Coronavirus Australia live updates: 'Recipe for confusion': Gladys' Christmas COVID plan slammed

NSW's rules for Christmas gatherings have been pilloried as a "recipe for confusion" so perplexing  no one will know if they're doing the right thing. 

Plans by the New South Wales Government to effectively split the state into four zones for Christmas Day gatherings have been pilloried and declared a "recipe for confusion". 

 

 

From Thursday for three days, the northern beaches will be divided into two zones, the rest of Greater Sydney another zone which is itself separate from regional NSW. 

Depending on where you are you can have five or 50 people at home and you either have to remain in your zone or can travel as freely as you want. It's been labelled a "joke" which people are bound to accidentally get wrong. While others have questioned why restrictions are being loosened at all warning "COVID doesn't take a Christmas break". 

Elsewhere, health bosses are in a race against time to decipher how two of the most recent cases in the Sydney outbreak relate to the northern beaches.

Chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said today there was a "missing link" surrounding two cases.

Both have been genomically linked to the northern beaches but neither have a direct connection to the COVID hotspot.

It's the latest mystery with the Avalon cluster, with the so-called "patient zero" still unknown nor how the virus reached the Sydney peninsula. 

Premier Gladys Berejiklian today announced NSW has recorded eight new cases linked to the northern beaches, as well as a further eight in hotel quarantine. 

The northern beaches has now been divided into two zones for COVID purposes with restrictions around Christmas depending whether you are in the north or south zone of the beaches, or if you're in the rest of Greater Sydney or further afield. If you're confused, and many are, scroll below for a map where we have tried to lay it all out. 

"If you're a resident of the northern part of the northern beaches, if you live north of the Narrabeen Bridge and east of the Bahai Temple at Mona Vale roads, you cannot leave your area. You are still in lockdown," Ms Berejiklian said of the area around Avalon which continues to have strict measures in place. 

"You can't accept anybody outside your community and I apologise for that but we have to maintain a lockdown in that area."

Read on for all the latest updates.

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