Western Sydney University Australia

Sydney, July 21 (IANS) Australia's most populous city of Sydney has experienced an uptick of community cases, over half of which are still under investigation, with health authorities scrambling to regain control, the media reported.In the 24 hours to 8 p.m. (local time) on Tuesday night, the state of New South Wales (NSW), the epicentre of Australia's current outbreak, recorded 110 new community cases, of which only 54 have been linked to a known case or cluster, Xinhua news agency reported.Worryingly, just 37 of these new cases were in isolation throughout the entirety of their infectious period.The number of unlinked transmissions raised concerns that NSW is losing control of the outbreak. Health authorities remain hopeful that contact tracers will be able to link the chains."Hopefully most of them will be linked eventually but there is concern that there are unlinked cases which mean that because it is so transmissible, people are not aware of who they have been in contact with," said NSW Deputy Chief Health Officer Jeremy McAnulty.Still expecting a turnaround, NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Wednesday that Sydney is yet to see the effects of restrictions tightened last Saturday."We obviously went into harsher conditions last week and we won't have a sense until this weekend and early next week what the result of those harsher restrictions have been and I just ask for everybody's patience," she said.The premier dismissed modelling which predicted Sydney would not be prepared to exit lockdown until September."The modelling can't predict how many people will stay in their homes and not be mobile. It's just an indicator for what could happen and different modelling gives you different results," she said.In regional NSW, three areas entered a seven-day lockdown from midnight Tuesday after a truck driver with Covid-19 visited the regions last week.Deputy Premier John Barilaro defended it as the "right decision"."It's a reminder to everybody that we in regional and rural NSW aren't somehow not going to be impacted by the current delta strain," he said on Wednesday.In NSW, there are now 106 people admitted to the hospital with Covid-19, with 23 people in intensive care, 11 of which require ventilation. --IANSint/pgh

Sydney, July 8 (IANS) The Australian city of Sydney has recorded its highest daily rise in Covid-19 cases in months, despite being nearly two weeks into a lockdown.The city in the state of New South Wales reported 38 cases on Thursday - taking its outbreak of the Delta variant to about 370 cases, the BBC reported.Authorities say household visits and meet-ups between friends were still driving the virus' spread.They have pleaded with residents to follow the rules more strictly."We just need people to stop interacting for this lockdown to work," NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Thursday, which saw the highest figures in a day in the last 14 months."Please stop visiting people indoors, outside your family, your household. Your immediate family means those you live with, it doesn't mean extended family or friends," she said.She added that people with symptoms moving around the community were also fuelling the virus' spread.Australia's biggest city, home to five million people, is under a stay-at-home order until 17 July. The neighbouring Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong, and Shoalhaven regions are also affected.Under the direction, people are allowed to leave their homes for essential reasons like shopping, exercise and care-giving. Businesses such as restaurants offering takeaway and many retail shops remain open.Earlier this week, authorities were forced to extended the lockdown by a week based on the continued trend in case numbers - at around 18-35 new infections per day over the past week.While a majority are being found in household contacts of infected people already in isolation - there are still a concerning number in those moving freely in the community."Those numbers are too high. We need to get those numbers down," said Berejiklian."We don't want to prolong the lockdown, we don't want to see Sydney going in and out of lockdown until we have the vast majority of our population vaccinated. It is up to all of us to step up, as difficult as it is."Sydney's Delta outbreak and scares in other cities last week has sparked public anger over the federal government's slow vaccine rollout.--IANSint/pgh

Bengaluru, July 2 (IANS) The Karnataka government has directed all the universities in the state to vaccinate their students on priority before offline classes begin for the 2021-22 academic year, Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan said on Thursday."We have directed the vice-chancellors of all the universities in the state to vaccinate their wards (students) by July 10 on priority to facilitate opening of physical classes in higher educational institutes, including colleges," Narayan said in a statement here.Narayan, a medical doctor by profession, holds the portfolios of higher education, IT, BT and science and technology in the BJP-led Karnataka government."As per the vaccination drive schedule, maximum number of students above 18 years will be administered the jab over the next 10 days across the state," he said after a virtual meet with the vice-chancellors.As part of gradual lifting of the lockdown measures in the state, Narayan said the date of opening of colleges and universities would be decided on the success of the vaccination drive to protect the students from the pandemic.--IANSfb/arm

Canberra, June 24 (IANS) The Australian government will phase out the use of the AstraZeneca-Oxford coronavirus vaccine from October, a top health official said here.Covid-19 Task Force commander Lieutenant General John Frewen on Wednesday night released Department of Health projections detailing the vaccine doses each state and territory will be allocated every week for the rest of the year, reports Xinhua news agency.It revealed that Australia will receive between 1.7 million and 2.3 million doses of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine every week from the start of October, up from 650,000 per week in July and August.The AstraZeneca vaccine is currently only recommended for Australians over 60, with Pfizer preferred for everyone else.Frewen said the data would improve transparency around the vaccine rollout and allow states and territories to plan ahead."This is giving the states all of the best information we can to help them plan to get all of the vaccinations that we can provide to their citizens as quickly as possible," he told reporters.The projections also revealed that the government expects Moderna's vaccine to be available from September, with 87,000 doses distributed per week.Frewen said that the AstraZeneca vaccine, of which Australia has acquired 53.8 million doses, will still be available beyond October on request."The assumption is for all of the people and cohorts where AstraZeneca is preferred, we think they will have received their AstraZeneca before the fourth quarter," Frewen said."For any people who still do require AstraZeneca, we will have allocations available into the fourth quarter and we fully expect there will be adequate supplies."--IANSksk/