Daily Aussie cases near 2,000, fuelled by Delta

SYDNEY • Australia's Covid-19 daily cases topped 1,900 for the first time in the pandemic yesterday as an outbreak fuelled by the highly infectious Delta variant continued to gain ground in locked-down Sydney and Melbourne, its largest cities.

Australia is in the grip of a third wave of infections with the Delta outbreak forcing officials to ditch their Covid-zero strategy in favour of suppressing the virus.

They now aim to begin easing tough curbs after a higher proportion of the population has had double-dose vaccinations.

New South Wales, the epicentre of the country's worst outbreak, reported 1,542 new daily local cases, topping the previous high of 1,533 hit last week. Nine new deaths were registered.

"So far this trajectory is what has been predicted," NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told a media briefing in Sydney, the state capital, where cases are expected to hit a peak in the next week.

Ms Berejiklian also said the daily Covid-19 media briefing would be scrapped from Monday, and that updates would be detailed in an online video, an approach previously used when case numbers were low.

Rising cases in Sydney have increased the load for ambulance staff, with the number of Covid-19 patients transported doubling in the past two weeks to total almost 6,000, officials said.

There are 1,156 people hospitalised in the state, with 207 in intensive care, 89 of whom require ventilation.

Despite cases lingering near record levels, the NSW authorities on Thursday said Sydney's businesses could reopen once 70 per cent of the state's adult population is fully vaccinated, a target due to be reached around the middle of October.

So far, 76 per cent of people aged above 16 in the state have received at least one dose, while 44 per cent have been fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, Victoria state logged 334 new cases, its biggest rise for this year, and one death.

Some restrictions in the state capital Melbourne will be eased when 70 per cent of the adult population has received at least one vaccine dose, expected to be around Sept 23.

A four-stage national reopening plan unveiled by the federal government in July aims to relax several tough curbs once the country reaches a 70 per cent to 80 per cent immunisation target, from 40 per cent now.

However, some virus-free states have flagged that they may delay easing curbs on inter-state travel and other restrictions.

Australia's total infection numbers stand at around 70,000 cases, including 1,076 deaths.

Higher vaccinations have kept the country's death rate at 0.41 per cent amid the Delta outbreak, data shows, below previous outbreaks.

REUTERS