Race to avoid Sydney ‘superspreader event’ as eastern suburbs covid cluster grows to nine cases

NSW faces a crucial few days, with authorities racing against time to contain an outbreak that threatens becoming a“superspreader event”.

Authorities are nervous that a coronavirus cluster in Sydney’s eastern suburbs could explode, with hopes pegged on urgent new restrictions to squash any further cases.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced a further three new cases had been reported in the last 24 hours — one the household contact of a previous case, and the other two recorded after 8pm last night that will be counted in tomorrow’s numbers — and called on all residents across greater Sydney “to be on high alert, no matter where we live”.

The eastern suburbs outbreak, which now stands at nine cases, is believed to have started with an infected limousine driver who transports international flight crews to and from hotel quarantine.

The man tested positive to the “highly infectious” Delta variant of Covid-19.

Chief health officer Dr Jeanette Young said “at the moment everything appears to be linked and positively linked and explained”.

But to avoid “a superspreader event”, Ms Berejiklian announced that from 4pm today, face masks will be mandatory across seven Sydney LGAs — Randwick, Bayside, Canada Bay, Inner West, City of Sydney, Waverley and Woollahra — for all indoor activities (except for eating and drinking), and compulsory mask-wearing on public transport will be extended to the Wollongong and Shellharbour LGAs.

“As we heard in previous days, on a few occasions it has been a fleeting exchange [that has led to infection] we know this is extremely contagious and some people are spreading it more than others,” the Premier said.

“And what we want to avoid at this stage is a superspreader event. With this current outbreak, we have not experienced a superspreader event. That is what we want to prevent.”

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NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian wants to avoid “a superspreader event”. Picture: NCA NewsWire/David Swift

Chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant urged residents to get tested. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Dylan Coker

Dr Chant called on Sydneysiders to “stress our labs to the ultimate of their testing capacity”, saying “the quicker we can diagnose cases, the quicker we can get ahead of the transmission of this virus”.

While Ms Berejiklian made a point of mentioning that her government was “holding off on being more heavy-handed” than what they considered necessary, if the situation continues to worsen, they’re ready to act.

“At this stage, we didn’t want to make the decision to have compulsory mask wearing across all greater Sydney, but if the situation changes overnight, that is an option we will have to consider,” she warned.

“The strongest message I want to send our community is we worked on the basis of trust, that we won’t impose any burdens on communities unless we absolutely have to … At this stage, given the number of cases and the risk, we feel [what] we are doing is appropriate.”

Ms Berejiklian also emphasised that “the next few days are critical”, adding that any further restrictions “will depend on what cases, if any, emerge in the next few days”.

“We know everybody is tired. All of us are. We have to keep doing the right thing until we get the vaccine to majority of our population. This is what we have to live with,” she said.

“What we’ve asked people to do today is as far as we will go, but I will say that if cases continue to emerge in the community we will need to consider going further, but I hope that isn’t the case. I hope in the next few days things settle down, and we don’t have to go further.”

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Masks in seven Sydney LGAs will now be mandatory indoors, as well as on public transport. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Flavio Brancaleone

Experts lashed NSW officials late last week for playing it too cool, saying more care needs to be taken to bolster infection control and safety protocols.

“I know they keep saying nothing is perfect, but that is not good enough because we now have got an enemy that is this Delta variant and of course we will have other variants of concern that is outsmarting us and we have to do precautionary thinking,” leading epidemiologist Professor Mary-Louise McLaws told the ABC.

She urged authorities to put restrictions in place “strictly and quickly because this virus has learnt how be highly infectious and doesn’t need a lot to spread”.

“The virus has already escaped and while the testing is good when this does happened, the virus has already escaped. What we do need to do is sure up the quarantine program so that we never have to do this downstreaming to mop up the problem,” Professor McLaws said.

“For authorities to stay that it is always going to be slightly problematic, that it is near enough — that is not good enough with this enemy that keeps going to outsmart us.”