Australia has suffered its worst day since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, with total daily cases surpassing the previous record posted more than a year ago as a delta variant outbreak spreads as far as New Zealand. The country on Wednesday reported a new record number of coronavirus cases for the third time in a week.

There were 973 new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 reported across Australia on Wednesday, taking the total number of confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic to above 46,700, according to reports.  However, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) recorded only nine new cases, its lowest in four days, after a record 30 on Tuesday.

Despite the downturn in new cases, Chief Minister Andrew Barr announced that the ACT's lockdown, which began on August 12, would not end earlier than September 2. "What we've seen in our own outbreak, and what's playing out around Australia and around the world is just how quickly one positive case turns into hundreds then thousands in a community," he said.

"Now is not the time to be significantly easing restrictions, however, some changes are being considered. And these changes will seek to balance risk across the community."  "Today's case update together with the data that we have from the last 13 days, regrettably means that we are not in a position to end lockdown early.

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