Australia's COVID-19 outbreak grows despite Sydney lockdown

FILE PHOTO: A woman wearing a protective mask walks past city centre restaurant tables closed to seating in accordance with public health regulations during a lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Sydney, Australia, July 5, 2021. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia on Monday reported its biggest daily rise in COVID-19 cases this year, fuelled by a fast-growing outbreak of the Delta variant in Sydney despite the country's biggest city entering its third week of lockdown.

New South Wales state reported 112 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, almost all of them in Sydney, marking the fifth consecutive day of record case numbers.