Australia on Sunday reported the first death from COVID-19 in 2021 and a record 77 new cases of coronavirus in New South Wales, state premier Gladys Berejiklian announced, Reuters reported. 

NSW premier said that 50 out of 77 cases were close household contacts while 33 people were in the community when they were infectious. The count comes as New South Wales is battling the spread of the Delta variant of the virus that was first detected in India last year. 

The numbers in and around Sydney, which is under a three-week lockdown, are expected to rise further in the coming days, Gladys Berejiklian said. 

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“I’m anticipating the numbers in New South Wales will be greater than 100 tomorrow. I’ll be shocked if it’s less than 100 this time tomorrow,” the NSW premier said.

The NSW Health on Twitter said that a woman in her 90s from southwest Sydney died from the infection at Liverpool Hospital on Saturday. It said she was a close contact of a locally acquired case and was tested for COVID-19 on Friday. 

According to The Guardian, 55 out of 77 new COVID-19 cases in NSW are linked to known cases or clusters while22 are under investigation. Of the 55 linked cases, 39 are household contacts and 16 are close contacts, The Guardian said. 

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There are currently six people under 25 in hospital with COVID-19 in NSW and in total, 52 are admitted in hospital of which 15 are in ICU and five are on ventilators. 

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said “the vast majority” of new cases “continue to be from south-western Sydney”.

Talking about the tally of new cases in the coming days, she said, “The numbers might actually increase because we are ramping up testing to get ahead of the transmission curve”.

NSW premier said that it is clear that “the numbers aren’t going in the right direction” because of which the lockdown won’t be lifted on Friday. 

“Given where we’re at and given the lockdown was supposed to be lifted on Friday, everybody can tell it’s highly unlikely at this stage, given where the numbers are… The length of the lockdown is dependent on all of us,” Gladys Berejiklian said.