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NSW’s WORST day of Covid pandemic – 5 deaths, 262 new cases

  • NSW records 262 new locally-acquired cases

  • Five deaths highest since April last year

  • Hunter and Lake Macquarie regions go into lockdown

Five people have died of Covid-19 in NSW, as local case numbers jump by 262 — the biggest daily spike of the current Delta outbreak and the state's worst day of the pandemic yet.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said of the five people who died, four had not been vaccinated, and one had a single dose of the AstraZeneca.

"It's horrible that, during this time, families are losing their loved ones," she said.

Pictured is NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian
NSW has recorded 262 Covid cases and five Covid-related deaths. Source: AAP

Five deaths from west and southwest Sydney

Of the five deaths three men were aged in their 60s, two from southwest Sydney, and one from western Sydney.

A man aged in his 70s from Sydney's inner west died at Concord General Repatriation Hospital, and a woman aged in her 80s from Sydney’s southwest died at Liverpool Hospital.

Since this most recent outbreak, 21 people have died from Covid-19 in NSW, today's death toll is the state's highest since April last year.

The number of fresh locally-acquired cases on Thursday, surpasses the previous largest spike, when 239 cases were reported on Sunday.

Since the start of the pandemic, 9,866 new cases have been reported across NSW — 4,319 of which have been reported since June 16 this year.

Hunter and Lake Macquarie go into lockdown

The premier announced the Covid lockdown will expand beyond Greater Sydney. The Hunter and Lake Macquarie regions will go into a lockdown for one week from 5pm Thursday.

Five cases were detected in those regions including three at two schools, a day after Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant warned fragments of the virus had been found in the region's wastewater system.

Dr Chant believes the source of the infection for the five cases in the region could be traced back to a party which happened at Blacksmiths Beach in Lake Macquarie on Friday night.

Staff and students at a Central Coast primary school and a high school in southern Lake Macquarie have been told to get tested and isolate, as contact tracers scramble to assess transmission risks.

There are 133 cases under investigation.

Forty-three of the cases announced on Thursday were infectious while in the community, 29 were in isolation for part of their infectious period, while the isolation status of 80 remains under investigation.

Pfizer doses sent to Sydney

NSW had reported 233 new locally acquired cases on Wednesday, including the death of a 27-year-old man and a woman in her 80s.

During the outbreak in Sydney, an extra 183,690 doses of Pfizer will be sent to NSW, majority of the vaccines going to the epicentre of Sydney's outbreak in the southwestern suburbs.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday announced the fast-tracked NSW package would increase the state's August allocation.

"No one who has died has had both doses of vaccine. I cannot stress enough how it's so important for everybody of all ages to come forward and get the vaccine," Ms Berejiklian said on Thursday.

Regions that redirected Pfizer doses to the city will also receive a boost from the increase, which doesn't reduce other states' allocations.

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