Australia Barilaro reveals he lost two relatives to COVID-19 in Italy in December

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NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro lost his aunt and uncle to COVID-19 late last year, which made him "more cautious" about the response to the virus, he has announced.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph on Monday, Mr Barilaro said his aunt Maria Inzillo and her husband Damiani Nesci, who lived in the Italian city of Genoa, died of the virus in December.

"Once it's in your family, you suddenly realise COVID-19 actually kills, it could happen to any of us," he said.

"Their deaths changed me, I realise[d] we're not out of the woods yet, it's made me more cautious."

Mr Barilaro said he has a large, close family and the deaths "knocked us all".

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He described her as a “well and happy” person who “never drank alcohol, didn’t eat anything special or out of the ordinary.” Azevedo was so proud to be among the first to receive the vaccine, she changed her Facebook profile picture “ Covid - 19 vaccinated,” she wrote under a selfie with her face mask on.

Then, along comes Covid - 19 , and many of the rules – such as they were – went straight out the It matters greatly for two main reasons. First, if we vastly overestimate deaths from Covid - 19 , we will He added that many of these deaths would be among people ‘who may well have lived longer if they

News of the deaths come as NSW reported three local coronavirus cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday, all linked to the Berala cluster in western Sydney.

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant urged GPs to encourage their patients to get tested even if they have "the most minimal of symptoms".

The most recent testing figures - 18,570 and 23,763 per day - are lower than NSW's aim of 25,000 to 30,000.

In his recent role as acting Premier, while Gladys Berejiklian took leave, Mr Barilaro also urged residents to get tested in greater numbers.

He told the Telegraph he took his stint in the "hot seat" seriously.

"What we're seeing in Australia is nothing compared to the 365,000 deaths in the US, or the 50,000 infections a day in the UK," Mr Barilaro said.

During his time in the top job, Mr Barilaro sparked a war of words with Western Australia when he said in a radio interview that he was "sick to death of being lectured to" by the state, "when we're doing the heavy lifting" on returning overseas travellers.

"All that risk lies with NSW. When we get lectured to by these others, it is bloody hard to accept," he said in an interview with 2GB.

WA Premier Mark McGowan hit back, saying NSW has "struggled".

"They had the Ruby Princess, they've had another outbreak, they've had outbreaks all over NSW," Mr McGowan said last week.

A spokeswoman for Mr Barilaro confirmed his two relatives had died of COVID-19.