Coronavirus: Eastern suburbs council chambers hit by COVID-19 case

Cleaners have conducted and intense clean of an eastern suburbs council’s chambers, with health authorities racing to trace the contacts of a person with the potentially-deadly virus in a bid to stop the transmission.

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Waverley Council’s chambers have undergone a deep clean after a person who contracted the potentially deadly coronavirus visited as part of a “design excellence” meeting earlier this month.

Council cleaners have been scrambled to spring into action and have conducted a thorough cleaning of the third floor of its Bondi Junction chambers.

The infected person had spent time in the lift and the Tamarama Room, which have been subject to the clean.

NSW Health has begun tracing contacts of the infected person who visited Waverley Council Chambers. Picture: John Appleyard

While medical authorities had not directed the cleaning take place, council did so out of “an abundance of caution”, according to an email sent to staff.

Staff were alerted to the case last week and NSW Health has begun tracing the person’s close contacts, none of which it is understood are councillors.

In an email to Waverley councillors, general manager Ross McLeod said their chances of exposure to the person was “low to nil”.

A doctor conducts drive up COVID-19 tests outside at General Practitioners at Maroubra in Sydney.Picture: Richard Dobson

The person had attended between 11.10am and 11.40am on Wednesday, March 18 and council is not aware whether the person was infected at the time.

The Waverley Council area has emerged as Sydney’s new epicentre of the disease, with 137 cases, 44 of which coming from a Bondi restaurant and a Boogie Wonderland Party.

Data from NSW Health reveals the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District, which takes in the eastern suburbs, is dealing with the most cases in the state with 450 as of Sunday night.

The eastern suburbs has emerged as the epicentre of the crisis in recent weeks. Picture: AFP.

That figure however is expected to rise.

NSW Health confirmed on Tuesday morning an additional 114 cases of coronavirus had been diagnosed overnight, bringing the state’s total to 2023.

Thirty five of those are currently receiving treatment in intensive care units across the state.

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