COVID-19

An expanded lockdown now covers 5m people in Greater Sydney, as well as the Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Wollongong.

Cases of the highly infectious Delta variant now stand at 110.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Sunday that she expected that figure to rise.

"Given how contagious this strain of the virus is, we do anticipate that in the next few days, case numbers are likely to increase even beyond what we have seen today because we are seeing that people in isolation, unfortunately, would have already transmitted to all their house contacts," she said.

The city is battling to contain an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant.

Officials reported 17 new cases on Friday, taking the cluster to 65 cases.

It is the first lockdown in Australia's largest city - home to 5.3 million people - this year.

It will affect the city centre, inner-city suburbs, as well as beachside suburbs in the east.

"We don't want to see this situation linger for weeks. We would like to see this situation end sooner rather than later," said New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

Authorities reported 16 new infections on Wednesday, which brings the cluster there to 37 cases.

Sydney's 5.3 million residents will have to wear masks indoors, and many will be banned from travelling out of the city.

Officials are concerned about the "extremely contagious" Delta variant.

The cluster marks the largest rise in infections in Sydney since December. For most of the year, locals have enjoyed almost no restrictions on daily life.

But the sharp case rise in the past week has prompted authorities to reinstate distancing rules.

Seven of the infections were detected outside of the reporting period and will be included in tomorrow's figures.

Three new cases were recorded before the 8pm reporting cut-off, in addition to two infections that were announced yesterday.

The latest surge in cases has led NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to extend the state's mask mandate for all indoor public venues to midnight next Wednesday, 30 June.

"We will extend it to all of Greater Sydney... excluding the Central Coast and the Hunter," she said.

The team will work with their Fijian counterparts from the Ministry of Health & Medical Services to bolster Fiji’s fight against COVID-19.

Australia and New Zealand deployed the highly trained joint multi-disciplinary team following a request from the Fijian Government.

The team’s priority over the next 28 days will be creating additional spaces to offer care to non-COVID patients and to strengthen infection control protocols.

The team are fully vaccinated and, following quarantine, will deploy to Suva to support the Fiji Ministry of Health.

Two locally acquired cases were recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm yesterday - a man in his 30s, which was announced yesterday morning, and the other a household contact of his.

Since 8pm yesterday, NSW Health recorded two additional cases of locally acquired transmission. These two cases will be officially recorded in tomorrow's numbers.

The two new cases, a woman and a man in their 50s, are from the Sutherland Shire and close contacts of previously reported cases. They have both been in isolation.

The total number since the second outbreak started in April is now at 1373.

Permanent Secretary for Health Dr James Fong said a new cluster has been identified within the Rewa Emergency Operations Centre, possibly linked to the Vunimono cluster in Nausori.

There are two new cases for this cluster.

A new cluster is also at the Town House Hotel in Suva where Colonial War Memorial (CWM) Hospital and the ministry COVID-19 Incident Management Team (IMT) staff are being accommodated.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health Dr James Fong confirmed to the Fiji Times that the infants are in stable condition at the Lautoka Hospital.

The infants and their mothers were from a community in lockdown in Nadi.

They were recently assisted by the non-governmental organisation - Foundation of the Rural Integrated Enterprises and Development (FRIEND) Fiji.

A post on the FRIEND Fiji official social media page said they responded to a request for assistance from the community in lockdown in Nadi.

The Ministry of Health confirmed that 98 of the cases are linked to the existing clusters.

21 cases are from the CWM Hospital cluster in Suva, 16 from Nawajikuma, Nawaka, Nadi, six from Tramline, Nawaka, Nadi, one from Kinoya, two from Navosai, 11 from Waila, 11 from Navy, eight from the ministry’s COVID-19 Incident Management Tean, 15 from Muanikoso, Nasinu  and seven from the Nasinu Police Barracks.

Permanent Secretary for Health, Dr James Fong, says cases from some areas are under investigation to determine whether they have links to other cases.

At the end of the G7 summit in Cornwall, the PM said countries were rejecting "nationalistic approaches".

He said vaccinating the world would show the benefits of the G7's democratic values.

There was also a pledge to wipe out their contribution to climate change.

After the first meeting of world leaders in two years, Mr Johnson said "the world was looking to us to reject some of the selfish, nationalistic approaches that marred the initial global response to the pandemic and to channel all our diplomatic, economic and scientific might to defeating Covid for good".