Tighter restrictions in Sydney | GP

In the past 24 hours, 239 new cases were registered – a relatively large increase compared to yesterday’s 177, the previous 24-hour record.

As a result, restrictions will be tightened for two million residents in eight suburbs in the western part of the metropolitan area. For example, they are no longer allowed to move more than five kilometers from home and must wear mouthguards outdoors. Previously, there were only mouth protection requirements in common areas inside the home, such as grocery stores and workplaces.

‘Can’t stand setbacks’

In the Sydney metropolitan area and surrounding areas, schools, gyms and restaurants have now been closed for a month and people are only allowed to move outdoors to exercise or run necessary errands.

However, getting people to follow the rules has proven more difficult this time than when the city closed in a similar fashion at the start of the pandemic in March last year. Tougher police efforts will cause companies and individuals to regulate themselves.

It is only necessary for a few, or a small percentage, to act incorrectly for it to set back us all. We cannot afford setbacks, pleads state leader Gladys Berejiklian at his daily press conference.

take the vaccine

On Wednesday, the month-long lockdown was extended for another four weeks. The Sydney metropolitan area, where a fifth of Australia’s 25 million people live, is grappling with the worst outbreak of the Covid-19 virus in more than a year. Australia has largely escaped most outbreaks of the pandemic, but 2,800 cases have now been recorded around Sydney in recent weeks and 13 people have died.

A major concern for the authorities is that only about 17% of the population of the state of New South Wales, where Sydney is located, is vaccinated.