Sydney’s lockdown is expected to be extended by four weeks as authorities adjust measures for construction and other sectors.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her crisis cabinet met on Tuesday evening to put together a roadmap out of the health emergency that has engulfed Sydney and surrounds since late June.
The cabinet decided to extend the lockdown for four weeks, multiple media outlets are reporting.
That would set a new end date of August 28 – nine weeks after the city first entered the severe restrictions.
It comes as Victoria emerges out if its fifth lockdown but with a number of restrictions still in place such as home gathering bans.
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Sydney’s construction industry – abruptly shut down on June 17 due to significant workplace transmissions – is expected to be reopened on Saturday without workers in five hotspot areas.
A singles bubble will also be introduced, while cabinet is considering rapid antigen testing for Year 12 students and essential workers.
But it’s unclear what measures, if any, will halt the spread of the virus that has infected 2397 since June 16.
The state broke a new record on Tuesday for daily local cases with 172, taking the three-day average to 152.
At least 79 of those people were active in the community for all or part of their infectious period.
Professor of Epidemiology Alexandra Martiniuk says the lockdown is working to “bend the curve”, but better data on those catching the disease could answer why so many people are infectious in the community.
“With these data, (we can) better plan either education campaigns or financial support packages or practical/policy changes to reduce this number,” the University of Sydney academic said.
“Understanding the network links may assist a ‘smarter’ lockdown – a graph of these networks of infections from NSW Health might be useful in understanding how we might be ‘smarter’ in our lockdown).”
Ms Berejiklian said authorities were starting to see some positive behaviour in households.
“The message is starting to get through that if you risk your health, that’s one thing, but to take it home to your parents or your siblings is just something none of us wants to imagine,” she said.
Wednesday also marks the first day adults aged 18 to 39 can book an AstraZeneca jab with participating pharmacies.
That age group will also be able to book with NSW vaccination hubs from Friday.
“We know the strategy of restrictions and vaccine will be our recipe for freedom,” the premier said.
NSW’s vaccination rate passed 30 per cent, with 30.4 per cent of the population now receiving one dose of either Pfizer or AstraZeneca.
Some 13.1 per cent of the population – 1.07 million residents – have received two doses.
