The Sydney COVID-19 blockade has been extended by Reuters to remove the Delta game changer

By Renju Jose

SYDNEY (Reuters) – The head of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia on Wednesday promised to extend a tough blockade of Sydney’s COVID-19, with new cases to be warned as the country’s largest cities have a highly polluting Delta variant. .

Sydney, home to one-fifth of Australia’s 25 million people, plunged into the blockade on June 26 as an outbreak of the Delta variant convinced officials in a country where vaccination has been slow to tighten restrictions. Strict requests to stay at home were due to end on Friday, but will now remain in effect until July 16th.

“This strain of Delta is a game changer, more contagious and contagious than any other form of virus we have seen,” NSW Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian told Sydney journalists.

As Sydney struggles with the worst outbreak of the year so far, it has overcome a total of 350 infections since the first case was detected three weeks ago in a Bondi beach district in a limousine driver transporting an overseas crew.

Berejklian warned on Wednesday that Sydney residents expect the case to escalate in the next 24 hours.

A total of 27 locally acquired COVID-19 cases were reported in NSW on Wednesday, more than 18 a day earlier. Of the new cases, 20 were isolated during the infectious period or in part, while seven cases passed through the community while they were infectious.

Blocking, rapid tracing of contacts, and compliance with community deterrence rules have helped Australia eliminate past outbreaks and keep COVID-19 numbers relatively low, with more than 30,800 cases and 910 deaths. The current closure is the second in Sydney since the pandemic began.

As news of the extension of the stay at home spread, shares related to Australian travel, such as Qantas Airways Ltd, fell in the morning trading. Food chains Woolworths Group Ltd and Coles Group (OTC 🙂 Ltd – investors expected higher sales in the locks – were trading around 1%, surpassing the slightly higher overall market.

Meanwhile, Sydney schools will be moving to distance learning from next week, after the winter break in the southern hemisphere ended on Friday, with parents removing the crowd as children drop by and pick them up.