The Australian newspaper COVID-19 cases close to 2,000 as Delta gains ground

SYDNEY, Sept. 10 (Reuters) – Australia’s daily COVID-19 cases surpassed 1,900 for the first time in the pandemic on Friday as an outbreak fueled by the highly infectious Delta variant continued to gain ground in Sydney and Melbourne , its largest cities, closed. .

Australia is in the hands of a third wave of infections with the Delta outbreak forcing officials to abandon their COVID-zero strategy in favor of suppressing the virus.

They now aim to start easing difficult restrictions after reaching a higher proportion of the population with double-dose vaccines.

New South Wales (NSW), the epicenter of the country’s worst outbreak, reported 1,542 new local cases daily, surpassing the previous high of 1,533 hits last week. Nine deaths were reported.

“So far this trajectory is what has been predicted,” NSW Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian told a media briefing in Sydney, the state capital, where cases are expected reach their maximum next week.

Berejiklian said the daily COVID-19 briefing would be discontinued as of Monday and the updates would be detailed in an online video, an approach previously used when the number of cases was low.

The increase in cases in Sydney has increased the burden on ambulance staff, with the number of patients transported by COVID-19 doubling in the past two weeks to a total of nearly 6,000, officials said. Some 1,156 people are hospitalized in the state, with 207 in intensive care, of which 89 require ventilation.

While cases remain at near record levels, NSW authorities said on Thursday that Sydney companies could reopen once 70% of the state’s adult population is fully vaccinated, a target that it should be reached by mid-October. To date, 76% of people over the age of 16 in the state had received at least one dose, while 44% had been completely vaccinated.

The state of Victoria recorded 334 new cases, its largest increase this year and one death. Some restrictions in Melbourne’s capital will be eased when 70% of the adult population has received at least one dose of vaccine, scheduled for around 23 September.

A four-stage national reopening plan presented by the federal government in July aims to relax several difficult limits when the country reaches a vaccination target of 70-80% from the current 40%. However, some virus-free states have noted that they could delay the reduction in frequency on interstate travel and other restrictions.

The total number of infections in Australia is about 70,000 cases, including 1,076 deaths. The highest vaccinations have kept the mortality rate at 0.41% in the Delta outbreak, according to data, below previous outbreaks.

Reports of Renju Jose; edition by Jane Wardell and Lincoln Feast.

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