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Premier warns NSW 'on the verge' of another virus outbreak, delays easing restrictions
By Rachel Clun
Premier Gladys Berejiklian says a coronavirus cluster at a Sydney GP clinic threatens to leave NSW with a coronavirus outbreak similar to that of the Crossroads Hotel cluster which sparked the city's second wave in July.
NSW on Wednesday recorded more locally acquired COVID-19 cases than Victoria, prompting Ms Berejiklian to hold off easing restrictions until several growing clusters are under control.
A pop-up coronavirus testing clinic at Julia Reserve Community Centre in Oran Park. Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Health authorities reported 12 new local cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and three in hotel quarantine. Victoria recorded seven new cases and five deaths.
Public health alerts were issued late on Wednesday for additional cases that will be included in Thursday's case numbers. The alerts include two tutoring schools, Al-Jabr – A Different Class of Mathematics in Auburn and ACE Tutoring in Parramatta. The third venue is Westfield Mount Druitt, after a case visited the shopping centre on Monday, October 12 between 11.30am and 1pm.
Ms Berejiklian said NSW was on the cusp of another major community transmission event.
"Our state is on the verge of being where it was when we had the first seeding event from Victoria," Ms Berejiklian said.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the outbreak of new cases were "just reminiscent to me of Crossroads [Hotel in Casula], and it worries me that the community are not coming forward to get tested."
The Crossroads cluster was at the centre of NSW's first major COVID outbreak linked to Victoria's second wave. The super-spreading event led to almost 60 confirmed cases spidering out to several restaurants, gyms and other venues.
NSW Health officially "closed" the cluster in late August after two incubation periods had passed.
It is not clear what has prompted the comparison with the current rise in COVID cases. There is no suggestion that these recent cases stemmed from a super-spreading event triggered by a highly infectious person, as was the case at the Crossroads Hotel.
But health authorities are increasingly anxious about the rise in cases with unknown sources.
Eleven of NSW's new cases were recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday. Nine of the locally acquired cases have been linked to the Lakemba GP cluster, and two cases were linked to the Liverpool private clinic cluster. The 12th local case - recorded after 8pm cut-off - is an elderly man from Bargo on the outskirts of south-western Sydney.
The sources of six cases identified in the past seven days are a mystery, including the Lakemba GP cluster, which now includes 12 cases, and the Liverpool private clinic cluster at 10 cases.
NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said NSW Health was dealing with "hundreds" of potential close contacts and multiple venues.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has delayed the easing of coronavirus restrictions as she and Health Minister Brad Hazzard are both concerned that testing numbers are not high enough.Credit: Nick Moir
The state was in a "critical phase" of the pandemic, Dr Chant said, but it was reassuring to know the cases in Wednesday's numbers were linked to known clusters.
"All of that means that there [are] potentially infectious people in many settings," she said.
Contact tracers were looking at how the virus could have been spread around geographical areas, as they work to trace the source of the current clusters, Dr Chant said.
"It is so critical that we detect these chains of transmission at the earliest possible point," she said.
Asked whether NSW had reached a critical phase, as the Premier and Chief Health Officer suggested, Professor of Epidemiology at the Kirby Institute John Kaldor said these "upticks" in cases were expected by anyone who followed the numbers closely.
"The scenario is extremely likely to be like that into the future, that we will have these small occurrences that will have to be managed with a lot of resources," Professor Kaldor said.
"We don't always have to look at it as a catastrophic breakdown in the system," Professor Kaldor said "as long as the bulk of the population has maintained the commitment to [social distancing and hygiene] measures," he said.
Ms Berejiklian and Mr Hazzard repeated concerns that the state's testing numbers were still too low.
More than 16,000 people were tested for COVID-19 in the last reporting period.
"We're looking for numbers now, particularly as we've seen this increase in community transmission, upwards of 20,000. So please, please go out and get tested," Mr Hazzard said.
Ms Berejiklian said the government had planned to further ease restrictions in a number of ways, including increasing the number of people allowed in group bookings at hotels and restaurants, increasing the number of patrons allowed in small venues, and lifting the number of guests at weddings.
But after Wednesday morning's COVID briefing with Dr Chant, they decided to hold off until the Chief Health Officer gave the all-clear.
Ms Berejiklian said those restrictions could be eased within days, as the government worked on balancing health and the economy.
"It will depend on what happens in the next few days," she said.
The Premier said the doubling of people in outdoor venues announced on Tuesday and the increase in the numbers of people allowed at outdoor concerts to 500, were still "prudent".
But, given that potentially infectious people have been to various businesses and different parts of Sydney, Dr Chant urged the community to come forward for testing.
Despite the increase in cases in NSW, Ms Berejiklian again urged the West Australian and Queensland premiers to reopen their borders.
"I can assure you those tourism operators in Queensland will go belly up after summer ... businesses can't survive successive tourism seasons with no customers," she said.
"I say to the other state premiers, WA and Queensland in particular, please think about that; it might not hurt you now but it will hurt in a few months' time."