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Sydney: Australia’s New South Wales reported one among the country’s youngest deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, as daily infections lingered near a 16-month high despite the lockdown of 5 million people in Sydney entering its sixth week.
The unnamed man in his 20s, who had no underlying health issues and was unvaccinated, died at his range in the town , authorities said. He deteriorated rapidly after earlier complaining of just mild symptoms, they added.
The man was ineligible for a Pfizer vaccine, as Australia limits that type for people over 40 amid tight supplies, while Canberra has only recently told people to require the AstraZeneca vaccine as cases swell, having previously limited it to people over 60.
The death highlights the danger facing Australia’s largest city, which is struggling to contain an epidemic of the highly infectious Delta variant when fewer than 20% of Sydney’s residents are vaccinated.
Last year, the neighbouring state of Victoria said an unnamed man also in his 20s had died from COVID-19, though a coroner remains investigating the precise explanation for death.
It was unclear if the Sydney man had the Delta coronavirus variant but most of the newest cases in New South Wales are that type. Early data are showing Delta is more contagious and certain causes more severe effects than earlier coronavirus variants, though other experts cautioned more findings are needed.
The young man was one among two COVID-19 deaths reported in New South Wales within the past 24 hours. New South Wales also recorded 233 new cases, near a 16-month high reported last week, and State Premier Gladys Berejiklian said case numbers would likely grow.
“I’m not getting to rule out case numbers won’t worsen , I actually think they’re going to worsen ,” Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney, the New South Wales capital.
“If you check out the amount of individuals infectious within the community, it indicates that perhaps we’ve not reached our peak.”
At least 68 of the 233 new cases weren’t in isolation for his or her entire infectious period.
INTENSE PRESSURE
Berejiklian is under intense pressure to ease the movement restrictions that threaten to drive Australia into its second recession in as a few years . However, she has said a minimum of 50% of the state’s population would wish to be vaccinated for the curbs to ease at the top of August.
Still, many remain wary of taking the AstraZeneca vaccine, the foremost plentiful of two vaccines approved within the country, due to a rare blood coagulation issue.
Additionally, government modelling released on Tuesday showed a minimum of 70% of the state’s population would wish to be inoculated to slow the spread.
The modelling also indicated Australia should intensify vaccinations of younger people, who tend to spread the virus more frequently but are unable to secure a Pfizer vaccine.
Authorities have warned people to not await a rise in Pfizer supplies expected next month as case numbers prove difficult to curtail and sewage tests are indicating the coronavirus may have spread north.
New South Wales has taken aggressive countermeasures to prevent the coronavirus’s spread, including sealing off high-risk suburbs and asking the military to assist police enforce lockdown rules.
A total of 17 people have died in Sydney during the present outbreak that began on June 16. During that point , the surge has pushed the entire cases in New South Wales to quite 4,000.
Nationally, Australia has recorded 927 deaths since the pandemic’s start, with just over 35,000 cases out of about 25 million people.
Queensland on Wednesday reported 16 locally acquired cases, an equivalent because the day earlier, prompting authorities to declare it the state’s worst outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic and warn that a lockdown within the capital Brisbane could be extended beyond Sunday.
“If we do not do something really, really, really special in Queensland, we’ll be extending the lockdown,” Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young told reporters in Brisbane.
