NZ closely watches Sydney Covid cases

Sydney cluster has risen to nine since a limousine driver sparked the outbreak

New Zealand had four new cases of Covid in managed isolation facilities yesterday — and no new community cases — as Ministry of Health officials kept close tabs on new community cases in Sydney.

“Quarantine-free travel with NSW remains in place at this time,” said the ministry in its update yesterday.

The Covid public health risk to New Zealand remained low.

Sydney announced three new community cases yesterday, after two on Saturday. Its cluster yesterday had nine cases involving the highly contagious Delta variant.

NSW health officials are on high alert after more locally acquired cases of Covid-19 were recorded overnight on Saturday, prompting further state restrictions.

Sydney’s Covid-19 has grown with three new local cases recorded in the city’s eastern suburbs.

Sydney’s Covid-19 cluster has now risen to nine since a limousine driver who transported international flight crew sparked the outbreak.

Of the two new cases revealed in yesterday’s numbers, one case was already announced on Saturday.

It was a man in his 30s who attended Westfield Bondi Junction, a hazardous site visited by patient zero.

The other case was a household contact of that man and she also attended Westfield Bondi Junction.

One more case was recorded after 8pm on Saturday before a further case was diagnosed yesterday morning.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian also announced the state was extending some of the restrictions because it was “important for all of us to be on high alert”.

Masks will now be mandatory in all indoor settings, while masks on public transport will be extended to Wollongong and Shellharbour local government areas.

NSW Health is conducting urgent investigations and is asking those who visited Westfield Bondi Junction, including the car park, to get a Covid19 test, even if they do not have any symptoms.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the highly contagious Delta variant was posing a real threat to Sydney residents. Hazzard said CCTV footage of how one person contracted the virus had highlighted the highly contagious nature of the latest strain of Covid-19.

Meanwhile, Queensland has recorded one new locally acquired Covid-19 case yesterday.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the new local case, but said Queenslanders should “not be alarmed”. “At this stage the woman was only out in the community for a short period of time,” she said.

“She had just finished her 14 days of hotel quarantine and tested positive after she left quarantine.”

Palaszczuk said there were some areas of “concern” as the woman, who was a flight crew member aged in her 30s, attended a DFO at Brisbane Airport and the Portuguese Family Centre in Ellen Grove.

Queensland chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said it was feared the woman had the highly contagious Delta variant as she had contact with a positive case on a flight who had that variant. “She came into Brisbane on June 5 on an Emirates flight and we know she had contact with a positive case on that flight who had the Delta variant and that is my concern,” she said.

Victorian health officials are also investigating two mystery Covid-19 cases in returned travellers who tested positive after leaving hotel quarantine.

Health Minister Martin Foley said the two people had returned conflicting results, suggesting they had previously been infected before arriving in Australia.

The state government will now convene an expert panel to determine how and when they became infected.