Sydney Police To Step Up Enforcement After COVID-19 Record

With more than five million residents of Australia's biggest city now in lockdown for more than six weeks, Sydney reported 343 new infections in an outbreak stoked by the spread of the highly transmissible Delta strain of COVID-19.

Australian authorities on Tuesday vowed to crank up policing of anti-COVID lockdown rules in Sydney, but dismissed suggestions that tougher measures, including a curfew, were needed after the city reported its biggest single-day new case number yet. With more than five million residents of Australia's biggest city now in lockdown for more than six weeks, Sydney reported 343 new infections in an outbreak stoked by the spread of the highly transmissible Delta strain of COVID-19, up 66 from the day before and topping the last one-day peak set on Saturday. Authorities in New South Wales (NSW) state, home to Sydney, also announced three deaths from the virus, all of them unvaccinated. A total of 357 cases are in hospitals, with 60 in intensive care, 28 of whom require ventilation. With just under 36,700 cases and 942 deaths, Australia has handled the pandemic much better than many other developed economies. But the Delta strain has thrown Australia's reopening plans in disarray, as authorities seek to ramp up a vaccination rollout that critics of Prime Minister Scott Morrison have slammed as being too slow and ineffective.