When Sydney lockdown was recommended revealed

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant has revealed the mistake her team made that led Sydney virus cases to get out of hand.

NSW’s top health official has revealed her team underestimated the spread of coronavirus in western Sydney in the days before the city locked down.

Chief health officer Kerry Chant told a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday that “with the benefit of hindsight”, it would have been better to lock down sooner.

“With the benefit of hindsight, I think it’s easy to say there was a greater risk of a seeding event in southwestern Sydney than was appreciated at the time it emerged,” she said.

She was referring to a superspreader birthday party in western Sydney, which Health Minister Brad Hazzard said was the single event that put the city on a path to locking down.

The hearing began just over an hour after Dr Chant announced the state’s worst-ever daily coronavirus numbers, with 356 new local cases, and more than six week after the Sydney lockdown began.

She revealed that after the spread of the Delta strain of coronavirus was first discovered in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on June 16, she waited nine days before advising the government to lock down the area.

Dr Chant said she advised the government to lock down parts of the city and the eastern suburbs on June 25, advice that the government followed the same day.

The following day, the entire city was locked down, again on the advice of Dr Chant.

The top doctor said she provided the Sydney lockdown advice in written form, but that there had been verbal discussions of locking down earlier than that.

Mr Hazzard said the initial spread in the eastern suburbs appeared to have been successfully suppressed.

But locking down became an inevitability when authorities discovered the virus was spreading fast in the city’s west after a Bondi resident went to a birthday party in West Hoxton on June 19.

The extent of that spread started emerging on June 23, but health officials believed they had the situation under control, Dr Chant said.

“The initial intelligence was that the West Hoxton party was effectively controlled (and) everyone immediately contacted within the timeframe,” Dr Chant said.

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant and Health Minister Brad Hazzard appeared via video link.

The hearing at times got testy, with Mr Hazzard complaining the committee had asked them to give testimony while he and Dr Chant were busy dealing with the outbreak.

At several points, he called questions asked to him and Dr Chant “silly” and even said one question by committee chair and Greens MP David Shoebridge was “wrong, out of order, and a waste of time”.

Mr Hazzard frequently jumped in to reply to questions that were directed at Dr Chant.

“I’m the minister, and I’ll answer,” Mr Hazzard said in reply to one question directed at Dr Chant.

At another point in the hearing, Mr Hazzard appeared to get annoyed at Labor MP Courtney Houssos for interrupting him.

“Let me finish my answers or I’m not going to bother,” he said.

He also told Mr Shoebridge it was “inappropriate” of him to challenge Dr Chant’s health advice, which led Dr Chant to respond: “It is appropriate”.

Dr Chant said that in her opinion, the state needs to have at least 70 per cent of its population vaccinated against Covid-19 before authorities can even begin having a “discussion” of easing restrictions.

Chief health officer Kerry Chant said there needs to be at least 70 per cent vaccination uptake before discussions about eased restrictions can begin. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dylan Coker

Her comment came in response to a question about modelling prepared for national cabinet by the Doherty Institute.

“I can’t speak for the Premier, but certainly I’m very committed to the issues around getting our vaccine coverage up, but very much recognize that we need that 70 per cent before we have too much of a discussion about what easing restrictions look like,” Dr Chant said. 

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has previously said that “additional options as to what life looks like” would become available after the state has ensured at least half the population has had their shot.

Dr Chant said it appeared to her Ms Berejiklian had “very much understood” the Doherty Institute modelling and that the state’s focus was on driving community cases down.

“But obviously I acknowledge the government balances, you know, as (Mr Hazzard) has said, mental health – you know there are other health risks, and I think there is the role for government to balance those range broad range of risks.”

Mr Hazzard said the discussion about easing restrictions at a 50 per cent vaccination rate was about trying to give a “sense of hope to the community”.

“I think it's fair to say that the Premier is trying to give a sense of hope to the community and trying to drive up, also, vaccinations because once we get to that point of about 50 per cent, what we’re thinking is that we can ease back on some, some restrictions,” he said.

“But we really just need to know a lot more, we’re taking advice obviously from the entire public health team on that, so I think that the Doherty one is the crucial one obviously.”

Originally published as When Sydney lockdown was recommended revealed