Mid-North Coast: Port Macquarie enters seven-day lockdown starting 6pm
Port Macquarie and Muswellbrook residents have been ordered into a seven-day lockdown starting at 6pm on Tuesday. Kempsey’s week-long stay-at-home orders will be lifted at midnight.
Mid-North Coast
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The Port Macquarie-Hastings region will enter a seven-day lockdown in the hope that it will help reduce rates of Covid-19 spreading throughout the community.
NSW Health minister Brad Hazzard earlier flagged Port Macquarie as one of three regions which could be plunged back into lockdown, which also included the Upper Hunter suburb of Muswellbrook.
Kempsey was also being considered for an extension, however it’s orders will be lifted at midnight.
The lockdowns for Port Macquarie and Muswellbrook will also apply to anyone who has been in both local government areas since September 17 and September 22 respectively.
Everyone in these LGAs must stay at home unless it is for an essential reason, which includes shopping for food, medical care, getting vaccinated, compassionate needs, exercise and work or tertiary education if you can’t work or study at home.
Kempsey went in to a seven-day lockdown on Tuesday, September 21, but was dealt a significant blow when a covid-positive woman was charged by police after allegedly failing to adhere to public health isolation orders.
It was also revealed on Monday that Port Macquarie, despite having no new cases today, could be teetering on the edge of a possible outbreak in the coming days after a covid-positive traveller flew to the region from Sydney while infectious.
The person spent time with two friends, both locals, who visited up to 20 venues which have all been listed as venues of concern.
Minister Hazzard earlier said the regions of concern were being watched very closely.
“My strong advice is as Health Minister to all those residents in those areas is to be very cautious where you’re moving around at the moment, and to certainly go out and get vaccinated.
“What we do know is that vaccinations work, vaccinations keep people out of hospital ... essentially vaccines are what are saving the world from this pandemic.
Earlier
Covid-positive person flew to Port for property inspections
Monday, September 27
Deputy Premier John Barilaro has revealed Port Macquarie could be plunged back into a Covid-19 lockdown, after a Covid-positive person who flew from Sydney to view residential property infected two other “acquaintances” while there — potentially leaving up to hundreds, if not thousands more, exposed to the virus.
Mr Barilaro told NewsLocal NSW Health was meeting to determine the fate of the regions “as we speak” with a decision set to be decided by Monday afternoon.
“Hopefully this afternoon we will be able to put out a press release in relation to who is going into lockdown and who may come out,” he said.
However, the Deputy Premier said new cases didn’t seal the fate of communities facing a further seven days in lockdown.
“We measure every single thing, not just cases, but exposure sites, the infectious rate and what the circumstance of each case is,” he said. “And we are getting closer to the 70 per cent roadmap and we’ll even have a look at vaccination rates but Health will make those decisions this afternoon.” Mr Barilaro said the situation in Port Maquarie was raised with him by NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant as “areas of concern”.
It comes as Port Macquarie Mayor Peta Pinson told media on Monday of the details surrounding the initial case, who is believed to have flown from Sydney on September 16 and associated with the now two infected locals who have since visited up to 20 venues throughout town.
Anyone who has visited Bills Fishhouse and Bar on Saturday September 18 between 8.14pm to 10pm, and United Projects either on Tuesday 21 September between 7am to 4pm or Wednesday 22 September between 7am to 4pm, must get tested and self isolate for 14 days.
There are 18 other venues classified as casual contact sites, and those that visited any one of those below, must get tested and self isolate until a negative test is returned.
There has been one further case of Covid-19 confirmed on Monday in the Mid-North Coast Local Health District, taking the total number of currently infected cases to 10.
“Today I have the unfortunate opportunity to tell our community we actually have two locally acquired Covid positive cases in our region as a result of a visitor as a result of a Covid positive person entering the region on the 16th of September via a flight in to Port Macquarie from Sydney,” Mayor Pinson said.
“We have close contacts through some businesses throughout town, and they have been listed. We believe that the visitor from town stayed at the Ki-ea Apartments (Port Macquarie) and has gone to Bills Fishhouse and had quite a number of hours spent there, and also visited property development in the area.
Cr Pinson said the two close contacts of the traveller where known to the now two infected locals.
“The close contacts that caught Covid from this visitor are locals and they’ve preceded to also go about businesses throughout Port Macquarie visiting a number of stores.
“The two infected close contacts are friends I believe of the traveller from Sydney.”
“My urge is that the community goes out and gets tested. We have done so well up until now.
“Unfortunately, this visitor has come in infected … we need to ask the question how this has happened and it just demonstrates the importance of vaccinations.
“I totally support people coming in to our region now, who are fully vaccinated to stop the spread. This is a highly transmissible infection and we’re probably going to see greater numbers from the two we already have.”
Mid-North Coast Local Health District listed Port Macquarie Airport as a venue of concern on Tuesday September 21 and those that visited between 8.30am to 10.05am where told to get tested and self isolated until returning a negative result.
On Sunday, a further 20 venues of concern were released. It exposes potentially hundreds, if not thousands more to the virus, given the vast number of venues listed, their proximity to one another and the length of time the infected people spent in them.
It is not yet known whether the person who flew from Sydney to Port Macquarie was tested prior to travelling or when they returned home.
Current Public Health Orders stipulate that people are only allowed to inspect a potential new home outside of Greater Sydney; if they have a genuine intention to live outside of Greater Sydney as soon as practicable, if they inspect the property as a potential place of residence, and if they have registered for travel with Service NSW.
“I’ve got questions to ask, as will all this community, as to how someone Covid affected was able to get on a plane and travel to our region,” Cr Pinson said.
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