Australia’s New South Wales state has reported 1,480 locally acquired cases of Covid-19, up from 1,220 a day earlier, as first-dose vaccination rates among the state’s adult population top 75 per cent, reports Reuters.

Nine new deaths have been reported, including a man in his 20s, taking the total number of deaths in the latest outbreak to 148. A total of 1,136 people are hospitalised, with 194 people in intensive care, 78 of whom require ventilation.