NSW reports a record 633 new local COVID-19 cases, three deaths

NSW has reported 633 new local cases, the highest number ever recorded in the state within a 24-hour period.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned current data showed the state “hasn’t seen the worst of it”, as Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said data showed every case was transmitting the virus to at least one other person.

“You cannot get the virus if you do not have contact with other people”: Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Wednesday. Credit: James Brickwood

“The way that we stop this is by everybody staying at home,” the Premier said.

“You cannot get the virus if you do not have contact with other people. You have to assume, no matter where you are in the state, that every time you set foot out of your door, that you have the virus or anybody you’re in contact with has the virus.”

There were three deaths since Tuesday’s update: a man in his 60s at Liverpool Hospital, who acquired his infection within the hospital’s geriatric ward, and two men in their 70s, who were being treated at Nepean Hospital.

NSW processed 102,749 tests in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday.

Nearly 500 of the record 633 cases reported in NSW on Wednesday were from western Sydney.

They included 224 in the South Western Sydney Local Health District, 216 in the Western Sydney district and 54 in the Nepean Blue Mountains district.

Ms Berejiklian said the main suburbs of concern for health authorities continued to be Merrylands, Guildford, Auburn, Greenacre, Yagoona, St Marys and Strathfield.

“I can’t express enough my level of concern at these rising numbers of cases,” Dr Chant said.

Currently, 462 COVID-19 cases are in hospital, including 77 in intensive care. Twenty-five patients require ventilation.

“Whilst vaccination will be an aid and essential for us getting to a point where we can live safely with COVID, our vaccination coverage at the moment is far too low,” Dr Chant warned.

“We need to push that up as much as we can but, in the meantime, we also need to do everything we can to not come in contact with anyone, to minimise our movements and to continue to get tested and isolate if you have the most minimal of symptoms.”

Dr Chant said the Delta strain had led to more outbreaks in childcare centres, and she was “really keen” to start vaccinating children on the advice of national authorities.

Dr Chant said she had been “very clear” that parents should not send children to childcare unless they absolutely had to.

“If they’re just working from home, that wouldn’t be, in my mind, a reason to do it,” she said.

Case numbers have continued to rise in regional NSW, with 23 new cases recorded in western NSW.

Seventeen of the cases were in Dubbo, but NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro said cases had also been detected in Mudgee, Narromine and Gilgandra. There were four new cases in the state’s Far West Local Health District: three at Wilcannia and Bourke and a case reported at Broken Hill on Tuesday.

An additional 15 cases were reported in the Hunter-New England area, where the virus has been circulating for more than a fortnight. Seven of the cases, located in Newcastle, New Lambton and Cardiff, were infectious in the community, Hunter New England Health posted on Facebook.

Dr Chant said there had also been sewage detections at Bathurst, Orange and Yamba and asked locals to come forward for testing with even the most minimal of symptoms.

Mr Barilaro said the transmission was placing regional NSW “on a knife edge”.

“Western NSW is our focus, we need everybody in the region to do the right thing,” he said.

Ms Berejiklian said she was not considering additional public health orders and her focus remained on compliance.

“I think the challenge for us is to make sure that, while we ask people to adhere to the strict rules, we’re [also] asking them to come forward and get vaccinated,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“The higher the vaccination rate gives us opportunities to think about what we can do to support people who are completely vaccinated during the difficult months of September and October.”

Asked multiple times about whether there needed to be additional restrictions, as have been implemented in Victoria (such as a curfew), the Premier said she believed the focus should be on making sure people stay at home.

“Even other jurisdictions, which assumed a short, sharp lockdown would get rid of a handful of cases, have found how stubborn the Delta variant is,” Ms Berejiklian said.

Meanwhile, Dr Chant stressed that she and the Premier do not have different ideas about what will bring down the state’s record high cases.

“The Premier and I are very committed to achieving the same outcomes,” Dr Chant said.

“We have a shared vision: a shared vision which is high vaccination coverage and very low levels of community transmission.”

People aged 16 to 39 in Sydney’s 12 local government areas of concern can book Pfizer vaccine appointments on Wednesday with shots to start on Thursday. The bookings can be made on the state government website.

There were 24 new local cases reported in Victoria on Wednesday, including six with no known source.

The ACT recorded 22 new cases, taking the total number of cases in the territory’s current outbreak to 67.

Restrictions, including mask rules, will ease in Queensland as the state recorded zero community cases of COVID.

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