Coronavirus NSW: Eight new cases, Northern Beaches lockdown eased
The Premier has announced changes to restrictions for parts of the Northern Beaches for Christmas; A Qantas employee has tested positive and new QR code rule.
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NSW has recorded eight new locally acquired COVID-19 cases from more than 42,000 tests in the past day.
Seven of the cases are linked to the Avalon cluster and one case – previously identified yesterday – is linked to a healthcare worker who transported an infectious family returning from the US to a quarantine facility.
Watch Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s announcement in the video above and follow the latest information below:
NORTHERN BEACHES SPLIT IN TWO FOR CHRISTMAS
The Northern Beaches will be split into two zones – southern and northern – from tomorrow until Boxing Day.
Those living north of the Narrabeen Bridge and east of the Baha’i temple on Mona Vale Road can either visit the home of others who live in the same zone or can host five other people, including children, from the same zone.
“You cannot leave your area, you are still in lockdown. You can’t accept anybody from outside your community and I apologise for that,” Ms Berejiklian said.
Residents in the southern region of the Northern Beaches have been given a slight reprieve and can either visit a home in the same zone or host up to 10 visitors plus children (except residents from the northern zone).
Greater Sydney restrictions will remain the same but children aged under 12 will be allowed in addition to ten adult visitors at homes from tomorrow until December 26.
After Boxing Day the maximum number of visitors will return to 10 with no exceptions for children.
Ms Berejiklian said the reason behind splitting the Northern Beaches was because the epicentre is in the north.
“In relation to the northern beaches both the science and the health advice tells us that there are two distinct parts of the northern beaches and we will be separating those areas geographically,” she said.
“So, clearly, the concentration of cases at the epicentre of the cluster is in the northern part of the northern beaches.”
HEALTHCARE WORKER INFECTION LINKED TO AVALON
Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said genome sequencing has now determined that a case in a healthcare worker who transported returned overseas travellers to quarantine, is linked to the Avalon cluster.
A close workplace contact of the person has also tested positive.
But Dr Chant said the cause of the Avalon cluster remains a mystery with NSW Health still unable to work out how the virus entered the Northern Beaches.
She said authorities are “investigating a range of options” including the virus leaking from hotel quarantine.
“We are obviously considering all of the possible avenues and exploring them,” she said.
She said it’s “obviously” a “concern” that patient zero is still a mystery.
Two cases in healthcare workers working in hotel quarantine have now been “genomically linked” with the Avalon cluster but NSW Health doesn’t know how they caught the virus.
The cases - in a nurse and a patient transport driver - were initially thought to have been linked with a symptomatic family of three that flew into the country on December 14.
However genomic testing data has revealed the travellers have a different strain of virus to the healthcare workers, who are linked with the Avalon outbreak.
“There is a missing link, and that missing link causes us concern when we don’t know how that acquisition occurred,” Dr Chant said.
QANTAS EMPLOYEE TESTS POSITIVE
A Qantas flight crew member who returned from overseas and flew through Darwin on December 18 had tested positive to the virus.
The person flew from Darwin to Sydney on December 18 and NSW Health will liaise with its Northern Territory counterparts for contact tracing.
“And the person has flown on a domestic flight,” Dr Chant said. “There were a number of precautions in place but there will be a limited number of people on the flight. “
SERVICE NSW QR CODE MANDATORY FROM JANUARY 1
All businesses must use the Service NSW QR code from January 1, in an effort to help contact tracers, the Premier announced today.
“So from the beginning of 2021, from 1 January, our expectation is that if your venue, if you’re a business-owner, you run a business, rather than using your own QR code, for those businesses who are not using the Service NSW QR code, we want you to go back to that,” Ms Berejiklian said.
SYDNEY A GHOST TOWN AMID COVID OUTBREAK
The restrictions have left Sydney’s CBD, normally bustling with gift-buying shoppers, a ghost town on Tuesday. The landmark Opera Bar was empty as Sydneysiders obeyed calls to limit movement.
LABOR CALLS FOR FASTER VACCINE ROLLOUT
Labor leader Anthony Albanese has declared Australia needs more COVID-19 vaccine doses more quickly, and while he respected regulatory processes if approval comes earlier than planned, the rollout should be faster.
The Morrison government is refusing to fast-track its program, which could take until March, despite the UK, US and Europe all giving rapid approval to vaccines.
President-elect Joe Biden was given the first of two jabs of the Pfizer vaccine on live TV on Tuesday and said: “There is nothing to worry about.”
Australia is facing a growing threat with four infection breaches associated with incoming travellers in the past four weeks and the bubbling northern beaches cluster.
But the federal government insists Australia is not experiencing an “emergency” situation which would warrant a faster vaccine rollout.
“Labor respects Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) processes but if it approves the Pfizer vaccine in January, it makes no sense not to have access until March,” Mr Albanese told The Telegraph.
“We clearly need more than 10 million doses. In short, more doses, more quickly.” Australian health officials will meet today to discuss the implementation plan.
The TGA is currently assessing the vaccines, and expects to have completed final approvals by March.
The vaccine would then roll out immediately to priority groups, with most of the population expected to be vaccinated by October 2021.
Australia has secured 53.8 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, including 3.8 million to be delivered by “early 2021” and about 50 million to be manufactured in Australia by CSL. The government has purchased 10 million of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, with an option to purchase more.
Infectious disease expert Professor Peter Collignon said one major issue for Australia was even if there was the emergency use granted, the country would not have access to a large volume of jabs.
“We’re not going to be able to get much of the Pfizer (vaccine),” he said.
“There are other (countries) much higher in the queue.”
He said Australia had the “luxury” of time for its regulatory processes.
“If there was an abundance of (vaccine) available, the sooner the better … but at the moment there’s not much COVID circulating and emergency approval is for where things are out of control.”
TRAVELLER CHECKS RISKING A BLOWOUT
A nurse working to transport patients from Sydney’s international airport has tested positive to COVID-19, becoming the fourth confirmed coronavirus leak from the state’s international border operation since August.
There are now calls for airline crew and people working with returned travellers to be the first to get a vaccine in Australia to provide a greater ring of protection against the virus coming in from overseas.
The healthcare worker tested positive after transporting a symptomatic family of three from the airport on December 14, chief health officer Kerry Chant said yesterday. That family was returning from the US.
The worker did not have any interaction with a returned traveller whose virus is believed to be linked with the Avalon cluster.
A “close workplace contact” of the nurse has also tested positive, and will be included in today’s official numbers.
The case is the third confirmed instance of COVID-19 leaking from the border operation so far this month, after a hotel cleaner and a van driver both separately caught the disease after contact with two international flight crews.
Epidemiologists have warned protections need to be stepped up at the border as the COVID pandemic worsens overseas.
Professor Tony Blakely said there would be merit to vaccinating border control and airline staff first when a jab is approved.
“That would be a huge gain in protection at the border,” he said.
If flight crew and border workers were vaccinated it could reduce the risk of them spreading the virus into the community, “increasing the ring of steel,” Prof Blakely argued.
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