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NSW Premier insists tougher restrictions 'are working' despite rise in cases

New South Wales has recorded 141 new local COVID-19 cases today, bringing community infections to over 2000 since the start of the Delta outbreak.

Of these cases, at least 38 individuals who were infectious in the community.

There have also been two further deaths, including a woman in her 30s.

READ MORE: Sydney woman in her 30s dies from COVID-19

The premier said she was "heartbroken" and "absolutely disgusted" by those who attended anti-lockdown protests in Sydney yesterday in defiance of stay-at-home orders.

"Millions and millions of people across our state are doing the right thing, and it just broke my heart that people had such a disregard for their fellow citizens," she said.

"We don't want a setback, and yesterday could have been a set back. Time will tell."

Despite case numbers continuing to rise in the past week, Ms Berejiklian has insisted that tougher lockdown restrictions implemented last weekend were working, saying that without them cases would be "through the roof".

"The fact that we prevented hundreds of thousands of people mixing with each other, leaving home, mixing at workplaces, has seen us manage to stabilise the rate of the spread," she said.

"With our relatively low vaccination rates we have still been able to limit the number of cases and for that, all of us need to look upon this as a positive sign.

"We've managed to keep the disease at bay."

READ MORE: 'Utterly disgusted': Gladys Berejiklian blasts 'selfish' Sydney protesters

READ MORE: Two charged after 'punching police horses' during Sydney protests

Today's daily cases mark a slight decrease from yesterday's record 163 cases – the largest daily figure since the start of the Delta outbreak.

However, there remains a large number of people still going out in the community with the virus.

Of today's 141 cases, 38 were infectious in the community, 24 were in isolation for only part of their infectious period and the isolation status of another 14 cases is still under investigation.

Additionally, 54 of today's cases are not linked to known outbreaks or clusters.

The results come amid a massive surge in testing, with a record-breaking 102,233 test results received.

READ MORE: Infectious NSW man 'broke quarantine' to fly into Queensland

The majority of cases are still being detected in the five hotspot Local Goverment Areas in Sydney's south-west.

NSW Health's Dr Jeremy McAnulty provided a break-down of today's cases by LGA: 34 in Fairfield, 30 in Canterbury-Bankstown, 24 in Cumberland, 19 in Blacktown and 12 in LIverpool.

However, he also cautioned that cases were continuing to pop up all over Sydney.

Health authorities are also concerned about positive sewage detections in regional communities in recent days, with traces of the virus being detected in Goulburn, Moss Vale, Coffs Harbour and Byron Bay.

There have also been two further deaths today, bringing the total deaths associated with the current Delta outbreak to eight.

One was a woman in her 30s with no pre-existing health conditions, prompting a warning from the premier to young people.

The second was a woman in her 70s from south-western Sydney, who passed away at Campbelltown Hospital.

"If anybody thinks this is a disease just affecting older people, please think again," NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

The number of young people seriously ill with COVID-19 in NSW hospitals is also on the rise.

Of the 141 people currently in hospital with the virus, 60 – or close to half – are under the age of 55.

A teenager and seven people aged in their 20s are among the 43 critically ill patients being treated in Intensive Care.

headline

Two men charged after 'striking horses' at protest

Two men have been charged with animal cruelty after they allegedly struck police horses at an anti-COVID lockdown rally in Sydney's CBD yesterday.

NSW Police have established a strike force to identify "as many people as possible" who attended the rally in defiance of COVID-19 stay-at-home orders.

Thousands of protesters marched through Sydney's inner-city yesterday afternoon, many of them unmasked and brandishing placards with anti-vaccination messages, in a rally that at times descended into violence.

READ MORE: Chaos as thousands gather for anti-lockdown protests

Images and footage taken at the protest appeared to show police horses being shoved and struck.

Among them was police horse Tobruk, who authorities have since confirmed was uninjured in the affray.

Police arrested and charged 57 people and issued 90 others with infringement notices at the rally itself.

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Since then, police have confirmed that two men were arrested late last night and have been charged with a range of offences including animal cruelty.

Police attended a unit on Marlborough Street in Surry Hills at 11.20pm yesterday, where they arrested the 33-year-old.

He was taken to Kings Cross Police Station and charged with affray, joining an unlawful assembly, committing an act of cruelty upon an animal and not complying with a COVID-19 direction.

READ MORE: NSW Police set up strike force to find anti-lockdown protesters

The second man, a 36-year-old, was arrested at a house on Kalang Road in Edensor Park.

He was taken to Fairfield Police Station and charged with assaulting an officer in their execution of duty, committing an act of cruelty upon an animal and not complying with a COVID-19 direction.

Both men have been refused police bail and are expected to appear today at Parramatta Local Court.

In a statement, NSW Police said that the strike force has been working "throughout the night" to identify those involved in the protest and more arrests are expected.

It came on the same day as New South Wales recorded another steep rise in its COVID-19 outbreak with 163 new cases, at least 45 of whom were infectious in the community.