New South Wales has recorded another 50 locally acquired cases of Covid-19, the highest single day since the outbreak began.
Gladys Berejiklian pleaded with residents of Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains and the Central Coast to comply with the lockdown restrictions, warning “the only conclusion we can draw is that things are going to get worse before they get better”.
She said the length of the lockdown was “up to each and every one of us”.
“We are not asking for much, I don’t believe, given the situation we are all in,” Berejiklian said. “If everybody does the right thing, we will get out of this as soon as we can.
“But if people continue to flout the rules, that is our biggest risk of a prolonged lockdown and none of us want to see that.”
Of the new cases up to 8pm on Friday, 26 were in the community for the duration of their infectious period and a further 11 were in the community for part of their infectious period.
Thirty-seven of the new cases are linked to a known case or cluster – 14 are household contacts and 23 are close contacts – and the source of infection for 13 cases remains under investigation.
Berejikilian said unless the number of people in the community while infectious was reduced “we won’t be able to turn things around as quickly as we can or as quickly as we should”.
“If you really truly love your parents, your sisters, your best friends, please stick to the rules,” she said. “For this lockdown to be as effective as we would like it to be, in a time frame that we would like it to be effective, all of us have to work together to do the right thing.”
There are now 47 people in hospital. Sixteen of those patients are in intensive care, including one who is in their teens, one in their 20s, one in their 30s, one in their 40s and three in their 50s.
The state’s chief health officer, Kerry Chant, said 79% of the patients in hospital were unvaccinated. Crucially, she said no one who had received two doses of a vaccine was in hospital.
“Two doses of either the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccine is incredibly effective at preventing hospitalisation and death, which is an incredibly positive contribution,” she said.
The premier would not say whether the lockdown, currently due to end next Friday night, would be extended to reduce the number of infections to close to zero.
‘“What Dr Chant and I will do on behalf of the New South Wales government is make sure we keep the community advised of all the information we have, and if we come to any conclusions or any decisions, of course we will communicate that as soon as we can,” Berejiklian said.
“But in the meantime, what will determine how quickly we get out of the lockdown is what each individual does, and it does come down to a handful of people.”
The deputy police commissioner, Gary Worboys, said police had issued 167 infringement notices in the past 24 hours, including for a gathering of eight people in Randwick and another of five people at The Entrance on the Central Coast.
Chant stressed it was essential that confirmed cases gave contact tracers all of the information about their movements the first time because health workers did not have “time to waste unpicking stories, going back and cross-checking and verifying”.
She said the infectious period for most cases was just 48 hours and confirmed cases who had been in the community did not necessarily know they were infectious at the time.
“What’s really important is this weekend, if we can just go about our business and ensure that we don’t have contact with anyone,” she said. “Even if you have to go to the shops, choose the self-service checkouts, keep your distance from others.”
The new cases were diagnosed from over 42,000 tests in the 24 hours to 8pm on Friday and was the worst day in the current NSW outbreak.
New rules, limiting exercise to groups of two and banning browsing at shops, came into effect late on Friday. The new restrictions permit only one person per household to leave the home for shopping each day, and limit funerals to 10 people.
Earlier on Saturday the federal Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, hit back at comments by prime minister Scott Morrison suggesting that Australians had enough savings built up to get through the lockdown.
“[The lockdown] is a direct result of his failure to roll out the vaccine effectively and to have national quarantine facilities,” Albanese said. “And he has an obligation to help those Australians who have been doing it tough today.”
