More than half of Australians live in isolation

Since the end of June, there have been strict restrictions in place in Sydney, the country’s largest city, and the surrounding area. On Thursday, Melbourne, the country’s second city, entered its sixth lockdown since the start of the pandemic. Parts of Queensland, including the city of Brisbane of two million people, have also been locked down.

In the state of New South Wales, where Sydney is located, 291 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the past 24 hours. This is the second day in a row that a new peak has been reached in the state.

I expect higher numbers in the coming days, and I want everyone to be prepared for that, says New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian during his daily press conference.

Less than 20% of Australia’s population is fully vaccinated, mainly due to insufficient doses in the country – and with the increasing prevalence of the delta variant, returning to life, with relatively little impact on COVID-19 in everyday life, that Australians enjoyed during Large parts of the pandemic seem distant.

The country was affected somewhat later than many others by the first cases of the virus, and thanks, among other things, to the rapid closing of the borders and effective tracing of infection, it was able to escape from the virus relatively easily.

In total, about 35,000 cases have been confirmed and 927 deaths have been recorded.