Sydney’s lockdown extended as NSW records 27 new cases

Sydney’s current stay-at-home orders will be extended, as the state’s lockdown will be extended by another week. The decision was made by the NSW government's Crisis Cabinet Committee after extensive meetings yesterday evening.

This morning, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced an extension of the state's COVID-19 lockdown orders as well as new restrictions for schools returning from holidays. The lockdown impacting Greater Sydney is due to end at 11.59pm on Friday, July 9 and now extended until 11.59pm on Friday, July 16.

NSW has reported 27 new coronavirus case. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says only 13 of the 27 new local cases were in isolation for all of their infectious period.

Ms Berejiklian has said that today's number of 27 new cases was "more than we wanted to see" and warned that tomorrow's number will likely be even higher. 

"I can foreshadow overnight that we've had a number of cases, more than we would like to have seen, so I'm anticipating that tomorrow's number will be higher than what we have seen today but they are at the moment concentrated in three local government areas," Ms Berejiklian said. 

The three local government areas are Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool. 

Schools in the Greater Sydney region will offer online learning next week as the state government delays the return to face-to-face learning. 

It is currently school holidays and students were scheduled to return to school early next week. 

More than 330 locally acquired cases of COVID-19 have been recorded since mid-June, when the virus broke out in Sydney's eastern suburbs and spread west of the city.

2GB radio host Ben Fordham revealed this morning that he has been inundated with calls from furious NSW residents.

“People are at breaking point, businesses are at breaking point," he said on Wednesday morning.

“We are hearing heartbreaking stories everywhere."

Hundreds of people have taken to social media to share their reactions to the news, with many expressing fury that NSW wasn't placed into a lockdown sooner.

Premier said she did not want NSW residents to be anxious about the future.

"I don't want anyone to feel worried or concerned, but we are always very honest to say that the Delta strain is different, and so that is why we are in the situation we are in but moving forward," Ms Berejiklian said.

She blamed the highly infectious nature of the delta variant for a change in government thinking.

She said she hoped this would be the "last lockdown" until the majority of residents were vaccinated.

This is where Australia’s Covid-19 outbreak stands: NSW has 330 cases, Queensland has 33 cases, the Northern Territory has 10 cases, Western Australia has six cases and South Australia has six cases.