Sydney COVID lockdown call looms as new case numbers drop

The Australian city went into a hard lockdown on June 26 to quash the latest flare-up.

The premier of Australia’s NewSouth Wales (NSW) said on Tuesday she aims to decide within the next 24 hours whether to extend a COVID-19 lockdown in Sydney that is due to end on Friday as new infections dropped in the country’s most populous state. Just 18 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases were detected in NSW on Tuesday, half of the previous day’s number. But Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the decision would also take into account her administration’s determination to make the current lockdown in the city of five million people the last, as it aims to step up vaccinations. “That will factor into our decision-making as to whether it(the two-week lockdown) finishes on Friday or whether we continue for a period longer,” Ms. Berejiklian told reporters. “I hope to be able to communicate to the community tomorrow on what next week looks like.”