Hundreds were arrested after violent clashes between anti-lockdown protesters and police in Australia’s two largest cities Saturday as the country recorded its sharpest rise in daily Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began.
Sydney’s state of New South Wales posted 825 infections — a record for the entire country — a day after authorities extended the city’s lockdown until at least September to try to head off the Delta variant.
“No matter how hard we work, no matter if 99 per cent of people are doing the right thing, there’s an element of Delta that nobody can control,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told media.
“The best way we can look forward to freedom is by making sure that we get vaccinated.”
