Sydney hospitals erect emergency tents as COVID-19 cases hit record

People wait in line outside a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination clinic in the Bankstown suburb during a lockdown to curb an outbreak of cases in Sydney, Australia, August 25, 2021. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia's new daily cases of COVID-19 topped 1,000 on Thursday for the first time since the global pandemic began, as two major hospitals in Sydney set up emergency outdoor tents to help deal with a rise in patients.

Sydney, the country's largest city and the epicentre of the current outbreak, is struggling to stamp out a surge in the fast-spreading Delta variant, with daily infections hitting record levels even after two months under lockdown.