Bunnings Campbelltown employee tests positive to COVID-19
NSW Health is scrambling to locate Bunnings customers after a staff member at a Sydney store tested positive for coronavirus. This comes as another school in Sydney’s west will close on Monday after a student also contracted the virus.
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A Bunnings employee has tested positive to COVID-19, NSW Health has revealed.
The employee, at the Campbelltown store on the corner of Kellicar Rd and Bugden Place, reportedly wore a mask and practised social distancing during three shifts this week.
NSW Health is asking any customers who visited the store to monitor for symptoms and if they do become even slightly unwell to self-isolate and get tested for coronavirus.
The employee worked the store on August 4 from 11am to 79pm, August 5 from 8am to 4pm and August 6 from 1pm to 3pm.
Bunnings confirmed the employee is a close contact of a family member who tested positive and was self-isolating at home before receiving a positive test result.
Bunnings chief operating officer Debbie Poole confirmed the employee last worked at the store on Thursday and was wearing a face mask, as all staff have been doing since July 25.
“The store has undergone two deep cleans using disinfectants since the team member last worked in addition to the routine cleaning that occurs each day. And, as a precaution we’re completing an additional deep clean,” Ms Poole said.
Other team members who were in close contact are also isolating at home
The news comes as another case was confirmed at a Western Sydney school.
Our Lady of Mercy College in Parramatta has confirmed a student has tested positive for the virus and will conduct a deep clean of the campus.
NSW Health is currently conducting contact tracing for the student to examine who they came into contact with while they were infectious.
“As soon as we were contacted by NSW Health we began working closely to identify students or staff who may have been a close contact,” the college said.
FEARS HOME TO ROOST AT FARMERS MARKET
Social distancing and masks weren’t on the menu at one of Sydney’s hippest markets as it reopened for the first time in months.
Despite Australian Medical Association warnings about young people and hospitality businesses’ casual attitude to social distancing, observers say shoppers at Carriageworks Farmers Market in Redfern were way too close for comfort.
The market draws high-end fresh food and beverage producers from all over Greater Sydney, but, until yesterday, had been closed since late March.
“The stalls were still pretty close together and there were a lot of people hanging around; it’s hardly the sort of get-in-and-out style shopping experience that you see at the supermarkets,” one man, who did not want to be named, said.
“There were some stallholders without masks.”
A female masked shopper said: “I’d say about half the people are wearing masks and the social distancing seemed OK.”
On its website Carriageworks said it was limiting numbers to 350 people as well as banning both BYO coffee cups and tastings.
Australian Medical Association NSW president Dr Danielle McMullen said many young people’s disregard for social distancing was of particular concern.
“People are tired of lockdowns now and there are both businesses and individuals that are not necessarily taking it as seriously as they should.
“It is hard for businesses, but they really need to be doing it at the moment — particularly hospitality.”
FOOTY LEGEND CLOSES RESTAURANT
When a diner at Anthony Watmough’s restaurant tested positive for COVID-19, the former NRL star made a quick decision to close immediately for two weeks.
The rules say they only needed to deep clean but Watmough didn’t want to take any chances.
“We wanted to get all our staff tested and make sure everyone is healthy. We didn’t want to spread it through the community so we have had a two week holiday and have one more week to go,” the Cubby’s Kitchen owner said.
The infected diner visited the Lebanese restaurant in the city last week.
“A guy came in and he didn’t know he was positive.
“We have had to shut down and test all our staff who have come back negative. Also all the patrons who were there at the same time have also come back negative.
“He dined with six people, I am not sure what their results are.
“We temperature check everyone before they come in and introduced a number of COVID measures.
“He slipped through the cracks.
“The lady said it was in his system and dormant when he came into the restaurant.”
NSW’S DOUBLE-DIGIT DIP
NSW’s cases dipped below double digits for the first time since July 24, when seven cases were recorded on Saturday.
Despite the drop in cases a spokesman for NSW Health said there are still significant risks.
“While most cases in the past week have been associated with local clusters and close contacts with known cases, nine have not been linked to known cases, indicating that COVID-19 is circulating in the community,” the spokesman said.
“It’s extremely important we all play our part in prevention all the time.”
One of the new cases is a student of Tangara School for Girls in Cherrybrook in Sydney’s north west.
