Sydney, Oct 9 Gladys Berejiklian, Premier of Australia's New South Wales (NSW), said on Friday that the state needs to be shocked out of complacency after five more locally acquired Covid-19 cases were reported.
Of the new five cases, four were reportedly linked to a private health cluster, which now includes seven infections, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.
The state's overall tally currently stands at 4,261, with 53 deaths.
Also on Thursday, NSW reported 10 infections, including five locally transmitted.
Addressing the media here, the Premier said that Friday's cases had known sources and had occurred across a "wide range" of suburbs.
"High alert is a state we have to be in during the pandemic because the virus is so contagious; it's so easy to have an outbreak, it's so easy for it to spread.
"When you have a few days of no community transmission as we did ... people do get a bit complacent, and that's understandable, but we need to shock ourselves out of that complacency and accept and be reminded about how contagious the virus is," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Berejiklian as saying.
The development comes as NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has again criticised Queensland's border closure saying without a change in the rules, the issue "could go on for years".
Under Queensland's road map to recovery, it has said it will not reopen to NSW or Victoria, respectively, until the states record 28 consecutive days without a case not linked to a known cluster in the community.
It also said these cases must be classified within 48 hours of being recorded.
As of Friday, Australia has reported a total of 27,206 coronavirus cases, with 897 deaths.
The state of Victoria remains the worst-affected with 20,247 infections and 809 fatalities.
( With inputs from IANS )
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