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Sydney’s Covid cluster explodes with 28 more cases on Northern Beaches
Sydney’s Covid-19 outbreak has grown to 28 cases after testing on Thursday identified 10 more cases linked to a cluster on the city’s Northern Beaches – as it’s revealed members of an airline crew breached self-isolation and went to venues around the city two weeks ago.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian has ordered 270,000 residents from the Spit Bridge to Palm Beach to stay at home for at least three days while officials scramble to identify the source although there isn’t an official lockdown in place.
‘We don’t want to go down the mandatory path but we will if we have to,’ the premier said in a press briefing on Friday morning as she urged everyone in Greater Sydney to be on ‘high alert’ amid fears of mass spread.
There are no other new restrictions in place for the rest of the city, but Ms Berejiklian has warned people they would be ‘crazy’ not to wear masks in crowded places such as churches and supermarkets.
The mystery outbreak was identified on Wednesday afternoon when a couple in their 60s and 70s tested positive having visited nine venues across the Northern Beaches instead of self-isolating while awaiting results.
Sydney’s extraordinary contact tracing system – which has been described as ‘diamond standard’ – has linked 25 of the 28 cases to two events at the Avalon RSL and the Avalon Bowlo, with the others under investigation.
Thousands of Northern Beaches residents queued for a Covid-19 test on Friday morning. The mystery outbreak was identified on Wednesday afternoon
Sydney’s Covid-19 outbreak has grown to 28 cases after extensive testing overnight and on Friday morning. Pictured: Travellers at Sydney Airport on Friday morning
Many families moved their travel plans earlier amid fears that states would shut the borders. Pictured: Families at Sydney Airport on Friday morning
Thousands of people queued for testing at sites across Sydney’s northern beaches with many spending four hours waiting in line for a Covid-19 swab. Pictured: A pop-up testing clinic at Avalon Recreation Centre on Friday
Sydney’s northern beaches (pictured in red) will remain in lockdown until at least Sunday with 270,000 people asked to stay at home and avoid travel, amid fears the virus could spread across the whole city
Sydney’s extraordinary contact tracing system – which has been described as ‘diamond standard’ – has linked 25 of the 28 cases to two events at the Avalon RSL and the Avalon Bowlo, with the others under investigation
Christmas plans are now up in the air for millions of NSW residents, with other states and territories imposing travel restrictions.
Tasmania and Victoria have banned Northern Beaches residents, Queensland and the Northern Territory have re-introduced hotel quarantine for people from that area and Western Australia is making all NSW residents self-isolate.
South Australia and the ACT are asking arrivals from the Northern Beaches to get tested and self-isolate and South Australia Premier Steven Marshall said he is considering banning residents from the Northern Beaches on Friday afternoon.
Victoria is introducing a border permit system which would block out residents from the Northern Beaches from Saturday. Health Minister Martin Foley urged Victorians not to travel to Sydney in case the border restrictions are strengthened.
‘We are very strongly advising all Victorians not to travel to Sydney as conditions are expected to deteriorate, and you may not be able to re-enter Victoria without undertaking quarantining for 14 days,’ he said.
‘Don’t come from Sydney if you’re planning to come to Melbourne. Don’t go to Sydney if you’re planning to go to Sydney. It won’t be a holiday. It won’t be a Christmas,’ Mr Foley added.
Anyone arriving in Victoria from Greater Sydney will be asked to get tested and self-isolate until they get a negative result.
Premier Berejiklian urged other leaders not to shut their borders to the whole of NSW, saying that a hotspot model is more proportionate.
There were fears the outbreak would spread to Queensland after a woman from the Northern Beaches tested positive in the Sunshine State before returning home – but no other local cases have been found in Queensland.
The Northern Beaches cluster is thought to be linked to a US strain of coronavirus after officials found similarities with an infected traveller who returned from America in early December.
Sydney’s Covid-19 outbreak has grown to 28 cases after testing on Thursday identified 10 more cases linked to a cluster on the city’s Northern Beaches. Pictured: Some of the places where positive cases visited
Sydney’s domestic terminal was rammed on Friday morning as travellers rushed to get away while states increased travel restrictions
Long queues: Residents are seen lining up at a COVID-19 pop-up testing location at Avalon Recreation Centre on Friday
Several pop-up test centres were set up after the first few cases were recorded. Pictured: A pop-up testing drive-through station in Avalon on Friday
The traveller was in policed hotel quarantine before testing positive and being transferred to a health hotel where she remains. Officials are investigating if anyone who transferred her caught the virus.
Officials are also investigating if the virus spread from any airline crew who are required to self-isolate in 25 hotels across Sydney with no enforcement.
Premier Berejiklian revealed that an airline crew two weeks ago left self-isolation and went to venues around Sydney – although none of them was infected.
‘Without outing the particular airline, there was one airline crew member weeks ago that breached their isolation and went to venues so fortunately that doesn’t seem to have amounted to anything,’ she said.
From Tuesday crews will be made to stay in two hotels and their isolation will be enforced by police.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said he had been negotiating the arrangement with 90 airlines but was treating the discussions delicately to avoid putting off any airlines from landing in Sydney with freight and returning Aussies.
