Model Samantha Harris blasts 'ridiculous' decision to extend Sydney's lockdown

Outspoken model Samantha Harris has come out swinging against the New South Wales government over its decision to extend Sydney’s Covid-19 lockdown for another week.

A furious Samantha wrote on Instagram on Wednesday: ‘Thank you very much NSW government. How good is this? Didn’t realise I was in jail, locked in for another week. What did we do wrong?’

The 30-year-old continued: ‘Do you not realise the amount of people struggling out there? This is absolutely ridiculous.’

‘Ridiculous’: Model Samantha Harris, 30, as come out swinging against the New South Wales government over its decision to extend Sydney’s Covid-19 lockdown for another week. Pictured left: Samantha Harris, right: NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian 

Samantha went on to accuse the government of inflicting financial and emotional damage upon Sydney residents with its lockdowns.

‘I have friends that have small business and they have been absolutely destroyed by this three-week lockdown, not to mention what this has done to everyone’s mental health,’ she wrote.

‘People are crying out for these jabs and you can’t provide them. This is all on you; it’s absolutely unforgivable,’ she added. 

Samantha concluded her post by insisting the NSW government should change tack and lift Covid restrictions for good while vaccinations are rolled out.

Outraged: Posting to Instagram on Wednesday morning, a furious Samantha wrote: ‘Thank you very much NSW government how good is this didn’t realise I was in jail, locked in for another week what did we do wrong????’ 

Rant: Samantha went on to accuse the government of inflicting financial and emotional damage upon Sydney residents with its lockdowns  

‘These lockdowns need to stop surely it’s time to live with this the best we can while you are implementing and rolling out these vaccinations,’ she declared.  

Samantha became a household name after she won the Girlfriend Model Search at the age of 13.

By the age of 18, she became the the second Indigenous model to ever appear on the cover of Vogue. 

‘These lockdowns need to stop’: Samantha ended her rant by insisting that the government should change tack and lift Covid restrictions for good

Meanwhile, five million Sydneysiders are preparing to remain in lockdown for at least another week as an outbreak of the highly-infectious Indian Delta strain of Covid continues to spread across the city. 

With community transmission confirmed in Sydney’s west late on Tuesday night, including in a busy Coles in Parramatta, the NSW government made the call to extend restrictions until 11.59pm on July 16. 

The decision to extend stay-at-home orders and keep schools closed in Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Shellharbour and Wollongong is set to be officially announced by Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Wednesday morning.

Extended: The decision to extend stay-at-home orders and keep schools closed in Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Shellharbour and Wollongong is set to be officially announced by Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Wednesday morning

The harsh measures, originally brought in for a week on June 26, were enacted to confine the highly infectious Indian Delta strain to the epicentre in Sydney’s east.

But the strategy has failed to keep locally-acquired cases under control across Sydney, with 18 new infections on Tuesday bringing the city’s Bondi cluster to 225 cases – with over a hundred more that are yet to be linked. 

In another worrying statistic which prompted Ms Berejiklian to make her decision, 122 new cases were found to have been out in the community while infectious within the last ten days. 

As part of the extended lockdown, face masks will remain mandatory, schools will be shut with at-home-learning replacing face-to-face classes and there are still only four lawful reasons to leave home.