Sydney aims to wipe out virus with testing blitz

SYDNEY - Australia's largest city Sydney launched a COVID-19 testing blitz this week in an attempt to "mop up" lingering virus infections, primarily in the city's western suburbs.

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Tuesday urged anyone in that area with symptoms to get tested after a further three infections were confirmed for Sydney, one from overseas and two were linked to known cases.

For the past several months, despite effectively containing an initial wave of several thousand virus infections, Sydney has recorded scattered daily cases usually in the single or lower double digits.

However, in the past several weeks the city recorded at least 15 COVID-19 infections with no links to known clusters.

"I really want to make that clear when you have 15 or 16 cases you can't link to an existing cluster, that's potentially 16 different outbreaks," Berejiklian said.

She added that the only way to keep case numbers down was for those who displayed symptoms to get tested as early as possible and to self-isolate for the 14-day period when directed to do so.

"We will notice in the next few weeks at the very least a yo-yo effect, some days we'll have lower case numbers than others, but we are certainly in a much better position today than we were some weeks ago," Berejiklian said.