Sydney Residents Told To Get Vaccinated As COVID Outbreak Worsens

The leader of Australia's New South Wales on Sunday pleaded with residents to get vaccinated as the state's outbreak worsens, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

The state reported 141 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and two deaths, including a woman in her 30s who had no pre-existing health conditions. Despite four weeks of extensive lockdowns in Sydney, the number of cases has been rising steadily in the city's southwest, the epicenter of the outbreak of the highly contagious Delta strain.

Australia virtually eliminated COVID-19 last year but is now being hampered by the slow roll-out of vaccines across the country as it tries to quash the new outbreak.

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Sunday urged people in the state to get vaccinated: "During the Delta outbreak, higher vaccination rates, even of the first dose, slow the spread down."

"That is what will get us through the outbreak combined with the restrictions," she said. The low supply of the Pfizer vaccine, and conflicting advice on who should receive the AstraZeneca jab, have fueled vaccine hesitancy.

Just 12.8 percent of Australians are fully vaccinated. Berejiklian also said she was "absolutely disgusted" by the thousands of anti-lockdown protesters who ignored stay-at-home orders on Saturday and gathered in Sydney's central business district.

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