NSW Covid update: army to help enforce Sydney lockdown as state reports record 239 local cases

Thousands of police officers and hundreds of troops will be deployed across greater Sydney to help enforce new rules in eight hotspot local government areas as New South Wales desperately tries to curb growing Covid case numbers that have jumped sharply to a daily record of 239.

Two more people have died – a woman in her 90s and man in his 80s, both from south-west Sydney – taking the death toll for the outbreak to 13.

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, warned on Thursday that because at least 66 of the cases were infectious in the community, the numbers were expected to rise further.

She denied the NSW lockdown was failing or that tougher rules were needed Sydney-wide.

Instead, she pleaded for all citizens in greater Sydney to further reduce their mobility and announced new rules for the eight local government areas (LGAs) in western and south-west Sydney, designed to further dampen the spread of Covid-19 in the hotspots.

These include wearing a mask at all times outside the home and not travelling more than 5km from home for shopping, exercise or visits under the “single bubble” rules.

The penalty for not wearing a mask where required will be increased from $200 to $500.

The eight LGAs – Blacktown, Campbelltown, CanterburyBankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool and Parramatta – are already under a much stricter lockdown, including the closure of construction, tougher restrictions on who can leave to work, and in some cases, surveillance testing for essential workers who must leave.

The location of the cases reported on Thursday shows why the government is tightening rules further. Of the record 239 cases, 199 were in those eight LGAs, with CanterburyBankstown accounting for 53 and Fairfield 45.

This snapshot of where the cases are located highlights why authorities are desperate to see mobility further reduced in these areas.

There is also growing concern about the number of young people contracting the disease. Fifty-nine cases were under 19, 47 were aged 20-29, 50 were aged 30-39, 31 were 40-49 and 52 cases were over the age of 50.

New powers have been granted to the NSW police commissioner to shut down businesses, construction sites and public premises where there is a risk to public health.

Mick Fuller said on Thursday afternoon he had also requested the assistance of the Australian Defence Force.

“The NSW police force is significantly expanding its enforcement activities in Sydney over the coming days and has requested 300 ADF personnel to boost its operational footprint,” the commissioner said.

“The assistance of the ADF has been essential over the past 18 months – particularly during last year’s border operation, the ongoing hotel quarantine operation and the assistance provided with logistics support in the police operations centre.”

The state’s police minister, David Elliott, said “support from the army will add another line of defence to the NSW government’s crackdown on Covid-19 compliance”.

The defence minister, Peter Dutton, said “up to 300 Defence personnel” would be deployed in the coming days for training “and commence working under the direction of NSW police on Monday 2 August”.

Dutton said 229 ADF personnel were already working in NSW “supporting state police quarantine, reception and repatriation efforts at Sydney airport and hotels”.

The federal health minister, Greg Hunt, said the commonwealth would “willingly comply” with the NSW request for boots on the ground.

“The ADF played a critical role in Victoria, the boots on the ground were here to help people, they assisted with compliance, they actually provided confidence,” Hunt said on Thursday. “That will provide additional support to the police and additional help for the people of NSW.”

Hunt said the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee – all of the state and territory chief health officers – would be holding an emergency meeting on Thursday night to determine how other states could help NSW battle the current Delta outbreak.

“They are doing a Herculean job, and they are doing it with the support of the nation, and as part of that, the support for tracing and the capacity of other states and territories and the commonwealth to assist is on the table,” the federal minister said.

But Liverpool councillor Charishma Kaliyanda said sending in the troops was “troubling” and she argued that “reinforcing fear won’t be effective”.

Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue executive director Adam Leto said the stricter rules imposed on the eight LGAs risked creating resentment. generating frustration in the area.

“I think the government is justified in identifying hotspots and in making the necessary calls…but I’m not too sure what the driver is behind the outdoor masks, because we haven’t heard that outdoors is a transmission risk.”

“If there’s a good reason for it, the government should make it clear why. Otherwise they should apply them across Sydney. If it’s good for us, why not for them,” Leto said.

Fuller said earlier on Thursday there had been 15,000 complaints to Crime Stoppers and police were using those complaints to target people breaking the rules.

“From an emergency management perspective, we’ve been on the journey the whole way but we’re seeing noncompliance at a level that is impacting on the virus and impacting on NSW coming out of lockdown,” the commissioner said.

Elliott said: “The time for warnings is over. I know 99% of the population are furious with the minority who continue to disregard the health orders and put the safety and livelihoods of families at risk.”

The state’s chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said there were still issues with people not coming forward quickly enough for testing.

“We are still finding that people are delaying getting a test and that means that by the time we find them, everyone in the household is positive and then, unknowingly, everyone is actually out in the community infectious. We have to break this cycle,” she said.

“The other message I would like to say is, I urge all shopkeepers, pharmacists – we are working with pharmacies – to make sure that you have processes to minimise the number of people in your shop.”

But there is growing evidence that the Sydney lockdown will be prolonged.

University of Sydney modelling released on Thursday found that even if 40% of the greater Sydney population is vaccinated by mid-September, a stricter lockdown must continue until then.

The modelling analysed the period from 16-25 July 2021, finding that although the actual incidence growth had reduced from 10% to 3.7%, social distancing currently sits at around 60%, which is still too low to control the outbreak.

“The accelerating vaccination rollout will begin to make a difference in a few months, but at this stage, a tight lockdown makes a larger impact and needs to continue,” the researchers said.

They said Sydney needed to achieve 80% compliance with social distancing, meaning four out of five people must drastically reduce their contact with others. That is, they needed to reduce their activities outside of households to just 10% of their normal interactions.