Campsie Centre Shopping Mall: Fears of major spread after entire shopping centre exposed for 11 days

There are fears of a major spreading event in Sydney after a shopping centre, which sees “thousands” of visitors each day, was exposed.

There are fears of a potentially massive Covid-19 spreading event after an entire shopping centre visited by “thousands” each day in southwest Sydney was exposed for 11 days.

NSW Health pinpointed the key venue of concern late on Monday night, warning anyone who visited the Campsie Centre Shopping Mall from Wednesday, July 14 to Saturday, July 24 (inclusive), is considered a close contact and must immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days, regardless of the result.

Officials have warned “many, many people in the community have been exposed” due to the fact “it is a very popular shopping centre”.

NSW Health has confirmed “onwards transmission” had already begun taking place.

A number of other sites in Campsie have also been identified as close contact venues.

It is expected Greater Sydney is set for another four weeks in lockdown in its battle to contain the spread of the highly infectious Delta variant. Case numbers hit their highest number on Tuesday since the latest outbreak began on June 16, with a total of 172 new cases.

‘A huge task’ for contact tracers

Professor Michael Toole, an epidemiologist at the Burnet Institute, told the ABC that contact tracing for the Campsie shopping centre will be a large and arduous task.

“That’s probably thousands of primary contacts that have to be contacted and then their contacts need to be contacted. That’s a huge task just from one exposure site.”

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Campsie Centre shopping mall was exposed for 11 days.

Workers at the centre, located in the Canterbury-Bankstown local government area, have also been forced into isolation as the community braces for the worst.

“With Campsie, it is a community where we had a lot of cases and sometimes it is difficult to tease out what the source of the infection was versus where people are travelling when they are infectious,” NSW Health’s Jeremy McAnulty said.

“Over time it was clear that a number of cases had visited the shopping centre there and there was transmission identified in a number of shops in Campsie.”

The centre is the largest shopping complex in Campsie, located 11km southwest of the Sydney CBD. The area has a population of around 24,500.

Khal Asfour, mayor of the City of Canterbury-Bankstown, warned thousands of residents visited the centre “every day … so it’s really concerning that we have so many people for such a long period of time that would have visited the centre that now need to isolate and get tested,” he said.

He said he felt “gutted” at the length of time of the centre was exposed and said it is “really going to hurt our community” as it awaits a potentially disastrous outcome.

Mr Asfour revealed “a lot” of residents in the area work across the city because they are essential workers, including labourers, retail supermarkets and transport.

“Unfortunately, the risk is they’re catching the virus and bringing it in to Canterbury-Bankstown and into their homes.”

Campsie Centre shopping mall is a key venue of concern. This venue was visited by confirmed cases of COVID 19 and onwards transmission has been detected.

— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) July 27, 2021

Mr Asfour said surveillance testing needs to be “increased” and expressed concern that health officials are not ready “for potential increases we are going to get”.

He urged residents to listen to health advice, stay home and get tested.

“We need to make sure that people who work there, who have visited there are going to self-isolate and get tested, because this virus is going to keep hurting us unless they do the right thing.”

LGA already under tighter rules

Canterbury-Bankstown is already among one of five LGAs under tighter rules, where residents cannot leave the local government area unless you are an authorised worker.

People living in the Canterbury-Bankstown LGA can only work in health or aged care outside of the area if they have been tested for COVID-19 in the previous 72 hours.

These workers include all those who work in aged care facilities and those who provide health services or ancillary or support services, including cleaners, cooks and security providers.

The concern echoes those of Westfield Bondi Junction, in Sydney’s east, which last month saw thousands of shoppers who visited over the space of a week forced to get tested.

The centre was a cause for concern after a limousine driver in his 60s who transported international flight crew attended the site before returning a positive result on June 16.

Anyone who visited the centre, including the carparks, at any time between June 12 and 18 was asked to come forward.

“It could involve thousands of extra people getting tested now,” Ms Berejiklian said at the time

“We have the capacity for that to happen, and we urge people to come forward. The high number of tests we have, the better number it will be to make sure we haven’t missed any strains of community transmission.”