Victoria to shut border with NSW at midnight as state records one death and 77 new cases
Victoria has announced it will slam its border with NSW shut after 77 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded along with the death of a woman in her 90s.
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Victoria’s border with New South Wales is about to slam shut after the Covid-stricken state recorded a massive spike in cases.
Case numbers jumped by 77 in 24 hours, with one death recorded as the Delta variant runs wild.
The Victorian government advised on Sunday afternoon that the acting chief health officer had declared all of NSW and the Australian Capital Territory a red zone from 11:59pm.
This means the Victorian border is effectively closed to NSW and the ACT, except for Victorian residents returning on a red zone permit for 14 days of quarantine and people with exemptions, exceptions or other valid permits such as specified workers and cross-border residents.
Earlier, Premier Daniel Andrews urged Victorian residents in NSW to come home as soon as possible, warning circumstances could change within coming hours.
“I’m not being critical of those Victorians who are in New South Wales but if you’re there, get back and get back quickly,” Mr Andrews told reporters.
He said Victorians knew all too well the pain Sydney was going through trying to bring the fresh wave of infections under control, as he repeatedly suggested anyone who tried to break the border rules faced the very real prospect of being publicly shamed.
“We’ve lived it – we’ve been there,” he said.
“But it also means that we have, I think, an extra determination to play our part to get tested, to not have outbreaks, to not have this run here.
“For those travelling across the border, the permits are real, the conditions are real. You will be fined, you will be found and you’ve got every chance of becoming very famous if you do not comply with those permit conditions.
“No one, I would have thought, wants to contribute to this virus coming to Victoria.
“But if you do the wrong thing, there’s every chance that people will find out about it … And the fact that they didn’t think that Covid was real and they didn’t think that protecting our state and all that we’ve built and given was worth investing in.
“I don’t reckon that would be a very popular position.”
His comments came after Victoria notched up its 11th consecutive day of no new coronavirus cases, while the number of active cases dropped from 23 to 20.
NEW VENUE ALERTS
A Grenacre medical practice and three Kogarah businesses — including a Commonwealth Bank — have all been listed as close contact venues where anyone who attended on certain days early last week are urged to get tested immediately and isolate for 14 days regardless of the result. See the full list here:
SYDNEY LOCKDOWN UNLIKELY TO LIFT THIS WEEK
The closure news comes as Gladys Berejiklian warned NSW’s Covid-19 lockdown is “highly unlikely” to end on Friday as the state plunged further into crisis.
NSW recorded another 77 cases on Sunday, including 33 who were in the community while infectious, and its first death from Covid-19 in months.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian was initially resistant to imposing a lockdown, but the state has entered its third week of harsh restrictions as it failed to bring the outbreak under control.
The extended lockdown was slated to expire on Friday night, but Ms Berejiklian poured cold water on the prospect of it ending on time.
“Everybody can tell it’s highly unlikely at this stage, given where the numbers are,” she said on Sunday.
“We’ve always been upfront about that. I’ve always said we need that exposure number in the community … to be as close to zero as possible, so we’re confident that we haven’t missed any chains of transmission.”
Ms Berejiklian conceded the numbers “aren’t going in the right direction” and was particularly concerned about the high number of positive cases who had been out in the community.
NSW Police issued 106 infringement notices in the past 24 hours, and Ms Berejiklian conceded authorities were “not confident” of a lockdown end date as people continued to flout stay-at-home orders.
“The quicker we continue to do the right thing, the quicker we can get out of this lockdown … That’s the strongest advice we have,” she said.
Sunday’s figure was NSW’s largest single-day case increase since mid-2020, and Ms Berejiklian warned “that trend will continue”.
“Given the number of people exposed in the community overnight, I’m anticipating the numbers in NSW will be greater than a hundred tomorrow,” he said.
“That’s what I’m anticipating. I’ll be shocked if it’s less than (that).”
NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said authorities could not afford to put out “spot fires” created by people interacting unnecessarily, and said the lockdown was designed to minimise mobility.
“You should have basically hardly been out of the house, hardly been in contact with anyone else, and therefore we (can) have confidence that the chain of transmission is really broken,” she said.
‘GRAPHIC’ AD TO SHAKE UP SYDNEYSIDERS
The federal government will air a “graphic” advertisement about Covid-19 in Sydney on Sunday night with the aim of driving home the seriousness of the city’s fast-growing outbreak.
The ad shows a young woman in hospital on a ventilator gasping for air, given the virus can attack the lungs in some cases.
Text on the screen reads: “Covid can affect anyone. Stay home. Get tested. Book your vaccination.”
Chief health officer Paul Kelly said the ad was intended to be scary as a large number of Sydneysiders appeared to not be taking the outbreak seriously.
Dr Kelly described the ad as “quite graphic”.
“We are only doing this because of the situation in Sydney and it will be running in Sydney,” he said.
“The messages will be clear: stay at home, get tested and booked in for a vaccination.
“They are the three messages on that ad.
“It is meant to be graphic, it is meant to really push that message home - that is important.”
MORE UNCERTAINTY FOR SCHOOL RETURN
The spiralling Covid crisis has also led to warnings schoolkids will be forced to learn from home longer than expected.
The grim new figures came as the federal government also flagged more financial assistance for NSW businesses and households.
Ms Berejiklian has also admitted that schools will go back to face-to-face learning “only when it’s safe for the broader community”.
Having “hundreds of thousands” of people leaving home at the same time for the school drop off and pick up is a “concern”, she said.
Ms Berejiklian had previously given a commitment that classes would go back on July 19.
“Yes, initially we assumed it would potentially be four days of home learning. But given where we’re at, please allow us to provide that advice closer to the time,” Ms Berejiklian said.
Only 32 of the latest cases were in isolation for their full infectious period, nine were in isolation for part of their infectious periods, and 33 were infectious in the community, with three cases still being investigated.
Fifty-five of the cases were linked to a known case or cluster, with 39 being household contacts and 16 close contacts. Twenty-two cases remain under investigation.
SEE THE FULL LIST OF LATEST VENUE ALERTS
A southwestern Sydney woman in her 90s died in hospital after testing positive. She was a close contact of a locally acquired case, who tested positive early on Saturday.
It is believed, but not yet confirmed, that the woman had not been vaccinated.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said NSW should brace for a surge in local infections, and she said she would be “shocked” if the state records less than 100 new cases on Monday and possibly for several days afterwards.
She said the majority of cases have been instances of infected people passing it on to household members or other people they know, so she urged people to continue to leave home only for essentials and to share space only with people in their immediate household.
“Everyone has appreciated that we are in a critical phase … and I am confident we will see that turnaround but we won’t see it yet,” Ms Berejiklian said.
She urged people not to look for loopholes in the lockdown rules, and said she hoped that in coming days when people were infected with Covid-19 they will be able to report to tracers that they have had no close contacts at all.
Commenting on speculation that the NRL may move its entire competition out of NSW, Ms Berejiklian said she appreciated everything done to support the health of people in NSW.
There have now been 566 locally acquired cases of Covid-19 reported since the Bondi cluster first emerged.
There are currently 52 COVID-19 cases admitted to hospital, with 15 people in intensive care, five of whom require ventilation.
There were 48,754 tests reported to 8pm Saturday, compared with the previous day’s total of 42,023.
Meanwhile, alerts have been issued for a Sydney Coles and Commonwealth Bank as a senior official warns the state’s lockdown is “very likely” to be extended.
People who have been to Coles in Kareela and Roselands must get tested and isolate for 14 days, after NSW Health on Saturday evening issued alerts for 19 exposure sites, predominantly in southwestern Sydney.
Alerts for Broadway Shopping Centre in Ultimo, Commonwealth Bank in Kogarah and Kmart in Roselands have also been issued.
