Covid NSW updates: 825 new cases, 3 deaths after Sydney lockdown extended
There were 825 new Covid cases recorded in NSW — the highest-ever reported daily increase nationally. This comes as people still hit the outdoors after the state was plunged into its harshest ever lockdown. Follow our live updates.
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NSW has seen 825 new cases, smashing the national record of the highest ever reported number of daily cases across the nation.
Three people including a man in his 80s, a man in his 90s and a woman in her 90s have died.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said numbers in parts of regional NSW have stabilised but there is still “grave concern” for far western parts of the state.
Ms Berejiklian said everyone should consider the greater good as a handful of wrongdoers are having “catastrophic” results.
There are 516 cases in hospital, with 85 in intensive care and 29 on ventilators, with 76 of those in ICU unvaccinated, and the rest have had one jab — with no fully vaccinated patients in ICU.
The two men who died on Friday were residents of a dementia unit in a Normanhurst aged care home.
Six residents tested positive after a staff member worked two shifts while positive.
Sixteen people who attended a party in Maroubra have tested positive, as well as a number of their close contacts.
Ahead of stricter lockdown restrictions rules on Monday — which includes wearing masks and only spending an hour for exercise outdoors — hundreds of people enjoyed the warm winter day by flocking to Sydney’s beaches and parks.
‘Some don’t seem to give a damn’
Deputy Premier John Barilaro said there were 32 new cases, three in Bathurst, two in Wellington, one in Walgett and one in Narromine.
There are 14 cases in the Far West local health district.
There has been sewage detections in Orange and Lithgow.
There were 681 fines dealt out by police on Friday for public health order breaches.
Police have broken up parties across the state including the St George area, the Hills district and in Tweed Heads.
Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys said every time someone leaves their home to go to a party, they should have a look at the loved ones they could infect if they break the rules.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard the majority of the community is following the rules, but rule breakers are putting our lives on hold.
“There are those amongst us that don’t seem to give a damn,” he said.
“You are ransoming our future.
“The Maroubra party, 16 positive cases to date, I’m hearing there could be up to 60 people who attended that party.”
Mr Hazzard said a funeral in western NSW could have been attended by 350 to 500 people.
Super spreader events across the state
Super spreader events continue to plague the state as a record number of 825 Covid cases were recorded on Saturday.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard took aim at those “who don’t seem to give a damn” including a Maroubra party held on Saturday, August 14, where 16 positive cases are now linked.
“There could be up to 60 who attended that party,” Mr Hazzard said.
“Those at parties are facilitating the spread, I will say to them you are ransoming our future.”
Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys detailed a dinner party in Tweed Heads, a graduation ceremony and other gatherings were examples “of people across the state who don’t care”.
The tiny town of Wilcannia in the state’s far west now has 12 cases of Covid. The growing number is believed to be linked to the funeral of a 26-year-old man held on Friday, August 13 where hundreds attended.
“I have heard there could have been between 350 and 500 at that funeral,” Mr Hazzard said.
“In the case of the funeral, many of those people who attended have now returned to far flung places in our state and cases will grow in the next few days.”
A Broken Hill resident who attended the funeral has also been diagnosed with Covid, with authorities worried the person had been infectious in the community for several days. A second Broken Hill resident has now also tested positive.
A couple from Dubbo who travelled to Wilcannia for the funeral also returned positive tests last week. There are now 32 cases in Dubbo and three Bathurst.
Wilcannia, with a population of round 650 mostly Indigenous Australians, has one local hospital staffed by nurses only with the Royal Flying Doctor Service the only access to doctors.
Aboriginal health specialist Dr Ray Jones, who works at Cobar, 300km east of Wilcannia, said the growing cluster was a disaster.
“It’s a total disaster for these communities because they are unvaccinated, are resistant to vaccinations because they are scared of the unknown and a lot have underlying health issues like diabetes,” Dr Jones said.
“The hospital, which has no doctor is totally unequipped to deal with Covid. It’s just starting and it is going to rip through the Aboriginal communities and cause a lot of death and suffering.”
