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The nation's eyes are on NSW after the state recorded its highest daily number of COVID-19 cases since the current outbreak began, with warnings the situation will worsen.
Of the 50 cases identified in the 24 hours to 8pm on Friday, 37 were active in the community for some or all of their infectious period.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters on Saturday the numbers suggested things would get worse before they got better.
The state is also seeing more young COVID-19 patients in intensive care than it has before, she said.
Ms Berejiklian pleaded for honesty towards contact tracers and obedience to lockdown rules.
"The length of this lockdown is up to each and every one of us," she said.
"When people don't tell us the truth, or withhold from us what's happening, it just lasts longer."
NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant once more urged residents to get vaccinated.
No one who has received two doses of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine has been hospitalised, she said on Saturday.
Delivery of Pfizer doses to Australia is set to rise to about one million doses a week from July 19, with 4.5 million expected to be available over August.
An advertising campaign will be launched as the supply increases, and some 1300 more GPs will join the rollout.
Other states are watching NSW carefully, keen to avoid the virus leaking across borders.
More police are now manning Victoria's NSW border, with more than 300 officers involved in patrols, traffic management, spot checks and vehicle intercepts.
Victoria's coronavirus testing commander Jeroen Weimar has warned the state could soon completely close off to its northern neighbour.
He told Victorians in regional NSW to come home or risk being shut out.
Victoria and Queensland did not record any local COVID-19 cases on Saturday.
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"We reaffirm our resolve to use all available policy tools for as long as required to address the adverse consequences of COVID-19," said the final statement by G20 finance ministers and central bankers meeting in Venice on Saturday.
As expected, the group endorsed a global deal on corporate taxation agreed this month by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development envisaging a corporate tax rate of at least 15 per cent.
It also said for the first time that carbon pricing could be part of the policy mix for tackling climate change.
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NSW recorded 50 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
Of these locally acquired cases, 37 are linked to a known case or cluster – 14 are household contacts and 23 are close contacts – and the source of infection for 13 cases remains under investigation.
Thirteen cases were in isolation throughout their infectious period and 11 cases were in isolation for part of their infectious period. Twenty-six cases were infectious in the community.
Given the growing number of cases, COVID-19 restrictions have been tightened across Greater Sydney including the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour. These measures are in place to protect the health and safety of the community.
From 5pm yesterday, the following restrictions came into place:
- Outdoor public gatherings are limited to two people (excluding members of the same household)
- People must stay in their Local Government Area or within 10km of home for exercise and outdoor recreation, with no carpooling between non-household members
- Browsing in shops is prohibited, plus only one person per household, per day may leave the home for shopping
- Funerals are limited to ten people in total (this will take effect from tomorrow Sunday 11 July).
The four reasons to leave your home remain in place:
- Shopping for food or other essential goods and services (one person only)
- Medical care or compassionate needs (only one visitor can enter another residence to fulfill carers’ responsibilities or provide care or assistance, or for compassionate reasons)
- Exercise with no more than 2 (unless members of the same household)
- Essential work, or education, where you cannot work or study from home.
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Ash Barty's animal instincts to "hunt" and gather trophies will override any anxieties and nerves as she chases tennis's greatest prize on Saturday night.
That's the hope and belief of her esteemed mind coach Ben Crowe, who has been hugely influential in Barty's inspired rise to world No.1 following an 18-month hiatus from tennis five years ago.
Barty has thrived following Crowe's simple philosophy of competing, have fun and play and he won't be offering any other pre-match message despite acknowledging that a Wimbledon final is a different ball game than any other she might ever confront.
"Don't get me wrong, compete is social Darwinism - kill or be killed on the tennis court," he said while backing Barty's ferocious competitive streak to shine through against big-serving Czech Karolina Pliskova.
"She has got the most extraordinary desire and appetite to compete and win and to find a way through.
"In my opinion the work that she and Tyzz (coach Craig Tyzzer) do before matches to almost solve the puzzle and find a way through and how to break down competitors' games to create opportunities for themselves, is absolutely her primary desire.
"She's always hunting, always fighting, she's always competing, she's always a warrior.
"So I don't really need to say anything in that regard because she has such a motivation based on competing, fighting and hunting.
"She would be one of the most competitive athletes I have ever worked with - that is intrinsic. I don't have to do anything.
"Talk to her dad. At five years old, she was smashing things around the house with tennis balls. It is the same with golf, the same with cricket."
Barty's ruthless streak and ability to "solve the puzzle" is reflected in three telling stats: the world No.1 is 13-2 in three-set matches this year, has won 19 of her last 22 matches that have gone the distance and she has prevailed in 11 of her past 14 three-setters against top-10 rivals.
Crowe believes Barty is able to play so clutch under pressure because she has learnt to accept that "playing tennis is what she does but it's not who she is, it doesn't define her".
"She can get perspective that at the end of the day tennis is a game," he said.
"She can go about setting goals and dreams and go after those goals and dreams, without any expectations or promises or guarantees that she can actually achieve those goals and dreams - and that's OK, that is called living."
Another key factor in Barty's charge to the final despite an injury-plagued and uncertain Wimbledon build-up, says Crowe, has been the 25-year-old's acceptance that her preparation was always going to be somewhat compromised.
"First and foremost was the prioritisation of around her body - focus of recovery and the recuperation," he said.
"Accept the fact that it was going to be a different approach to Wimbledon this year without the lead-in tournaments and to accept that she just has to find a different way through.
"There is no such thing as a perfect preparation, they are all different - the conditions for every match are different as well.
"Once she was able to accept that and let it go, she could focus on things she could control and her ability to get to the best physical state for this event been extraordinary from a month ago to where we are now."
© AAP 2021
Image Credit: original work: Peter Menzelderivative work: Vinkje83, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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