- Sydney residents will soon find out whether or not their two-week lockdown is extending, as COVID-19 case numbers ease slightly
- A total of 18 new cases of the virus have been announced on Tuesday, down from Monday’s high of 35 new cases
- NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian will announce the lockdown news on Wednesday, with the current restrictions due to expire on Friday night
- Ms Berejiklian says it’s concerning how many new cases of the virus have been infectious while out in the community
- As a result, Sydneysiders are likely to face tough restrictions even if the lockdown ends as planned, including mandatory mask-wearing
Sydney residents will soon find out whether their two-week lockdown has been extended, as daily COVID-19 case numbers ease slightly.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said a decision will be made by Wednesday, with the current lockdown due to expire on Friday night.
Ms Berejiklian has given no indication of what could happen but said it was concerning how many cases were infectious while still in the community.
“The lockdown is having its desired effect to date, no doubt about that,” the Premier said on Tuesday morning.
“But it is still concerning that a number of cases are remaining infectious in the community for that period of time.
“And some cases have been received are quite historic, so people have been exposed in the community for a number of days and that is not what we want to see. “
A total of 18 new cases of the virus were announced on Tuesday, down from Monday’s high of 35 new cases.
Five of the 18 new cases recorded in NSW were only partially isolated while infectious, while two cases were not isolated and infectious while in public.
Ms Berejiklian said until the spread within the community came down, restrictions such as mask-wearing would likely remain in place.
“I anticipate that when we do come out of the lockdown it won’t be what life looked like necessarily before we went into lockdown,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“This Delta strain is likely to be the dominant strain of the virus until we have further information and we also appreciate that we need to vaccinate more of our population before we can live as freely as we would like.
“So we are looking at a scenario where we don’t burden our citizens more than we have to but we also have to accept the new world we’re living in.”