Stay-at-home rules for Sydney, regional NSW explained after confusion
There has been mass confusion over NSW’s lockdown overhaul. Here’s what you need to know if you’re in greater Sydney or regional areas.
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New rules kicking in at midnight and restrictions specific to high-risk local government areas have caused confusion among NSW residents as the entire state grapples with lockdown.
NSW recorded 415 new local cases of Covid-19 on Sunday.
The two biggest differences in lockdown measures for greater Sydney versus those in the 12 at-risk local government areas are recreation and the singles bubble.
Here we explain the rules for both and for regional NSW, which was plunged into a seven-day lockdown on Saturday.
The at-risk LGAs are Bayside, Blacktown, Burwood, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool, Parramatta, Strathfield, as well as the Penrith suburbs of Caddens, Claremont Meadows, Colyton, Erskine Park, Kemps Creek, Kingswood, Mount Vernon, North St Marys, Orchard Hills, Oxley Park, St Clair and St Marys.
What are the rules for 12 LGAs versus other parts of Sydney?
Stay-at-home orders apply to everyone in NSW, however, they are slightly tighter if you live in an LGA of concern.
You can leave the house for a reasonable excuse, such as food shopping, medical care or outdoor recreation within 10km of your house (which will be reduced to 5km at midnight on Monday morning).
However, if you live in those risky LGAs, outdoor recreation has been tightened to “exercise” and not “gathering at parks … or outside cafes” as NSW Police Minister David Elliott defined recreation on Saturday.
Furthermore, if you live alone in the LGAs of concern you will have to register your singles bubble buddy with Service NSW and that buddy must live within 5km of your home. That does not apply to greater Sydney suburbs outside of the LGAs of concern.
When do the new rules for Sydney start?
This is the brilliant part. For the at-risk LGAs, the 5km restriction on exercise (remember, exercise not recreation) and food/essential goods shopping already applies, according to the NSW Health website.
However, for the areas outside those LGAs, the 10km limit on recreation and food/essential goods shopping does not kick in until midnight on Monday morning, August 16. Confused? Understandable.
For people who live alone, if you reside in the LGAs of concern you need to register your permitted visitor buddy immediately with Service NSW and they must live within 5km of you.
What are the rules for regional areas?
Glad you asked. The rules for regional areas are exactly the same for greater Sydney except that there is an allowance on the travel distance for food and essential goods shopping.
You must exercise and shop within 10km (and 5km from midnight on Monday morning), “unless the food or goods and services are not reasonably available locally”.
We hope that helps.
Here’s what’s changed on Saturday:
Fines for breaching public health orders, including lying to contact tracers, will be raised from $1000 to $5000.
A $3000 on the spot fine will be issued to people who breach the two person exercise rule.
A permit will be required for anyone leaving greater Sydney to enter regional NSW.
Exemptions will be granted for those leaving to visit holiday homes for urgent repairs, but only one person will be permitted to go.
People in singles bubbles in the 12 “areas of concern” within Sydney’s west and southwest must register their bubble, and those involved must live within 5km of each other.
The areas of concern are the councils of Bayside, Blacktown, Burwood, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool, Parramatta, Strathfield, and parts of Penrith.
People in those areas are also now not allowed to leave the house for recreation – they must be exercising or supervising children.
Exercise is now limited to 5km from your home or within your LGA for people not living in areas of concern. The rule previously was 10km from your home or within your LGA.
From Monday, there will be enhanced random checkpoints at key roads.
Ms Berejiklian said members of the riot squad and highway patrol would be deployed to key local government areas.
An additional 500 Australian Defence Force members will hit the ground in Sydney, after NSW Police requested additional support.
A stay-at-home payment of $320 will be brought in for residents of hot spot areas who are asked to isolate while waiting for Covid test results, similar to a $450 payment available in Victoria.
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said the rule changes were necessary as authorities continued to have “difficulties getting compliance from some members of the community”.
“The movement particularly in greater Sydney was way too high from our perspective in terms of what we were trying to achieve, and our part in this is to get New South Wales Health ahead of the Delta variant,” he said.
“I am not apologetic. Please don't write in and complain to me, we have given ample warnings and cautions, and that time has gone.”
He said the new rules were necessary as residents continued to exploit loopholes in the existing restrictions, putting the state at further risk.
“The feeling from police, the evidence from police on the ground that the rorts were around people entering regional New South Wales, not for a proper purpose,” he said.
“So we see the permit system strengthened in relation to that. The singles bubble, exercise and recreation collectively were consistently used excuses for people moving around.”
Saturday’s changes come after Premier Gladys Berejiklian unleashed on rule breakers, who she accused of only pretending to not understand the health orders.
“It’s pretty obvious to us, and pretty obvious from the feedback we get from police, that people use the health orders as an excuse to do the wrong thing,” she told reporters on Friday.
“People are saying, ‘Oh, I didn’t know this was this or this was that’. Most of the time that’s not true.
“Can I make this very clear, police are doing an incredible job in terms of compliance, but let’s not pretend that people are doing the right thing.”
Originally published as Stay-at-home rules for Sydney, regional NSW explained after confusion
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