The prospect of an extended lockdown in Sydney loomed on Monday as Australian health officials reported yet another record daily rise in COVID-19 cases for the year, fueled by the highly infectious delta variant.
New South Wales state reported 112 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, almost all of them in Sydney, despite the country's biggest city entering its third week of lockdown. Case numbers have been at record levels for at least three days.
There was, however, a glimmer of light as the number of newly infected people who were out in the community while infectious dropped to 34 from 45 on Sunday.