A man skirts a barricade at Bondi Beach (Image: AAP/Joel Carrett) COVID-19 case numbers continue to climb across Sydney, with 136 cases recorded overnight -- a record high for 2021. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian described the situation as a "national emergency" as she called for the federal vaccine rollout to focus on Sydney. It's not clear what labelling the outbreak a "national emergency" will do. The National Emergency Declaration (Consequential Amendments) Act was legislated only last year after the bushfire royal commission and can be declared by state and territory administrators if "extraordinary measures are required to prevent or minimise the effect, or likely effect, of that emergency on the territory".