COVID NSW: No local cases, ACT lifts travel ban on northern beaches
Politicians from 10 Sydney councils will be allowed to skip a quarantine to attend parliament next month. It comes as NSW recorded its second day of no local COVID cases.
NSW
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Federal politicians from 10 Sydney councils will be allowed to skip two-weeks quarantine in Canberra in order to attend parliament on February 2.
That’s despite Sydney residents from the impacted Local Government Areas currently being banned from entering the ACT without an exemption.
Politicians including Labor Leader Anthony Albanese will be granted exemptions from quarantine because they are considered essential workers.
Travel restrictions are currently in place for residents of: Blacktown City, Burwood, Canada Bay City, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield City, Inner West, Liverpool City, Parramatta City, and Strathfield Municipality.
ACT residents returning from those areas need to tell authorities before arrival and quarantine for 14 days on return.
Non-ACT residents are banned from entering without an exemption.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the Local Government Areas “pose a high enough risk to the ACT for us to retain our existing travel and quarantine requirements,” despite NSW on Tuesday recording a second day without any locally-acquired cases.
The restrictions are expected to be in place for another week, but the Territory government will provide an update this Friday.
Federal politicians from the impacted Sydney areas will be allowed to skip quarantine to attend parliament, where they are set to come into contact with hundreds of colleagues and staff from across the country.
MPs will still need to apply for exemptions.
“I understand several parliamentarians have submitted exemptions and we’ve been working through those,” ACT chief health officer Kerryn Coleman said.
Despite MPs being automatically exempt from quarantine rules, staff would need to show their travel to the nation’s capital as essential, an ACT government spokeswoman said.
The ACT removed the Northern Beaches from its list of hotspot council areas on Tuesday, reflecting “the improved situation in that local government area”.
NSW RECORDS ZERO CASES
No new locally acquired COVID cases were reported on Tuesday, marking two days in a row without any cases of community transmission in NSW.
However only 10,621 tests were processed in the reporting period.
“Low daily testing numbers is an increasing concern,” NSW Health said in a statement.
The tests were higher than the 8,773 tests reported on Monday, but still significantly lower than the daily testing goal.
NSW Health issued alerts for a number of venues in Auburn and Berala on Monday night in a bid to identify the source of an infection in a family of six and a close contact.
Two cases were reported in returned overseas travellers on Tuesday.
EASING OF NSW RULES MAY RELY ON TESTS
The state’s COVID crisis cabinet is “definitely in a space of wanting to ease restrictions” but any relaxing of the current rules may rely on more people getting tested.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said that while authorities are “mopping up” the Berala outbreak, consideration will be given to what activities are the “highest risk” when her government considers restrictions.
Asked why her counterparts would consider relaxing border rules while certain tough restrictions are still in place here, Ms Berejiklian said there is currently no reason why certain suburbs should be locked out of other states.
“Is the current risk worthy of having border closures? No. But is it worthy of maintaining our restrictions in relation to those high risk activities, those indoor venues, and mask wearing? Yes,” she said.
Senior ministers were uncertain on Tuesday about whether a decision to ease restrictions this week, but the Premier indicated some rules could change soon as long as testing rates are high and case numbers are low.
“We’ve said that we’re definitely in the space of wanting to ease those restrictions that are in place currently, but it depends on the rate of testing and the number of cases,” she said.
ACT TO LIFT BORDER BAN ON NORTHERN BEACHES
The ACT will lift its travel ban for residents of Sydney’s northern beaches from Tuesday afternoon.
“This reflects the improved (coronavirus) situation in that local government area,” ACT chief minister Andrew Barr said.
But several local government areas in Sydney are still considered hot spots and non-ACT residents who have been there will need an exemption to enter Canberra.
The hot spots for ACT travel purposes are Blacktown City, Burwood, Canada Bay City, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield City, Inner West, Liverpool City, Parramatta City, and Strathfield Municipality.
Changes for those areas are unlikely until next week, ACT chief health officer Kerryn Coleman said
ACT residents can go home even after visiting a hot spot but will be forced to quarantine for 14 days.
NEW VICTORIAN CASES LINKED TO AUSTRALIAN OPEN
Three of four new COVID-19 cases recorded in Victoria overnight are linked to the Australian Open, Premier Daniel Andrews has confirmed.
Each person is in hotel quarantine.
Mr Andrews flagged on Tuesday morning that some cases related to the tennis may now be classified as shedding rather than positive cases with an update from public health officials expected later today.
“I can foreshadow the number of cases that are linked to the Australian Open, I believe … have been reclassified as shedding rather than being actively infected, but I’ll leave it to the public health experts to update you,” he said.
It is not yet clear whether this will change the circumstances for some players currently in quarantine.
EMIRATES SUSPENDS AUSTRALIA FLIGHTS
Major international airlines will pick up the slack caused by Emirates indefinitely suspending flights to Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.
The carrier abruptly announced last week it would stop all flights to Australia from Dubai as of Tuesday except for a twice-weekly service to Perth.
But the loss of four to five flights a week would not be felt by passengers long-term as capacity under the currently international arrival caps has been allocated to other airlines.
Acting Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham said the seat capacity had predominantly gone to Etihad and Qatar as they already had similar routes.
“We continue to create opportunities to get people home,” he said.
In a statement Emirates said the flight suspensions were due to “operational reasons” and that it regretted “any inconvenience caused”.
“Affected customers should contact their travel agent or Emirates contact centre for rebooking options,” it said.
Earlier this month international flight caps in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia were slashed by 50 per cent until February 15 due to the threat of a new highly transmissible strain of COVID-19 from the UK.
AUSTRALIA’S RICHEST MAN CATCHES COVID
Australia’s richest man Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest has revealed he was hospitalised for three days after contracting COVID-19 while on an international business trip late last year.
The Fortescue Metals chairman caught the disease from a female Russian translator while on a four-month world tour to secure renewable energy projects for the mining giant.
The 59-year-old mining magnate was forced to postpone the rest of his planned trip to Asia and instead flew to Croatia for urgent medical treatment.
He was later rushed to a Swiss respiratory clinic, where he spent three days receiving specialist care, according to the Australian Financial Review.
“I’m grateful that our apparatus, systems technologies and precautions kept my team safe,” he told the AFR.
“There is period with COVID between the seventh and tenth days that if anything is going to go wrong it will happen then, so as a precautionary measure I went to a respiratory specialist unit in Switzerland.”
The tour across 47 countries was part of Fortescure Metals’ bid to reach a target of net zero emissions by 2040.
The billionaire, who was named the richest man in Australias in 2008, returned home to Perth earlier in the year after quarantining in NSW for two weeks.
He has been crucial in the nation’s fight against COVID-19, helping the government purchase 10 million testing kits and committing up to $160 million in lifesaving medical supplies at the start of the pandemic.
“Unprecedented times cannot be met with a precedented response,” Mr Forrest said.
“Our nation is facing a threat not seen in our lifetimes.”
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