Sydney Covid outbreak grows
Health authorities in Sydney are searching for the source of a potential super-spreader event at a northern beaches RSL after a total of five cases were confirmed among residents in the area yesterday.
Three positive cases; a woman in her 60s, a man in his 70s, and another man in his 60s – a drummer from Frenchs Forest – all visited Avalon Beach RSL on December 11.
NSW Health is also advising anyone who attended venues in Avalon, Penrith and Kirribilli to immediately get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result after the drummer performed several sets while potentially infectious.
NSW Health’s contact tracers suspect an unknown person is the source of these infections along the northern beaches and there’s potentially more cases, Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said.
‘‘It is critical that anyone who was at that RSL club [on Friday] gets tested,’’ Chant said.
‘‘Our working hypothesis is that someone at the RSL club was potentially the source of infection for a number of subsequent cases,’’ she said.
One of the cases who attended Avalon RSL, a woman in her 60s, came into contact with another woman at Avalon Bowling Club who subsequently tested positive – an aged care worker in her 50s at Pittwater Palms retirement village.
Her husband has also tested positive.
Genome sequencing is under way to confirm the cases are linked, and NSW Health was investigating whether any of the cases had contact with people recently returned from overseas, Chant said.
Avalon Beach RSL was closed yesterday and all staff were being tested for Covid.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said several aged care facilities on the northern beaches would be directed to ban visitors until the source of this growing cluster has been identified and the situation brought under control.
Aged care operator Aveo confirmed a staff member at Pittwater Palms retirement village in Avalon had been diagnosed with Covid-19.
All staff have been directed to immediately self isolate at home and get tested if they develop symptoms. Residents who had come into close contact with the staff member or have visited the hotspot areas as identified by NSW Health have been advised to get tested and self isolate.
Chant said she was aware that a small number of retirement village residents had also attended the venues of interest to contact tracers.
Berejiklian urged residents of the northern beaches with even the mildest of symptoms to get tested. ‘‘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,’’ Berejiklian said.
‘‘The health and wellbeing of our residents and staff is our number one priority,’’ an Aveo spokesperson said in a statement.
‘‘We have taken immediate and comprehensive action outlined in our emergency response protocol and are working closely with the Public Health Unit, which is now providing direction to Aveo’s Covid response team.’’
The staff member is well and is being monitored.
Given the cases, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said he would like the state’s daily testing rates to be between 15,000 and 25,000.
Hazzard said other states were ‘‘taking interest’’ in the northern beaches outbreak and confirmed he had been in contact with his interstate counterparts.