A worker cleans the waterfront area of the Sydney Opera House. Reuters

Gulf Today Report

Australian authorities on Tuesday vowed to crank up policing of anti-COVID-19 lockdown rules in Sydney as the city posted a new record of Covid-19 infections.

Sydney, with more than five million population, struggles to control an outbreak that is sending other Australian regions into lockdown.

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Australia's biggest city is now in their seventh week of lockdown as the cluster hit 5,805 cases with 32 deaths to date. New South Wales state announced 356 new cases, a fresh record for a Delta-variant outbreak that began in mid-June.

"Our strategy is to get to as close to zero as we can... but regrettably we have seen those numbers increase in the last few days," state premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

Sydney announces 356 new cases on Tuesday. File photo

Authorities also announced three deaths from the virus; all of them unvaccinated, with 60 in intensive care, 28 of whom require ventilation.

According to local media reports Australia had dodged the worst ravages of the pandemic through a strategy of closed borders, lockdowns, mandatory travel quarantine, and aggressive testing and tracing.

Amid questions about the effectiveness of Sydney's lockdown, under which residents are supposed to stay at home bar essential movements, NSW authorities said police have been asked to step up checks on how many people were being allowed inside small shops at the same time as they were still seeing "lots of unnecessary movement of people".

"What I'm concerned about is the crowding in shopping centres and places where we have seen transmission events in small shops," state Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant told reporters.