Greater Sydney lockdown will be extended until July 16

Gladys Berejiklian has faced a tense grilling about the effect of lockdown on businesses and employees, amid reports many are on the brink.

Gladys Berejiklian has confirmed residents of Greater Sydney will have to endure at least another week of stay-at-home orders.

The NSW Premier announced on Wednesday that the two-week Covid-19 lockdown for Sydney, the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour will be extended until midnight next Friday, July 16.

Non-essential businesses will remain shut, and students in Greater Sydney will be learning online when school starts back on Tuesday. Regional NSW students will return to face-to-face learning.

The state recorded 24 new cases of community transmission overnight, but only 13 of those were already in isolation.

“That is why the NSW government, based on the health advice, which is our key indicator, made the difficult decision to announce the extension of the lockdown and the existing restrictions in the regions for one week further,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“Now the reason for this is as we’ve been saying, this Delta strain is a game changer. It is extremely transmissible and more contagious than any other form of the virus that we’ve seen.”

She also warned that restrictions on movement could be tightened even further for more than 100 Sydney suburbs, after a concerning rise in cases in the Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool local government areas.

The Premier said the NSW government did not want to “be in a situation where we are constantly having to move between lockdown, no lockdown, lockdown, no lockdown”.

“What we want to do is give us our best chance of making sure this is the only lockdown we have until the vast majority of our citizens are vaccinated,” she said. “We know the vaccine is the key to our freedom.”

Ms Berejiklian claimed that the strategy was “about saving lives but also saving businesses and jobs and keeping the economy open”.

“Whilst it is painful for all of us – and please know this decision wasn’t taken lightly, especially when it comes to businesses and especially when it comes to livelihoods – we appreciate the pain and suffering that many people will go through, but for that extra week we think it is well worth it if it is going to prevent us from having to go in and out of lockdown, which is what we need to avoid,” she said.

Gladys Berejiklian was grilled about the effect on workers and businesses.

Ms Berejiklian faced a grilling from reporters about the effect on small businesses, many of whom have said they are already on the edge.

“Every single person here will be getting a wage regardless of lockdown or no,” one reporter said.

“The platitudes around business are fine but that is what they see it as – platitudes. The most you are offering business so far in NSW is $10,000 cash and you are mandating that they shut. Should you be doing more?”

Ms Berejiklian replied that there were “always opportunities for us to consider what more we can do” and that NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet was in touch with the federal government.

The Premier stressed that the Commonwealth had agreed to support individuals while the state was responsible for supporting businesses.

But the reporter pointed out that the federal Covid-19 Disaster Payment was only $350 to $500 per week.

“That is $350. That doesn’t pay rent in Sydney,” he said.

Ms Berejiklian said that was “why our Treasurer has been in touch with his federal counterpart to have a conversation about those matters”.

She was also was asked about reports of multiple small business owners contemplating suicide.

“I appreciate more than most, having lived with this every day, the pressures it puts on people, even speaking to people who’ve had to do 14 days in isolation,” she replied.

“Mental health for many of our citizens is big issue at the moment, especially for businesses who are trying to stay afloat and if we need to do more, of course, we will.”

The decision to extend the lockdown was made by the state’s Crisis Cabinet Committee yesterday and was widely leaked to major media outlets including The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, Sky News and the ABC.

So far NSW has recorded more than 350 locally acquired cases since the eastern suburbs outbreak began in June due to the highly infectious Delta strain.

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NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

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NSW residents will face ongoing restrictions including mask wearing and social distancing.

“I do also want to foreshadow the NSW government in the next few days will be putting forward a specific plan that shows what life will look like the day that we exit the lockdown and also what life looks like a few weeks after that time,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“So we want to provide certainty to businesses. We know businesses have to plan ahead when they are taking bookings, when they are ordering perishable items.”

Among the points of discussion at the meeting yesterday was whether schools will operate if the lockdown continues, with Ms Berejiklian refusing to settle the speculation on Tuesday morning.

While parents are encouraged to keep their children home for remote learning, schools in Greater Sydney will remain open for children of essential workers and no child will be turned away.

“It won’t be what life looked like necessarily before we went into lockdown,” Ms Berejiklian warned yesterday.

NSW recorded 35 new cases on Monday — an equal daily high — and 18 new cases yesterday. Two of those cases were in the community for their entire infectious period and five were isolated for only part of their infectious period.

It is those two cases which health officials fear could trigger more clusters.

The lockdown impacting Greater Sydney was due to end at 11.59pm on Friday, July 9 but Ms Berejiklian told reporters yesterday the lockdown “is having its desired effect to date … but it is still concerning that a number of cases are remaining infectious in the community”.