It comes as NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet concedes the lockdown was “very likely” to be extended beyond Friday, and said Australians would eventually need to learn to “live alongside” Covid-19.
Mr Perrottet he insisted it was “unstainable” to maintain the indefinite threat of lockdowns once vaccination rates increased, saying the UK and US showed it was not possible to “eliminate Covid from society”.
“I know people find that an uncomfortable thing to accept, but that’s just the reality,” he told Sky News.
“We’ve got to get to a point in time where those who want to have a vaccine, get access to one.
“And at that point, we’ve got to open up our society, and have the freedoms that we had operating prior to the pandemic.”
MORE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE AND HOUSEHOLD SUPPORT
NSW businesses will be offered more financial assistance and household support will be broadened to help more people impacted by the Greater Sydney lockdown.
The federal government is preparing to announce more support for businesses in conjunction with the state government, under changes that would apply nationally to future lockdowns.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will virtually meet with Premier Gladys Berejiklian and NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet on Sunday afternoon to discuss support options.
An Expenditure Review Committee (ERC) meeting has been scheduled for Monday where federal government ministers will consider a submission from Mr Frydenberg on how to best support NSW business.
It is understood Treasury has presented several options for Mr Morrison to consider.
Mr Morrison was also expected to have a meeting on Sunday to investigate what mental health supports would be required under any protracted lockdown.
PREMIER BACKS PLANS TO SHIFT NRL OUT OF STATE
It would be “responsible” for the NRL to move the competition out of NSW altogether amid Sydney’s Covid-19 crisis, Premier Gladys Berejiklian says.
It comes after ARL Commission Chairman Peter V’landys said moving the competition into a regional hub — potentially out of NSW – was a “live consideration”.
Asked for her response, Ms Berejiklian said organisations would be “supporting NSW Health by not having those events in NSW at this time”.
“It would be responsible for all organisations to limit any activity within NSW,” she said.
“We don’t want any risk imposed to our regions … We’ve not seen any incursions or any cases in regional NSW, and we want to keep it that way.
“I appreciate and respect decisions by organisations supporting NSW Health by not having those events in New South Wales at this time,” she said.
TOP COP BLASTS COVIDIOTS’ PANDEMIC PARTIES
NSW Police have blasted a group of men playing cards inside a tiny apartment in Sydney’s inner west after the state issued more than 100 fines for Covid-19 breaches.
NSW Police said 106 infringement notices were handed out across NSW.
Six of the infringement notices were given to people in rural areas such as Orange while eight of were handed out at Kings Cross.
Penrith and southwest Sydney were areas of concern.
“The spread of the infringement notices is right across the state, which is disappointing,” Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys said.
“What I do know is that people continue, right across the state, to ring Crime Stoppers to (breaches) with over 1200 messages on the police system (yesterday) for police to attend locations.”
However one gathering in Sydney’s inner west had Deputy Commissioner Worboys fuming.
“One of those instances was a unit at Marrickville, where police responded to information and they went to that unit and found 15 men in a small unit playing cards,” he said.
“These men were (aged) in their 50s, through to just short of 90 years of age, (wearing) no masks, no social distancing (and) clearly in an environment that was a huge risk to them, their families and their community.
“Police issued infringement notices and we’ll follow up and make sure that each and every person that was there playing cards is dealt with appropriately.”
Deputy commissioner Worboys also drew attention to an 18th birthday party at Auburn.
“Another incident that I‘d like to highlight was in the Auburn area where police were called to a premises near Sydney Olympic Park where an 18-year-old birthday party continued,” he said.
“There were 10 people at this party; clearly organised. They turned up, they were aware of the public health orders and police took action in terms of infringement notices to each of those people and closed the party down and they were directed to returned home.”
He also voiced frustration with a group of young people caught playing PlayStation in a garage under a set of units in the Merrylands area in western Sydney.
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