Fairfield residents working outside LGA require Covid testing every three days

Strict new Covid rules will come into effect this week mandating testing for essential workers in the southwest and those who leave Greater Sydney for employment.

It is now illegal for Fairfield residents to leave their council area for work unless they can prove they have been tested for Covid-19 in the preceding 72 hours.

Under new public health orders which come into effect from Saturday, residents of Fairfield council will need to be tested every three days if they work outside the area.

The new rules came as employers were urged to replace “essential” workers from southwestern Sydney with staff from areas less impacted by Covid-19.

Concerns were raised on Tuesday about a subcontractor who tested positive to the virus after travelling from Greater Sydney to Goulburn to work on the hospital redevelopment.

The Fairfield West Laverty Pathology Covid drive-through clinic. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

The positive test sparked Goulburn Mayor Bob Kirk to call for tighter rules for workers leaving Greater Sydney.

Despite authorities urging people not to leave the house for anything but “essential work,” there is no legal definition of what is and isn’t essential.

Authorities have argued that ruling industries in or out would be too challenging.

Choosing what is and isn’t essential “will be left to the worker and to the employer,” Health Minister Brad Hazzard said.

“But my message also to the employers particularly is: if you don’t need to have someone come from an area that is suspect, and obviously has major Covid concerns presently, then perhaps it might be an idea to make arrangements for a worker from another area,” he said.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the government is relying on “common sense” for people to know whether what they do is “essential”.

Amid grave concerns about the virus spreading in Fairfield, residents of the council area have been explicitly told to not leave the house unless they “absolutely have to”.

People have also been urged to stay away from Fairfield.

“We would prefer people not go there unless they absolutely have to, (and) not undertake essential work unless they absolutely have to,” Ms Berejiklian said.

Fairfield residents have also been told to “rethink” whether their work is essential.

“Even if you consider (that) your work is essential, rethink that,” the Health Minister said.

Fairfield Mayor Frank Carbone was concerned the testing requirements would negatively impact his community.

He said the government “should be bringing more vaccines, not orders that impact the ability of our residents to feed their family”.

More than half of workers in Fairfield are in industries which can’t work from home, like tradies or community workers.

“Gladys Berejiklian has a lot to answer for, for not dealing with the virus when the limousine driver started the spread in Inner Sydney,” he said.

Testing rates per person have been lower in Fairfield than in other places impacted by Covid. In the past four weeks, there have been 109 people per 1000 tested for Covid in Fairfield - a rate of 10.9 per cent. That compares to 645 per 1000 in Waverley and 198 per 1000 in the Northern Beaches.

Locals were complaining on Tuesday that long lines to get a test would discourage people from following new rules.

In addition to the testing rules for Fairfield, anyone going more than 50km outside Greater Sydney for work will also need to prove they have had a test in the previous week.

People subject to the new surveillance testing rules will not need to isolate between getting their test and receiving a result unless they have symptoms.

Ms Berejiklian also said people who have tradies or other workers coming onto their premises for a job should ask the worker where they live.