SYDNEY— As the epicenter of Australia’s coronavirus outbreaks, Sydney is on the verge of expecting daily infections peak next week as the nation runs for immunization to ease up lockdowns, authorities said on Monday.
Australia is trying to contain the outbreaks in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra which both have a third wave of coronavirus infections, forcing half of the country’s 25 million population to stay at home.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian showed a government modelling which revealed that the state will require its highest number of intensive care beds in early October and with an additional pressure on the system next week.
According to the model, daily cases in Sydney would balloon to as high 2,000 until the middle of this month.
According to Berejiklian in a media briefing in Sydney, there will be super-spreading events and it will go higher if people will do wrong things.
With a total of 1,071 cases in New South Wales hospital, 177 people are in intensive care units, and 67 who require ventilation, officials have said that they already had quadrupled the ICU beds for up to 2,000 early last year to handle the pandemic.
On the other hand, Sydney reported on Monday 1,281 cases and 1,485 a day earlier with five new deaths recorded. Victoria state, which includes Melbourne, recorded new 246 cases on Monday.
Despite the alarming cases, Australia has remained to keep it relatively low at around 63,000 cases and 1,044 deaths through lockdowns and border restrictions.
Authorities have assured that there will be a freedom of movement including the reopening of state borders once they reach 70 percent to 80 percent of vaccinated people aged 16 above although some states would delay the reopening due to the threat of the Delta variant.
Australia has reached 38 percent of population who have already been vaccinated and expected to achieve 70 percent by early November. 67