New South Wales has surpassed 500 deaths from the Delta outbreak which took hold in Sydney four months ago before spreading across most of the state.
Photo: AFP
There were 294 locally acquired cases of Covid-19 and four more deaths in the 24 hours to 8pm yesterday.
The death toll since the beginning of the Delta outbreak in June now stands at 502 people.
Before June, the state had only recorded 56 deaths from Covid-19.
Three men and one woman between the ages of 40 and 70 died during the reporting period.
Two were from Sydney's inner west, one person was from south-west Sydney, and one person was from the Central Coast.
The person in their 40s was not vaccinated, the two people in their 60s had received one dose of a vaccine, and the person in their 70s had received two doses. All four people had underlying health conditions.
NSW's high vaccination rate has seen cases and deaths fall over recent weeks despite many rules being eased at the beginning of October.
But Premier Dominic Perrottet said this did not mean NSW was immune to what has happened in other countries across the world when restrictions were lifted.
Cases and deaths in the UK and US have been steadily increasing since restrictions were eased earlier this year.
The UK is now recording close to 50,000 cases a day and 135 people died from Covid-19 yesterday.
However, the vaccination rates in these countries are considerably lower compared to NSW with 67.7 percent of people fully vaccinated in the UK and only 57.8 percent in the US.
"Our success here has been our vaccination rate ... but this pandemic isn't over," Perrottet said.
"To say there are not challenges ahead would be wrong. There are going to be difficulties, we are seeing that around the world and we will be no different here.
"As we open case numbers will increase and hospitalisations will increase but I'm very confident based on the investments we have made in our health system over time, that we are ready."
The Delta outbreak began in Sydney's east after a limousine driver, who was transporting international flight crew, contracted the more contagious strain of Covid-19 in early June.
The virus spread quickly after the driver, who was in his 60s, visited Bondi Junction Shopping Centre while infectious.
His infection was picked up on 16 June and since then there have been 67,910 locally acquired cases in NSW.
Most people who died from the Delta strain had not received one dose of a vaccine.
The latest NSW Health data, which covers 16 June to 2 October, showed 75.5 percent of the people who died were not vaccinated.
Only 10.8 percent of people who died were fully vaccinated.
The majority of deaths have been in people aged between 80 to 89, according to the same data.
Covid-19 spread through many aged care facilities which resulted in numerous deaths, including eight at the Allity Beechwood Aged Care Facility in Western Sydney and eight at the Hawkesbury Living Aged Care Facility in Richmond.
Twelve people died after an outbreak at the Liverpool Hospital, in the heart of Western Sydney where transmission was highest.
Ninety-three percent of the NSW population who are 16 and over have had their first dose and 84.8 percent have had both.
In the 12-15 year old age group, 77.9 percent have had their first dose, and 50.8 percent are fully vaccinated.
There are 474 people in hospital with Covid-19 with 116 in intensive care and 57 who require ventilation.
- ABC
