The shocking figure prompted the state government to tighten restrictions for eight high-risk Sydney local government areas.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said residents in Canterbury-Bankstown, Fairfield, Liverpool, Blacktown, Cumberland, Parramatta, Campbelltown and Georges River LGAs must now wear masks at all times.
"If you step foot outside your household, you need to wear a mask at all times. It doesn't matter where," she said on Thursday.
From 12.01am Friday, people in those LGAs can not move within 5kms of their home for any reason unless for exceptional circumstances.
"It doesn't matter what the reason is... you have to make sure you do not move within a 5km radius of your home. It doesn't matter whether it's for shopping. It doesn't matter whether it's for other exercising. You can't move beyond a 5km radius and that includes singles bubbles," Ms Berejiklian said.
Fines will also be increased for those not following mask rules from $200 to $500.
Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said two people from Sydney's southwest died from the virus on Wednesday - the 12th and 13th deaths since the Bondi outbreak began.
A woman in her 90s died at Liverpool Hospital and a man in his 80s died at Royal North Shore Hospital.
Follow live updates below.
Updates
Here is a wrap-up of the biggest news of the day:
- New South Wales recorded 239 new local cases overnight – the highest number in the outbreak so far. Of the new cases, 70 were infectious in the community.
- Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced even harsher restrictions for the eight local government areas in lockdown. Masks must be worn outside and people in the eight LGAs cannot go further than 5km from their home.
- NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller confirmed the Army has been called in to help enforce the new rules. It has been revealed 300 troops will be sent into the areas over the coming week.
- Victorian health authorities are still searching for the source of a new Covid-19 positive case in a testing centre traffic controller. Multiple exposure sites have now been listed.
- Victoria reported six new locally transmitted cases, but all were linked to known clusters and all six were in quarantine for their entire infectious period.
- South Australia announced two new cases of the virus. Both were linked to a known case and were in quarantine for their infectious period.
- Queensland has reported no new cases after the Covid-positive backpacker yesterday. He has been confirmed as having the Alpha strain.
- The mask rule in south-east Queensland will stick around for another week.
- Western Australia has recorded six new cases of Covid-19 – all from the bulk carrier MV Darya Krishna docked in Fremantle.
- A false-positive case has been recorded in the ACT.
- Members of the Australian Athletic team had to isolate for hours in Tokyo because they had come into contact with a positive case – a pole vaulter from the USA. They are out of quarantine after undergoing rapid testing.
Thanks for following along with The Daily Telegraph's live coverage. We will be back bright and early tomorrow for more. Stay safe and stay at home.
Australia has recorded six more cases of rare blood clots “likely linked” to the AstraZeneca vaccine.
In it’s weekly safety report, the Therapeutic Goods Administration said one case was “confirmed” in a 74-year-old woman from Victoria.
The other cases, deemed “probable”, were two 61-year-old women from NSW, a 71-year-old man from NSW, a 72-year-old man from Queensland and a 77-year-old man from Victoria.
The latest cases bring the total cases of blood clots in Australia to 90 (54 confirmed, 36 probable) from about 6.3 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine administered to date.
Read the full story here.
Pfizer has said vaccine recipients will need a third dose of its jab, which will increase protection against Covid-19 and its Delta strain.
New data about the vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech, has shown that a third dose generated virus-neutralising antibodies more than five times higher in younger people and more than 11 times higher in older people than from two doses against the more easily transmissible Delta variant.
“All in all, I think a third dose would strongly improve protection against infection, mild moderate disease, and reduce the spread of the virus,” Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten said on a call to discuss Pfizer’s quarterly results.
Mr Dolsten said the data suggested levels of antibodies could be boosted up to 100-fold when compared to levels before the third dose.
Read the full story here.
They’re Sydney’s tickets to freedom – and now coronavirus vaccines are available without the need to make an appointment first.
NSW has begun rolling out walk-in Covid-19 vaccination clinics in Sydney, where people can get jabbed with the AstraZeneca version of the vaccine.
The service is free and so far available in select locations in Sydney’s west and southwest.
Most of the walk-in clinics will accept anyone who is aged over 18.
See the full list here.
Passengers travelling overseas with Qantas or Jetstar when international borders reopen will be required to carry a new “digital health pass” with information about Covid tests and vaccination status.
A day after Qantas appealed to the federal government to mandate Covid vaccinations for aviation workers, the airline has revealed what will be required of travellers in future.
The travel pass developed by the International Air Transport Association has been trialled by Qantas on overseas repatriation flights this year and is considered the most secure and convenient way to verify a passenger’s Covid status.
Delivered in the form of a free smart phone app, the pass allows vaccine certificates and proof of a negative Covid test from a certified testing lab to be uploaded before a flight.
Read the full story here.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has sparked online backlash with her comments about the Covid-19-plagued state having tougher restrictions when compared to any other state across the country.
At a press conference on Thursday, Ms Berejiklian was asked if the NSW Government’s strategy to control the Delta outbreak had failed given cases continue to rise with 239 recorded and more still infectious within the community.
Sky News reporter Andrew Clennell asked: “With these numbers today, will you admit that your strategy has failed, that you have failed? You said the settings were right. That’s not true …
“Can you see now that you made a mistake and the strategy is failing, and this death of 1,000 cuts, a little bit of restrictions every day is not working and you have to come down hard?”
Read the full story here.
Tasmania is set to reopen its border with Victoria from midnight after being closed for two weeks.
“The decision was made based on the current situation in Victoria,” the Tasmanian public health director Mark Veitch said in a statement.
“Public health responses and lockdown have identified cases and limited onward spread, such that almost all recent cases were already in quarantine before they became infectious.”
Victorian arrivals quarantining in Tasmania will also be allowed out of isolation from midnight.
Members of the Australian track and field team have been cleared to return to training after having to isolate due to coming into contact with a Covid-positive USA athlete.
Three members of the team underwent PCR testing following the brief casual contact.
All three tested negative this afternoon and have been cleared to go back to training and competing.
The NSW Government’s decision to divert Pfizer doses to Sydney has been criticised by a south coast GP, while another labelled the move “appropriate”.
On Wednesday, NSW Health announced up to 40,000 doses of the vaccine will be shifted from rural and regional areas to help Year 12 students in southwest and western Sydney return to face-to-face learning on August 16.
NSW Health said while the growing outbreak of the Delta strain in Sydney poses a major threat to regional communities, doses will be sourced from supplies across rural and regional NSW to ensure “no one area is impacted”.
Read the full story here.
Ryan Park MP has taken to Twitter to urge people to get vaccinated as two thirds of all cases in the past two weeks are under the age of 40.
