As the day unfolded: NSW records 18 local cases, six linked to Croydon cluster; Victoria's two-month streak ends with three new cases

Three people in Melbourne have been diagnosed with COVID-19, ending the state’s two-month streak of zero locally-acquired cases.

The infections, confirmed by the Andrews government late on Wednesday afternoon, came as the state government tightened border controls with NSW after 18 new cases were confirmed in Sydney, including some linked to a new cluster.

Shoppers in Bourke Street Mall on Boxing Day 2020. Credit: Paul Jeffers

The three local cases recorded in Melbourne on Wednesday are believed to be linked to COVID-19 cases from NSW.

The COVID-positive Victorians have not recently travelled to NSW but the state government confirmed that health authorities believed they were connected with cases north of the border through close contacts.

Read more here.

We are covering the coronavirus pandemic again on Thursday. Here's a summary of what happened in terms of coronavirus news today:

• NSW now has 160 active cases with 18 new locally acquired ones recorded.
• Nine local cases were linked to the Avalon cluster, all previously identified as contacts. The source of the cluster (now 138 cases) remains unknown.
• Six other locally acquired cases are all members of the same extended family and linked to a cluster in Croydon whose source is also unknown.
• Three other locally acquired cases are under investigation, two cases, from the same household, are from the Wollongong area and one is from northern Sydney.
• Fragments of the virus that causes COVID‑19 were detected at a sewage plant that services the Liverpool area.
• New Year’s Eve restrictions in Greater Sydney have tightened again. Outdoor gatherings were cut from 50 to 30 guests, and households limited to five visitors (including children).
• Sydneysiders will be restricted from visiting aged care facilities until at least January 7.
• Victoria broke a two-month run without community cases after three were recorded late on Wednesday with possible links to NSW.
• The third cricket test against India will go ahead at the SCG with spectators but some experts, and the state opposition, say it should be held without fans at the venue.
• Britain approved the AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccine

Victoria’s border with New South Wales remains closed to anyone who has been in the northern beaches area, Sydney, or the Central Coast. And after midnight tomorrow night, anyone who has been in the Blue Mountains or Wollongong, in the past 14 days is not allowed to come into Victoria.

Anyone arriving at the road border from those impacted areas will be turned away and will have to find alternative accommodation in New South Wales.

Any Victorian who has been in or visited the Blue Mountains or Wollongong regions from December 27 will have until 11.59pm on the 31 December to apply for a new travel permit through Service Victoria, must get tested within 24 hours of returning to Victoria, and must self-quarantine at home for 14 days from when they last left the region.

After December 31, nobody who has visited these areas will be able to enter Victoria.

Anyone currently in Victoria, who has been in Wollongong or the Blue Mountains since December 27 is urged to get tested and stay at home until a negative test result is received.

The Department of Health and Human Services will contact each returning traveller and provide them with further information about their quarantine.

New Year's Eve house parties are the biggest threat to containing a new Sydney coronavirus cluster, prompting concerns that restrictions on the number of visitors allowed in homes will be flouted.

The number of visitors allowed in Sydney, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Central Coast homes has been reduced to five, including children, as a new COVID-19 cluster takes hold in the inner west.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned that New Year's Eve could be a super-spreader event if people are not vigilant.Credit: Jessica Hromas

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said authorities were struggling to pin down the source of the new cluster and expected more cases would be detected in coming days.

Fearful that New Year's Eve activities will spread the virus further, the government announced a reduction in the number of people allowed at outdoor gatherings from 50 to 30.

Senior ministers are concerned that people will instead host parties at home, with one warning that "it will be impossible to police how many people are inside homes".

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the new restrictions were in place "until further notice".

Read more here.

New venues visited by confirmed cases of COVID-19 include Costco Lidcombe, Bunnings Lidcombe, BWS Bass Hill, Rhodes Priceline Pharmacy, Earlwood Bardwell Park RSL as well as Auburn BCF (Boating Fishing Camping).

Anyone who attended the following venues at the listed times must get tested immediately and self-isolate until they receive further advice from NSW Health:

Earlwood Bardwell Park RSL, 18 Hartill-Law Avenue, Bardwell Park 2207, Monday 28 December, 6pm-11.30pm

Anyone who visited any of the following venues at the listed times is considered a casual contact who must get tested immediately and isolate until a negative result is received:

Rhodes Priceline Pharmacy, Rhodes Waterside, 1 Rider Boulevard, Thursday 24 December 9am-12pm

BWS Bass Hill, Bass Hill Plaza, 753 Hume Highway, Bass Hill, Thursday 24 December 1:10pm-1:30pm

Anyone who visited any of the following venues at the listed times should monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately and isolate if they appear:

Martin Reserve, Croydon Park, Seymour St, Croydon Park NSW 2133, Sunday 27 December 12pm-12.40pm

Costco Lidcombe, 17-21 Parramatta Rd, Lidcombe NSW 2141, Thursday 24 December, 10am-10:20am and between 4:20pm-4:45pm

Bunnings Lidcombe, 23-29 Parramatta Rd, Lidcombe NSW 2141, Thursday 24 December. 4pm-4:20pm

Auburn BCF (Boating Fishing Camping) Cnr Parramatta Rd and Rawson St, Auburn NSW 2144, Wednesday 23 December, 10:15am-10:45am

There are more than 350 COVID-19 testing locations across NSW, many of which are open seven days a week. To find your nearest clinic visit, visit https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/how-to-protect-yourself-and-others/clinics or contact your GP.