School shut down
Staff and students at a western Sydney school have been plunged into isolation after a student tested positive to coronavirus.
St Marys Public School has been shut down as health authorities conduct a deep clean of the campus.
All of its staff and pupils who had been in the classroom last week have been told to isolate until further notice and to monitor for symptoms.
“The NSW Department of Education will continue to work closely with NSW Health to ensure the health and safety of all students and staff is maintained,” a department spokesperson said.
Lockdown extended for a month
Gladys Berejiklian has announced a “final list” of measures in the increasingly desperate fight against the virus.
The Premier declared “we’ve thrown everything at this” in an attempt to stop the virus from “ripping through families”.
Sydney will remain locked down for at least a further month, masks are mandatory across the state, police have been given new compliance powers and high risk workers face compulsory vaccinations in a sweeping new offensive in the war against Covid.
And hardware stores and garden centres including Bunnings – long criticised because they continued to draw steady crowds of shoppers – were ordered to close their doors to the public in the changes to come into effect Monday.
A strict 9pm to 5am curfew will be imposed in the 12 hotspot LGAs in a last ditch bid to stop the virus “ripping through families”.
“In terms of the local government areas of concern, I can’t stress enough that we feel for you,” she said.
“We don’t want to see more of you end up in hospital, we don’t want to see more of you lose loved ones.
“And it is heartbreaking when you see disease rip through families, families who are unvaccinated are suffering the most.”
Under the new rules the LGAs of concern will also be limited to only an hour of exercise each day, and childcare workers and disability support workers who live or work there must have their first vaccine dose by August 30.
Authorised workers from the LGAs who work outside their area can only work if they get their first jab by the 30th of August, or if their workplace has rapid antigen testing.
From next Saturday authorised workers from the areas of concern, or those entering to work will also need a permit. For the entire state masks are now mandatory at all times outdoors except while exercising.
Police will also have powers to immediately lockdown apartment buildings where it is believed Covid could be spreading, and keep residents there for testing.
The curfew for parts of Sydney was slammed by a coalition of federal Labor Mrs from southwestern and western Sydney who said it “made a bad situation worse”.
“Applying a curfew to half of Sydney is not how you tell people ‘we are all in it together’,” they said in a statement.
The Premier said evidence of curfews working is mixed, but insisted the decision was made on health and police advice.
The backflip comes after she said in July that curfews do not work, and she would not impose restrictions that have no evidence of working.
Ms Berejiklian defended criticisms she had waited too long to crack down harder, calling the latest measures the “final list” of restrictions.
Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said the curfew was introduced to crack down on “young men”.
“From the health advice and police on the ground that younger men in those areas of concern are being very difficult to manage and they’re not complying,” he said.
With testing facilities overrun, the government has also cancelled the need for workers from Canterbury Bankstown, Cumberland and Fairfield to have surveillance testing every three days in order to focus resources on getting positive results quicker.
“At the moment positive tests are taking too long to get processed and that adds delay … so we’ve had to make that hard decision,” Dr Kerry Chant said.
Dr Chant, who has been chief health officer since 2008, also denied rumours she had threatened to resign.
Of the 644 cases recorded on Friday, 508 are still under investigation.
There were four more deaths, three connected to healthcare settings including a woman in her 80s from the Wyoming Aged Care facility in the inner west, a man in his 70s who was infected at St George Hospital, and a man in his 80s who was infected at Nepean Hospital.
A woman in her 80s also died in southwest Sydney.
Bunnings announced all stores across Sydney will close and only offer pick up.
Alexander Hoffmann, 23 and Chiara Lodovici, 26 from Maroubra said the extended lockdown “wasn’t great news but was expected.”
“It’s nothing we weren’t expecting but is still concerning as we are next door to Bayside which is an LGA of concern,” Mr Hoffman said.
“We’ve been trying to go for even just a half-hour walk each day just making sure we try to get outside.
“We’re kind of in a rhythm with it now, keeping up to date with new announcements of what we can and can’t do and just trying to do what we can.”
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