WEB DESK
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.
State officials have set a target of six million vaccinations by the end of the month – when the Sydney lockdown is currently scheduled to end – if curbs are to be eased. So far more than 4.5 million total shots have been administered in New South Wales, with more than 23% of people above 16 fully vaccinated.