."
Huge anti-lockdown protest in Sydney’s CBD. Thousands of marchers chanting “freedom”. This man was arrested after he was pushed into a police officer pic.twitter.com/oDiG88lSyM
"I am utterly disgusted by the illegal protestors in the city today whose selfish actions have compromised the safety of all of us," read the statement.
"The protestors have shown utter contempt for their fellow citizens who are currently doing it tough.
Well this sucks: anti-lockdown protesters from all over Sydney have staged a mass gathering in the Inner West. View few masks in sight, but plenty of COVID conspiracy t-shirts pic.twitter.com/4xEvR8olXN
"I want to thank the brave police officers who put their own safety on the line to ensure the protest action ceased.
"This type of activity during lockdown will not be tolerated and the full force of the law will be brought against anyone who engages in this type of illegal activity."
Vaccine rollout
Following a slow start to Australia's vaccine rollout, 85 million booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been secured by the federal government for 2022 and 2023.
According to the Daily Telegraph, 60 million of the doses will be delivered in 2022 with the remaining amount arriving in 2023.
