Grim warning Sydney could be in lockdown until at least AUGUST as furious residents in the west claim they're being scapegoated for city's losing battle against Covid
Five million Sydneysiders could be stuck in lockdown until at least August, a leading infectious disease expert has claimed.
Residents across Greater Sydney were hoping restrictions would be lifted on Saturday morning but now face the grim reality of five more weeks in isolation.
Professor Mary-Louise McLaws said it would take 'at least a month' to get Covid numbers down and even longer to eliminate community transmission completely.
Sydney could be in lockdown until at least August, as tensions mount over extra police attention in the city's Covid-hit west and south-west
Mary-Louise McLaws, professor of epidemiology at UNSW, claimed it could be five weeks before community transmission of the Indian Delta variant of Covid 19 slows in Sydney
Police patrol Bronte Beach on Saturday morning in Sydney. Lockdown restrictions have been tightened across NSW as COVID-19 cases continue to emerge in the community
'You expect cases, sadly, in family clusters, but the ones outside isolation are the ones that are telling you there's a lot of circulating virus,' she told Weekend Today.
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'My projections are that it's going to take at least a month to get those down.'
Professor McLaws said it was concerning to see over half of the new Covid cases detected not having isolated.
'At the moment that (proportion has) been very high, anywhere between a half of all people diagnosed to 60 per cent – and that has to get down to zero.'
Her grim warning comes as tensions mount in south-west Sydney, where 100 extra police officers have been sent to ensure compliance in worrying Covid hotspots.
Furious residents in the targeted local government areas - Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool - have questioned why Sydney's eastern suburbs are not receiving the same police attention.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned there will likely be an increase in cases on Saturday, after 44 new infections were recorded on Friday
Dramatic video emerged on Friday of Rami Ykmour - the founder of popular Rashays eatery - was arrested after refusing to provide his details to officers while two of his staff were fined for not wearing face masks
Under the tough new rules, which came into effect at 5pm on Friday, exercise is limited to groups of two, browsing is banned at shops and residents can still only leave their homes for one of the four essential reasons.
Hours earlier, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian had announced the state recorded 44 new cases, marking the worst day of the current virus outbreak.
Ms Berejiklian has warned to expect an even bigger spike in cases on Saturday.
Backlash to the police response hit a low point on Thursday when a high-profile restaurant chain owner was dramatically arrested and charged during the crackdown in southwest Sydney.
Shoppers are seen wearing face masks in the suburb of Fairfield on Friday. NSW Police today launched a high visibility operation across Sydney's southwestern suburbs to enforce compliance with public health orders
Members of the public have already been arrested with officers spotted escorting a handcuffed man outside of a shopping centre in Fairfield
Rami Ykmour - the founder of the hugely popular Rashays eatery - was arrested after refusing to provide his details to officers while two of his staff were fined for not wearing face masks at the company's head office at Chester Hill on Thursday.
'The sending in of police into Western Sydney is about signally that Australian citizens are not 'one of us' because they're from migrant backgrounds,' claimed Kon Karapanagiotidis, CEO of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.
'It's about saying we don't belong. That we someone care less about our families and communities.'
'It's debased dirty racism. Enough,' Mr Karapanagiotidis claimed.
Some furious residents in Sydney's west claimed the decision to send extra police officers to the western suburbs was an example of 'debased racism'
Social media reaction to police targeting South-Western Sydney pointed out there had been a less visible police presence in the city's Eastern suburbs
A lawyer specialising in 'police accountability' with the Redfern Legal Advice Centre said a better response would be improved community support.
'Targeting communities in south-western Sydney with more police and more fines seems disproportionate and unjust,' said Samantha Lee, solicitor in the police accountability practice at Redfern Legal Centre.
'All communities need equal access to health information, resources and support to get through this difficult time. Increasing penalties to lower economic areas is not the answer.'
Sydneysiders wait in a queue outside a Covid-19 vaccination centre at Homebush in Sydney on Wednesday
But Gladys Berejiklian warned things could get tougher for Sydney.
'Unless there's a dramatic turnaround in the numbers, I can't see how we'll be in a position to ease restrictions by next Friday,' the premier said.
'(This is) the greatest threat we have faced in NSW since the pandemic started … at the moment the numbers are not heading in the right direction.'
Twenty-nine of the cases recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday were in the community for some or all of their infectious period.
The premier said a premature reopening of Greater Sydney would result in thousands of coronavirus cases, hospitalisations and deaths.
A police officer chats with a local shopkeeper in the suburb of Fairfield on Friday as the suburb faced an increased police presence as part of an operation to ensure the public is complying with public health orders
A photo taken early on Saturday shows a near empty esplanade at Bondi Beach in Sydney, as the city faces a lockdown that could go on for several weeks into late August
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday advised Sydneysiders to 'push through' and comply with restrictions.
'Hopefully (the lockdown is) as brief as it can be, but as long as it has to be, to ensure that we suppress the virus and this most recent outbreak and we're able to get back to where we were a few weeks ago,' Mr Morrison told Nine's A Current Affair on Friday evening.
The state's health department on Friday issued alerts for 30 more venues across Sydney.
People arrive at a COVID-19 drive-through testing clinic in the suburb of Fairfield on Friday
Several places are listed close contact exposure sites for periods of seven hours or longer.
They include an Ikea at Tempe, where a staffer worked whilst infectious, and a construction site at Homebush.
Seven furniture stores along the same road in Campbelltown have also been identified as venues of concern for visitors on Sunday afternoon.
Other venues include Westfield Burwood, two Bunnings shops, in Randwick and Hoxton Park, a Miranda Service NSW, medical centres in Liverpool and Wetherill Park, and numerous supermarkets.
The number of close contacts isolating across NSW doubled in 24 hours, from 7000 to 14,000, Ms Berejiklian said on Friday.
Under the new restrictions, only one person per household may leave the home for shopping each day. Residents cannot exercise further than 10km from their home.
Funerals will be limited to 10 people.
Ten COVID-19 patients in NSW are in intensive care, with four ventilated - one person aged in their 20s.