Australia has logged a record 1,323 local Covid-19 cases as debate rages on whether the country should start living with the virus in the community, after initially being successful with suppressing the coronavirus, Reuters reports.

Australia's most populous state New South Wales, the epicentre of the nation's Delta-fuelled outbreak, reported 1,218 cases as authorities there are set to slightly ease restrictions after nine weeks in lockdown. The lockdown is scheduled to last until the end of September.

In Victoria, the country's second most populous state which is in its sixth lockdown since the start of the pandemic, there were 92 new infections, the highest in nearly a year.

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