With another 919 new Covid cases reported yesterday, the hot question at the NSW Premier’s Covid update conference was ‘will the NSW-wide lockdown be extended for longer?’

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro said the government hasn’t decided yet, but that Covid case numbers in NSW would be considered when deciding, as well as what’s going on over the State borders.

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“The reality is it’s about protecting lives and not losing control in regional and rural NSW,” he said.

“We will make that decision sooner rather than later and give people notice.”

With the current lockdown scheduled to finish this Saturday, it’s expected the decision will be made imminently.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian reiterated the same, ongoing message of how important increasing population vaccination numbers was to seeing greater freedoms for NSW residents.

She referred to Covid vaccinations being like “suits of armour” that reduce a person’s chance of being contagious.

The press conference today also took on a more emotive tone - appealing to people’s concerns about the health impacts of Covid.

Vaccine and Covid symptoms

Lung specialist Lucy Morgan said she wanted to change people’s attitudes and anxieties about the vaccine, by giving more understanding of what it’s like to have Covid.

“Most people have few symptoms in the early days,” she said. “The first symptoms are like any other cold or flu, with a mild headache, sore throat, little bit of a cough, some muscle aches or fever.

“Some people are breathless and dizzy. Symptoms can be a severe migraine-like headache that makes you sensitive to light and gives you a stiff neck - it takes more than Panadol to relieve it.

“My patients have bad a cough and can’t speak or walk without it becoming terrible.

“Some have lots of diarreah or nausea and can’t eat or drink.

“They feel overwhelmingly fatigued and all they can do is lie on the bed.

“Initially, you may feel breathless walking fast or making the bed. Then even talking makes you breathless.

“Call the ambulance f you feel like this, don’t call the GP. These are signs the illness is progressing quickly.

“As people become increasingly breathless, oxygen in the blood continues to drop and they need extra support to keep the oxygen up and may need a machine to do the breathing for them.

“I have people in their 20s, 30s and 40s in hospital.

“Get your vaccine today, to protect your loved ones and yourself.”

Case numbers

Of the 919 new Covid cases, 178 are linked to a known case or cluster – 153 are household contacts and 25 are close contacts – and the source of infection for 741 cases is under investigation.

The total number of cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic is 20,266. So far there have been 13 deaths.

There were also 537 public health order infringement notices issued in past 24 hours, some relating to non-compliance with the take away food restrictions.

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