Australia's Covid epicentre sees deadliest day

Sydney: The state of New South Wales (NSW), the epicentre of Australia's current Covid-19 outbreak, witnessed its deadliest day with a record high of 1,431 new local cases and 12 deaths on Friday.

The 12 victims were a woman in her 30s and 11 people in their 70s, 80s and 90s, which brought the state's total toll in the latest outbreak to 119, reports Xinhua news agency.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the state is likely to see a peak in case numbers over the next two weeks, and increased hospitalisations in the following months.

"As I have said previously, the best health advice I have is that we anticipate a peak in cases in the next fortnight.

"September and October will be the most challenging because we are going (to be) dealing with extra hospitalisations and extra ICU hospitalisations," said Berejiklian.

There are currently 979 patients with Covid-19 in hospitals across NSW, 160 are in intensive care, 63 of whom require ventilation.

The Premier said that in the state "at any given time, you have 500 and 600 ICU beds" but it is not expecting an overflow of demand.

"We don't intend to use every single bed that is available in our plan, let me make that clear."