Residents have again been asked to reduce their mobility and even reschedule non-urgent medical and dental appointments in a bid to reduce the spread of the Delta strain of COVID-19, which rose by 78 cases today.
NSW recorded 78 locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, of which only 37 were in isolation throughout their entire infectious period. There was also one death reported yesterday, a woman in her 50s who died in her south-western Sydney home.
Twenty-one cases were infectious in the community, while eight cases were out and about for part of their infectious period.
The source of 29 cases is under investigation, while the other 49 were linked to known cases or clusters.
There have now been 1418 local cases since the first was reported on June 16.
There are 95 COVID patients in hospital care, of which 27 are in intensive care. The number requiring ventilation has risen to 11.
At today's NSW COVID-19 update, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant implored everyone to reduce their mobility as much as possible, and even postpone non-urgent medical and dental appointments, in order to stop the spread of the dangerous Delta strain.
"We are seeing more hospitalisations, more admissions to intensive care and more people on ventilators," she said.
"We have to stop the spread of COVID. We need to limit our movements."
She urged people not to stop and chat to your "next-door neighbour" while shopping.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said workplaces remained one of the places where COVID-19 was spreading.
Dr Chant said the workplace spread meant cases were then carried throughout the Greater Sydney area, putting families at risk.
"You are introducing that infection to other households, and it's almost like you are setting off little fires across the Sydney metropolitan area," Dr Chant said.
Both Dr Chant and Ms Berejiklian again asked people to work from home if they could and asked employers to allow people to do so.
Ms Berejiklian said "harsh penalties" would be in place from tomorrow for any employers who did not allow employees to work from home.
Sutherland Shire residents were seemingly heeding the call today.
Cronulla was fairly quiet at 10am, with most people exercising alone or with one other person, and most were social distancing, although few were wearing masks.
