NSW can lead nation on vaccine charge: Hazzard

While Mr Hazzard was confident NSW could reach the 70 per cent mark relatively quickly, others in the state cabinet said the new target set by national cabinet was “ultra-conservative”.

“That target range has a lot of cotton wool wrapped around it,” a senior NSW minister speaking on the condition of anonymity said.

Mr Hazzard revealed 198 people with the virus were currently hospitalised in NSW, with 53 of them in intensive care and 27 requiring ventilation. Of those in ICU, six are aged in their 20s and four aged in their 30s.

The virus is continuing to spread most rapidly in Sydney’s south-west and west, where about two-thirds of Saturday’s positive cases were reported.

NSW Health provided a breakdown of the 210 cases by Local Health District. There are 81 cases recorded from South Western Sydney LHD, 72 cases from Western Sydney LHD, 38 from Sydney LHD, 11 from South Eastern Sydney LHD, four from Northern Sydney LHD, two from Nepean Blue Mountains LHD, one from the Central Coast LHD and a person from Western NSW living in Sydney.

The latest death, a man aged in his 60s, from south-west Sydney died at home, marking the state’s 70th COVID-19 death of the pandemic.

Mr Hazzard said the latest fatality was a “terrible situation” and families, for a variety of reasons, were “not coming forward when one of their number is ill”.

Saturday marked the first day of the four-week extension to the lockdown for Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour regions, until 12.01am on August 28.

Of Saturday’s new cases, 58 of the were in isolation throughout their infectious period and 11 for part of their infectious period. There were 21 cases infectious in the community and the isolation status of 120 cases remains under investigation.