Australian leaders under pressure to contain COVID-19 outbreak

SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and state premiers were under increasing public pressure on Friday to get on top of a fast-growing Delta variant COVID-19 outbreak that poses the country's biggest threat in months.

The outbreak has highlighted what critics say were major flaws in Australia's pandemic response - delays in ordering vaccines, flipflopping guidance that led to widespread vaccine hesitancy, too-soft lockdowns and lax quarantine at the international border. Officials reported 103 new cases on Friday, the bulk in Sydney with the remainder in Melbourne, taking total cases since the current outbreak began a month ago to above 1,000. Two people have died, 75 people are hospitalised with 18 in intensive care.