Coronavirus NSW: 8 new COVID cases on record testing day
Australia will not ban flights from the UK despite the discovery of a highly infectious mutant strain of COVID-19 in England and four returned travellers. Latest COVID updates.
NSW
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There are now four known cases of the mutant COVID-19 strain from the UK in returned Australian travellers currently in hotel quarantine.
In addition to the two patients confirmed in Sydney, there are also two in Victoria.
The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee on Tuesday night confirmed the cases, but reiterated its stance the mutant strain did not warrant a ban on flights from the UK.
“The AHPPC notes the UK has designated the variant as a ‘variant of concern’ and will continue to monitor the situation,” a statement from the expert health group said.
“The AHPPC awaits more evidence from the UK, but has no current concerns for spread of this variant in Australia.”
The AHPPC said all four cases of the variant documented in Australia “have been or are being managed in hotel quarantine” and the variant has not spread into the community.
“Australia has a world class system for genetic analysis of SARS-CoV-2 to be able to detect occurrence of this variant,” the statement said.
“This variant is not the cause of the current NSW cluster.”
The Australian health experts argued it was “at this stage” it was not clear if the mutations were responsible for the higher growth rates in cases in the UK.
“It could also be a combination of factors such as a mutation, winter, super spreading events, or found in areas or populations where people live in more crowded settings.”
COVID REACHES ANTARCTICA
The last corner of the world without coronavirus has been infected, after reports COVID-19 is running rampant through a Chilean station in Antarctica.
Spanish media has reported up to 36 people connected with the Chilean Army base General Bernardo O’Higgins Riquelme tested positive for the virus on Monday.
It is believed the virus spread from a sick crew member on an Ecuadorian ship.
The Daily Telegraph has confirmed no Australians have had any crossover with the Chilean team, which is based more than 4,500km away.
Australia sent about 250 expeditioners to its Davis, Mawson and Casey stations and Macquarie Island this season, which is only about half the usual number of staff.
NEW VENUES ISSUED COVID ALERTS
The race is on to save Christmas from COVID-19 in NSW ahead of an announcement on restrictions and the Northern Beaches lockdown on Wednesday.
Click here for the latest venue alerts.
AUSTRALIA WILL NOT BAN FLIGHTS FROM UK
Australia will not ban flights from the UK despite the discovery of a highly infectious mutant strain of COVID-19 in England.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly said after studying the latest information from the UK, Australia was satisfied its current quarantine arrangements were sufficient protection.
It comes after NSW Health this afternoon released a new list of venues affected by the Northern Beaches cluster.
Regional NSW is now on alert and inner city diners and commuters ordered to quarantine after NSW Health made fresh links to people with COVID-19.
Cleaning is now underway at many of these venues including Pearly Nails in Mona Vale.
“We don’t believe there’s any reason to change our border arrangements in relation to people coming from the UK,” Prof Kelly said.
“We have a lot of Australian citizens that live in the UK right now, wanting to come back to Australia, and we still are welcoming them.
“They will be going into 14 days’ supervised quarantine.”
Prof Kelly said the view of Australia’s medical experts was the strain was a “concern in the UK” but not here.
“It is a new variant of the virus,” he said.
“But here in Australia, we have our ways of dealing with people coming from overseas in terms of our hotel quarantine system, and that has been extremely effective, extremely effective in controlling any virus that may be coming from other parts of the world.
“And so we put faith in that.”
Mr Kelly also said Australia will not fast track approval of any COVID-19 novel vaccines despite the risk of breaches from hotel quarantine, as there is not the same level of “emergency” as in the US and UK.
Prof Kelly said health officials were “continuing with planning” through the Christmas break to finalise a prioritisation plan and agreements with every state and territory to roll out vaccines by March.
“The plan is to have them completed in early January, those implementation plans,” he said.
Prof Kelly said Australian health officials from all over the country would meet on Wednesday to talk through the “practical” issues around the vaccine.
“We then have to move on to the regulation pathway,” he said.
“Just to be clear - there is no vaccine anywhere in the world, in any country in the world, that has received its final approval for open distribution to the population,” he said.
“There are several countries in the world that have emergency-use authorisation, because they have emergencies.”
Prof Kelly said places like the US, which has reported about 200,000 cases a day, clearly “have an emergency”.
“They need to get on with it,” he said.
“Same in the UK. Same in Europe overnight.
“We are not going down that pathway because we don’t have anywhere near that need right now. But we’re certainly not stopping in our preparations.”
Prof Kelly said as the relevant data was provided by vaccine sponsors, particularly Pfizer and AstraZeneca, it would be processed by the TGA.
“They’re not resting over Christmas, they’re continuing,” he said.
“There are tens of thousands of documents and so forth that will need to be processed as part of the usual approval.
NORTHERN BEACHES MAN FINED
A Northern Beaches man has been fined $1000 for failing to remain on the northern beaches.
The 70-year-old was discovered checking into a leisure centre on the South Coast using an Avalon address at 3.30pm yesterday.
He was quickly asked to leave, which he did.
Police allege that the man had travelled from his Northern Beaches residence to a home at Narrawallee onThursday December 17 and had failed to self-isolate as per the Public Health Order.
He was issued with a $1000 fine.
EIGHT NEW CASES ON RECORD NSW TESTING DAY
Eight locally-acquired cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday night, including seven linked with the Avalon outbreak.
The cases were recorded from a record 44,466 tests.
One case – not linked with the cluster – was also recorded in a nurse who works in the transfer of patients from the international airport.
The healthcare worker transported a symptomatic family of three from the airport on December 14 after they had returned from the US, but has not had contact with a returned traveller who is currently in hotel quarantine with an almost identical virus strain as cases in the Northern Beaches outbreak.
