‘Graphic’ new Covid ad showing a woman struggling to breathe to hit TV screens in a bid to shock locked-down Sydneysiders into staying home and getting vaccinated amid record 77 new cases

A distressing new ad designed to scare Sydneysiders into staying home to prevent the spread of Covid-19 shows a young woman fighting for life on a ventilator.

NSW recorded 77 new local Covid-19 cases and one death on Sunday, with a warning that cases of the highly-infectious Delta variant are likely to be above 100 on each of the coming days.

The severity of the outbreak prompted the confronting Covid-19 advertisement that will air on Sydney TV screens from Sunday evening.

Chief medical officer Paul Kelly described it as ‘graphic’ and said it would contain three important messages: ‘Stay-at-home, get tested and booked in for a vaccination.’

‘There will be a new advertisement running from the Australian Government tonight. It is quite graphic. We are only doing this because of the situation in Sydney and it will be running in Sydney,’ he said.

The 30-second ad shows a very sick young woman laying in a hospital bed, wheezing heavily and clawing at a ventilator fastened under her nose because she can’t breath properly.

A message then pops up that says: ‘Covid-19 can affect anyone. Stay-at-home, get tested and booked in for a vaccination.’

Mr Kelly reiterated that the ad is meant to be ‘quite graphic’ to scare people into following government directives to stay home until the outbreak is contained.

Fifteen people with Covid, including a teenager, are in intensive care in Sydney hospitals.

A new nationwide ad campaign is also asking Australians to ‘arm themselves’ with the vaccine to protect family and members of the community against the virus – but the message isn’t nearly as confronting.

It features a a range of people of different ages lifting their sleeves to reveal bandaids to show they’ve had the jab.

On Sunday afternoon, Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said the campaign is so cheesy it will be hard for satirists to poke fun at it.

‘It will be very difficult for Shaun Micallef to send this ad up,’ he told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.

‘What we need is taking the expertise Australia has always done so well. We were the best in the world in the campaign against AIDS, we’ve done drink-driving very well, but after 18 months if this is the best they can do, they need to go back to the drawing board.

‘This is a government that has spent [a lot of money] advertising itself, telling Australians how good it is. Maybe they should translate some of that advertising into this.’

Siimon Reynolds, the man behind the 1980s ‘Grim Reaper’ AIDS campaign, has also criticised the federal government’s advertising calling it ‘super weak’.

‘You can’t simply just have someone’s arm with a band aid as a way of changing millions of people’s points of view,’ he told ABC news.

‘The first ad, ‘arm yourself against the vaccine’ is super weak and it says nothing more than get the vaccine.

‘If they’ve spent $21 million saying what we have been told for weeks and weeks then that is just a colossal waste of money and a terrible missed opportunity.’

But the advertising guru says the second TV commercial, which shows the confronting vision of a young woman on a ventilator is much more promising.

‘It shows that Covid can really be painful which a lot of Australians don’t really believe and it shows that young people can get it, not just older people,’ he said.

‘It is 10 times better than the first ad.’

Mr Reynolds also warned that wheeling out celebrities and pop stars to encourage the public to get the jab is not going to work as it may have done in other countries.

‘People have been trying to sell everything from watches to cars that way for 100 years, surely when we have a life-threatening disease we can do better,’ he said.

‘It just reminds people that this isn’t such a big deal because here’s a pop singer cracking a joke about Covid and it’s the exact opposite of what should be done.’

He said that if he was tasked with leading the vaccine campaign he would look at celebrities who have actually battled Covid and speak first hand about its devastating effects.

‘What about celebrities like the US pop star Pink. She got Covid so badly that she rewrote her will, so that her two children could be looked after, after she died,’ Mr Reynolds said.

‘She was that certain she was going to die.

‘Now, get a celebrity like that to talk about the pain she was in and the angst she felt and the fear, that’s what is going to wake people up.’

But the federal government defended their public health campaign in a statement to Daily Mail Australia.

‘The clip encourages people in NSW to book their vaccination, but also to highlight the need to stay home and get tested,’ it said.

‘The Delta variant is much more infectious and is impacting younger cohorts more than previous variants.

‘As of this morning – there are currently 52 Covid-19 cases admitted to hospital, with 15 people in intensive care, five of whom require ventilation.

Seven of the 15 cases in ICU are under 55 including one person in their teens, one person in their 20s, one in their 30s, one in their 40s and three in their 50s.

‘People who work in industries like aged care and health care, and people with health difficulties, can all book to get their vaccination right now no matter their age,’ the spokesperson said.

‘More than nine million doses have been administered in Australia, and anyone 18 years and older can speak to the GP about getting access to an AstraZeneca vaccine.’