The school has been closed for cleaning and contact tracing is continuing. The source of infection is under investigation.
Of the nine new cases, two are returned international travellers, four were locally acquired, (all close contacts of known cases) and three are under investigation with no known source. Two of the cases under investigation are close contacts of each other.
In the 24 hours to 8pm Friday, nine COVID‑19 patients were in intensive care and six ventilated.
Two weeks ago (July 24) there were three in intensive care and one person ventilated.
The state’s death toll remains at 52 people.
Meanwhile, Victoria confirmed 466 new cases and 12 deaths, with dozens of rulebreakers fined overnight for breaking Melbourne’s stage four curfew.
A man aged in his 30s is one of the latest Victorians to succumb to the virus.
Among the dead are two men aged in their 70s, two men and three women in their 80s, and four women in their 90s, with six of those linked to aged care settings.
Twenty-nine Victorians are on ventilators, as 44 battle for life in intensive care.
BONNYRIGG SHOPPING PLAZA CLOSED
A shopping centre in western Sydney has been temporarily closes for cleaning after a shopper tested positive for COVID-19.
Bonnyrigg Plaza Shopping Centre last night alerted shoppers to the potential exposure.
In a statement, management said the infectious shopper attended the centre for an hour on August 4 at 9am.
INTERSTATE BORDERS CLOSE
Sorry ma’am, it’s more than my job’s worth.
Karen Warren, 69, lives in COVID-free Merimbula on NSW’s south coast.
But because she spent one hour in Sydney en route to Brisbane to visit her son, Ms Warren was booted off a bus bound for Queensland on Friday and told to go home.
Frantic travellers flooded border crossings on Friday as Queensland prepared to ban all residents of NSW, the ACT and Victoria.
Technically Ms Warren could have entered Queensland if not for her one-hour stopover in Sydney, which Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has deemed a hotspot.
A heartbroken Ms Warren said she had spent 25 hours travelling and now faced a long journey home alone. Police also took two men, one aged 78, off the same bus.
Similar scenes were unfolding as Victorians living in border communities faced long queues to enter NSW.
All flights into NSW from Victoria must now land at Sydney Airport, with passengers bussed to hotels for 14 days of quarantine at their own expense.
Travellers landed in Sydney on two flights from Melbourne at 5.55pm and 7.25pm on Friday night, the only legal way to enter NSW after strict new measures were announced this week to contain the Victorian disaster.
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said quarantining had saved many lives and would be strongly enforced.
“Make no mistake: mandatory hotel quarantine has undoubtedly saved many lives, particularly among our vulnerable community members, and will continue to do so as we navigate this public health threat,” Mr Fuller said in a statement.
In Queensland, almost 100 people have been ordered into quarantine on the Gold Coast after rushing to cross the border before it closed to NSW and the ACT at 1am on Saturday.
Police said 72 people had been ordered into 14-day, self-funded hotel quarantine after being intercepted at the five Gold Coast road border checkpoints.
Another 23 who flew into Gold Coast Airport were also placed in quarantine after having travelled from a declared COVID hotspot.
Police said another 54 people were turned around at the border.
PACKED POKIES COST PUB $5000
Two Sydney pubs have been slapped with $5000 fines for breaking COVID Public Health orders, bringing the total number of errant hospitality venues penalised in NSW to 19.
It comes as there were a further 11 cases reported yesterday, with 10 of those locally acquired. One person attended the Apollo Restaurant in Potts Point and eight were close contacts of known cases. The final patient was infected in Victoria and is in self-isolation.
NSW has recorded 3653 cases and 52 deaths since the pandemic started.
Fines were handed out yesterday to The Unity Hall Hotel in Balmain and The Eastern Hotel at Bond Junction for not enforcing social distancing rules.
Liquor and Gaming NSW inspectors visited The Eastern Hotel on Wednesday and found there was a lack of social distancing between tables and chairs, an out-of-date safety plan and improper recording of patron’s details.
The hotel was fined after inspectors discovered gamblers were sitting next to each other playing the pokie machines.
Liquor and Gaming NSW Director of Compliance Dimitri Argeres said the breach occurred only days after a previous inspection uncovered the social distancing procedures in the gaming room.
“The manager told the inspectors that the venue had proper procedures in place to ensure gaming machine players are kept 1.5 metres apart,” he said.
