New South Wales has recorded 199 new local cases of COVID-19, of which 50 were infectious while in the community.
The state's Premier Gladys Berejiklian says it is the number of people infectious while out and about which authorities want to "get down as much as we can".
Of the 199 new cases, 88 are linked to a known case or cluster, with 67 being household contacts and 21 being close contacts. The rest are under investigation.
"There are currently 250 COVID-19 cases admitted to hospital, with 53 people in intensive care, 20 of whom require ventilation," NSW Health says. "There were 104,536 COVID-19 tests reported to 8pm last night, compared with the previous day’s total of 117,009."
It comes as Queensland reports 16 new community cases of COVID-19, all linked to a single cluster.
While the new cases are linked, which Queensland's Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young says is good news, concerns remain because the origin of the outbreak is still unknown. There are now 47 cases linked to the outbreak.
"All 16 of these new cases are related to those Indooroopilly sites and schools. That's good. We haven't seen any from outside there," Young said.
"I'm concerned that we don't know how this outbreak has happened. We know the very first two cases that arrived into Queensland on June 29, but I don't know how it's got from either of those two people to the first family in that Indooroopilly area."
On Monday, there were 34,718 tests carried out across the Australian state. Authorities are now targeting the 40,000 mark with hopes the current lockdown can lift this Sunday. On Saturday, restrictions were put in place across 11 local government areas.
"We know that there are people out there who could have been infected who have no symptoms, so the best way to deal with someone who has no symptoms is that they just stay at home. That's why lockdowns work. We know the virus can burn out. Stay at home," Young said.
"That way I hope that if we have other chains of transmission out there, it will burn out and we can lift restrictions, lockdown requirement, at 4pm Sunday.
"If we continue to see cases that will stop us being able to do that. I'm really hopeful, given that we've had so much testing done, and I do challenge everyone in Queensland, I'd like to reach that 40,000 mark - look, testing has been absolutely fantastic and today the roads were empty."
The lockdown was prompted by a high school student testing positive for COVID-19 earlier in the week.
Following the positive test result, hundreds of students and staff from Brisbane's Indooroopilly State High School were sent into isolation, with the school locked down for a deep clean. The positive student had been in the community for three days, and at school for two days before becoming unwell.
The 11 LGAs that will go into lockdown are:
- Brisbane City
- Moreton Bay Regional Council
- Gold Coast
- Ipswich
- Lockyer Valley Regional Council
- Logan City
- Noosa Shire Council
- Redland City
- Scenic Rim Regional Council
- Somerset Regional Council
- Sunshine Coast Regional Council
New South Wales' coronavirus update is expected at around 1pm (NZT).
