Coronavirus NSW: The Golden Sheaf investigated over COVID breach
A popular pub in Sydney’s east will be investigated by Liquor and Gaming after a photo showed hundreds of people queuing to get in the doors. It comes as eight of nine Melbourne housing towers move out of hard lockdown following COVID testing.
NSW
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A Double Bay hotel has been forced to ramp up its coronavirus compliance measures after huge crowds packed into lines outside the venue in “horror” scenes described as “absolutely nuts” by the Health Minister.
Mr Hazzard slammed the Golden Sheaf hotel for not enforcing social distancing measures, after seeing a photo of packed lines outside the venue on Wednesday night.
“My overriding response is just horror that they could leave young people to do what they often do, which is fail to understand the danger they are putting themselves in,” he said.
“I can’t believe that the hotel would allow young people to line up with absolutely no social distancing or protection from each other when just south of the border we have an extremely concerning spread of a killer virus,” Mr Hazzard told The Daily Telegraph.
Liquor and Gaming NSW has launched an investigation into the incident.
Assistant Director of Compliance Operations Dimitri Argeres said the regulator is “treating this matter extremely seriously”.
“We need all businesses including hotels and clubs to be constantly vigilant in checking that patrons are observing the rules,” Mr Argeres said.
Inspectors have asked the hotel’s management for an explanation into the social distancing breach.
The crowds have forced extra COVID-safe measures at the popular Double Bay venue.
Wednesday nights at the pub will now be open to bookings only, and extra staff will be deployed to enforce social distancing.
In a statement, Solotel Group CEO Justine Baker said the venue on Wednesday “worked immediately with police to disperse the crowd and ensure social distancing measures were established”.
“It is the collective responsibility of all staff, guests, operators and authorities to ensure the safety of each other,” Ms Baker said.
But the Health Minister said venue managers have a greater responsibility to ensure young people know the risk of breaking the rules.
“We know that about 40 per cent of our positive COVID cases are young people … and it is tough to get the message through,” Mr Hazzard told The Daily Telegraph.
“I know that this pub is not the only venue where the management are not fully understanding the COVID-safe message.
Authorities are particularly worried about young people contracting COVID-19 because they are more likely to be asymptomatic, and can spread the disease more easily than other age groups.
“All hotels have a responsibility to manage inside and also outside their hotel to ensure social distancing,” AHA NSW Director of Liquor and Policing John Green said.
Mr Green said it was appropriate precautions would be stepped-up.
“This is a serious lesson for all NSW pubs. We need to do all we can to prevent the spread of Covid 19 and social distancing requirements must be complied with,” he said.
VICTORIA RECORDS 165 NEW CASES
Victoria has recorded another triple-digit rise in COVID-19 cases with 165 more people diagnosed with the virus overnight.
Eighteen of the new cases are linked to an outbreak in public housing towers in North Melbourne and Flemington with the total number of cases linked to the cluster at 111.
Two of the nine public housing towers in hard lockdown will be able to move to stage three restrictions with the rest of Melbourne immediately.
The 9 Pampas Street and 159 Melrose Street towers have reached zero cases, and will now be able to leave for work, food and exercise.
Six of the other towers will also move to stage three at midnight tonight, except for residents that have tested positive or who are close contacts.
The 33 Alfred Street tower will remain in hard lockdown, as the high number of cases mean the Victorian government is treating each resident as a close contact. They will have to continue quarantining for the next nine days but will now be allowed outside their apartments for fresh air and exercise.
For tower residents who contract coronavirus or are close contacts, Victoria Health will be encouraging them to take up the offer to quarantine in a hotel.
The Victorian government has addressed concerns over the lack of culturally appropriate food for tower residents in lockdown.
The Australian Muslim Assosiation is working with the government to deliver meals and groceries to the residents.
NSW ON ‘HIGH ALERT’ FOR BORDER OUTBREAK
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has told residents to “be in a state of high alert” as the risk of an outbreak in regional communities near the Victorian border remains.
Ms Berejiklian said while there was no evidence of community transmission, people should be wary, particularly of those who have travelled to Victoria.
“What’s happened in Victoria is a wake-up call to all of us … About how it doesn’t take long for the rate of community transmission to increase,” Ms Berejiklian said.
Maintaining high levels of testing in regional communities and discouraging travel to those areas would be critical to reducing the risk of the virus spreading, Ms Berejiklian said.
“We’re really keen to make sure we flush through any potential seeding that may have occurred. Unless you have to visit those border communities, don’t until we’re confident there hasn’t been any transmission.”
While the early signs were positive, Ms Berejiklian said we would not know for a few weeks if the infection had been “seeded” in NSW from Victoria.
It comes as 13 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the past 24 hours in NSW, bringing the total number of cases to 3264.
