COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc throughout Australia's most populated state of New South Wales (NSW) with a further 65 new locally acquired cases being recorded in the 24 hours up to 8:00 p.m Wednesday local time.
Speaking at her daily COVID-19 press conference on Thursday, Premier Gladys Berejiklian expressed concern that 28 of those cases were out in the community while infectious.
"The number in the last 24 hours is too high," she said, predicting Friday's new case numbers could rise.
Berejiklian did, however, see a positive sign in the latest statistics, noting that they were a "welcome drop" to the previous day's figures of 97 new cases.
"They're not growing exponentially. That tells us the settings that we have in place are having an impact," she said. "My strongest message to everybody is keep doing what you are doing. Keep sticking to the rules."
Residents in Greater Sydney have plenty of COVID-19 rules to abide by since being placed in lockdown on June 26 and they will remain under lock and key until July 30, at the earliest.
The lockdown, unlike earlier ones, has been slow to curb the spread of the virus with experts attributing that, at least in part, to the presence of the highly contagious Delta strain.
The virus has infiltrated vulnerable sections of the community including major hospitals, with health authorities confirming on Thursday that a fully vaccinated nurse at Westmead Hospital, in Sydney's west, had tested positive.
Liverpool Hospital, in the city's southwest, which is the outbreak's epicenter, had to close some of its operating theaters for deep cleaning after a patient returned a positive test on Wednesday.
By Thursday, there were 73 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in NSW, including five who are receiving ventilation.
Overall, NSW has recorded 929 locally acquired cases since the outbreak began on June 16.
Meanwhile, neighboring states are stepping up their own restrictions and strategies to contain the disease.
In Queensland, to the north of NSW, authorities are dealing with three new locally acquired COVID-19 cases on Thursday.
The patients include a boy, 12, who flew to the state's capital city, Brisbane, after completing quarantine in Sydney, and one of his parents. The third case is a vaccinated worker at Brisbane International Airport.
Queensland has yet to ban people from NSW entering the state, but Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has warned if the virus continued to spread she "wouldn't hesitate" to introduce a hard border.
Victoria, which recorded 10 new locally acquired cases in the 24 hours prior to Thursday, has already closed its border to NSW.
The southern state also announced on Thursday that mandatory mask wearing would be reintroduced in all workplaces and secondary schools, and health authorities are reportedly considering other ways to reduce the likelihood of an outbreak.
