Australia Covid update: new cases jump to 35 in NSW as government weighs extending Sydney lockdown
New South Wales has recorded another 35 new locally acquired Covid cases, as premier Gladys Berejiklian warned that the next couple of days were “critical” in deciding if the lockdown will be extended or not.
It comes after the premier confirmed two of the new cases were in a Sydney aged care facility, and also hit out at a party held at Meriton Suites in Waterloo, Sydney, that resulted in three infections.
“Unfortunately, having a party when you’re not supposed to have a party is not doing the right thing,” she told reporters on Monday.
“Some of the cases today are a result of issues or result of incidents where people have done the wrong thing. I do implore everybody to keep at it. Let’s not give up.”
Berejiklian would not be drawn on whether the lockdown would be extended in light of the number of daily cases refusing to drop, instead imploring residents to follow the public health orders.
“I know everybody is keen to know what is going to happen beyond Friday’s lockdown, as am I, but what I can tell you with certainty is that the next couple of days will be absolutely critical in allowing our health experts to collate the data that we’ve had in the last week and then to present their advice to government.”
“I can say that the lockdown certainly has been effective in not doubling and tripling the figures that we were worried about. It has given our contact tracers the ability to maintain control over the virus but what it has foreshadowed is that unfortunately when a small number of people do the wrong thing it does result in extra cases.”
Two of the new cases were residents at the SummitCare aged care facility in Baulkham Hills, both of whom are women in their 70s and one of whom was not fully vaccinated. The two new cases bring the total number of cases associated with the facility to five.
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SummitCare CEO, Michelle Sloane, admitted that up to two-thirds of the staff at the facility were not vaccinated, and that uptake may have been affected by the fact that it wasn’t mandatory.
“I’m unsure of that. I haven’t spoken to each one individually. There is quite a lot of them.”
“Over a number of months since the program began I have been attending staff meetings in each of the homes and urging them all to go and be vaccinated – but we couldn’t insist.”
“If we said to all of our unvaccinated staff, don’t come to work, then there’d be no one to care.”
Chief health officer Kerry Chant said that out of an “abundance of caution”, all five residents who tested positive have been transferred to Westmead hospital for observation.
Chant also outlined two new exposure sites, including a construction site at Toongabbie and Rose Bay Public School, where a student tested positive and is considered a close contact of a previous case.
Qld records four new local cases Queensland has recorded four new locally acquired cases, all of which have been linked to previous cases.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said it was “really, really good news” that the new cases had been linked to previous clusters, and that all the new cases were of the Alpha strain.
“We do not believe the Delta variant is circulating in our community, which is excellent news.”
“It’s now two weeks since the Portuguese restaurant outbreak, so at this stage, it’s all systems go, we’re feeling pretty good at where we are at the moment.”
Chief health officer Jeannette Young said the new cases included a woman and her child, linked to a case at a Greek community centre, with the other two cases close contacts of previously reported cases.
“They’re our four new cases today, all closely linked, and we can work through those and we’ll be putting out any additional venues,” Young said.
Young said that contact tracers had also found the mysterious source
of infection for three cases that had troubled authorities – the Zeus Street Greek kitchen at Westfield Chermside.
“We’re just working out all of the specifics but we think that is probably the site of transmission.”
Young said she expected more cases to be reported in the coming days, but believed authorities were “in control”.
“We need a bit longer to work through this, to manage all of the cases and I expect we’ll see a few more still come through – which is why, until we get it totally under control, we do need to continue to wear our masks.”
Restrictions lifted in SA The South Australian government has announced it will lift a series of restrictions it put in place last week to combat the spread of the Delta variant.
Premier Steven Marshall also announced that there will be no changes to border restrictions with other states, but that could be reviewed on Thursday.
“The transition committee will meet again this Thursday to look at the borders particularly with Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland but we are very pleased with the way that the situation is moving,” he said.
Gatherings at home can return to a maximum of 200 people, while venues will return to three people per foursquare-metres rule.
The premier also announced that drinking while standing will also return to hospitality venues, and singing will be allowed again in enclosed spaces.
The state recorded one new case, a child who has returned from overseas and is currently in hotel quarantine.