NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has renewed pleas for other states to donate Pfizer vaccines, after another record daily infection total despite Sydney’s lockdown.
There have been 163 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in NSW in the last day, a major spike since yesterday and a new daily record.
Of those, 66 were household contacts and 45 were infectious in the community.
There were more than 93,000 test results received, another record.
Meanwhile Victoria recorded 12 new local cases.
The 12 new locally-acquired cases are all linked to the current outbreaks.
Ten of the 12 cases were in quarantine throughout their entire infectious period.
Just under 40,000 tests were carried out during the reporting period.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the potential option of delaying second doses of the Pfizer vaccine in NSW to increase the number of people who have received at least one dose was a “huge, huge administrative task”.
“It is creating havoc for us, but if that is what we are being handed by our friends in the other states and in the Commonwealth, then we have to do what we have to do.”
Premier Gladys Berejiklian yesterday called on the Commonwealth, and her counterparts in other states, to send their Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines to Sydney, which has been in lockdown for a month amid an outbreak of the Delta variant.
Her pleas were rebuffed at a national cabinet meeting yesterday afternoon, and while Ms Berejiklian didn’t front today’s press conference in Sydney, Mr Hazzard took up the fight.
“Last time I looked, we were a Commonwealth, we worked together so it disturbs me that it would seem that all we’ve ever done to work together has just seemingly been cast aside,” he said.
“It is with disappointment that I heard some of the responses from leaders from other states.”
He said states worked together to overcome natural disasters.