Brad Hazzard: Truck driver with Covid-19 visited towns across Northern NSW

One new Northern NSW Covid-19 case has been detected after a Northern Rivers meatworks employee tested positive.

Byron Bay has again been impacted by a local Covid-19 case. Picture: Liana Boss

One new Northern NSW Covid-19 case has been detected after a Northern Rivers meatworks employee tested positive.

Another Kyogle case was confirmed on Wednesday afternoon, believed to be a close contact of a Northern Co-Operative Meat Company administration staff member who was confirmed with the virus on Tuesday.

Northern NSW Local Health District acting chief executive Lynne Weir said the person would be included in Thursday’s case numbers.

She said investigations and contact tracing were ongoing.

It comes after a Queensland truck driver tested positive for Covid-19 in Tweed Heads.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the driver travelled through a handful of areas in Northern NSW.

Both positive cases are in addition to two cases recorded in Northern NSW in the 24 hours to 8pm Tuesday.

Mr Hazzard said the infected truck driver visited several areas including Tweed Heads, Byron Bay, Ballina and Coffs Harbour.

The truck driver is in special health accommodation, Mr Hazzard said.

“If you are in these areas, if you have any symptoms at all, or if you’ve been in any way close to the locations or close contacts … you just must go and get tested,” Mr Hazzard said.

He said the other two local cases, who are in the Kyogle and Byron Shires, were both infectious in the community.

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said NSW recorded 863 new locally acquired Covid-19 cases to 8pm.

She said a new detection of the virus was made in a sample of sewage from South Grafton, where there are no known cases.

“I would like to urge everyone to get vaccinated at this time,” she said.

“If you are still unvaccinated, there is increasing supplies of Moderna at pharmacies and GPs have strong supplies of Pfizer.”

When asked about whether Byron would return to lockdown, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the government would “always rely on health advice on whether a region goes into lockdown”.

Ms Berejiklian made it clear seven day snap lockdowns would be ruled out from October 11 when her government’s roadmap to freedom kicks in.

“On October 11 the stay-at-home-orders are lifted across the state,” she said.

“If you’re not vaccinated, you will go backwards.”

Bracing for lockdown

The Byron and Kyogle Shires are bracing for a lockdown announcement after two new Covid-19 cases were detected.

Ballina MP Tamara Smith – whose electorate includes the Byron Shire – said she had not yet received official word although a lockdown was likely.

“Given the pattern of … snap lockdowns with single cases, I do expect that to happen either tonight or tomorrow,” Ms Smith said.

“I would be very surprised if it didn’t.”

The Tweed and Byron Shires just came out of lockdown overnight, a lockdown sparked by a single case who visited those areas.

Ms Smith said a risk assessment kept the Ballina Shire out of that same lockdown even though the positive case travelled through the airport there.

“People were a bit perplexed Ballina wasn’t shut down,” she said.

“I was told … it was because of very little contact, very little community exposure.”

Ms Smith said it was a difficult situation, but necessary.

“I don’t really know how we live like this, and for how long we can continue living like this,” she said.

“But I also look at the statistics in Broken Hill and Bourke and Upper Hunter and … we do not want those kind of numbers in our area because we don’t have the health system to support that.

“None of us want to see it take off in the community … neither do we want to live with constant lockdowns.”

Plans for a regional roadmap

Regional MPs are meeting with Deputy Premier John Barilaro this morning.

“I would like to see the Deputy Premier have a plan for each local government area based on their vaccination rates, their supply rates, their case numbers and their businesses,” Ms Smith said.

“We’re hoping to see a commitment to a detailed plan for the regions.”

She said another meeting was held this morning involving the national Public Health Network.

Lismore MP Janelle Saffin said she was “gracious” about the state government’s support of plans for a regional roadmap which will mean Sydneysiders can’t travel to the regions until the state reaches 80 per cent double vaccination.

Ms Saffin said she was thankful for this “good start” but believes the regional approach should go further.

“We need help to get our vaccine rates up,” she said.

“We need the same consideration about getting some vaccines back here.”

Ms Saffin said she was also pushing to have better government support for businesses in the regions which have been hit by lockdowns.

Closed for extra cleaning

The Northern Co-Operative Meat Company’s facility in Casino has been closed on Wednesday for extra cleaning after a staff member tested positive for Covid-19.

The company’s chief executive officer, Simon Stahl, said an administration department employee notified the company they had the virus on Tuesday afternoon.

He said the person had worked with five people in that department.

“Their last day at work here was last Thursday,” he said.

Mr Stahl said rigorous safety measures had put the company in good stead to handle the situation.

“We’ve got a lot of departments within our business and those departments are in separate buildings and separate parts of the plant,” Mr Stahl said.

Simon Stahl said the meat handling area at the Casino meatworks was not visited by the Covid-19 case. Picture: Jacklyn Wagner

He said there were separate QR codes to check into those different sections.

He said the business was closed on Wednesday but he expected to have staff back at work on Thursday.

“We undertook an initial clean straight away,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of cleaning equipment on site.

“We’ve engaged some professional cleaners to do a second clean today.”

Because it’s a food processing facility, Mr Stahl said 90 per cent of the facility was professionally cleaned every night.

The Northern Co-Operative Meat Company in Casino.

He said the administration area would have extra cleaning on Wednesday.

Mr Stahl said while it was troubling to have a workplace contact, the company had been encouraging workers to get vaccinated.

There was recently an onsite vaccination clinic at their Booyong pork processing facility and there will be one on site in Casino within the next week, he said.

“It’s a nasty disease and we’re always concerned,” Mr Stahl said.

“However, we’ve been planning for some time … with the Australian Meat Industry Council and NSW Health.

“We’re comforted by the fact our systems are working.”

A second positive Covid-19 case was confirmed overnight in the Byron Shire. Picture: Liana Boss

The infected worker is understood to live in the Kyogle Shire and their workplace is in the Richmond Valley.

Two new cases

Northern NSW Local Health District on Tuesday night confirmed the region’s two new cases were in the Kyogle and Byron local government areas.

Kyogle mayor Danielle Mulholland took to Facebook to say she expected her shire to be placed into a seven day lockdown.

The Tweed and Byron shires came out of a week-long lockdown at midnight on Tuesday although Byron residents are among those bracing for a reversal of their freedoms.

Lismore MP Janelle Saffin, whose electorate includes Kyogle, said she had not yet heard official word on how likely a lockdown was.

She said there was a “feeling of uncertainty” in the community.

“I just worry so much about businesses and people’s mental health,” Ms Saffin said.