All NSW workplaces and retail businesses will be required to use Service NSW QR codes from next month.
The requirement, beginning July 12, will represent a massive ramping-up of the state’s information collection relating to the coronavirus and will impact virtually every adult in the state.
It will mean anyone who attends their workplace or any type of store will have to scan a QR code using a smartphone when they enter the building.
“We've seen with Covid how fast it moves,” Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello told reporters on Wednesday.
“(The delta strain) moves at lightning pace, so we need to adjust our circumstances accordingly.”
From July 12, all retails businesses and workplaces will need to use QR codes to help contact tracers.
The new rule will impact retail businesses and supermarkets, shopping centres and individual shops within them, gyms, offices, factories, warehouses, schools and universities.
Hospitality businesses will also be required to check in every visitor, including those who only show up to pick up a takeout order.
School students will not be required to use the QR codes.
“This is about keeping customers and staff safe and getting all businesses open again as soon as possible,” Mr Dominello said.
He said he had already spoken to several large retail and supermarket businesses and told them he expected they would put the new requirement into action as soon as possible.
The data collected by QR codes is kept for 28 days and then deleted, and can only be used by NSW Health, Service NSW said.
Updates
MP ordered into isolation after NSW Health backflip
Jo Seymour
SeniorSenior Minister Victor Dominello has been ordered back into isolation after NSW Health incorrectly released the ally of Premier Gladys Berejiklian from quarantine on Saturday.
Mr Dominello even appeared at a media conference alongside Gladys Berejiklian explaining his release just hours before the backflip.
Victor Dominello , who appeared at a press conference on Wednesday, has been ordered back into isolation.
The Daily Telegraph then sent a series of questions probing why multiple MPs who were seated further away from Covid-infected Adam Marshall remained in 14-day lock up, asking for an explanation for the inconsistency.
Covid limo driver 'on top of the world' as isolation ends
Jo Seymour
A hire car driver and his wife who were the first two Covid-19 cases of the current outbreak say they are “on top of the world” after completing their 14-day isolation. The couple — who The Daily Telegraph have chosen not to name — left the house on Wednesday for the first time since their positive tests were recorded on June 16.
The limo driver and his wife left isolation on Wednesday and went shopping for groceries.
Health authorities believe the driver, aged in his 60s, contracted the virus when transporting a Fed Ex aircrew to hotel quarantine on June 11, and for four days unknowingly spread it throughout the community. Despite his proximity to international travellers the driver was unvaccinated, but a NSW Police investigation found he had not committed a crime or breached any health orders.
Infected student nurse had more than 100 close contacts
Jo Seymour
Contact tracers are working at great speed to find, isolate and test more than 100 people after a student nurse tested positive late on Tuesday night.
NSW Health says the 24-year-old woman worked at Fairfield Hospital and Royal North Shore Hospital while infectious from June 24 to June 28.
NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said the wards she worked across at the two hospitals had been locked down and any colleagues she came into contact with had been tested and have so far returned negative results.
Earlier on Wednesday, Dr Chant said while the early test results of the nurse’s close contacts were promising, “it’s much too early to tell” whether there will be any transmission linked to this case.
All patients who have been discharged and any family members who may have visited the wards she worked at are being contacted by health authorities.
Premiers critical of ScoMo's vaccine advice
Jo Seymour
Multiple state premiers have pushed back against Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s decision to allow more Australians access to the controversial AstraZeneca vaccine, saying it should be reserved only for those over 40.
The Prime Minister announced on Monday the government would indemnify GPs who administered the jab to people under 60 who wanted it.
But leaders in both NSW and Western Australian have hit back at the advice.
In Queensland, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said there had been no national cabinet agreement, despite Mr Morrison earlier claiming it had been a joint decision.
A young Sydney woman granted an exemption to farewell her dying father landed in Melbourne on Wednesday afternoon. Anna Coffey, 32, touched down at Essendon Fields airport just before 4pm on a flight from Bankstown, after arriving in Sydney a week ago after learning her father had suffered a stroke when she was in New York.
Anna Coffey and her father, who has suffered a stroke.
Ms Coffey will be allowed to leave her hotel quarantine to visit her 80-year-old father, John, who she was told had just days to live. But she must spend each night in her hotel room.
Michael Zerafa has no valid excuse to withdraw from next Wednesday’s fight against Tim Tszyu, NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro has declared as the Victorian boxer sensationally withdrew from the event.
Tim Tszyu and Michael Zerafa have been preparing for the fight of the year.
Zerafa will formally announce on Wednesday at 5pm that he will not fight Tszyu, News Corp can reveal.
Who can get the vaccine? Which vaccine can I get? When can you get it? What is the risk of blood clots? Here are the answers. Any Australian can now get the AstraZeneca jab, while those aged 40 to 60 are able to get the Pfizer vaccine under an expansion of the rollout.
People aged over 60 will be prioritised for the AstraZeneca vaccine, but changes to indemnity now mean anyone can ask their GP to get the jab if they understand the very low risk of a blood clot.
The extension of the rollout still depends on vaccine supply, but with about a million doses of AstraZeneca arriving a week, it is likely the faster option for younger Australians who don’t want to wait until October when more Pfizer is due to arrive.
Tasmania will introduce new rules to keep locally acquired Covid-19 cases of the Delta variant at bay, despite having no local transmission. Premier Peter Gutwein announced on Wednesday afternoon that QR code check-ins will be mandatory for retailers, including supermarkets and shopping centres from next week.
Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein.
“We will be expanding this from the other settings where it is obviously already mandatory,” he said. Mr Gutwein also said authorities had spoken with Events Tasmania and organisers for a winter singing festival called Festival of Voice about a requirement to wear face masks at all festival activities.
Harvey Norman, Rebel, gymnastic centre on alert
Jo Seymour
A gymnastics centre, Harvey Norman store and a Rebel Sport are among a swath of new sites exposed to Covid-19. NSW Health sent out an alert on Wednesday afternoon that anyone who had visited Bunnerong Gymnastics, at 441 Bunnerong Rd at Matraville, on Wednesday, June 12 between 4pm and 5pm is considered a close contact. They must immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days, regardless of the result, while also calling NSW Health on 1800 943 553. NSW Health also released a new list of venues that are considered casual-contact. Those who have visited must immediately get tested and self-isolate until a negative result is received.
These include a Harvey Normal shop at Bondi Junction and Rebel sports store in Randwick.
Northern Territory police have warned the general public against “arrogant behaviour” after fining a man more than $5000 for failing to wear a mask in Darwin. On Wednesday, NT Police issued an infringement to a 36-year-old man in a Harris Lane coffee shop in the Darwin CBD for failing to wear a mask. According to police, the man claimed that under the Constitutional Act in Britain he did not have to wear one. The man was subsequently fined $5056. Northern Territory Police have reminded the general public wearing a mask when out of your home is a legal requirement under the Chief Health Officer Directions.
Covid cases are on the rise in NSW, and the true toll of the virus this year has been revealed, with almost 4000 Australians dying from the virus in 2023.
