VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

A man walks under a public health message about social distancing displayed at a shopping plaza in the city centre in Sydney, Australia, Jul 6, 2021. (Photo: REUTERS/Loren Elliott) - 

Australia's New South Wales state reported its biggest daily rise in locally acquired coronavirus infections this year on Saturday (Jul 10), with authorities warning that worse may yet to come for Sydney, which is in a three-week hard lockdown.

There were 50 new cases of community transmission in the country's most populous state, up from 44 a day earlier, the previous record high for the year. This brings the outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant to 489 cases.

"When you know that there are 26 cases infectious in the community, the only conclusion we can draw is that things are going to get worse before they get better," state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told a televised briefing.

"I think it is pretty clear that unless we reduce that level of people in the community that are infectious, we won't be able to turn things around as quickly as we can or as quickly as we should."

Vaccinations are available in Australia for now only to people above the age of 40 and those in risk groups either due to their health or work.

The country has fared much better than many other developed countries in keeping its COVID-19 numbers relatively low, but its vaccination roll-out has been among the slowest due to supply constraints and changing medical advice for its mainstay AstraZeneca shots//CNA