2 Sydney hospitals set up tents as NSW cases top 1,000

SYDNEY • Australia's new daily cases of Covid-19 topped 1,000 yesterday for the first time since the global pandemic began, as two major hospitals in Sydney set up emergency outdoor tents to help deal with a rise in patients.

Sydney, the country's largest city and the epicentre of the current outbreak, is struggling to stamp out a surge in the fast-spreading Delta variant, with daily infections hitting record levels even after two months under lockdown.

New South Wales (NSW) state, where Sydney is the capital, reported 1,029 new locally acquired cases, exceeding the previous record of 919 a day earlier. Of the new cases, 969 were detected in greater Sydney, up from 838.

The rapid rise in Covid-19 patients has forced Sydney's Westmead and Blacktown hospitals, which service the city's sprawling western suburbs, to erect tents to screen and swab patients to help manage capacity.

The makeshift unit in the emergency department for Covid-19 patients will help "to offload delays", a Western Sydney Local Health District spokesman said.

State Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the authorities had quadrupled the number of the state's intensive care ventilators to 2,000 early last year. Although the system is "under pressure", it can withstand the current crisis once vaccination rates rise, she said.

"It might be different to the help you got before because of the situation, but please know the system is kicking in," Ms Berejiklian said at a televised media conference.

Of 116 people in intensive care in NSW, 102 are not vaccinated.

Three new deaths were reported, including a man in his 30s who died at home, taking deaths from the latest outbreak to 79, although the death rate has slowed since last year.

The fast-moving Delta strain has taken the gloss off Australia's early success against the virus that kept its coronavirus numbers relatively low, with some 47,700 cases and 989 deaths. About 32 per cent of people above 16 have been fully vaccinated while just over 54 per cent have had at least one dose.

Besides Sydney, the country's second-largest city, Melbourne, and capital Canberra are also in hard lockdowns, putting more than half of the country's 25 million population under strict stay-at-home orders.

Cases in Victoria, home to Melbourne, surged to 80 yesterday, up from 45 a day earlier.

The federal government is pushing ahead with the country's reopening plans once vaccination rates reach 70 per cent to 80 per cent, but some states have hinted they may delay reopening given the rapid growth of cases in Sydney.

Meanwhile, in New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the strict nationwide lockdown was helping to limit the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant, even as the number of new cases rose yesterday.

New Zealand reported 68 new cases, taking the total number of people infected in the latest outbreak to 277. Of the total cases, 263 are in Auckland and 14 are in the capital Wellington.

The entire country of five million is under stay-at-home orders, with schools and most workplaces closed until at least the end of the month.

"Lockdown is having an impact but Delta is very tricky," Ms Ardern said at a news conference. "We do need to be incredibly vigilant."

Her strategy to eliminate the virus using strict border controls and snap lockdowns has widespread support in New Zealand, but her government has faced criticism over its vaccination progress, among the slowest in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development group.

REUTERS