Australia's biggest city announced tighter Covid restrictions including heavier fines and tighter policing today as authorities battled to contain a Delta outbreak and said they were seeing the "most concerning day of the pandemic" so far.
After months of pursuing a "Covid zero" strategy, Australia has been struggling to bring a resurgence of coronavirus cases under control, with more than 10 million people under lockdown in its two largest cities and the capital Canberra.
Residents of Sydney, going into an eighth week under stay-at-home orders, will now face heftier fines for flouting rules or lying to contact tracers, with current restrictions proving insufficient to stop the spread.