A drone photo shows drivers queuing for a Covid-19 test in Avalon on Friday morning after an outbreak of cases on Sydney’s Northern Beaches
Sydney siders packed the airport as they headed away on Christmas breaks. Gladys Berejiklian has urged residents from Spit Bridge to Palm Beach to stay at home until Sunday
Earlier on Wednesday a 45-year-old van driver from southwest Sydney who chauffeured airline crew to and from the airport tested positive, but his case has not been linked to the cluster or any other infections.
Genomic sequencing results show that his case involves a US strain of coronavirus after he transported an American flight crew.
On Thursday night thousands of concerned Northern Beaches residents queued to be tested and left supermarket shelves bare – but it was a different story on the other side of the Harbour Bridge.
Pubs, bars and restaurants in Sydney’s CBD were packed with carefree revellers in party mode as they celebrating the festive season and the recent easing of Covid restrictions in NSW.
On Friday morning Ms Berejiklian urged residents from Spit Bridge to Palm Beach to stay at home until Sunday while urgent testing and contact tracing continues.
‘We don’t want the disease to spread more broadly throughout Sydney, so we’re asking everybody to think about what they’re doing and to monitor their behaviours,’ she told Sunrise.
‘We want people to have a good Christmas, but we know this has really unfortunately disrupted many plans.
‘Our aim is to really get on top of this as soon as possible so people can have as less disruptive Christmas as possible.
‘The next two to three days will be incredibly critical.’
Officials are also investigating if the virus spread from any airline crew who are required to self-isolate in 25 hotels across Sydney with no enforcement. Pictured: Residents queue for tests
Residents lined up for coronavirus testing at Mona Vale Hospital in Sydney on Friday and used umbrellas to protect themselves from the rain
Northern beaches residents went into panic buying mode as they rushed to the shops on Thursday night. Pictured: An almost empty toilet paper aisle at Woolworths at Warringah Mall
It was only a week ago that Western Australia reopened its borders to NSW and Victoria for the first time in eight months.
‘We are very concerned there will be many more community cases in NSW,’ Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan said on Thursday.
‘I understand these changes will cause frustration and uncertainty for some people, and be very upsetting for many families looking to reunite and spend Christmas together.’
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk urged residents planning to visit Greater Sydney to ‘consider the risk of those areas becoming a hot spot’.
If contact tracers quickly identify close contacts who may have become infected, the outbreak could be contained before it spreads to other parts of the city, as has been occured previously with the Crossroads Hotel outbreak in Casula back in July.
Two swimmers are seen at Avalon Beach on December 18, a day after the outbreak began. Residents are being asked to stay home while contact tracing gets underway
Northern beaches residents from the Spit Bridge to Palm Beach are advised to work from home, not to visit elderly relatives, avoid unnecessary gatherings, keep to household groups and avoid unnecessary travel, including travel to high-risk venues like restaurants, cafés and bars.
‘As a number of new cases are currently being interviewed, it is likely that a number of new venues will be identified and that people in the northern beaches may have attended these venues,’ a NSW Health statement read.
Northern Beaches Council has temporarily closed all community facilities until Sunday to coincide with the stay at home orders.
They include skate parks and playgrounds, community sporting activities in parks and reserves, outdoor gyms, public swimming pools, community centres and libraries.
‘We will maintain all essential services like waste collection, childcare, Meals on Wheels, road maintenance as well as customer service online and on the phone,’ the council posted on Facebook late Thursday.
Australia is on high alert after a growing coronavirus outbreak on Sydney’s northern beaches (pictured, residents lining up to get tested at the Avalon Community Centre pop up health clinic in Sydney on Thursday)
Bus and ferry services will operate on usual schedules on Friday.
‘If you must travel, sit or stand on a green dot and wear a mask,’ the Transport NSW website states.
A NSW government spokesman added: ‘Masks will be handed out at Wynyard train station, B-Line bus stops, which connect Wynyard and Mona Vale, and Circular Quay ferry wharves on Friday.
Sydney was first put on high alert on Wednesday when a 45-year-old man from southwest Sydney who transports flight crew from the airport tested positive to Covid-19.
His case ended 13 consecutive days without any locally-acquired cases in NSW.
A desperate search is underway to find the source of the worrying coronavirus outbreak, believed to have somehow slipped out of hotel quarantine.
Two of the patients are an aged care worker from Pittwater Palms, a retirement village in Avalon, and their partner.
A drummer in his 60s from Frenchs Forest whose band Nothing Too Serious played at Avalon RSL Club and ‘travelled extensively’ also tested positive on Thursday.
Two other venues his band visited, Penrith RSL and Kirribilli Club, have been put on alert as well amid fears he was infectious when he performed.
NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said investigations are underway to track down the source of the infection, which has been linked to the Avalon RSL club where the couple who first tested positive visited.
Dr Chant has urged anyone who was at the club at any time on December 11 to come forward for testing.
It’s understood the aged care worker may have contracted the virus after crossing paths with the woman in her 60s at a nearby bowling club in Avalon.
Residents on Sydney’s northern beaches have been ordered to stay at home after after a 17th new case was reported on Thursday (pictured, a health care worker proving hand sanitiser to a resident in Avalon on Thursday)
Source: Daily Mail Australia | World News
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