MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales recorded 239 COVID-19 infections of the highly transmissible Delta variant on Sunday, matching the record daily number of cases in the current outbreak seen on Thursday.
There are 222 people in hospital, 54 of them in intensive care and 25 requiring ventilation, state authorities said. The total number of cases in the outbreak, which began in mid-June, have reached 3,427.
Neighbouring Queensland reported nine new locally acquired cases in a new outbreak of the Delta strain, its highest daily number in a year, the state’s Deputy Premier Steven Miles said. Parts of the state were put in a three-day snap lockdown on Saturday.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly)