‘Police everywhere’, says grounded resident
A unit block in Sydney’s southwest has been locked down as authorities investigate nine cases of Covid-19 across seven households.
The complex is on Warby St, Campbelltown – one of the eight local government areas of concern.
Abel Tuamasaga, who lives in the block with his wife and four children, aged 11 to 23, told Nine they received an email from building management on Tuesday night before ‘‘all of a sudden, there’s police everywhere’’.
‘‘They sent an email [that said] about five people upstairs, on the fifth floor, contracted the virus,’’ he said. ‘‘Now they’re trying to test everybody, and they’ve locked the whole building down.’’
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said they were instituting further testing and control measures in relation to the Campbelltown complex to understand how transmission of the delta strain had occurred.
‘‘We are responding to nine cases across seven units,’’ she said. ‘‘Some of the transmission events clearly occurred between family groups or friends, but we are interviewing a number of cases that were detected overnight through swabbing of that entire premise, and we will make those decisions after that.’’
Dr Chant urged people living in apartment buildings to get tested as early as possible and minimise contact with others, including in lifts and building entrances.
Tuamasaga is not worried about his health, but is rather ‘‘really frustrated’’ as he can’t complete his community work, delivering food to families in need. His adult children are also unable to go to work and the family are already trying to keep the younger children occupied during Sydney’s sixth week of lockdown.
‘‘Now we actually can’t even go outside,’’ Tuamasaga said. ‘‘We’re basically all grounded.’’
He and his wife are not vaccinated and he holds a number of concerns about the risks.
He said the family were tested for Covid-19 yesterday morning but have not been given any indication as to how long they would be locked inside.
He said that, fortunately, his dog lives with a relative nearby and the family had already stocked up food in their freezer in preparation as they did not know what was going to happen.
‘‘Everybody’s in good spirits,’’ he said. ‘‘If anything, it sort of brings us closer as a family.’’
The state recorded 233 new cases and the sudden death of a man in his 20s and a woman in her 80s. Both had not been vaccinated.
■ Victorians will not get an early rules reprieve despite the state notching its first Covid-19 clean sheet since the fifth lockdown.
There were no new cases reported in Victoria yesterday – the state’s first day without a locally acquired infection after its delta strain outbreak emerged more than three weeks ago.
Covid-19 commander Jeroen Weimar said it was cause for quiet celebration and satisfaction. But it has not inspired health officials to bring forward a review on restrictions and the current batch will remain in place until August 10.
■ Queensland is facing its biggest
Covid-19 outbreak since the pandemic’s first wave with a cluster growing to 63 cases halfway through an eight-day lockdown of the state’s southeast.
Seventeen new locally acquired cases of the delta variant emerged after a record 51,479 tests in the 24 hours to 6am yesterday.
Fourteen new cases have been infectious in the community, with the number in a west Brisbane cluster rising to 63.
Almost 10,000 people are in home or hotel quarantine, and two of the new cases were not infectious in the community.
Chief Health Health Officer Jeannette Young said lockdown could still end at 4pm on Sunday. The aim of the lockdown wasn’t to have no cases, but to suppress the amount of cases infectious in the community. –