“The licensee has since advised us that he will turn off every second machine to ensure compliance with the public health order.”
It comes after the Darlo Village Hotel at Darlinghurst and Soul Origin cafe in Maitland were also fined $5000 for flouting the rules.
Soul Origin was penalised for a lack of COVID safety signage and the incorrect placing of customer tables and chairs.
Inspectors visited the Darlo Village on August 1 and found things in order, including a COVID safety plan, COVID stickers up on the doors, a QR code check in process and a COVID safety marshal on duty. But when the inspectors went upstairs they found patrons at different tables sitting almost back to back.
Mr Argeres said the duty manager moved the patrons promptly upon request and admitted the lack of spacing was a breach of the venue’s conditions.
“We’re glad staff responded cooperatively with instructions, but had inspectors not been present the business and its patrons may not have taken their obligations as seriously,” he said. “All it can take to spread infection is being too close to other people, for too long — especially indoors.
“Physical distancing, providing your contact details and maintaining good hand hygiene are really the most important things we as individuals can do when we enter a premises.”
He said patrons should be helping businesses by complying with safety measures.
PM VOWS TO SHARE COVID-19 VACCINE
Australia will share a COVID-19 vaccine with the rest of the world if local researchers are the first to find a cure, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has vowed.
With more than 160 coronavirus cures in development, Australia is currently assessing 30 potential sites where the vaccine could be manufactured in Australia.
The review will also assess how many doses could be produced on Australian soil and how any vaccine would be distributed across Australia.
Government sources told The Saturday Telegraph that vaccine manufacturer CSL is the frontrunner to spearhead any local production of a COVID-19 vaccine, whether local researchers find the cure or not.
CSL has struck a deal with University of Queensland to produce the first batches of a successful COVID-19 vaccine when one is found, paving the way for large-scale production in Australia.
But Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia would share any potential COVID cure, adding that any country that refused to do so would be “judged terribly by history”.
“We won’t know when a vaccine will come. But … there’s never been a global effort like this and there are some positive signs there that we can be hopeful about,” he said yesterday. “Australia is positioning itself well to take advantage and be in a position to be able to manufacture and supply vaccines should they be developed. There are many projects that are under way around the world and we have a process for identifying those that we believe we can take an early position on.
“Any country that were to find this vaccine and not make it available around the world, without restraint, I think would be judged terribly by history.”
With human trials underway globally, the federal government has started the groundwork to purchase any potential vaccine, as well as finding ways to expand Australia’s manufacturing capability. An audit of at least 30 manufacturing sites is expected to identify any new opportunities to repurpose or modify existing sites and distribution centres which could be used to produce and store the vaccine.
Acting chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly said he could not promise that researchers would crack the code for a vaccine.
“I think, as the PM has said, there is really strong optimism here,” Prof Kelly said.
“We can’t promise that there will be a vaccine or when it may occur.
“We have never had a vaccine for a coronavirus in the world before, but the very best minds in the world are concentrating on this.
“Well over a hundred different types of vaccine are in development, and many of those are already in clinical trials in what has been described by some as warp speed.
“These things normally take years. It’s taking months, even weeks, to get here.”
TIME TO SEND IN THE POO DETECTIVES: EXPERTS
We need to hire an army of “poo detectives” because it will help NSW sniff out COVID-19 outbreaks and could save us from going down the toilet like Victoria.
Scientists have discovered that infected people “shed” the virus in their faeces, and NSW has begun a limited surveillance program to test for COVID-19 in untreated sewage in four regional health districts.
But infectious disease expert Professor Peter Collignon says the program needs to be dramatically ramped up, with daily testing.
“Rather than doing testing of asymptomatic people, we need poo detectives and we need the results not sat on, it needs to be done daily and reported,” he said.
“Sewage testing is very important because that tells you whether there is COVID in the community above a certain level. Testing sewage gives us the best ongoing surveillance, knowing when we have a problem potentially with significant community transmission.
“It’s an early warning sign.”
Asymptomatic COVID-infected people “shed” as much of the virus in their faeces as symptomatic patients, a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine journal found.
Professor Raina Macintyre, who heads the Biosecurity Program at the Kirby Institute, said sewage testing could more accurately detect prevalence.
“There is a lot of asymptomatic infection and mild infection, so it can give you an early signal if there is a lot of disease around,” she said.