Sydney: Australian authorities extended a lockdown in Sydney on Wednesday by at least 14 days, after three weeks of initial restrictions failed to stamp out an outbreak of Covid-19 in the country's largest city.
New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said restrictions would need to remain in place until at least July 30 after she reported 97 new locally transmitted cases, a slight increase from a day earlier.
"It always hurts to say this, but we need to extend the lockdown at least a further two weeks," Berejiklian said in Sydney on Wednesday.
"We want to get out of this lockdown as soon as we can and that is why we have the settings in place that we have."
Of the 97 new cases, 24 people were infectious in the community. Berejiklian has repeatedly said that the lockdown, in place since June 26, will only be lifted when the number of newly reported cases that were circulating in the community while infectious were close to zero.
The harbour city of 5 million residents was plunged into an initial two-week lockdown in late June as the highly contagious Delta variant started to take hold in a country that has otherwise largely avoided mass infections.
Many non-essential businesses are closed, and most school students are staying home, with residents only allowed outside their homes for essential activities and some exercise.(Reuters)
