Sydney COVID-19 lockdown extended for another week, cases rise

Australia's New South Wales (NSW) state on Wednesday extended a two-week COVID-19 lockdown in state capital Sydney for another week to contain the latest outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant.

The stay-home orders, which were scheduled to end Friday, will now end on July 16, NSW state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.

Twenty-seven new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 were reported in NSW, up from 18 a day earlier, taking the total infections in the outbreak to more than 350.