Sydney on Covid alert
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is urging residents of Sydney’s northern beaches with ‘‘the mildest of symptoms’’ to get tested for Covid-19 after two new cases were identified overnight. The new cases bring the total number of new cases announced in the last 24 hours to five – including two others on the northern beaches. Berejiklian said she had received confirmation that ‘‘in addition to those three cases which the public is already aware of there have been an additional two new cases on the northern beaches’’. She said the latest case she was made aware of was at Frenchs Forest. Speaking in northern NSW alongside Prime Minister Scott Morrison to announce an upgrade to the Pacific Highway, Berejiklian said the state had seen an increase in testing overnight. ‘‘We want to get on top of this and don’t want this concerning us in the last few days before Christmas and urging everyone to be as vigilant as ever.’’ At a simultaneous press conference announcing an ambulance programme in Sydney, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said one of the new northern beaches cases was ‘‘towards the northern end of the peninsula, and the other from southern end’’.
He expects NSW Health will update the public with more details about the two additional cases, including where they may have visited while infectious.
Given the new cases, Hazzard said he would like the state’s daily testing rates to be between 15,000 and 25,000.
Three new cases identified on Wednesday – one in a Sydney airport shuttle driver and two in Avalon – were the first cases of community transmission in the state since December 3.
On Wednesday night, NSW Health released details of a string of venues the Avalon pair visited while infectious.
Health authorities said anyone who visited the below venues is considered close contacts and should get tested and isolate for 14 days, even if they receive a negative result.
Meanwhile, Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass has found the Victorian government’s lastminute decision to place nine public housing towers into an immediate hard lockdown violated the human rights of about 3000 tenants.
Premier Daniel Andrews gave the residents at North Melbourne and Flemington towers no warning when he announced at a 4pm press conference on July 4 that they would be immediately barred from leaving their homes in a bid to contain an outbreak of Covid-19.
The lockdown lasted five days at eight of the nine towers. But residents at 33 Alfred St were subject to another nine days of detention – prompting an investigation by Glass – because of high infection rates.
Melbourne was on the brink of its devastating second wave at the time of the announcement and returned to stage three lockdown restrictions the following week. The densely-populated towers had been described as high-risk environments, with acting Australian Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly referring to them as ‘‘vertical cruise ships’’.
In her report to the Victorian Parliament, Glass urged the state government to apologise to residents for the impact the immediate detention had on their health and wellbeing while the rest of the state had the chance to prepare for restrictions.
‘‘Many residents knew nothing of the lockdown or the reason for it when large numbers of police appeared on their estate that afternoon,’’ Glass said.
– Nine