Australia has reported the first death of the current corona outbreak in Sydney. A woman around 90 years old died on Saturday, the authorities said. Just a few hours earlier, she had tested positive for the corona virus. It was Australia’s first Covid-19 death that year in which the contagion occurred in the country itself.
The authorities also reported 77 new infections and warned the number is expected to rise to over a hundred on Monday. “Tomorrow and a few days after that will be worse, much worse than it was today,” said Gladys Berejiklian, head of government for the state of New South Wales, the capital of which is Sydney. It is therefore “highly unlikely” that the lockdown in Sydney that came into force two weeks ago could be lifted next Friday as planned.
Currently, Sydney’s five million residents are urged to leave their homes only in urgent cases. Since the current outbreak began in mid-June, 566 new corona infections have been registered in Australia’s largest city. A good 31,000 infections and 911 deaths have been reported across the country since the beginning of the pandemic.
Australia has so far been able to contain the corona pandemic to a large extent by closing its borders, quickly imposing lockdowns in the event of outbreaks and intensive contact tracing. However, only around ten percent of the 25 million inhabitants are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The government therefore started a new campaign for the corona vaccination on Sunday under the motto “Arm yourself”. For most people under 40, however, there is still no vaccination offer.
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