The open-air cinema at Mrs Macquarie's Chair has canned its screenings on January 1, 2 and 3, moving them to dates in early February.

Movie-goers at the Open Air Cinema at Mrs MacQuaries Chair last year.Credit: Nic Walker

Westpac OpenAir advised ticket holders today that "in line with the current restrictions to limit activity and refrain from any non-essential activity for Greater Sydney", they've decided to postpone screenings of The Dry, originally scheduled for Friday, January 1, Saturday, January 2 and Sunday, January 3, 2021.

The Victorian Health Department released a list of exposure sites the new confirmed local cases of COVID-19 have visited.

People who were at these places should immediately be tested.

• Mentone/Parkdale Beach on the 27th of December between, 10:00 – 16:30
• Century City Walk and Mocha Jo’s in Glen Waverley on the 28th of December, between 13:30 – 17:00
• Katialo restaurant in the Eaton Mall in Oakleigh on the 28th of December, between19:00-20:15

Victoria’s Commander of COVID-19 response Jeroen Weimar said the active cases were isolated at home while being monitored by the Department of Health and Human Services.

“We have been in this position before and we are deploying our full outbreak approach around these cases. Extensive contact tracing is underway and as a result, there are currently more than 40 primary close contacts that are being supported to isolate immediately,” Mr Weimar said.

Two women in their 40s and a woman in her 70s have been identified as the newly infected people.

Mr Weimar said that contact tracing is ongoing overnight with more close contacts expected to emerge.

“At this point, our priority is on making sure we’ve got the right supports in place for the close contacts (primary and secondary) and that people are getting themselves tested," Mr Weimar said.

“We are so thankful that these people did the right thing and got tested. We always knew this virus had us in a precarious position and we need to make sure we do everything we can to stamp out any further transmissions.

“Now more than ever people should not let down their guard. Maintain physical distancing, practice good hand hygiene. Stay at home if you’re unwell and most of all get tested if you have any symptoms at all.”

Leading epidemiologists have suggested the likely origin of Victoria’s fresh coronavirus cases came from people travelling from NSW to celebrate Christmas in Victoria.

Assuming that the people who have tested positive were tested as soon as they became symptomatic, the timeline matches up closely to spreading events occurring on Christmas Day.

Professor Raina MacIntyre urges caution over Christmas and NYE. Credit: James Brickwood

Head of the Biosecurity Research Program at the Kirby Institute at the UNSW Professor Raina MacIntyre said people who got infected on Christmas Day will be at their most infectious on New Year's Eve.

“My guess is someone that travelled over the border for Christmas infected someone and I’d suspect that people who got infected on Christmas Day are starting to present today,” Professor MacIntyre said.

“Those people who got infected on Christmas Day might not know they are infectious.”
Professor MacIntrye also said other states need to be very vigilant for cases coming up given people from NSW travelled throughout Australia to celebrate Christmas.

She added that the Andrews government should consider reintroducing some restrictions to prevent a fresh outbreak.

Chair in epidemiology at Deakin University Professor Catherine Bennett said the role of contract tracing will play is “crucial” to contain a fresh outbreak of the disease.

"The role of contact tracing is critical - if these people were exposed a week ago, firstly finding their close contacts, if you find them in the next few days before they become infectious it’s a massive difference,” Professor Bennett said.

“The key question is if these people don’t have a direct contact with Sydney, how did they get it?”

Director of the Population Interventions Unit at the University of Melbourne Professor Tony Blakely said while not much is known about the fresh cases are “problematic”.

“It’s going to be contact tracing like crazy, testing like crazy in the areas these people have been in, and a lot of people potentially isolating,” Professor Blakely said.

Sydneysiders looking to find out whether they have been to a venue recently visited by someone later diagnosed with coronavirus can now do so more easily thanks to a new service that overlays alert locations onto a map.

The website covid19nearme.com.au was built by a Sydney data expert and uses information provided by the NSW government's COVID-19 data program to visualise a long list of venue alerts put out sometimes multiple times per day by NSW Health.

The map, embedded below, doesn't include public transport routes. They can be found on the NSW government's official list of locations at https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/latest-news-and-updates#latest-covid-19-case-locations-in-nsw.

Interact with the venue alert map:

There are more than 350 COVID-19 testing locations across NSW, many of which are open seven days a week. To find your nearest clinic, visit https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/how-to-protect-yourself-and-others/clinics or contact your GP.

London: Britain on Wednesday became the first country in the world to approve a coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca as it battles a major winter surge driven by a new, highly contagious variant of the virus.

"The government has today accepted the recommendation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to authorise Oxford University/AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine for use," the health ministry said.

AstraZeneca's vaccine is considered the best chance for developing countries, as it does not need to be stored at extreme temperatures. Credit: University of Oxford

The pandemic has already killed 1.7 million people around the world, sown chaos through the global economy and upended normal life for billions since it began in Wuhan, China, a year ago.

Britain and South Africa, in particular, are grappling with new variants of the coronavirus, which the government and scientists say are more contagious; many countries have responded by banning passenger flights and blocking trade.

Read more here.