Race against time to contain COVID cluster and save Christmas

Close to 250,000 northern beaches residents entered lockdown tonight, and all of Sydney has been told ‘stay home’ as a growing COVID-19 cluster triggers new restrictions for people leaving NSW.

The northern beaches has locked down for four days, and all Sydney residents urged to stay home, after a COVID-19 cluster on the peninsula grew to 38 today.

Of the 23 new cases of community transmission reported in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, 21 have been traced back to the known Avalon cluster and two are under investigation.

Health officials expect to detect just as many new cases of COVID-19 tomorrow.

Lawyers are drafting lockdown orders for the northern beaches local government area, which will last from 5pm tonight until midnight Wednesday.

All residents will be required to stay at home, unless leaving for essential shopping, exercise and medical care, with fines for anyone caught outside their home without a valid reason.

Residents of Greater Sydney have been asked to avoid non-essential activities and gatherings, with the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian asking people to stay home for the next few days.

Manly Beach and Corso earlier today before a lockdown was implemented at 5pm. Residents can now only leave their homes for essential reasons. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

It is hoped the measures will help contact tracers contain the outbreak before Christmas.

“The case numbers are not looking like they will be going down in the next 48 hours and if you want a chance to give people a good Christmas and a good New Year’s we need to get on top of it as quickly as we can,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“The public health order reinforces how serious the situation is and allows us if we need to undertake compliance.”

A deserted Corso at Manly today. Picture: Julian Andrews

There have not been any cases of COVID-19 spreading outside the northern beaches, but Ms Berejiklian is considering reinstating restrictions for Greater Sydney such as the one person per four square metre rule outdoors at pubs and restaurants.

“I want to put everyone on notice that it is a possibility and will depend on the health advice during the course of the day,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“The health experts are concerned about potential seeding that may have occurred.

“We know there were people from outside the northern beaches who attended the Avalon RSL and Avalon Bowlo on Sunday. So we’re just making sure we’ve considered there hasn’t been any spread of the disease in greater Sydney.

“If anything, of course the response of Greater Sydney will not be anywhere near the tough decisions we’ve taken in the northern beaches.”

GYM ALERT

Health officials are calling on people who attended Avalon gym, Anytime Fitness, to also get tested urgently and isolate immediately.

A known case of COVID-19 attended the gym on Avalon Pde over several days while infectious on December 6,7,8,11 and 12.

NSW Health said potentially hundreds of people were exposed at the gym.

All Sydneysiders are urged to wear masks while on public transport, shopping and in any place where social distancing is difficult. For northern beaches residents, the advice is stronger: wear a mask at all times in indoor areas, except the home.

The warning came as NSW Health’s COVID alert venue list shows cases linked to the cluster stretch to Cronulla, Kirribilli, Lane Cove, Turramurra and Woolloomooloo.

Sydney air passenger Emily Nash gest COVID-19 test at Avalon, Melbourne. Picture: Glenn Ferguson

RUSH TO OUTRUN BORDER CLOSURES

As beaches residents are locked down, interstate tourists have rushed to secure tickets to fly home and Sydney travellers scrambled as other states imposed restrictions.

The federal government declared the northern beaches a COVID-19 hotspot on Friday.

In Victoria, all travellers from Sydney must take a COVID-19 test on arrival and self-isolate until a negative result is received.

All NSW travellers to Victoria, Queensland and South Australia must obtain a permit to enter.

Late on Saturday WA Premier Mark McGowan announced WA’s hard border with NSW would be reinstated from midnight.

Mr McGowan said NSW had been reclassified from low to medium risk, and entry into Western Australia would only be permitted for passengers with exemptions that would be assessed on a “case by case” basis.

The usually busy cafe strip in Freshwater was deserted on Friday. Picture: Tim Hunter

AIRLINE CREW HOTELS LIMITED

As rumours spread among beaches’ locals as to the source of the infection, the state government moved on Friday to close a compliance weak spot by forcing airline crews who had been allowed to quarantine in 26 hotels to be limited to just two police-managed ones.

Ms Berejiklian said the problem had not been with the existing guidelines, but the “few occasions” when people had breached them by not self-isolating.

“From Tuesday there’ll be no chance of disobedience,” she said.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian will impose harsher quarantine conditions on flight crews. Picture: Janie Barrett/Getty Images

TRACING PATIENT ZERO

Additional COVID clinics have now been set up around the northern beaches local government area to cope with demand.

Contacts tracers are yet to identify the original source of the infection, genomic sequencing suggested it was from the US.

NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said it was clear from the number of cases linked to either Avalon RSL or Avalon Bowlo that a “significant seeding event” had taken place.

Traffic queues of people trying to get tested stretched for kilometres. Picture: Jeremy Piper

The Avalon outbreak follows the confirmed case of a bus driver earlier this week who had been transporting international flight crew.

Dr Chant said there had been no new cases associated with the driver.

Genome sequencing had demonstrated that the virus the driver had was “most likely a US strain”, which Dr Chant said was consistent with the view among health officials that there had been “inadvertent transmission” from the crew he had been transporting.

Others braved the rain on foot for testing. Picture: Jenny Evans

QR CODES VITAL

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Friday no one should enter venues that don’t have proper QR code or digital check-ins.

QR codes are vital to trace outbreaks rapidly, and while some venues had been outstanding in keeping records of who has been at venues, “some others have been absolutely hopeless”, Ms Berejiklian said.

“Nobody should be entering any venue in Greater Sydney where there isn’t strict adherence to QR codes and there isn’t good record-keeping, because it means you and your family are at risk.”.

“The last thing any of us want to do is get the virus and then turn up to a Christmas lunch and give it to all of our loved ones.”

As of late November about 22,000 businesses have used a NSW Government QR code.

Electronic registration was made mandatory from November 23 in hospitality venues.

There are nine venues associated with the current cluster. People should immediately get tested if they have visited those venues. A further 20 venues and three train trips included some risk, and people should monitor their symptoms.