Australian officials report biggest daily COVID-19 caseload for 2021

FILE PHOTO: A pedestrian wearing a protective face mask walks past light rail platforms devoid of waiting passengers in the city centre at morning commute hour during a lockdown to curb the spread of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Sydney, Australia, June 30, 2021. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Australia's New South Wales state recorded its biggest daily rise in COVID-19 infections this year, even as residents in several major cities across the country were released from snap lockdowns on Saturday.

Sydney, the New South Wales state capital and home to a fifth of Australia's 25 million population, has been hit hardest in a flurry of outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant around the country over the past two weeks.