Premier declares Sydney outbreak a ‘national emergency’

Sydney’s outbreak was on Friday declared a national emergency as  the NSW’s delta outbreak continues to worsen.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Friday announced 136 new cases, including 53 who were in the community while infectious and she is calling on support from the federal government to urgently “refocus” the vaccine rollout program.

Todays number of new cases is a record high for the current outbreak for the second day running. Yesterday, there were 124 new cases.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the situation in NSW, particularly in the south-west and western suburbs, was now regarded as a "national emergency" and called on the federal government to refocus the national vaccination strategy.

“There is no doubt that the numbers are not going in the direction we were hoping they would at this stage,” she said.

“It is fairly apparent that we will not be ending lockdown next Friday.”

The state is planning to try to vaccinate with at least one dose of either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine as many people in south-west Sydney as possible in coming days.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she would go to national cabinet on Friday afternoon to call for the vaccine strategy to be refocused on delivering at least first doses to the centre of the outbreak in south-west Sydney.The NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, said NSW was “awash” with AstraZeneca and implored people over 40 to seek a dose and for younger people to talk to their GPs about taking it.Berejiklian and Chant said both they and their families had had Astra Zeneca.

“I’m appealing to everyone that Dr Chant is, for me, the most respected medical person in Australia in public health. If she is saying it’s OK for over 40 is to have AstraZeneca, please take the advice. The risk of any adverse condition from the jab is minuscule compared to the serious illness you can get if you get the Covid virus,” Berejiklian said.

The NSW government is also expanding its ban on people leaving local government areas for work to Cumberland and Blacktown. Previously, it had applied to people in Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool. Workers in these LG’s cannot leave the area unless they work in health or aged care or on a list of authorised jobs.