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New South Wales has recorded just eight new cases of coronavirus, raising hopes the outbreak is being contained.
Seven are linked to the Northern Beaches cluster and the eighth is a healthcare worker who was involved in the transport of positive patients from Sydney Airport.
A close workplace contact of this health care worker has tested positive since 8pm on Tuesday and that case will be included in Wednesday’s figures.
A record 44,000 people got tested in NSW on Monday.
A 15-year-old girl from Moonee Valley, Melbourne has tested positive in Victoria after she visited several of the high-risk exposure sites in Sydney, including the Avalon RSL and Avalon Bowlo.
The girl drove home from Sydney with her mother and then isolated before getting a test. They stopped once in New South Wales. The mother is negative for Covid-19 and other family members are being tested.
Meanwhile in Sydney, anyone who visited Paddington’s popular London Hotel on Thursday, December 17, between 8.15pm and 9.30pm was instructed to get tested immediately and isolate for 14 days regardless of the result.
Despite ‘patient zero’ of the Avalon cluster still being unknown, every COVID-19 case in the second outbreak has either been in, or has a direct route back to, the northern beaches. Pictured: Areas on alert after infections patients visited
Pedestrians wearing masks, wait at the lights near Town Hall in Sydney, Monday, December 21, 2020
Millions had their Christmas holiday plans ruined when states slammed their borders shut on Sunday as New South Wales reported 30 new cases of linked community transmission. By contrast, New South Wales did not decide to close its border to Victoria until the state recorded 125 new local cases on 6 July, with many of them unlinked
Patrons who attended the Paragon Hotel’s sports bar opposite the Circular Quay wharf on Wednesday, December 16, between 12.45pm and 3.30pm were also advised to get tested and isolate for 14 days even if they receive a negative result.
BodyFit Gym in the western suburb of Blacktown was also added to the urgent alert list on Monday night. The gym, which has 10,000 followers on Facebook, ran 24/7 before Covid hit but is now restricted to being open from 5am-11pm on weekdays.
NSW Health advised anyone who attended the gym on December 16, 17 or 18 between 7am and 8am to get tested immediately and isolate for 14 days regardless of the result. The full list of affected venues can be seen here.
The new hotspot announcements came after a senior federal health official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said NSW has the potential be ‘in the clear’ by Christmas.
‘New cases may start to pop up from today, tomorrow and Wednesday… If they don’t, then I suspect they (NSW) will be largely in the clear,’ the official told The Australian.
Other NSW government sources told the publication the low amount of Covid cases reported over the past few days had left authorities ‘cautiously optimistic’ about the state’s chances of containing the Northern Beaches outbreak before it spreads.
Mr Hazzard told ABC Radio National on Tuesday morning the state was facing a one-in-a-100-year pandemic, but he felt ‘quite positive’ about the number of cases.
He said there would be failings from time to time but ‘what we are doing at the moment is about as good as it gets’.
When asked about the hours-long wait many test-goers have faced, Mr Hazzard said NSW Health had done a lot of work on increasing testing sites and staff.
Anyone who visited London Hotel (left) in Paddington on December 17 between 8.15pm and 9.30pm or Paragon Hotel (right) on December 12 at lunch-time must get tested immediately
NSW reported 15 new coronavirus infections on Monday – all linked to the Northern Beaches cluster.
That was half the number recorded on Sunday, taking the total to 83.
Despite ‘patient zero’ of the Avalon cluster still being unknown, every COVID-19 case so far had been traced back to the Northern Beaches outbreak.
Professor of Epidemiology at UNSW Mary-Louise McLaws said that increased the likelihood of Sydney avoiding the need for a city-wide lockdown like that which Melbourne suffered for four months.
Northern Beaches residents began a strict three-day lockdown on Saturday, with locals only allowed to leave home for essential shopping, exercise, work, to receive medical treatment or for compassionate grounds.
Prof McLaws said the two lockdowns are incomparable as there was constantly a risk of community transmission in Melbourne due to its hotel quarantine disaster.
Prof McLaws said Victoria’s contact tracing system was buckling under pressure, with the majority of new cases being untraceable.
When Melbourne’s case numbers soared to reach 149 new cases of community transmission in a single day, prompting stage 3 lockdown.
Prof McLaws said NSW has low case numbers on its side, as health officials had been able to swiftly trace and identify contacts.
But she remains concerned about potential seeding in Turramurra, Erskineville and potentially Paddington.
Prof McLaws said if people had caught the virus in those suburbs, new cases might not be known until Boxing Day.
‘We are still holding our breath for what this means for Christmas,’ she said.
