Australia has announced its first coronavirus-related death of the year as authorities in the state of New South Wales struggle to contain an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant.<\/P>
<\/P>
The woman in her 90s died hours after testing positive for COVID-19, officials said on Sunday.<\/P>
<\/P>
Hers is the first death from a locally acquired infection in Australia this year and came as NSW logged a record 77 new cases of the virus.<\/P>
<\/P>
State Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters that the numbers in and around the country\u2019s biggest city Sydney, already under a hard lockdown, are expected to rise.<\/P>
<\/P>
“I\u2019ll be shocked if it\u2019s less than 100 this time tomorrow, of additional new cases,” she said.<\/P>
<\/P>
On Saturday, there were 50 cases ” the previous 2021 record high. The recent outbreak stands at 566 cases.<\/P>
<\/P>
Of Sunday\u2019s cases, 33 were people who had spent time in the community while they were infectious, raising the likelihood that the three-week lockdown of more than five million people in Sydney and surroundings will be extended.<\/P>
<\/P>
“Given where we\u2019re at and given the lockdown was supposed to be lifted on Friday, everybody can tell it\u2019s highly unlikely at this stage,” Berejiklian said.<\/P>
<\/P>
There are 52 cases in hospital, or about one in 10 people infected in the current outbreak. Fifteen people are in intensive care, five require ventilation.<\/P>
<\/P>
Australia has fared much better than many other developed countries in keeping its COVID-19 numbers relatively low, seeing just more than 31,000 cases since the start of the pandemic and 911 deaths.<\/P>
<\/P>
The vaccination rollout, however, has been sluggish due to supply constraints and changing medical advice for its mainstay AstraZeneca shots.<\/P>
<\/P>
Vaccines are now available only to people above 40 and groups at risk either due to their health or exposure to the virus at work.<\/P>
<\/P>
Of those hospitalised in Sydney, 11 are below the age of 35 and more than three-quarters of the patients have not had any doses, health authorities said.<\/P>
<\/P>
Source: National News Agency<\/P>
<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australia has announced its first coronavirus-related death of the year as authorities in the state of New South Wales struggle to contain an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant.The woman in her 90s died hours after testing positive for CO…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1798],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n