The Australian state of New South Wales, Australia's most populous, recorded a new record of Covid-19 cases on Saturday, and in Melbourne, authorities are trying to trace the outbreaks.
While Australia's three main cities, Sydney, the capital Melbourne and Brisbane, are still confined, New South Wales recorded for the third consecutive day a record number of contaminations, with 319 cases and five deaths.
To discover
Covid-19: what we know about the Delta variant
Faced with the surge in contaminations spreading to the suburbs of Sydney, the country's first city to enter its seventh week of containment, New South Wales State Minister of Health Brad Hazzard said his frustration that people ignore the restrictions and called on locals to stay in their homes.
"
This is the greatest thing you can do for all of us and for yourself, to ensure that we defeat this Delta virus which is wreaking havoc around the world,
" Brad Hazzard told media.
He also announced that the town of Armidale, some six hours by car northwest of Sydney, would join the 60% of Australians currently confined.
Read also: In Sydney, the controversial use of the army to enforce containment
20% of Australians vaccinated
In the state of Victoria, where Melbourne is located and which has been living its sixth confinement since Thursday, the authorities are trying to trace the source of the epidemic outbreaks, after the announcement of 29 new cases.
"
We don't know where these two outbreaks came from
," Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said.
And as the city of Brisbane prepares to come out of lockdown on Sunday, health officials have called on residents not to slack off before restrictions are eased.
Long spared by the pandemic, Australia is today hit by an outbreak of contaminations, carried by the Delta variant and which threatens its “
zero Covid
”
strategy
. Today, many agree that vaccination is now the only way out. But to date, only 20% of some 25 million Australians are fully vaccinated, in part due to a poor supply.