Sydney outbreak spreads
Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast and Wollongong have gone into a 14-day lockdown as Australian health authorities try to regain control of a New South Wales coronavirus outbreak that has ballooned to 80 cases.
Since 6pm yesterday local time, residents in the affected areas are only able to leave home for essential reasons.
People may only leave their homes for work, to shop for essential items, to seek medical care, or for caregiving or compassionate reasons.
‘‘The NSW government has always prided itself on taking the expert health advice,’’ Premier Gladys Berejiklian said after a crisis cabinet meeting where the decision was made. ‘‘Even though we don’t want to impose burdens unless we absolutely have to, unfortunately, this is a situation where we have to.’’
The move came after another 12 new cases were recorded in NSW, and exposure venues spread beyond the designated hotspot areas to communities including the northern beaches and western Sydney, where people have potentially been infectious for days.
‘‘It’s never easy when all of us have to face these circumstances, but we’re all in the same situation,’’ Berejiklian said. ‘‘We’ve had to do this before. We know the drill.’’
While authorities will reassess the need for the lockdown in a week, Berejiklian said it was unlikely to be shortened.
‘‘There’s no point doing a three-day (lockdown) and then having the virus continue to bubble away in the community. If after seven days, there’s a dramatic change in the trend, we’ll obviously evaluate the situation.
‘‘But at this stage, the best health advice we have is that a two-week period . . . is necessary.’’
Restrictions have also been introduced for regional NSW, to ensure that the virus doesn’t take hold in the regions if Sydney travellers unknowingly spread it there.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the level of concern from health authorities and government was ‘‘extraordinary’’.
‘‘The Delta variant of this virus is certainly moving around our community far faster than anyone could have imagined,’’ he said.
Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said the virus was moving too fast for contact tracing to shut it down.
‘‘Despite testing numbers being quite high and the contact tracers getting in contact with people rapidly, what we’re seeing is by the time we’ve got there and uncovered the chains of transmission, we have a number of people infectious in the community.’’
Other states are warning of the consequences of crossing their borders without permission.
Queensland and Victorian leaders have told residents not to travel to NSW, and have warned of the ramifications of trying to cross their borders after being in a hotspot.
Victoria Police have stationed extra officers at the border and are conducting spot checks and using licence plate recognition technology. Travellers run the risk of being turned around or being fined up to A$5000 (NZ$5400).
Australia recorded 31 new community Covid-19 cases yesterday – 29 in NSW taking in cases reported late on Friday, one in Victoria, and one in the Northern Territory. Four cases were overseas acquired and are in hotel quarantine.
More than 1600 people in three states have been ordered into isolation after a man tested positive to the coronavirus at a mine in the Northern Territory.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the mine worker tested positive on Friday, after arriving in the territory on June 18. The man was asymptomatic, and only discovered the infection when he was alerted to a potential hotel quarantine breach in Queensland through a message from interstate authorities.
The man had travelled from Bendigo via Brisbane, where he was ordered into a quarantine hotel on June 17. He was in quarantine for a single day, but is believed to have caught the virus there.
The man, who is believed to have been unknowingly infectious from June 18, then travelled to the Granites Mine in central Australia, 540 kilometres northwest of Alice Springs. His diagnosis has forced the mine to shut down and 754 workers to isolate on site.
A further 900 people, who have since flown to Darwin, Alice Springs, Perth and Brisbane, have also been ordered to isolate at their homes.