Covid-19 NSW: Email shows NSW Health official’s plea for Sydney lockdown

An explosive secret email reveals a NSW Health official pleaded for a Sydney lockdown days before it was enforced.

NSW Health officials pleaded for Greater Sydney to be locked down in the days before the government took action, explosive new documents have revealed.

The request from a NSW Health official in the Hunter Region came on June 24, a day before select suburbs in Sydney were locked down and two days before the rest of the city was shut.

The email shows the official told chief health officer Kerry Chant and other top NSW Health bureaucrats to look at a list of sewage detections on the outskirts of Sydney and Wollongong.

“This is another indication of how widespread the distribution of cases is – I think we are now clearly behind the virus and a Greater Sydney lockdown is certainly required,” the official wrote.

Coronavirus fragments had been found in the northwestern Sydney suburbs of Rouse Hill, Castle Hill and Glenhaven, and Cronulla in the city’s south.

There had also been fragments detected in the Wollongong suburb of Bellambi, the email said.

“By 24 June 2021, extensive public health action in response to the emerging Delta outbreak was already well underway,” a NSW Health spokeswoman said in response to a request for comment.

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said health officials underestimated how fast the virus was spreading. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

The email was part of a trove of previously secret NSW Health documents recently released to parliament.

Eight days before the email was sent, an airport driver had tested positive to Covid-19, ending a virus-free streak that had lasted for weeks and would be the state’s last.

Then premier Gladys Berejiklian didn’t lock down Greater Sydney until June 26.

However, indoor mask mandates were introduced on June 22, and the following day saw restrictions on non-essential travel outside Sydney from the worst-affected suburbs and limits on household gatherings.

The limited lockdown imposed on June 25 meant people who worked or lived in Waverley, Woollahra, Randwick and the City of Sydney needed to stay at home.

The same day, the government limited outdoor gatherings to 10 people and closed some businesses. The June 26 lockdown order also included some restrictions on travel and gatherings for people in the regions.

“NSW Health constantly monitors the evolving COVID-19 situation and updates its advice to government accordingly,” the department spokeswoman said.

“The health and safety of the people of NSW is our foremost priority and we never hesitate to act to protect it. The public health response branch in NSW Health works closely with public health units in local health districts throughout the state, whose strong local knowledge and expertise helps inform the advice provided to government.”

Dr Chant previously testified to a parliamentary committee that her team underestimated how fast the virus was spreading in the days before the lockdown.

There were calls for Sydney to be locked down earlier. Picture: NCA NewsWire /Gaye Gerard

That was especially true in the city’s western suburbs, where a Bondi resident unknowingly spread the virus to other attendees at a West Hoxton birthday party on June 19.

The extent of that spread wasn’t fully understood until June 23, but even then NSW Health officials believed they had the situation under control, Dr Chant told the parliament in August.

“The initial intelligence was that the West Hoxton party was effectively controlled (and) everyone immediately contacted within the timeframe,” Dr Chant said.

She also said that “with hindsight” it would have been better to lock down sooner.

“With the benefit of hindsight, I think it’s easy to say there was a greater risk of a seeding event in southwestern Sydney than was appreciated at the time it emerged,” she said.

The Sydney lockdown lasted for 15 weeks before vaccination levels were raised to such a degree that the state government decided it would be safe to open up again.

Originally published as Covid-19 NSW: Email shows NSW Health official’s plea for Sydney lockdown