NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she is still hesitant to implement further Covid-19 lockdown measures as the state sets a new daily case record and three deaths.
A health worker takes a swab sample at a Covid-19 drive-through testing site in western Sydney on 7 August. Photo: AFP
The state recorded 356 new locally acquired cases, with 209 of those infections unlinked.
Fifty-seven of those cases were infectious while in the community, 40 were in isolation for part of their infectious period and the isolation status of 157 remains under investigation.
There were also three Covid-19 deaths in the state.
They were a man and woman in their 80s and another man in his 70s - none of the three were vaccinated and all died in hospital.
The man in his 80s was linked to the Liverpool Hospital outbreak.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said Canterbury-Bankstown remained the central area where Covid-19 infections continued to climb, but she said cases were beginning to plateau in other regions.
"We have seen stabilisation and substantial decline in areas like Fairfield, so communities that are responding to health orders," she said.
Berejiklian rejected the idea of imposing a ring of steel around the Canterbury-Bankstown local government area (LGA) because she said she would not run "any strategies that aren't going to work".
"If the health advice adjuste... we would do it," the Premier said.
"If we thought that they would have a significant or even marginal impact, of course, we'd do those things.
"We have to accept that part of the challenge we have in NSW is because of a lack of compliance and part of that challenge is because Delta is very different to anything we've seen before."
The Premier said the state may never reached zero cases and its main priority would be to fully vaccinate 70 per cent of the population.
There have been no further Covid-19 cases in Tamworth, Armidale or Byron Bay regions but there have been new cases and exposure sites in Newcastle.
Yesterday, an infected 50-year-old Sydney man who travelled to the shires of Byron, Richmond Valley, Lismore and Ballina sparked a seven-day lockdown along the Queensland-NSW border.
The infected man was reported to have been travelling with two relatives and had not been wearing a mask, socially distancing or checking in to venues using QR codes, according to Byron Bay Mayor Michael Lyon.
"I've heard he didn't believe in the virus. From what I understand, he is not cooperating,'' he said.
The infected man, who travelled from Sydney to the region in July, was reported to have been looking at real estate, with several northern NSW agents saying they had been contacted by police to ask if he had visited their offices.
"What worries me is no matter what legal orders or requirements are in place, you can't legislate against stupidity, arrogance and entitlement," NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said.
Hazzard said police were very carefully investigating the man's activities.
"There are matters where one has to be a bit cautious because I'm not going to prejudice part of the police investigations or the police actions," he said.
"I trust the police will be able to take appropriate action in due course."
There have now been 5805 locally acquired cases since 16 June when the Delta outbreak began and 89 people have died since the beginning of the pandemic.
- ABC
