Covid update: Premier urges NSW to “stay the course”

PREMIER Gladys Berejiklian has welcomed a drop in new community transmission cases today, with 65 local covid cases recorded in New South Wales over the past 24 hours.

The Premier said the case drop comes with a warning, as 28 of those were in the community while infectious.

“That is the critical number we need to watch in the days ahead. We need to get that 28 number as close to zero as possible,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“I am predicting that we will have higher case numbers tomorrow. Now, I want to send the following strong message to the community. Whilst the case numbers are bouncing around, we are seeing a stabilisation,” she said.

“Keep sticking to the rules because we are seeing the impact of that, but the next challenge for us is to see a drop in the numbers, in the numbers of people infectious in the community. We are seeing a level of stabilisation, but we need to see those numbers drop,” said.

“The best health advice we have, is we need everybody to stay the course,” said the Premier.

Nineteen Covid patients remain in intensive care and no active cases have been recorded in the Upper Hunter.

Minister for Health, Brad Hazzard, said he would like to be able to make the Pfizer vaccine available to younger age groups however, the decision around who can receive vaccines and their availability falls under Federal Government domain, not the State Government.

“The single biggest problem remains, the vaccine supply. Pfizer is still in short supply, compared to where we’ll be in just a few weeks,” Mr Hazzard said,

“What the Federal Government is telling us, is that by the end of September, they believe they’ll have a lot more Pfizer vaccine,” he said.

“We wish we had more vaccines because we would certainly like to be able to disturb it more broadly. I’ve had friends in the States that have told me for months now that twelve year olds are getting the Pfizer,” he said.

“My message to young people is we are very conscious to your situation,” said Mr Hazzard.

For more information about the current Public Health Orders, click here.