NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is reportedly set to face a crisis cabinet meeting this morning as the state’s Covid-19 outbreak grows.

It comes after 141 new community cases were announced yesterday, as well as two more Covid deaths, including a woman in her 30s with no underlying health conditions. The Sydney outbreak has now grown to a total of 2,081 infections and daily case numbers remain stubbornly high.

Meanwhile, lockdowns in both Victoria and South Australia are set to end at midnight Tuesday providing no unexpected developments. Tough restrictions will likely remain in place.

In Queensland, authorities are on high alert after an infected Sydneysider defied health orders and flew to the state despite not being permitted to leave Sydney. The man has emerged as the “missing link” to a Qantas flight attendant who has tested positive to the Delta strain.

Victoria

Extremely low rates of community transmission due to almost 20,000 Victorians following isolation orders have meant the state will likely end its fifth lockdown on Tuesday at midnight.

Victoria recorded 11 community cases of Covid-19 cases today, with all of those cases linked to current outbreaks and all in quarantine throughout their infectious periods. The state’s number of active cases stands at 190.

Premier Daniel Andrews said the lockdown was on track to be lifted on time.

“On the data we have now, on the trend that we’ve seen unfold over recent days, the strategy is working and we are on track,” he said.

Andrews said restrictions will continue beyond the end of the lockdown but “the exact nature of that, that’s got to be worked through”.

Victoria has now recorded 180 cases linked to the two outbreaks that jumped the border from Sydney’s Delta outbreak – one from a team of Sydney removalists that transited through the state and the other a family who returned to Melbourne’s north from a NSW red zone.

More than 20,000 primary close contacts have been identified during the state’s latest outbreak, with 4300 of those cleared from isolation so far.

Andrews is expected to announce the end of the state’s lockdown today or tomorrow.

NSW

Sources claim a “significant extension” of Sydney’s harsh lockdown could be announced within hours in a bid to contain the spread of the virus.

The state recorded 141 community cases yesterday, and anti-lockdown protests over the weekend threaten further community transmission in the state.

“I am utterly disgusted by the illegal protestors in the city today whose selfish actions have compromised the safety of all of us,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said in a statement. “The protestors have shown utter contempt for their fellow citizens who are currently doing it tough.”

Epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws told ABC News this morning that NSW “haven’t reached the peak yet” and the state could be facing a lockdown that stretches into September.

“It will take a couple of days after the weekend to see whether or not we’re actually seeing a decrease in that test-positive rate. If we start seeing that decrease, then we can then say it will take us about as long as it’s taken now – which was a month, or a month and a half – to get to that peak, and it usually takes about another month and a half to go down,” she said.

“But it’s usually a long tail to get to zero, a very long tail. But if we’re in very hard lockdown, that sharp decline will happen faster because we won’t be allowed out.

“So, I know it sounds awful, but if we want to get out faster, we need the lockdown to be a little bit tighter, such as curfews, for example. Or we need workplace testing, if we’re getting more cases happening at the workplace, at that essential workplace.”

Queensland

Queensland yesterday recorded no new community cases of Covid-19 cases, but an infected man and woman had been active in the Brisbane area, Acting Premier Steve Miles revealed.

A Sydney man who allegedly entered the state illegally was identified as the source of infection for a Qantas flight attendant who later tested positive for Covid-19.

The man flew from Sydney to Ballina in NSW on July 14, where he was picked up from the Ballina airport by a Qantas flight attendant.

The woman was permitted to cross the border but the man was not allowed to enter Queensland. The man was a close contact of another person in Sydney who had coronavirus.

Alarmingly, it is understood the man was moving freely in the community for seven days while infectious, the Courier-Mail reports.

South Australia

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall has labelled today D-Day with his state on edge whether their lockdown will end.

He flagged the lockdown would finish when scheduled at midnight on Tuesday.

“[Monday] is D-Day,” Marshall declared yesterday, after two new Covid-19 cases were linked to the Modbury cluster.

“We don’t want to see any further numbers, especially numbers that are outside in the community.”

Marshall is expected to make an annoucement on the lockdown today.

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