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said in her daily press conference on Sunday that 33 of the cases were out in the community while infectious.

A 90-year-old unvaccinated woman also died after contracting the virus ‘within the home setting’.

‘I want to extend my deepest condolences to their families and loved ones,’ Ms Berejiklian said.

She is the first person to die in Sydney’s outbreak since it began on June 16 and the 57th casualty in the state over the whole pandemic.

The premier warned the figure was likely to keep rising before it fell down again, with more than 100 cases expected on Monday.

NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said the ‘vast majority’ of cases were identified in southwest Sydney – which has recently been targeted by police with extra officers deployed to monitor lockdown compliance.

‘I need to give frank advice that the case numbers in south-western Sydney are extraordinarily high,’ she said.

‘We know transmission is going through households, from household to household.’

The highly-infectious nature of the Delta variant also prompted the chief health officer to urge residents to get their two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine six weeks apart – instead of waiting the recommended three months.

‘While the interval was three months, at this time because the case numbers are high, we want people to come forward and get vaccinated around that six-week mark,’ she said.

‘We know that for the Delta variant you need the two doses so by calling people to get a second dose, we might sacrifice a bit of long-term protection but we’re making sure you’re protected earlier and at this time, that’s the strategy we’d suggest.’

More than 50 of the 77 new cases were identified as close contacts of Covid-19 positive cases.

‘I’ve spent a lot of my working life in south-western Sydney and I appreciate the strengths of the family. It’s wonderful to see,’ Dr Chant said.

‘But at this time, those close connections between family groups is actually so detrimental to achieving a public health outcome.

‘So what we’re finding is that we’re having to strengthen, you know, strengthen the messaging to get it really clear that… your household is your family group.’

Professor Kelly said the latest figures were a cause of ‘concern’.

‘There are some concerning signs thereabout still a large proportion of those over 70 cases today in New South Wales had been in the community while infectious,’ he said.

‘The pleasing part is that the majority of those 77 cases were close contacts of known cases and the New South Wales authorities are continuing to do an extraordinary job at chasing down those chains of transmission and making sure they get to those quickly, doing rapid testing, getting those results and taking any action that is required.’

There were more than 48,000 Covid-19 tests conducted within the last 24 hours.

Ms Berejiklian reminded Sydneysiders to obey lockdown orders after they were tightened with residents ordered to wear face masks in apartment buildings and everyone outside of Sydney banned from coming in.

‘We can’t stress enough the importance of not only following the rules but also realising the risk that the people who will suffer the most – if you don’t worry about yourself, that’s fine,’ she said.

‘Even though it’s affecting people of all age groups. If you don’t worry about yourself, that’s your decision.

‘But think about your closest family members, your closest people in your life, they’re the people that are most impacted.’

She would not clarify if the lockdown would be extended and would wait to see how the Covid-19 outbreak developed before making any decision.

Home schooling may also be extended beyond next week to avoid ‘hundreds of thousands of people leaving home at the same time’.

‘The numbers aren’t going in the right direction. That’s pretty obvious to everybody,’ Ms Berejiklian said.

‘And the number that concerns us the most is the number who’ve been exposed in the community.

‘Unfortunately, I know that for a few days, as soon as we have health advice that gives us information on where the numbers are tracking and what we think the future looks like, we’ll convey that.’

The Federal Government is holding regular conversations with the State Government to discuss ongoing support for businesses if a lockdown is extended.

They are likely to announce further assistance packages and investigate bolstering mental health support services.

Professor Kelly said he was in close contact with Dr Chant and providing continued support.

‘It is very practical support that is happening from the Commonwealth in relation to the situation in Sydney,’ he said.

‘That includes because that is a Commonwealth designated hot spot, there is funding available for aged care, for example, in terms of single site worker payments, there is the disaster, the COVID disaster payment which is also available now for people who are eligible in Sydney.’

Dr Chant warned it would be some time before the lockdown would have its intended impact and reduce case numbers.

‘I think it’s going to be a number of days before we turn around,’ she said.

‘And to some extent, we’re trying… The numbers might actually increase because we’re ramping up testing to get ahead of the transmission curve.’

There are 52 patients being treated in hospital with 15 in intensive care and five on ventilators.

‘Of the 15 people in ICU, one is in their teens, one is in their 20s, one is in their 30s, one is in their 40s, three are in their 50s, five are in their 60s, two two are in their 70s and one is in their 80s,’ Dr Chant said.

NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys said 106 infringement notices had been issued in just 24 hours.

‘One of those instances was a unit at Marrickville, where police responded to information, they went to that unit and found 15 men in a small unit playing cards,’ he said.

