New South Wales has recorded another 239 cases of Covid-19 as Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned Sydney's Delta outbreak 'would get worse before it gets better'.
She said 70 of those cases were infectious in the community.
Just a day after extending Sydney's stay-at-home lockdown for another four weeks, Ms Berejiklian also announced anyone living in one of eight hotspot LGAs in Sydney's west and south-west would have to wear a mask whenever they leave home.
'If you step foot outside your household, you need to wear a mask at all times. It doesn't matter where it is,' she said.
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro earlier on Thursday morning admitted his government has no idea which of Sydney's lockdown restrictions are working during an on-air grilling from Today show host Karl Stefanovic.
'Let's see what happens over the next four weeks,' he said when asked what would happen if the extended restrictions also failed to lower transmission in the city.
'I have no crystal ball to tell you what we do next.'
'Sorry to put this to you, but I think you just said you don't know what's working and what isn't. Is that what you said?' Stefanovic responded.
Mr Barilaro replied that there was 'no playbook' to getting Sydney out of lockdown.
'We are throwing everything at it,' he said.
'What we've seen are stubborn numbers so [I can't] sit here and say I know how to get this under control. It's still testing the government and its resources.'
A woman in activewear runs along the beachfront in Bronte in Sydney's eastern suburbs on Wednesday. Greater Sydney is almost five weeks into a strict stay at home lockdown to stop the spread of the highly-contagious Delta Covid-19 variant
A health worker takes a swab sample from a resident at a Covid-19 drive-through testing clinic in Sydney on Wednesday
The map indicates the eight local government areas where Covid-19 is transmitting the most rapidly
Mr Barilaro said the state government was relying on its experience handling earlier Covid-19 outbreaks during the pandemic to quash the spread of the Delta variant.
'The public should have confidence in us because what we have done in the past,' he said.
New South Wales Deputy Premier John Barilaro admitted his government has no idea which of Sydney's lockdown restrictions are working and which are not on Thursday morning
'But we are not going to pretend that we have every answer because we don't.'
He said increasing vaccination rates in NSW was key to bringing the state out of the pandemic and ending lockdowns for good.
'If we can get vaccination up to 60 to 70 per cent of the population, you can see globally that it has allowed freedoms,' Mr Barilaro said.
'It's the only way that we are never going to go back into lockdown.'
Canterbury-Bankstown mayor Khal Asfour hit out at Mr Barilaro's admission his government had little idea what life in Sydney would look like beyond the end of August.
'I was quite disturbed to hear the deputy premier say the government doesn't know what is working and what is not working,' he said.
A pedestrian wearing a face mask is pictured in the Sydney CBD. NSW recorded another 177 cases on Wednesday as authorities extended Greater Sydney's lockdown for four more weeks
A pedestrian wearing a face mask walks through Sydney's near-deserted CBD on Wednesday
'It's policy on the run and we need a plan to get us out of this lockdown.
'The government needs to show us the plan so we know we can have confidence we will be out of this in four weeks but it seems to me there isn't one.'
Cumberland's mayor Steve Christou said on Wednesday the nearly two million people living in those areas are 'at the point of no return' because of the
