Coronavirus

The Delta outbreak, which began in Sydney's eastern suburbs 54 days ago, has been concentrated around Fairfield, in the city's south-west, for several weeks.

But 92 of 319 new cases recorded in the 24 hours to 8:00pm Friday were from the Canterbury-Bankstown local government area (LGA), sparking warnings the virus was on the move again.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said there had been "a rapid increase" in COVID infections in the LGA this week, with around 500 new cases identified.

The new cases, which are all linked to previous cases in the outbreak, were detected from among 43,618 test results processed on Friday.

It is the highest single-day increase in local cases this year, ahead of 27 cases detected on 21July.

The number of exposure sites linked to the outbreak continues to grow, with supermarkets and a GP clinic among the latest locations added in Melbourne's west.

The government also confirmed seven more deaths, taking the toll to 290.

Health secretary Dr James Fong said the patients had died between July 10th and August 5.

All but one of them were not vaccinated.

One of those people travelling from Moscow had the Delta variant of COVID-19. After they left the plane, staff from the Nanjing Lukou airport swooped in to pick up their rubbish.

According to Chinese officials, when those cleaners exited the aircraft they brought the virus along with them to the outside world - sparking what has now become China's widest outbreak since Wuhan.

In the last few weeks, at the height of the summer travel season, Delta has been detected in at least 16 Chinese provinces and municipalities. Most cases are linked to Nanjing.

The Ministry of Health’s Permanent Secretary, Doctor Fong said 11 deaths were recorded between 2 and 5 August, Eight of the deaths are reported in the Central Division and three in the Western Division.

“A 15-year-old girl from Tavua presented to a medical facility in respiratory distress and she was transferred to Lautoka Hospital on 2 August. Her family reported that she had a fever, cough and shortness of breath two days prior to visiting the health centre. Clinical investigations revealed she had both leptospirosis and COVID-19.”

There were 1220 new cases reported in the 24-hour period that ended at 8am yesterday.

The Ministry of Health said there were seven deaths between 31 July and 2 August.

Six people died in the Central Division, and one death was from the Western Division.

The Western division has seen new cases escalate to 464 in a day.

There were 756 new COVID-19 cases in the Central Division.

There have been three more deaths of COVID-19 positive patients however doctors have determined that these were due to serious pre-existing medical conditions.

Health authorities reported 632 new cases in the latest daily update, meaning over 30-thousand people have tested positive to the virus since April.

Two more deaths from the virus were reported, but the Ministry of Health says the 7-day rolling average of COVID deaths per day is eight.

Since April 239 deaths have been recorded from COVID in Fiji. Before the current outbreak began, only two people in Fiji had died from COVID-19.

A sufficient percentage of Americans have now been vaccinated to avoid lockdowns, Fauci said on ABC's "This Week".

"Not enough to crush the outbreak, but I believe enough to not allow us to get into the situation we were in last winter," he said.

The average number of new coronavirus cases reported nationwide has nearly doubled in the past 10 days, according to a Reuters analysis.

Even if states do not resort to lockdowns again, the spread of the Delta variant could still threaten the economy.

The government reported 1163 new cases and six deaths in the 24 hours to 8am yesterday.

That compares with 1301 cases and nine deaths in the previous 24-hour period.

Health Secretary Doctor James Fong said all the latest victims were unvaccinated.

He said severe disease and death due to the coronavirus among infants were rare.

"However the doctors overseeing this baby's care confirmed that he did die because of Covid-19," Dr Fong said. "And we know that once a very high level of infections are reached in the community, these rare events do occur.

There were nine deaths between the 26th and 27th of this month.

The Ministry of Health has confirmed that there have been 245 new recoveries reported since the last update.

There are now 20,200 active cases.

Of the new cases announced yesterday, 293 cases are from the Western Division and 1008 cases are from the Central Division.

17,774 active cases are in the Central Division and 2,426 in the West.

53 patients are considered to be in severe condition, and 16 are in critical condition.