‘These men were in their 50s, through to just short of 90 years of age. No masks, no social distancing, clearly in an environment that was a huge risk to them, their families and their community.’

Police were also called to break up an 18th birthday party in Auburn, in western Sydney, and disband a group of gamers in a separate incident.

‘There were 10 people at this party, clearly organised,’ he said.

‘They turned up, they were aware of the public health orders and police took action in terms of infringement notices to each of those people.’

‘The third incident that I would highlight is one in a garage under a set of units in the Merrylands area. These were young people that were playing PlayStation.’

Under the new restrictions coming into effect this week, residents are only able to travel to Sydney to access goods and services that are not available in their area.

Travelling into the area for exercise or outdoor recreational activities is no longer a valid reason.

They are also only allowed to travel to attend a funeral or memorial service as long as there are no more than 10 mourners.

Sydney residents wanting to leave the area must also carry identification that contains their residential address.

Face masks must also be worn at indoor construction sites at all times.

On Tuesday, the restriction will be extended to all indoor common property areas of residential premises in Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour.

Residents who live in apartments will be required to wear the extra protection when taking the lift or waiting in the lobby.

Epidemiologist Tony Blakely warned the restrictions are not tough enough and suggested the city should be placed into a much tougher lockdown with soldiers patrolling the streets.

Dr Blakely said the state government had three options: Let the Covid-19 outbreak circulate in the community, continue with a partial lockdown, or deploy troops and police to patrol the streets.

‘The third option is the only one. It’s very hard to say those words: ‘We’re going into a hard lockdown, we’ve called in the military, the police and we are going to police it,’ he told news.com.au.

‘It’s not a pretty look but if you want it to be over and done with as quickly as possible that, most unfortunately, is what needs to happen.’

The draconian lockdown would be similar to the one introduced in Victoria last year – which lasted 111 days.

Non-essential businesses were closed, an 8pm curfew enforced and a ring of steel placed around Melbourne with residents only allowed to leave their homes and exercise within a 5km radius.

Police patrolled the streets and were assisted by military troops during the tough three months.

Dr Blakely warned continuing with a partial lockdown meant Sydney might only begin to reopen in September.

‘If they keep going the way they are now, without really stepping it up now it could go on for months,’ he said.

The additional face mask and travel restrictions were introduced by NSW Health after it announced it would be tightening lockdown across Sydney from 5pm Friday.

Can you still exercise outdoors? 

Yes, but in reduced groups. Locked down residents from Friday evening will only be allowed to exercise outdoors in groups of two – down from the 10 previously allowed.

The only exception to this rule is members of the same household already living together can exercise outdoors together.

How far can you travel to exercise?

Additionally locals can only travel within their own local government area or at most 10km of their homes to exercise.

‘Please do not leave your house. Do not leave your home, unless you absolutely have to,’ Ms Berejiklian pleaded with Sydneysiders.

What about leaving the house for essential items? 

Locals should only leave their house for essential supplies and should not browse, the premier said.

Only one member of a household should be traveling to the shops for essential items and this should not be an excuse to socialise.

Can you visit a partner in another household?

This is still allowed under the new restrictions provided you are in a relationship.

Is carpooling allowed? 

Carpooling with other households – whether to the shops, to exercise or work – is also not allowed from 5pm on Friday.

Can you still travel to work?

Ms Berejiklian restated only people who need to travel for essential work should leave their house.

‘Too many people who have continued to go to work, too many people have either misunderstood the rules or not followed them. And that has to stop.’

Is there a curfew?

No. You can leave your house at any hour as long as it is for one of the essential reasons.

What about funerals and weddings? 

Health officials have also made the decision to cap funerals at 10 attendees from Sunday.

Weddings were already prevented from going ahead early on in the lockdown.

How many people can you have at your house? 

Only those providing essential care are allowed to visit another household. This includes caring for elderly family members.

In other cases guests are not allowed to visit other households unless in exceptional circumstances.

‘We are still getting questions through Service NSW about how many people you can have into your home. The answer is zero.’ Ms Berejiklian said.

‘I don’t mean these words lightly, or say these words lightly. But we are facing the greatest threat that we have faced in New South Wales and the pandemic started. And it is up to all of us to turn things around’.

Ms Berejiklian added with the rate of vaccination hovering around 9 per cent, allowing the virus to spread in the community was not an option.

‘Unless there is a dramatic change, unless there is a dramatic turnaround in the numbers, I can’t see how we would be in a position to ease restrictions by next Friday.’

Of the 44 new local cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday, at least 29 were in the community for part or all of their infectious period.

It is the highest number of NSW daily infections since the pandemic’s first wave in early 2020.