COVID northern beaches: Scramble to track down source of 2 new infections

Health officials are scrambling to work out how a man and a woman on the northern beaches became the latest people to catch COVID from a community source.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian at Tuesday morning’s COVID-19 update in Sydney where she confirmed investigations are underway to find the source of two new infections on the northern beaches. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Urgent investigations are underway to track down how a couple on the northern beaches became the latest people to catch the coronavirus in Sydney.

The infectious man and woman, both aged in their 40s, live in the northern end of the peninsula.

Health officials said the pair had attended three supermarkets and two shops at the Warriewood Square shopping centre as well as a pool and spa outlet at Brookvale.

NSW Health’s Dr Jeremy McAnulty said there could be more cases “in coming days”. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said urgent contact tracing by NSW Health officials had begun.

And senior health official Jeremy McAnulty warned people on the northern beaches to be on alert and that there could be more cases “in coming days”.

“This highlights the importance for everyone in the northern beaches to maintain vigilance because we’ve seen now a couple of cases or so in the last several days of people in the northern beaches being diagnosed with COVID-19,” Dr McAnulty said.

But the Premier said there are no plans to return the area around Pittwater to a strict COVID lockdown.

An empty Avalon drive through testing clinic. Health officials are urging people on the northern beaches to continue to turn up for COVID tests. Picture: Tim Hunter.

“The disease is still bumbling along in the community,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“Please do not assume this outbreak is over in NSW. The rumblings are there. We’re still mopping up.

“That is why I am pleading with people to come forward and get tested.”

On Monday night NSW Health last night announced several new venues associated with today’s new locally acquired cases including Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, Rebel Sports and Pharmacy Less at the Warriewood Square.

There was also an alert for Pool and Spa Warehouse on Chard Rd, Brookvale. (Go to NSW Health website for details https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/latest-news-and-updates).

Locations at Warriewood where a couple diagnosed with COVID-19, visited. Source: NSW Health

Dr McAnulty confirmed that the source of the new infections on the northern beaches “remains under investigation’.

“(They) reside in the northern area of the northern beaches. They are a man and woman in their 40s and are household contacts of each other.

“Come forward for testing even if you have the mildest symptoms.

“We believe we’ll see more cases in the coming days and we need to flush those out.”

Ms Berejiklian also conformed that the search for the so-called “patient zero” — the person who may have started the Avalon COVID cluster before Christmas that led to a strict lockdown on the northern beaches — was still underway.

“We never give up the hunt in NSW,” she said. “Sometimes it might take us hours, sometimes days, sometimes weeks, but we always get to the bottom of what we think happened.

“I’m confident we’ll get there.”