Australia will increase fines to people breaching lockdown rules in the state of New South Wales as it battles a record jump in local Covid-19 infections and Sydney, the state capital, heads into its eighth week of lockdown, officials said on Saturday.
After months of pursuing a "COVID-19 zero" strategy, Australia has been struggling to bring a resurgence of coronavirus cases under control, with more than 10 million people under lockdown in its two largest cities and the capital Canberra.
“To minimise movement and protect our communities from the evolving COVID situation in Sydney, stay-at-home orders will be introduced for all of Regional NSW from 5pm tonight,” the state’s Deputy Premier John Barilaro wrote on social media.
Lockdown restrictions were also extended across the entire state of New South Wales for the first time this year, coming into force on Saturday afternoon for at least seven days.
"Today is the most concerning day of the pandemic that we've seen," state premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.
Police would boost patrols and checkpoints while hundreds more defence force personnel will help enforce stay-at-home orders as the outbreak in the most populous state of New South Wales hit another daily record of 466 community cases. Four deaths were recorded on Saturday, taking the state's total in the latest outbreak to 42.
In neighbouring Victoria, where state capital Melbourne is in its second week of an extended lockdown, authorities reported 21 locally acquired cases, up from 15 a day earlier.
Despite the recent outbreaks, Australia still has much lower COVID-19 numbers than many other countries in the developed world, with more than 38,600 cases and 952 deaths.
