NSW records two more locally acquired cases of COVID-19 hours after hotel quarantine driver case

Health authorities in NSW are scrambling to find the source of two new COVID cases. It comes hours after a hotel quarantine driver tested positive.

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A man and woman in Sydney’s northern beaches have tested positive to coronavirus - leaving authorities scrambling to find a source of the infection.

The woman in her 60s and the man in his 70s have no known links to any existing cases.

The pair have visited a number of venues in the Northern Beaches prompting authorities to urge close contacts to get tested.

Anyone who visited Palm Beach’s female change rooms on December 13 between 9-9.15am, Coast Palm Beach Cafe between 10-11am, Avalon Bowlo between 3-5pm and Sneaky Grind Cafe the following morning between 10.30-11am have been asked to get tested and self isolate even if they get a negative result.

Those who attended Woolworths on Avalon Beach on December 13 between midday and 5pm and Oliver’s Pie in Careel Shopping Village the following morning between 9-9.15am have been asked to get tested and isolate until they get a negative result.

Earlier in the day, the immediate family of a Sydney van driver who became infected with COVID-19 have all tested negative, health authorities have revealed.

Three of his household contacts were tested after the 45-year-old man returned a positive result for the virus this morning, ending NSW’s 14-day streak of no local community transmission of the virus.

The man — who transported an airline crew to a quarantine hotel ended NSW’s 14-day streak of no local community transmission of the virus.

Patrons who attended a children’s sporting event in Southern Sydney last Friday night have been put on alert to watch out for COVID-19 symptoms after the driver was in attendance.

The south west Sydney man visited the Forest Rangers FC, Little Rangers sports game at Gannon Park in Peakhurst while infectious.

Anyone who attended the sporting event between 4.30pm and 5.30pm on Friday December 11 is considered a casual contact.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard confirmed that the case was recorded just after 7am Wednesday morning.

The man had symptoms on Saturday and was tested on Tuesday.

“We do have another unfortunate situation of a positive case here in NSW that came in after the 8pm deadline. A 45-year-old gentleman who had symptoms on Saturday was tested yesterday and just after 7am this morning, a positive result was given,” he said.

“This man drives van carrying international and other aircrew back and forth from the airport.”

Mr Hazzard said health authorities were investigating to confirm the case was genuine and not a false positive result.

“We do still have to do, if you like, checks just to make sure it is a valid positive case. But the indication is, at this stage, that it is,” Mr Hazzard said.

A woman who worked in a hotel housing returned travellers was infected on December 2. Genome sequencing revealed she was likely infected by US aircrew who had stayed at the hotel.

That case sparked a frantic scramble to identify potential community contacts. But luckily, there has been no more infections linked to the hotel case.

It comes asno new coronavirus cases were recorded in Victoria overnight.

All seven of Victoria’s active cases are returned travellers who remain in hotel quarantine.

There has not been transmission in the community for 47 days.

More than 9700 test results were received on Monday.

NURSING HOME PROBE TO FOCUS ON OUTBREAK AFTERMATH

A coronial investigation into deaths at coronavirus-struck St Basil’s nursing home is likely to focus on what happened in the immediate aftermath of the outbreak.

State Coroner Judge John Cain, speaking at a Melbourne Press Club event, revealed that while the court was still awaiting the police brief, what occurred once the virus broke out at the Fawkner facility would be key.

Such handling at nursing homes hadn’t been dealt with in detail during the Royal Commission into Aged Care or an independent review into NSW’s trouble-plagued Newmarch House.

“A lot of the focus of the investigation around St Basil’s will be just looking at what happened in the immediate aftermath of a significant outbreak and how the response actually occurred and was delivered on the ground,’’ Judge Cain said.

“It’s early days and I haven’t yet reached a final view on that but that seems to be a space where work hasn’t been done yet.

“And it’s work that is valuable not just for a COVID outbreak but these things occur if you get a very bad flu season that runs through an aged care facility or some other infection.

“I think there is some real merit in doing some work around how you scale up and manage an outbreak of an infectious disease or a condition in an aged care facility because they are, as everybody knows, the most vulnerable members of our community.

“They need special resources and additional resources to be applied to those problems when they occur.”

Asked about whether some coronavirus deaths had been wrongly classified, Judge Cain said doctors generally determined the cause of death with cases typically referred to the Coroners Court when there was some doubt.

“We would then conduct an investigation to determine what the cause of death is,’’ he said.

“I’m not troubled that there is misinformation around the numbers that are reported.”

A review of death certificates that occurred had not thrown up an anomalies Judge Cain was aware of, he said.

Some of the deaths reported to the court were determined to be due to COVID while others were due to other causes.

Aged care deaths had been particularly complex to determine if residents died with or from COVID-19, with some investigations still under way.

MELBOURNE CONGESTION TO WORSEN

Traffic congestion in Melbourne is expected to worsen as commuters shun public transport amid coronavirus fears, a major new report says.

The Infrastructure Australia study found that more than one-in-five Melburnians i ntend to use their cars more than before the pandemic, and there has been a rise in the sale of second-hand vehicles.

During lockdowns, public transport use fell to just 20 per cent of pre-COVID levels. It is predicted next to rise to about a third and then flatline.

IA chief of policy research Peter Colacino said it was uncertain if major numbers would return to public transport.

“There’s this volume of people from Melbourne who are saying, ‘when I return to work I’m not going to return the way I was travelling before, that is, on public transport’,” he said.

City traffic is expected to worsen as many commuters ditch public transport.

“They are saying they’re going to return in the car, so we need to make a special effort to get people comfortable with returning to work on public transport.”

Melbourne has had a 270 per cent rise in cyclists using bike paths between November 2019 and April 2020, said the report, “Infrastructure beyond COVID-19: A national study”, which looks at the effects of the pandemic on Australia.

The study highlights sweeping changes in the way Australians use critical infrastructure across the transport, telecommunications, digital, energy, water, waste and social infrastructure sectors.

“The pandemic put Australia’s infrastructure to the test, however, this report found that compared to other OECD countries, our infrastructure networks are relatively resilient,” said IA chief executive Romilly Madew.

“The continuation of infrastructure construction across major projects was a key source of economic activity and employment during the pandemic, and ensured we took advantage of a three-year pause in population growth.”

The report found that between July and October, Melbourne CBD office occupancy averaged 10 per cent, while vacancy rates doubled January to July. Mr Colacino said this indicated there would not be a return to pre-COVID levels.

“We’ve had people moving out of the core of the city, moving into regional areas and outer suburbs, reducing public transport demand, increasing demand for electricity and other services like broadband and water in regional infrastructure areas,” he said.

“This is an acceleration in a trend in regional growth that has been bubbling away in the background for some time.”

There has also been a 20 per cent rise in Victoria’s household waste with people working from home.