Victorians visit NSW despite travel advice, sparking coronavirus fears

Potentially infected Victorians are still travelling to NSW despite the premier’s warning not to come, causing fears of coronavirus spreading north.

While NSW residents are being urged not to travel to Victoria as virus cases spike, some Victorians aren’t returning the courtesy.

They’re travelling to Sydney against the blunt advice from NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian warning them not to come.

Many have said they won’t change their travel plans, regardless of coronavirus.

RELATED: Follow our live coronavirus updates

RELATED: Victoria records double-digit increase

RELATED: Panic hits the shelves of Melbourne as cases spike

Ms Berejiklian has told travellers from Victorian “hot spots” not to come.

In an extraordinary warning she’s also urged holiday resorts to reject school holiday bookings from families from the hot spot Melbourne suburbs, describing the option as “basic pandemic management”.

However, many people are apparently ignoring this advice, with hundreds arriving at Sydney Airport on flights from Melbourne yesterday.

One of them, Melbourne resident Yu Zhao Zhang, told the ABC he knew risks were increasing but didn’t want to cancel.

“I saw the ‘reconsider travel’ warning, but I had already booked my ticket,” he said.

Mr Zhang was also undeterred by the possibility of being turned away from a hotel, saying he could just stay at a friend’s house.

Of particular concern for NSW are the Melbourne residents coming from six current COVID-19 hot spots – the local government areas of Hume, Casey, Brimbank, Moreland, Cardinia and Darebin.

“People from those hot spots should not be travelling anywhere, let alone interstate,” Ms Berejiklian said.

Asked if the warning applied to business travellers despite the border remaining open she said “absolutely”.

Ms Berejiklian said after the recent batch of 8000 tests, NSW had only one new case which related to an overseas traveller.

Ahead of today’s figures she also confirmed there were no community transmissions in NSW recorded in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Victoria recorded another 20 cases of COVID-19 overnight, according to Victoria Health Minister Jenny Mikakos.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is taking a hard-line approach to Victorian travellers. Picture: Joel Carrett/AAP

TOO EXTREME?

Some people are opposed to NSW’s measures to stop Victorians from coming.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was critical of the NSW Premier’s push for businesses not to accept customers from Melbourne.

“As a Victorian I wear the ‘big V’, but as the Treasurer I wear the ‘big T’ … we are all Australian,“ he told Sky News.

This morning, Today show host Karl Stefanovic put it to Ms Berejiklian that her warnings were “excessive”.

However, she defended her stance.

“I would expect the Victorian Premier to give the same warning if we had a similar outbreak in Sydney,” she said.

“We have to be aware of the fact the virus is so contagious and is a good wake-up call.

“It reminds all of us about how contagious the virus is and if one or two people unintentionally spread it to others it can get out of control and that’s why I’m far from complacent.

“In fact I acknowledge this could easily happen in NSW if we’re not careful.

“That’s why it is important for us to support each other, support what citizens in other states are going through and have a commonsense approach.”