New South Wales sees 3rd highest daily virus cases

Australia's most populous state, New South Wales, on Tuesday reported its third-highest COVID-19 daily infection count. But the state government said the spread of the delta variant in its main city of Sydney had not yet peaked. There were 45 news infections recorded in New South Wales, down from 475 on Monday and 466 on Saturday.

An unvaccinated woman in her 70s died in a Sydney hospital on Monday, bringing the death toll for the outbreak discovered in mid-June to 53. New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian urged residents to get vaccinated as authorities foresee the number of infections increasing in the coming weeks.

"Case numbers in the next two or three weeks will bounce around and are likely to go up substantially," she said. Meanwhile, 24 cases were reported in Victoria's state capital Melbourne with the city in lockdown and under curfew. Australia's federal capital Canberra and the surrounding area, which is in lockdown until September 2, recorded 17 new cases.