Eleven of these new infections were returned travellers from overseas while the remaining two were confirmed infections from Albury, reported earlier this week. NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said a third probable case of coronavirus has also been identified in Albury.
“And whilst it’s not included in our numbers today, I want to indicate that there’s an additional family member that has tested positive and that family member has been in isolation for a number of days, when we first identified the cases in the initial indexed case.”
Dr Chant said that person had travelled to Greater Melbourne and “we believe that that is the source of infection.”
QLD CLOSES BORDERS TO VICTORIANS
The warning follows Queensland closing its own borders to anyone travelling from Victoria.
From noon on July 10, Victorians will be banned from entering Queensland, and NSW residents who have visited Victoria 14 days before entering the Sunshine State will be turned back.
Everybody – including Queensland residents – will need a border declaration pass and proof they have not been in Victoria for the past fortnight before they will be allowed in.
Police have told people planning to cross the NSW/Queensland border in the next 72-hours to expect major delays with queues potentially up to 20km long, as authorities check documents.
Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the new measures come amid concerns NSW residents who may have been exposed to COVID-19 at the Victorian border before the shutdown would import the virus to Queensland when borders reopen tomorrow.
“The period of time between the 7th — when the NSW border was closed and the 10th — when people from NSW will begin to return to Queensland means there’s a period of 8-10 days where there’s an escalated risk that people from NSW who were in contact with people from Victoria before the border closed may enter Queensland in the incubation period.”
AIRPORT PROTOCOLS STEPPED UP
Jetstar has corrected the wording of its chief executive over the debacle that allowed passengers from a Melbourne flight to disembark in Sydney without being checked.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian placed the blame for the breach, which had an “extremely low” health risk, squarely on the airline. “NSW was very generous, I thought, in the way they described the situation yesterday,” she said.
However she said her government is not one that “singles organisations out when they could have done better.
“People are going to make mistakes but we need to move forward and make sure processes are in place across the nation so we can be confident they can withstand the occasional error,” she said.
Flight JQ520 landed in Sydney on Tuesday night with around 137 passengers who were allowed to disembark the plane while health staff were preoccupied with a Virgin Australia plane that had just landed.
“There was not a NSW Health official in the aerobridge, there should’ve been, our staff should’ve held the plane,” Jetstar chief executive Gareth Evans said.
Jetstar on Thursday night corrected that to say that Mr Evans meant to say there were no health staff in the gate lounge, rather than the cramped aerobridge. And they stressed he had been at pains not to apportion blame.
Mr Evans said the situation was very different from the Ruby Princess because the passengers had already been checked in Melbourne before they left. The risk to the community was “very, very low” he said.
But he said they could do better. “The processes have been changing over the course of the last two or three days and we have different staff on different routes. We have to work with other stakeholders to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” he said.
On Tuesday night Airport staff and police stopped and checked 89 of the passengers before they left the airport. A further 45 were tracked down later.
The Premier today confirmed the last ones were being tested. “I can confirm that all members of the people who arrived, the passengers on that flight, were contacted and tested, except for five that are being tested today,” she said.
A NSW Health spokeswoman confirmed the final passenger, who had reportedly refused a test, had been tested and was now in quarantine isolation.
30,000 VEHICLES CROSS THE NSW BORDER
More than 125,000 permits have been issued allowing people to cross from Victoria to NSW as border town residents are urged not to travel unless absolutely necessary.
Twelve Victorian vehicles have been turned around at the border since the official closure at midnight on Wednesday, with more than 30,000 vehicles allowed to cross.
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller travelled to the NSW border town of Albury on Thursday to inspect the mammoth operation involving 650 police staff and 350 Australian Defence Force personnel.
“We need to protect not just the NSW border towns but the Victorian border towns as well,” he said.
Mr Fuller said he recommended border town residents not cross from Victoria into NSW unless they absolutely need to.
“If there is a shop on the Victorian side of the border where you can get your fruit and veg, then please go there,” he said.
Mr Fuller said shipments of PPE had been brought down to the border for police officers – with masks remaining an optional item.
While more than 2000 warm undergarments have been shipped to the border where temperatures regularly drop to around 0C overnight.
Temporary tent structures have also been set up at the major checkpoint for people travelling from Wodonga into Albury.
Mr Fuller said three additional bridges further along the border had been opened at the request of local governments due to the impact on traffic.
More than 3,000 cars passed from Wodonga to Albury in the hour to 7am on Thursday.
“Already we’ve seen some major improvements in terms of the flow of traffic between the Victorian border towns into NSW,” Mr Fuller said.
There have been 88 health orders issued by police to NSW residents crossing back over the border from Melbourne hotspot areas, meaning they will have to isolate for 14 days once home.
Originally published as Coronavirus NSW: The Golden Sheaf investigated over COVID breach