MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australia’s state of New South Wales reported on Saturday 29 locally acquired COVID-19 cases as a list of exposure sites grew and a week-long partial lockdown in Sydney began.
Saturday’s data includes 17 infections in the country’s most populous state that were already announced on Friday, taking the number of infections linked to the Bondi outbreak to 80.
State Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she would hold an emergency government meeting with health authorities later on Saturday, signalling further restrictions could be imposed, as exposure sites have increased beyond the initial areas of concern.
“If we need to take further action, we will immediately notify the community,” Berejiklian told a news briefing.
New South Wales, home to nearly a third of Australia’s 25 million people, is fighting to contain an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant, locking down more than a million people in downtown Sydney and the city’s eastern suburbs.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly; Editing by William Mallard)