A close contact of the case has also tested positive late last night, and will be included in tomorrow’s numbers.
With more health alerts issued for additional venues overnight, there are “many, many thousands” of people in isolation as close contacts of a confirmed case, chief health officer Kerry Chant said.
Despite declaring the “trends are where we’d like them to be,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian wouldn’t “rule anything in or out” ahead of a crucial meeting of the state’s COVID crisis cabinet on whether restrictions will be eased in time for Christmas.
However, Ms Berejiklian said a decision on whether to ease restrictions or keep the current rules in place “would be much easier if it wasn’t this time of year,” indicating a push to relax the rules for Christmas.
She said the government will “take a cautious but balanced approach” to restrictions.
However, anyone who has been identified as a “close contact” of a confirmed case and is in isolation will need to stay there until 14 days has elapsed.
“If you have been told to isolate for the 14 days, please do so,” Dr Chant said.
VICTORIA RECORDS CASE LINKED TO AVALON CLUSTER
The Avalon coronavirus cluster has spread to Victoria after a 15-year-old girl returning from the Northern Beaches tested positive.
Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley confirmed the case was a 15-year-old girl who had acquired the virus in the hotspot area.
Health authorities said the close contacts of the case were understood to be limited and contact tracing was underway.
Mr Foley said the teenager was from the Moonee Valley local government area.
He said the girl had visited several high-risk exposure sites in Sydney, including the Avalon RSL.
The girl drove home from Sydney with her mother on December 17 and was tested on December 20.
Mr Foley said the pair stopped briefly in Gundagai north of the NSW border but did not stop in Victoria.
He said the teenager was at home in isolation and her mother had since tested negative.
CBD WORKPLACE RECORDS FIVE CASES
There are five COVID-19 cases at a workplace in the Sydney CBD which have been linked to the Avalon cluster.
A NSW Health spokeswoman said close contacts, “including 10 other workers”, have been tested and are isolating.
“One case also attended a separate workplace in the city on Bligh Street,” she said.
“A small number of people who met with this case have been identified as close contacts and
are now isolating.
“Other people in these workplaces not identified as close contacts should monitor for symptoms and seek testing early if they arise, consistent with advice for the general
population in NSW.”
The chief of staff and a media advisor to Labor leader Anthony Albanese have been tested for COVID-19 after being in the Commonwealth Parliament Offices at 1 Bligh St at the time an infectious person was in the building.
Mr Albanese confirmed his two staff members had sought a test, despite the advice for the building currently being to monitor for symptoms, but both returned a negative result.
“They have been tested, they have been found to be negative,” Mr Albanese said.
DEFENCE MINISTER DENIES ANDREWS’ ADF CLAIMS
Defence Minister Linda Reynolds says the ADF is “providing all the support they can” after denying requests for personnel support from Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.
Mr Andrews had asked for 300 Australian Defence Force personnel to be provided to help patrol the Victoria, New South Wales border.
But Ms Reynolds said on Tuesday she told all the states and territories in September that they would be taking ADF staff off border checkpoints.
“While we don’t have personnel that we can allocate to borders in Victoria and elsewhere, we are doing what we can to support the police, so we’re providing accommodation and logistics and meals to support them,” she told Channel 9.
“We are providing all the support that we can, but we can’t do everything and be everywhere. So we are providing support but, again, within the powers that we have.”
POLICE PROBE NORTHERN BEACHES LOCKDOWN BREACH
Police are investigating after a Northern Beaches resident allegedly broke lockdown rules and travelled to the state’s south coast.
It’s believed the 70-year-old man travelled more than three hours to Ulladulla in the Shoalhaven region before attempting to enter a leisure centre about 4pm on Monday.
Staff confirmed the man had been in the hotspot zone during the time health authorities were concerned about community transmission, according to Shoalhaven City Council, meaning the man would have breached a strict public health order.
The incident was reported to police and the Ulladulla leisure centre will remain closed until officers have finished their investigation.
NSW Police confirmed to NCA NewsWire the 70-year-old is being investigated by local officers for breaching the public health order which required anyone who had been in the hotspot zone to stay on the northern beaches or isolate.
“Council staff directed the patron to leave the Council-premise immediately … as a precautionary measure, Council will close the Ulladulla Leisure Centre,” the statement read.
NEW QUARANTINE TESTS FOR AIRCREWS
Airline crew members who live in NSW and arrive in the country after working on an international flight will be swabbed for coronavirus before being allowed to self-isolate in their own homes.
Interstate crew will also be allowed to travel straight home on specially-arranged transport if they get a COVID-19 test on arrival in Sydney.
The changes are part of a strengthened quarantine regimen for flight crew that will come into effect on Tuesday.
The new rules will require international staff go into specific police-run quarantine hotels rather than a hotel of their airline’s choosing.
The changes were put in place after an international flight crew was fined for breaching self-isolation guidelines.
There have been at least two incidents of aircrew breaching isolation identified.
NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said everyone returning from overseas should be treated as if they had COVID-19.
But she said protocols for returning crew needed to balance competing factors including the mental health of airline staff.
“What we also need to understand is that flight crew are often isolated forever,” she said.
AGED CARE HOMES TOLD TO STAY CLOSED
The Avalon COVID cluster could see aged care home residents across Greater Sydney told to stay home for Christmas unless current restrictions are relaxed.
A NSW Health spokeswoman yesterday confirmed that under the current rules, “residents of aged care facilities are advised not to leave their facility for social visits to see friends and family”.
It came after chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant told aged care homes in Greater Sydney not to welcome any visitors until Wednesday.
The advice preventing visitors attending retirement homes and residents leaving will be reassessed by the state government on Wednesday.
Under the current rules, people from Greater Sydney should also avoid visiting disability services or vulnerable people unless it is critical.
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