Tensions are high in NSW as COVID-19 case numbers continue to rise and police hunt down thousands of people who ignored public health orders to protest on Saturday against lockdowns.
Despite a lockdown of Greater Sydney entering its fifth week, case numbers of the deadly Delta strain of the virus hit a new high on Saturday as NSW reported 163 new local infections.
Visitors to the Chris O'Brien Lifehouse cancer hospital in Sydney's inner west have potentially been exposed to the virus.
NSW Health indicated that visitors to the centre around lunchtime on Tuesday were considered to be close contacts, after a patient who attended for an appointment tested positive.
The NSW government is frustrated with rising case numbers, which have persisted despite the imposition of more severe restrictions.
The NSW Labor opposition, meanwhile, said the government should host an online "summit" bringing together stakeholders including community leaders, unions and business peak bodies.
They wanted the summit held as early as Monday.
"The summit could act like a community cabinet, alongside the NSW cabinet, to provide important community buy-in, feedback and acceptance," Labor said in a statement on Sunday.
The latest COVID-19 lockdown escalation has prevented all but the most essential workers in Cumberland and Blacktown local government areas leaving those areas, joining Fairfield residents.
Ms Berejiklian has described vaccination as the way out of the outbreak, but her plea for more Pfizer stocks has been rebuffed.
Instead, NSW will have to settle for 50,000 more Pfizer doses from the federal government's national stockpile.
Ms Berejiklian has said she will soon provide the state with a "road map" until the state reaches a good proportion of its citizens vaccinated.
Three regional NSW local government areas in the state's central west are also under stay-at-home orders until at least July 28.
Local elections across NSW have also been postponed by three months to December 4, Local Government Minister Shelley Hancock said.
NSW Health on Saturday night issued an alert about a confirmed COVID case on Virgin flight VA1139 from Sydney to Ballina on July 14, with anyone aboard deemed a close contact.
© AAP 2021
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