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NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian's prediction that daily case numbers would surpass 100 today has come true, after 112 people tested positive to COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night including at least 34 who were in the community while infectious.
The Premier said it was that the daily number of cases with exposure to the public which would need to be reduced to "as close to zero as possible" before NSW Health would be able to advise the government to end the lockdown, now in its third week for Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, the Blue Mountains, Shellharbour and Wollongong.
"I want to stress the vast majority of these cases are family members or very, very close contacts," Premier Berejiklian said.
"If you put yourself at risk, you're putting your entire family and that means extended family as well as your closest friends and associates at risk, and the numbers are telling in that regard."
The daily cases are still concentrated in the three local government areas of Fairfield, Canterbury Bankstown and Liverpool.
Three in every four new cases were from the South Western Sydney Local Health District (LHD), but the second-largest source of cases was South Eastern Sydney with 16.
"I just want to highlight that we are also seeing cases emerge among young adults in the 18 to 20-year-old age group in the Georges River, Bayside and Sutherland local government areas," chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant added.
"And they are largely spreading it, again to echo the Premier's words, to their closest friends and family, so it's crucial that young adults also limit their social interactions at this time and also come forward for testing.
"NSW Health is also working with an apartment block in the eastern suburbs where we have eight cases of COVID, and they've been identified in recent days across five households in a block of 29 units."
There are currently 63 COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital in NSW with 18 people are intensive care of whom four are ventilated.
Of the hospitalised COVID patients, 14 are under the age of 35, including one person in their 20s and another in their 30s in intensive care, further "dispelling the notion that you are not going to get sick from COVID if you're young".
The Premier also urged people not to go to the pharmacist or GP if they have symptoms, but rather go straight to a COVID-19 testing centre.
"We're seeing people unfortunately turn up to waiting rooms of medical centres or GP clinics or else going into pharmacies when they've got symptoms and unintentionally passing the virus on to other people in the waiting area or the GPs or the pharmacists," Berejiklian said.
"We need to make sure that if you have symptoms your first stop should be to the COVID test. Stay home until you get the results and you get the health advice.
"If you have symptoms and you need medical attention, please call and that medical attention will arrive."
NSW Police Commissioner Mike Fuller said there were 105 infringements written overnight for non-compliance with health orders across the greater metro Sydney.
"[This] brings the total to 376 since Friday [where] the police operation intensified," Fuller said.
"We also saw the same in cautions, nearly 400 in cautions showing the police will continue to work with communities but there are still some who are not taking the message seriously.
"Over the weekend we saw 3,000 calls alone from members of the community who were concerned about COVID breaches."
The NSW Government has also announced it will now accept anyone over 40 who wants to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine. This is provided they sign the appropriate consent forms and are willing to take on the risk of potential side effects such as blood clotting, which is extremely rare but can be fatal.
There have been 678 locally acquired cases reported since 16 June 2021, when the first case in the Bondi cluster was reported.
Updated at 11:45am AEST on 12 July 2021
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