Australia records high of nearly 2,000 new Covid cases

Sydney, Australia, Sep 10 (EFE).- Australia registered a new daily record of almost 2,000 Covid-19 cases on Friday, with 10 deaths, despite the lockdowns imposed in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne, which constitute 40 percent of the country’s population.

The majority of the new cases (1,542) and deaths (9) were recorded in Sydney, the epicenter of the third wave of the epidemic, which is linked to the Delta variant, and where more than 5.3 million people have been confined since June 26

The other outbreak site is Victorian capital Melbourne, whose 5-million population has been confined since the beginning of August, and where more than 330 new cases and one death were registered.

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned that the number of daily infections will peak next week, while hospitalizations will increase in October.

In the last two weeks, the number of Covid-19 patients transported by ambulances has more than doubled in the state, said NSW Ambulance Commissioner Dominic Morgan, adding that it was a “challenging time.”

The NSW government intends to start bringing Sydney out of lockdown once 70 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, expected to be by mid-October.

Australia, which closed its international borders in March 2020, has fully vaccinated more than 40 percent of its population of more than 25 million, and has accumulated more than 70,000 cases and more than 1,100 deaths since the start of the pandemic. EFE

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