Harsher, longer Sydney lockdown as Covid-19 cases surge

A rising number of Covid-19 infections across western Sydney has forced almost two million residents into harsher stay-at-home conditions.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian in Sydney on Wednesday. Picture: Getty Images

A rising number of Covid-19 infections across western Sydney has forced almost two million residents into harsher stay-at-home conditions, with eight local government areas now identified as hot-zones because of an upsurge in cases in surrounding regions.

Announcing an extension of Greater Sydney’s ongoing lockdown, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said stay-at-home orders would continue for another month until August 28.

She would not rule out further extensions if transmissions were not sufficiently reduced.

“That is our intention but we have seen how we have struggled to reduce the number of infectious in the community and that is apparent,” she said.

“If we want to live freely while vaccination rates remain rather low, that is the one target we need to stick to.”

Pivoting to a strategy that would seek to suppress the virus while also accelerating vaccin­ations, the government on Wednesday said students aged between 16 and 18 and living in the city’s most vulnerable regions would be given priority access to the Pfizer vaccine.

Ms Berejiklian said about 40,000 doses would be sourced from regional NSW and allocated to assist Year 12 students in the city’s west and southwest return to classes for face-to-face learning on August 16.

“The Pfizer doses will be sourced from supplies across rural and regional NSW to ensure no one area is impacted,” NSW Health said in a statement.

The state recorded 177 fresh cases of the virus in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday, 88 of which were known to be infectious in the community at various stages. A further 62 cases remain under investi­gation for their isolation status.

Ms Berejiklian flagged sweeping new restrictions for the LGAs of Parramatta, Georges River and Campbelltown, which have been added to a growing list of western and southwestern districts where the virus has been known to be aggressively circulating.

These include Fairfield, Liverpool and Canterbury-Bankstown, with data showing the virus also seeping in greater numbers into Cumberland, Blacktown, and the three newly added districts.

Residents will be forbidden from attending work unless they are exempted under the public health orders. Ms Berejiklian said restrictions on routine surveillance testing would be eased for the Fairfield community, where transmission of the virus had slowed, but would increase for the Canterbury-Bankstown region because of higher case numbers.

Across Greater Sydney, people will be restricted to shopping within a 10km radius of their home or within their LGA.

Of the 177 cases, 90 were in the South Western Sydney Local Health District. Another 46 were detected in the Western Sydney LHD, 20 were from the Sydney LHD and 15 were from the South Eastern Sydney LHD.

A further three cases were identified at the Nepean Blue Mountains LHD; two were from Northern Sydney LHD; and one was reported in the Illawarra Shoalhaven LHD.

Ms Berejiklian flagged a greater emphasis on compliance involving police and business inspections, emphasising that transmissions were arising through household contacts and at workplaces.

“We can’t open up and live freely unless we have the number close to zero or unless we have high rates of vaccination,” she said.

The government will move to restart limited construction from Saturday at non-occupied construction sites, provided they are located outside of the eight affected LGAs.

A ‘singles bubble’ will also be enacted but limited to one person,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“If you have been or are living by yourself, you are allowed to nominate one person who is allowed to visit you, but it has to be the same person,” she said.

“You cannot have a different person every day.”