AMA calls for ‘painful’ Christmas lockdown
Sydneysiders should face a ‘painful’ lockdown over the festive season to stop the northern beaches cluster escalating further, according to a peak medical body.
A “painful” Christmas lockdown for Sydney would be the best option to kerb the spread of the northern beaches cluster, according to the nation’s peak medical body.
Sydney’s northern beaches are in lockdown after a COVID cluster rose to 68 cases.
Residents of greater Sydney have also been asked to avoid unnecessary travel, but Premier Gladys Berejiklian has so far resisted a Sydney-wide lockdown.
South Australia imposed a six-day “circuit breaker” lockdown in November, which ultimately lasted three days, as it looked to quash a coronavirus outbreak.
And with Sydney recording 30 cases of community transmission on Sunday, Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid said the move would be “a really good option”.
“I know it’s almost Christmas, it would be so painful. But it would be a way to give your contact tracers the ability to get it done,” he told Sunrise.
“What I would do if I was Gladys Berejiklian is say: let’s do a South Australian-style short, sharp, less than a week lockdown.
“You’ll not be chasing up hundreds and hundreds of people. You can be chasing smaller numbers and then, after a few days, start to wind back. Then you’re back to normal.”
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard played down calls for New Year’s Eve celebrations to be cancelled over fears they could turn into superspreader events. He said medical advice was reviewed daily, but had not yet called for the event to be cancelled.
He told the ABC the next few days would be crucial in determining how effective the state’s response had been.
But he rejected calls to make masks mandatory, despite health advice recommending they be worn.
“One of the main reasons is that the community have actually been doing it,” he said.
“But if we have bus drivers having to act like police, there is already a level of anxiety for them and we don’t want to put them in a situation where they will be … getting into the sorts of fights that might happen.
“Wear the mask if you’re inside, but don’t forget the basic rules that got us through this before.”
He said testing capacity had been boosted across the northern beaches, and that contact tracers would soon be able establish links between all confirmed cases.