Coronavirus fragments found in wastewater in northern beaches suburbs in Sydney

Several Sydney suburbs have been put on alert after coronavirus fragments were found in wastewater in an area where a big outbreak previously occurred.

Several Sydney suburbs have been put on alert after coronavirus fragments were found in sewage.

A sample taken on Tuesday in the sewerage systems in the northern beaches suburb of Allambie Heights showed traces of the virus.

That means the coronavirus could be circulating in the community undetected, NSW Health said in a statement.

The Allambie Heights sewage network services around 83,400 people in the suburbs of Allambie Heights, Balgowlah, Curl Curl, North Curl Curl, North Manly, Freshwater, Collaroy, Collaroy Plateau, Narrabeen, Wheeler Heights, Oxford Falls, Dee Why, Cromer, Beacon Hill, Narraweena, Brookvale, Frenchs Forest.

“We are not aware of anyone who has been released from quarantine that is residing in that area, but obviously there are travellers that move around,” NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant told reporters on Wednesday.

Health officials will continue to monitor that catchment at “short intervals,” Dr Chant said.

Several Sydney suburbs have been put on alert after coronavirus fragments were found in sewage. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Anyone with symptoms associated with COVID-19 was encouraged to get tested.

The symptoms include a sore throat, runny nose, cough, fever, loss of taste or sense of smell, or headaches.

Suburbs in the northern beaches previously experienced a major community outbreak of coronavirus and was put under a local lockdown at the end of 2020.

There were no new locally transmitted coronavirus cases in the state, but nine new cases in hotel quarantine in the 24 hours up to Tuesday night.

The discovery of the virus fragments came as NSW officials have noticed an uptick in cases where people had been infected with mutant strains of the coronavirus.

In the latest weekly COVID-19 report, the health department wrote that 41 per cent of overseas acquired cases were diagnosed with one of three variants of concern that originated in the UK, South Africa and Brazil, respectively.

Between November 29 last year and last Thursday when the report was issued, 584 returned travellers had been diagnosed with coronavirus.

Of those, 123 people, or 23 per cent, had a variant of concern.

On Tuesday, NSW Health said it had reclassified a case of overseas infection as a local transmission incident, after an investigation into the spread of the South African variant at a Sydney CBD quarantine hotel.

Health officials now believe the person was infected while staying in the Mercure Hotel, rather than overseas.

“An investigation into how COVID-19 transmission occurred between returned travellers who had been in quarantine at the Mercure Hotel has led NSW Health to reclassify one case, previously reported as overseas acquired, as locally acquired,” NSW Health wrote in a statement on Tuesday morning.

The person stayed in a room adjacent to two family members who have also tested positive for the South African strain.