BodyFit Gym in Blacktown, in Sydney’s west, was also added to the urgent alert list on Monday night
Prof McVernon said at this stage the virus appears to be ‘pretty well geographically contained’ to the northern beaches
Scott Morrison said he believes northern beaches locals’ reluctance to leave their region, regardless of a pandemic, will help contain the virus
A medical worker swabs a member of the public at the Bondi Beach drive-through for coronavirus disease testing
Massive blunder as hundreds of people are wrongly told they were exposed to coronavirus
All punters who attended Manly’s Hotel Steyne on December 17 received a text from NSW Health on Monday night informing them of the grim, but incorrect, news.
By Kelsey Wilkie
Hundreds of panicked pub-goers were wrongly told they were exposed to coronavirus and must self-isolate through Christmas.
All punters who attended Manly’s Hotel Steyne on December 17 received a text from NSW Health on Monday night informing them of the grim, but incorrect, news.
‘You have been exposed to the Covid-19 virus. You may have Covid-19 and could give it to others,’ the message read.
The message went on to inform recipients they must self-isolate until 11.59pm on December 26, they would be only allowed to leave their homes to get tested for the virus.
But an hour later another message came through informing them of the blunder.
‘Further information indicates the exposure between 3.00-3.30pm. If you were NOT at the venue between these times you are NOT considered a close contact and do NOT need to self-isolate.’
The messages unnecessarily worried hundreds of people who thought they would miss out of Christmas with their families.
‘I can’t actually see Christmas being an overly large event for the northern beaches.’
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the Government will announce on Wednesday what public health orders would be imposed for Christmas Day.
‘I appreciate how frustrating it is, and I would love to be able to tell everybody today what Christmas might look like in NSW or the northern beaches. But we’re not in a position to do that yet,’ she said on Monday.
Prof Jodie McVernon, a leading epidemiologist at the Peter Doherty Institute in Melbourne, believes putting Greater Sydney into lockdown would be ‘disproportionate’.
‘Everything that has been done – a localised lockdown and limits on things like gatherings – is, in my opinion, in line with what you would expect,’ she told The Guardian.
‘I know others disagree, but I think we shouldn’t immediately be jumping to lockdowns as our only response to outbreaks. Putting greater Sydney into a hard lockdown a few days before Christmas personally I think would be disproportionate.’
Prof McVernon said at this stage the virus appears to be ‘pretty well geographically contained’ to the northern beaches.
But Prof Raina MacIntyre, from UNSW Kirby Institute, said waiting until Wednesday to assess the situation and announce further restrictions is ‘too late’.
‘We want to reduce transmission as much as possible we should be having a Sydney-wide lockdown today and then reviewing it on Thursday. That will greatly reduce transmission,’ she said.
Meanwhile, Scott Morrison said he believes northern beaches locals’ reluctance to leave their region, regardless of a pandemic, will help contain the virus.
‘Those of you who know Sydney well know that the peninsula is a very cohesive community that tends to keep to itself, a bit like the (Sutherland) Shire down where I’m from,’ he said on Monday.
‘And that is certainly assisting in making sure that the Avalon outbreak is staying exactly where it is.
‘As we go into these next few days, we will be watching carefully as we endeavour to understand whether there has been further seeding, or any seeding I should say — there hasn’t been at this point — in other parts of the city.’
Chief health officer Paul Kelly agreed with the prime minister’s sentiment, and said locals on the northern beaches, dubbed the ‘insular peninsula,’ tend to stay in their own bubble.
‘So all of the cases so far, all of them, the 83 locally acquired cases that have happened since the December 17 in New South Wales have been linked back to the cluster,’ he said.
NSW recorded 15 new coronavirus infections on Monday – all linked to the northern beaches cluster
People wearing masks are seen at the Apple Store in Bondi Junction on December 21
A record 38,000 people across the state got tested on Sunday with results expected to come in between 24 and 72 hours later, meaning case numbers could rise on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said some patients caught the virus outside the northern beaches but all cases have been linked back to two events at the Avalon RSL and the Avalon Bowlo last week.
In an update on Monday afternoon, state health authorities revealed five cases confirmed in a CBD workplace have been linked to the Avalon cluster.
However, the five office workers who caught the virus from an infected person associated with the Avalon cluster at their office Christmas party are not from the area, nor have they been there – proving Covid has not been contained to the northern beaches.
Dr Chant said there has been seeding events where people have gone from being exposed in the Northern Beaches and travelled to other parts of the CBD, south-eastern Sydney, the broader northern Sydney area.
‘We have seen transmission event in a workplace in the CBD – again linked by somebody who had unknowingly brought that into that workplace,’ she told reporters on Monday.
