NSW Premier tells Victorians: You are not welcome
Victoria has revised its request for help from the Defence Force after initially asking for 1000 personnel to deal with hotel quarantine. It comes as NSW bans Victorian footy fans from NRL and AFL games.
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Hundreds of Defence Force personnel will no longer be arriving in Victoria on Friday to monitor the state’s hotel quarantine system for returned travellers.
The Victorian Government is now revising its request for assistance from the ADF.
About 850 members were due to arrive tomorrow, tasked with helping out in hotels, but that has been put on hold.
It comes after the NSW Premier and Health Minister both urged Victorians not to travel north to escape the new coronavirus capital, warning southern residents that they are “not welcome”,
“Victorians will not be welcome unfortunately to (major) events, will not be welcomed into businesses, will not be welcome to travel to NSW,” Ms Berejiklian said.
However, the Premier said shutting the border was impractical for border communities and would hurt the NSW economy.
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“We can’t continue to hold our state back … otherwise the pain inflicted on families that will be felt in the coming weeks and months,” she said.
Victoria today recorded another 33 COVID-19 cases, prompting a suburban testing blitz in 10 localities to regain control of the spread of the deadly virus.
Seven of the new cases are returned travellers, nine are linked to known and contained outbreaks, six emerged after routine testing and 11 are under investigation.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said NRL and AFL bosses have agreed to stop Victorians buying tickets to NSW games when stadiums open for up to 10,000 fans from next week.
“At this time, don’t expect to be able to come because they’re not selling tickets to you.
Mr Hazzard said Melburnians weren’t welcome in NSW while community transmission is ongoing.
“We don’t want you to come to these games because if you come, you run the risk of actually spreading the virus. And don’t come and visit your family and friends either.”
Premier Berejiklian also urged against travel to Melbourne, particularly its six current COVID-19 hot spots of Hume, Casey, Brimbank, Moreland, Cardinia and Darebin.
Residents of those hot spots should not be moving around the community, Ms Berejiklian said, and NSW businesses should deny service to anyone from outer-suburban Melbourne.
BOY TESTS POSITIVE AT SYDNEY SCHOOL
A pop-up coronavirus testing site has been opened at Royal North Shore hospital after a seven-year-old Sydney student tested positive for COVID-19.
Lane Cove West Public School in Sydney’s north was closed today and learning shifted online to allow for deep cleaning and contract tracing after the year two student tested positive.
Health minister Brad Hazzard said the student first showed symptoms on a Saturday, and authorities would have “more clarity” on how the child caught the virus in coming days.
It comes little more than a week after a school in Sutherland Shire was shut down after a teacher tested positive to COVID-19 on June 14.
The Lane Cove student is among four new cases of COVID-19 diagnosed in the past 24 hours — the other three are those of returned travellers, who are in hotel quarantine.
A total of 17,175 tests were carried out, compared with 13,278 tests in the previous 24 hours.
Just 54 COVID-19 cases are currently being treated by NSW Health.
Today NSW Health also announced that the death in April of an 85-year-old man has been reclassified as COVID-19 related, taking the state’s death toll to 51.
The man was a resident of Opal Aged Care, Bankstown, and was diagnosed with COVID-19 on 7 April. He passed away on 27 April, after two negative swabs had been recorded.
SECOND OUTBREAK COULD COST NSW $1B
Victoria has turned to NSW for help processing thousands of tests as it desperately tries to get a grip on its outbreak, which threatens to rip $1 billion from NSW’s economy if it spreads here.
With the borders remaining open, if a visiting Victorian triggers a major coronavirus outbreak in NSW, forcing the reintroduction of restrictions, the state would lose up to $1 billion a month, analysis by The Daily Telegraph based on Treasury estimates has found.
A senior NSW government source confirmed the state will process “several thousand tests a day” for Victoria as it struggled with massive testing numbers being conducted to stamp out COVID-19 clusters around Melbourne.
At least 33 staff working at quarantine hotels in the state have been infected with COVID-19 and health officials are investigating links between the workers and other outbreaks.
Up to 850 ADF members will provide support to hotel quarantine monitoring and about 200 personnel will provide logistic and medical support for coronavirus testing.
A Victorian man in his 80s became Australia’s first coronavirus death in over a month, bringing the state’s death toll to 20 and nationally to 103. .
LUNA PARK REOPENS
While Victoria shuts down, Sydney’s Luna Park will switch its lights back on Friday July 3 after 15 weeks in hibernation.
Guests will be welcomed at four-hour timeslots, with the heritage-listed landmark open from 10am-2pm and 3pm-7pm to allow staff to thoroughly clean rides and enforce capacity limits.
Tickets must be pre-purchased and expect temperature and identity checks on arrival.
Customers will have to queue for all rides from Dodgem Cars through to the Ferris Wheel but clown feet markets will ensure social distancing requirements are met.
Social distancing will apply on rides but family and friends who arrive together can sit together.
Tickets will cost a flat rate of $50 per person and include unlimited access to rides, a $10 food and drink voucher and a side show game for a maximum of four hours.