Northern Sydney: 71 COVID-19 cases with no known source

The Northern Sydney health district has the second most cases of coronavirus in NSW, but more worryingly 71 people have contracted the deadly disease in the community from sources unknown.

Nurses Matei Andrin and Helen Meischke at Northern Beaches Hospital. Picture: Julian Andrews.

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The Northern Sydney Local Health District has more than 500 cases of COVID-19, with 71 locally transmitted with the source not identified, according to the latest statistics.

The authority, which covers the northern beaches, Ryde, Hornsby, Mosman, North Sydney, Lane Cove, Willoughby, Hunters Hill and Ku-ring-gai, and parts of Parramatta, has the second most cases of any LHD in the state with 522 cases, behind South Eastern Sydney which has 668.

A new respiratory clinic in Ryde. It's up and running to help tackle spread of COVID-19. Picture: Matthew Vasilescu.

Both areas have been labelled hotspots for the virus and have tested the most residents.

Northern Sydney LHD has tested 25,352 people, compared with 27,066 in South Eastern Sydney.

In the LGAs within the Northern Sydney area, Northern Beaches tops the list with 154 cases, Ku-ring-gai has 69, Ryde has 66, Hornsby has 54, North Sydney 48, Mosman 42, Lane Cove 38, Willoughby 22, and Hunters Hill 22.

The Parramatta LGA is only partially within the LHD area.

A sign for a COVID-19 clinic is seen at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. Picture: Tim Pascoe.

Within the Northern Sydney LHD, the majority of cases – 318 – are from overseas. There are 121 cases that are locally acquired from a confirmed case or cluster, 71 cases locally acquired with the contact not identified, nine from interstate and three still under investigation.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has continually said during the COVID-19 pandemic that cases caught from unknown sources cause the most concern and was a “huge danger point”.

Across the state as whole there have been 2,971 confirmed cases and 30 lives lost.

Ryde has been named as one of the hotspots for the virus, along with a number of other areas across Sydney and the state including Blacktown, Cumberland, Goulburn Mulwaree, Inner West, Liverpool, Penrith, Parramatta, Randwick, Waverley and Woollahra, where NSW Health is encouraging extra testing and surveillance.

People exercise along Manly Beach during the coronavirus pandemic. Photo Jeremy Piper

Manly and Dee Why were previously named as areas of concern, but numbers in those beachside spots have stabilised.

However, Dee Why has recorded two new cases this week taking the number in the 2099 postcode to 19 after an elderly resident at the Dee Why Gardens Retirement Village in Fisher Rd North was diagnosed with COVID-19.

The 84-year-old woman is currently in hospital.

NSW Health also confirmed that a member of her family also has the virus.