New South Wales

Haas in doubt for Origin III, Graham won't make debut

On the Queensland front, coach Billy Slater has doubled down on keeping Kalyn Ponga off the team sheet despite Reece Walsh's suspension as his Maroons look to complete a series clean sweep of the Blues.

Both sides are to be named on Monday for the July 12 finale at Sydney's Accor Stadium.

The Blues' best player in their game-two loss, Haas aggravated a lingering ankle problem during the second half of Brisbane's NRL win over the Dolphins on Saturday night but managed to finish the game.

NSW suffer big blow as Mitchell ruled out of Origin game 1

The Blues confirmed this morning prior to their flight to Adelaide that a calf injury would prevent the South Sydney superstar from featuring for Brad Fittler's side.

Mitchell's place in the centres will be taken by 19th man Stephen Crichton, with Canterbury five-eighth Matt Burton called in to act as additional back-up for Wednesday night's game at Adelaide Oval.

Mitchell missed the entirety of last year's series with a hamstring injury as the Blues lost the series 2-1.

     

Covid-19: NSW patients in intensive care passes 200

A total of 203 people are in intensive care units (ICU) around the state, up from 191 the previous day.

It is the first time more than 200 people with Covid have been admitted to intensive care in NSW.

Meanwhile, the number of people in hospital with the virus rose to 2776 in the 24 hours to 8pm yesterday.

There were 17 deaths and 29,504 new infections in the reporting period.

The new positive cases comprised 11,858 rapid antigent tests and 17,646 PCR tests.

New South Wales' Omicron outbreak sparks a de facto 'lockdown'

Although the country's most populous state has few Covid-19 restrictions in place, businesses around NSW have been forced to close due to virus-induced staff absences.

Spending data analysed by ANZ last week indicated economic activity plummeting to levels lower than any other time during the pandemic.

"We're now facing economic situations that are worse than if we'd had an actual lockdown," said economist Jim Stanford, director of the Centre for Future Work.

NSW relaxes quarantine rules on arrivals from southern African nations

The measures put in place to stem the seeding of the Covid-19 Omicron variant were to end at 6am on Wednesday, NSW Health announced late on Tuesday.

Instead, fully vaccinated people arriving from South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini and Malawi must self-isolate for 72 hours and can leave after receiving a negative test.

They must also avoid high-risk settings for seven days.

Mother becomes fifth death in NSW Covid-19 outbreak

The ABC understands the woman is the mother of twin removalists charged with breaching public health orders after travelling from Sydney to the Central West.

The brothers and another colleague received a call from NSW Health on Friday informing them that one had tested positive for coronavirus.

It is alleged the trio continued driving to Molong to finish the delivery.

"This is the 61st death in NSW related to Covid-19 and the fifth of the current outbreak," the spokesperson said.

"NSW Health extends its sincere sympathy to her family and friends."

New South Wales extends lockdown by a week

The source of nine of those cases remains under investigation.

Greater Sydney's lockdown has been extended for another week - until 12:01am on July 17.

The social distancing restrictions in regional areas have also been extended.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the decision to extend lockdown was a difficult one.

NSW records 24 new cases, half in community before being detected

The premier said it was "a cause for concern" that half of the new cases had been out in the community while infectious.

"If we want the lockdown to succeed, all of us have to minimise our movements," she said.

"In too many examples we are seeing workers who are leaving the house with symptoms or going to work with symptoms.

"Then inadvertently as they are going about shopping or other activity, they are passing it onto others."

NSW records 10 new cases, Queensland reports one

 

Seven of the infections were detected outside of the reporting period and will be included in tomorrow's figures.

Three new cases were recorded before the 8pm reporting cut-off, in addition to two infections that were announced yesterday.

The latest surge in cases has led NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to extend the state's mask mandate for all indoor public venues to midnight next Wednesday, 30 June.

"We will extend it to all of Greater Sydney... excluding the Central Coast and the Hunter," she said.

Woman spends two days trapped in mineshaft

The 26-year-old woman went missing from a mining camp at Lighting Ridge, near the Queensland border, on Friday night.

Her husband reported her missing the next day and a search was launched that afternoon, with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius.

Inspector David Checkley said they were very concerned for her welfare not only because of the heat but also because the area is covered in opal mine shafts.