Australian governments push for end to COVID restrictions as Sydney Delta outbreak grows An outbreak of the highly-infectious Delta variant of COVID-19, which resulted in four states with a combined population of almost 12 million being under limited lockdown measures last week, has continued to spread in Sydney. Despite dozens of new cases each day in Australia’s most populous city, the New South Wales (NSW) Liberal-National Coalition government, backed by its federal and state Coalition and Labor Party counterparts, is preparing to lift the inadequate restrictions currently in place. Over the last several days, the NSW government has carried out an increasingly brazen campaign aimed at justifying the scheduled end of “stay-at-home” orders at midnight on Friday.