Territory declares Northern Beaches council a COVID-19 hotspot forcing residents into quarantine

TERRITORY Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie has declared the Northern Beaches Council Local Government Area in NSW as a hotspot for the purposes of travel to the Northern Territory, effective at 12.01am Friday

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TERRITORY Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie has declared Northern Beaches Council LGA in NSW as a hotspot for the purposes of travel to the Northern Territory, effective at 12.01am Friday.

“This follows on from an outbreak that has occurred in the Northern Beaches of Sydney and has grown to include 17 positive COVID-19 cases,” the statement says.

“Anyone travelling to the Northern Territory from Northern Beaches Council LGA will need to undertake 14 days of mandatory, supervised quarantine in either Alice Springs or Darwin.

If you are intending to travel to the Northern Territory from an identified COVID-19 hotspot you are advised to rethink your plans. If you are a Territorian intending to travel to a hotspot you are advised to rethink your plans.

“If you travel to Northern Beaches Council LGA while it is a declared hotspot, you will be required to undertake 14 days mandatory, supervised quarantine on your return at a cost of $2,500 per person.

Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie. Picture: Che Chorley

“Anyone who has already arrived in the Northern Territory from Northern Beaches Council LGA on or after the 11 December 2020 needs to arrange for a COVID-19 test and self-quarantine whilst awaiting the test results.”

Northern beaches residents have effectively been placed under a three-day stay at home order following an explosion in COVID cases.

Twelve additional cases were detected after a testing blitz on Thursday evening, taking the outbreak to a total of 17 cases. It’s understood that NSW Health has a high suspicion that the case may have originated from an international source.

Genomic sequencing set to come back on Thursday evening was set to provide more insight into how the disease was introduced into the community. NSW Health was “imploring” residents to stay at home, limit interactions, and avoid travel outside the area.

Before the new cases were identified, WA Premier Mark McGowan announced anyone who travelled into WA from NSW since December 11 must isolate stay there until returning a negative result.

Anyone planning to fly into the state must get tested on arrival and isolate until testing negative.

It comes as an urgent testing blitz was launched in Avalon on Thursday as NSW Health worked to track down the source of the growing COVID cluster that could have started with a mystery case at the Avalon RSL.

Chief health officer Kerry Chant said it was “critical” that anyone at the club on Friday December 11 come forward for testing, as authorities scrambled to identify the source of an emerging outbreak that has put the state on edge just before Christmas.

NSW Health was yesterday working under the theory that someone who attended the RSL club was the original source of up to five cases identified on Wednesday and Thursday.