Coronavirus lockdowns in Sydney were extended for another week Tuesday as the city tries to contain a COVID-19 outbreak.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian wanted the current lockdown, which was set to expire Friday, to be the city’s last, but a crisis cabinet received health advice later in the day that called for an extension in the city’s stay-at-home orders.
The stay-at-home orders are now set to expire July 16, according to the Herald.
The extension of the city’s lockdown comes as a growing number of people have become infected with the delta variant of the coronavirus. The variant was detected in people who were not isolating when they were contagious, according to the newspaper.
New South Wales reported 18 new COVID-19 infections Tuesday, according to the Herald.
Only 11 of those individuals, however, were in isolation for the entire time they were infectious.
Most of the cases reported during this outbreak in Sydney have reportedly been traced to people under 40 and those who are not vaccinated.
According to the newspaper, 330 local COVID-19 cases have been reported in New South Wales since June 16.
More than 30,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 900 deaths have been reported in Australia since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The country has thus far administered more than 7.5 million vaccine doses, according to the WHO.