Covid update - Tuesday
3rd August 2021
COVID UPDATE - Tuesday August 3 Let's start today's update on a good note - it’s now been 362 days without any community transmission in the Lake Macquarie-Newcastle area. We can say all sorts of things about the Sydney outbreak and how things have been handled, rightly or wrongly, but I'm extremely grateful that our local communities have managed to stay safe and Covid-free for almost a year. Our neighbours down the road on the Central Coast are now in their sixth week of lockdown, of home schooling, of closed shops and businesses, and I'm pretty certain that's been extremely tough, especially given they haven't actually had cases of Covid transmitted in the community. We've been extremely lucky... In today's numbers out of Sydney, there were 199 new cases of community transmission in the 24 hours to 8pm last night. Of those people, at least 50 had been doing essential work or shopping in the broader Sydney community while unknowingly infectious before their positive test. There are 250 people now in NSW hospitals with Covid-related illness with 53 people in ICU and 20 on ventilators. The State recorded another death yesterday, bringing the total death toll from the Sydney outbreak to 15 since June 16. Just as a quick aside, the number of Covid cases recorded globally since the pandemic began will likely top 200 million by tomorrow or Thursday, while the global death toll is approaching 4.3 million. I can't imagine what those figures would look like if the world didn't respond in the way it did. Pretty sobering. Please remember to use common sense when moving around the place and get tested immediately if you experience any symptoms. Please stay vigilant and stay safe.