Sydney has recorded another 172 cases of Covid-19 as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian ramped up the rollout of coronavirus vaccines across the state.
Ms Berejiklian said 60 of the cases – recorded from 84,468 tests in the 24 hours to 8pm – were out in the community while infectious.
Thirty-two of the cases are mystery cases which have not been linked to known outbreaks and are still under investigation.
Tuesday’s increase in cases is the highest daily rise during Sydney’s latest outbreak of the highly-contagious Delta variant.
Ms Berejiklian said the epicentre of the outbreak had now shifted to western Sydney from the city’s south-west.
‘We are now seeing the virus becoming more prevalent in Western Sydney than south-west Sydney,’ she said.
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.
Pictured are Sydneysiders walking through the city on Monday as the Delta Covid-19 outbreak continues to grow
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.
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
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
A decision will likely be made on Tuesday as to what lockdown looks like after July 30. Pictured: Residents of Bondi on Monday
Government sources told The Australian that they are not allowed to speak about the meeting, but they did say regions around Orange, in the state’s Central West, would emerge from a week-long lockdown at 11.59pm on Tuesday – as originally planned.
Attendees were allowed to deliberate on their positions overnight, with key decisions set to be 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 horses in south-west Sydney, after a spike in positive cases
Pictured: Police intervening at a protest held in Bankstown, south-west Sydney
On Monday, Ms Berejiklian remained 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.’
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 several people inside the complex tested positive.
Police officers will remain outside the flats for the two week period to ensure no one leaves or enters
An apartment building in Sydney’s south-west is in lockdown with more than 100 people isolating after several people inside the complex tested positive
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
The unit block is under police guard with a mass testing operation underway after the building on Devitt Street was listed as a high-risk exposure site.
Officials discovered several cases inside the flats are linked, leading to New South Wales Health taking over, with pathology teams onsite and further calls for vaccines to be prioritised for the area.
A resident of the building said everyone inside is ‘so stressed’ after nurses descended en masse, quickly performing swabs on the 50 units.
‘My kids can’t go to school, we can’t go out for two weeks and I can’t work,’ the woman told the Telegraph.
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.
Ms Berejiklian would not say whether Sydney will be out of lockdown after July 30. Pictured: People in Bondi on Monday
While Bondi (pictured) was at the centre of Sydney’s latest outbreak in June, the cases have moved out to the south-west
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 a whopping 67 new exposure sites listed by health officials on Monday night, including supermarkets, takeaways and chemists.
The 67 Covid exposure 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
Pictured: A graphic showing the number of infections per day in Sydney’s current outbreak, which grew by 145 cases on Monday
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
FIND THE LATEST EXPOSURE SITES NEAR YOU
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)
Several venues at Westfield Tuggerah (pictured) on the NSW Central Coast are also on the list
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)
Source: Daily Mail