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Sydney (TIE) : Sydney recorded 112 new coronavirus cases on Monday — a 45% spike from the previous day — as the locked-down Australian city battles its largest outbreak since beating back the first wave of the pandemic more than a year ago.
“We just want people to stay at home,” New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney on Monday. “The virus won’t spread if people don’t leave home. That is the bottom line.” At the weekend, Australia’s most-populous city recorded its first death since April after the delta-strain leaked into the local community in mid-June.
The city of 6 million people has been in lockdown since June 26, and faces being increasingly isolated from the rest of the nation after Berejiklian indicated that the current stay-at-home orders may need to be extended beyond Friday. On Sunday, Victoria state implemented a hard border with its neighbor, and plans for an Australia-Singapore travel bubble have been delayed until at least the end of the year.
The outbreak is highlighting the problems nation’s tardy vaccine roll-out, which has been hit by supply-chain hold-ups from contracted drug-makers amid accusations from political rivals that Prime Minister Scott Morrison failed to secure enough doses from a wide-enough range of suppliers.
