New South Wales had the highest daily number of Covid-19 cases during the pandemic.
In the 24 hours leading up to Friday, 825 people were tested positive for the virus. Three more people died. Each of these people contracted the virus in an aged care facility or hospital.
Gladys Berejiklian (NSW premier) said Saturday about the rise in case numbers that: We accept Delta is here, and we accept heading towards zero across the country, especially after you open up to live free.
Nearly 80% were found in the south-west and western Sydney areas. These areas are subject to strict new restrictions, including night-time curfews.
Two of the three victims were elderly men in their 90s and 80s who lived at Greenwood Aged Care at Normanhurst. Marianne Gale, deputy chief of health officer, said that while one was fully vaccinated, the other had serious underlying health problems.
After an infected staff member had worked, six residents were diagnosed with Covid-19. Gale stated that four of the residents had declined to get vaccinated.
After contracting the virus at Liverpool hospital's geriatric ward, a woman in her 90s was killed. This outbreak has claimed the lives of 10 people.
A beachside party held in Maroubra last weekend resulted in 16 people being tested positive for coronavirus and some of their friends. Berejiklian stated that 60 people attended the event, most of them from hotspot areas.
Brad Hazzard (NSW health minister) said that up to 500 people may have attended a funeral in western NSW.
Many of these people have been returned to far-flung areas of the state. I'm already hearing from the health system that there are positive cases in different communities. These will likely grow over the next few days, Hazzard stated. It is too late to be selfish.
Berejiklian stated that the spread of the virus to the far north west states was a matter of grave concern.
There were 14 cases reported in the Far West Local Health District. Twelve of these were in Wilcannia. The LHD serves only 30,000 people, which makes the infection rate comparable to that in the Sydney local government areas.
38 cases were reported in the Western Local Health District, 32 of which were in Dubbo.
Eight cases of Covid-19 were reported by the ACT on Saturday. They were all linked to the current outbreak in the territory and not contagious while they were present.
Andrew Barr, the chief minister of the ACT, stated that it was not possible to host Canberra's Floriade or Nightfest events this year due to the risk of the virus spreading.
Barr stated that we will be very cautious here. We would need to have zero cases per day and no people infected to get out of lockdown quickly.
Barr stated that 4,683 virus tests were performed in the ACT within the 24 hours prior to Friday evening. Waiting times were relatively short.
Kerryn Coleman, chief health officer for ACT, stated that 100 of the territory's total 102 cases had either links to known cases or exposure sites where transmissions have occurred.
Over 14,600 close contacts have been identified by the ACT, while there are approximately 5,600 casual contacts. There are more than 290 exposure points.
Coleman stated that there were three sites where transmission was publicized, but officials had yet to confirm the origin of the transmission.
A mass hub will be opened at the Australian Institute of Sport arena to allow those under 40 years old to register for Pfizer once it becomes available.
On Saturday, Queensland had zero newly acquired coronavirus cases.
Queensland has only one active local case, apart from Friday's non-infectious historical case.
Jeannette Young, the state's chief health officer, stated that while the virus is under control in her state, it was still a concern about spreading to NSW.
As we move forward with our tightening of the border with NSW for the week, we need to be careful. We are unfortunately seeing more cases each day and those cases are moving closer to Queensland.
Young stated that Queensland would likely reopen to the rest Australia once 80% of its vaccinations have been achieved, even though outbreaks are raging elsewhere in Australia.
She said that we will probably reach that 80% mark, but that we have to wait and see what happens.
Berejiklian has extended stay-at-home orders for NSW until at least 30 September due to the persistently high number of cases. He also imposed harsher rules on 12 hotspot areas of local government, including a curfew between 9pm and 5am.
The Regional NSW Government is currently locked down until 28 August. All people in NSW must wear masks when they are outdoors except for those who are exercising.
