Burwood: Coronavirus hotspot could be removed as LGA of concern

Less than 30 Covid cases have been recorded in this Sydney LGA and yet its classification as a virus hotspot has meant the tightest possible restrictions. Now, hope is on the horizon.

The State Government has hinted that low coronavirus infected council areas like Burwood could be released from tight restrictions within days but warned “spillover” cases from neighbours put freedoms at risk.

Burwood’s mayor John Faker had last Friday called the hotspot designation “disproportionate” after recording cases far lower than the likes of the Inner West and Dubbo, who are not “LGAs of concern”.

Burwood has been under the tightest restrictions in NSW since August 12 but now has 66 per cent of its residents vaccinated with a single dose.

According to NSW Health data 29 cases have been recorded in the LGA in the last four weeks. A total of 16 had an unknown source.

Burwood residents have also turned out for almost 20,000 tests.

Cr Faker, pictured, released his letter he sent to the Premier and Health Minister on Friday. Picture: Julian Andrews.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Monday told reporters there were several local government areas currently under consideration but cautioned that coronavirus “spillover cases” that labelled them hot spots were still occurring.

“It is a range of things we look at, vaccination rates and we actually have conversations every day and there are a couple of local government areas we are considering taking out of areas of concern,” she said.

“I do not want to speculate but also on the converse, they could be areas with a spillover of cases.

The empty main drag of Burwood a fortnight ago, when it was designated an LGA of concern. Picture: Adam Yip

“We want to lift the burden of our citizens, not increase it. High vaccination rates give us that. If we know a lot of you have had your first and second dose, that gives us greater flexibility in increasing your freedoms.”

NSW Health declined to answer a series of questions when asked on Monday.

Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant also told reporters on Monday morning the “spillover” was occurring when residents from hotspot LGAs went to work outside of their council area and brought the virus into the workplace.

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant at Monday’s Covid-19 update. Picture: Damian Shaw

“You can imagine that the flows are greatest in adjacent local government areas because people generally choose to live in the vicinity that they work in,” Dr Chant said.

“We are seeing a lot of spillover of the fact that workers live in adjacent areas, such as Ryde, Meadowbank, they might live in the inner west and they might travel in, or the workers from that area might be travelling into inner west and adjacent suburbs.

“We have seen that in relation to some of the other local government areas … one end of the local government areas largely have the high case numbers and it tends to be where the workers intersect with the other local government areas of concern.”