“We’re looking at a scenario where we don’t burden our citizens more than we have to but we also have to accept the new world we’re living in,” she said.

“This Delta strain is likely to be the dominant strain of the virus until we have further information. We intend for this lockdown to be the only lockdown we go through, and that will factor into our decision making.”

Problematic for the state is the Summit Care aged care facility in Baulkham Hills, which saw a rise of cases yesterday, along with an illegal house party at Meriton Suites which has resulted in 12 new cases.

Barren: A small number of cars queuing at the Bondi Beach drive-through COVID-19 test centre, Sydney. Picture: James Gourley

Long queues of people are seen lining up to get the Covid-19 vaccine at the Olympic Park Vaccination Hub in Sydney. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Professor Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases physician and microbiologist, told The Project on Tuesday night it was “likely” the lockdown would be extended for a few days, but that the case “numbers over the next few days will be critical”.

Mr Collignon published a new paper yesterday, COVID-19 and future pandemics: is isolation and social distancing the new norm?, in which he said the “new norm is isolation, plus social and physical distancing, and this new norm will likely be with us for some time to come”.

Prof Collignon warned “this is the peak danger period for spreading viruses” and urged the government to maintain restrictions “even if you don’t have any Covid spread in the community”.

“I don’t think we can live life normally for the next four months, we need to accept there will be restrictions, still get on with life but not go back to 2018, 2019. I don’t think that’s safe until at least October, November,” he said.

Why I think restrictions will be with us for some time to come.

COVID‐19 and future pandemics: is isolation and social distancing the new norm? https://t.co/Us7aw8J1jc

— Peter Collignon (@CollignonPeter) July 6, 2021

Yesterday, Ms Berejiklian maintained that a decision on whether schools would recommence on Monday would be determined with the best interests of the wider public in mind.

“We will be in a position to make those announcements tomorrow and I know that parents will welcome that, as well as every citizen,” she said.

Prof Collignon supported the opening of schools despite the infectious period for the community because “children, while they get infection, they spread it less than their parents”.

“Unless you’ve got widespread, uncontrolled covid, primary schools in particular should stay open,” he said.

“Individual schools may close at times when you’ve got an outbreak but schools should be one of the last places we close.”

As greater Sydney and its surrounding areas wait to find out if the city’s lockdown will wrap up this Friday, NSW has been warned that life will not be the same once stay-at-home orders come to an end. pic.twitter.com/CFkZ06IWLx

— The Project (@theprojecttv) July 6, 2021

Ms Berejiklian rejected the notion that the decision had already been made when a reporter put to her that “you’ve already decided on what course you are going to take”.

Chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant also revealed there were 26 hospitalised Covid-19 patients, six of them in intensive care and two are being ventilated.

“The ages of those in ICU is one in their early 50s, one in the early 60s, three in their 70s and one in their 80s,” she said.

“This is a salient reminder that Covid can have an impact on you and your loved ones. Please as you move about the community, assume everyone has Covid, follow the public health advice, and please minimise your exposures to others, particularly in indoor settings.”

NSW restrictions

Everyone in Greater Sydney must stay home unless you have a reasonable excuse.

The direction applies to people who live, work or study in Greater Sydney – which includes the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour local government areas – and were in those areas on or after Monday, June 21, 2021.

Essential reasons to leave home include:

• Shopping for food or other essential goods and services
• Compassionate needs or medical care, including being vaccinated for Covid-19 (unless you have been identified as a close contact)
• Exercise outdoors in groups of 10 or fewer
• Essential work or education, where you cannot work or study from home

Face masks must be worn in all indoor areas of non-residential premises across NSW.

You must also wear a mask:

• At certain outdoor gatherings
• On public transport
• In a major recreation facility such as a stadium
• If you are working in a hospitality venue

Employers must allow an employee to work from home if it is reasonably practicable to do so.

If you cannot work from home and you go to your workplace, you must wear a face mask (unless an exemption applies).

Funerals can take place with up to 100 people.

People may not leave home or enter Greater Sydney to attend weddings.

Outdoor gatherings are limited to 10 people.

Places of worship must be closed to the public.

Services may be livestreamed from a church, meeting house, mosque, synagogue, temple or other place of worship that is not open to members of the public.

Pubs, clubs, restaurants and cafes are limited to takeaway only.

Cinemas, gyms, hairdressers, beauty clinics, nightclubs and other non-essential businesses are closed.

— with Rohan Smith