As it happened: NSW records six new cases including Wollongong and Sydney mystery cases

That's it for the blog today, thanks for joining us. Join us again for Wednesday's coverage. In a busy day of coronavirus news, here are some of the key points.

• NSW recorded three new local COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, three linked to the Avalon cluster.
• Three mystery cases were reported after the 8pm reporting period from other areas and will be included tomorrow's new cases.
• New venues including churches in Wollongong, shopping centres in Figtree and Mona Vale have been visited by confirmed cases of COVID-19.

• New cases in Greater Sydney, outside the northern beaches, detected between December 16 and 27 now number 43 and are scattered across more than 25 suburbs - from Balmain to Bondi and Doonside.

• The northern beaches strategy appears to be working, with just three new cases detected to 8pm on Monday night, all in people identified as close contacts of confirmed cases and who were isolating.

• NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said there "will be relief" for people in the lower northern beaches on January 3, foreshadowing an announcement on January 2.

• There were 16,329 tests done yesterday, significantly less than last week when more than 40,000 daily tests were conducted.
• Five Sydney travellers were fined and thrown into quarantine after allegedly lying to Queensland police.
• The Russian COVID-19 death toll is at least double previous reports.
• Federal Immigration Minister Alex Hawke has threatened to deport backpackers who attended a Christmas beach party in Bronte.
• Sydney was expected on Tuesday night to hold on to its beloved New Year's Test after a desperate bid by the NSW Government and the state's cricket officials to keep the iconic fixture at the SCG.

Professor Francois Balloux, director of the UCL Genetics Institute at University College London which specialises in the analysis of genetic data, has questioned whether the UK coronavirus mutation is in fact more contagious.

Professor Balloux said the data from Denmark did not appear to support the theory that the UK variant of the virus - B.1.1.7 - was more contagious as it had remained at similar levels there rather than increasing as would be expected if it were spread more easily.

Within two hours of NSW Health issuing a warning about people who had tested positive for COVID-19 attending churches and a shopping centre in Wollongong, as well as a shopping centre in Figtree, previously almost empty coronavirus testing clinics had lines stretching hundreds of metres.

The federal government is considering granting international travellers and returning Australians who can prove they have been vaccinated against coronavirus special entry into the country but experts are warning hotel quarantine arrangements may need to be in place for years.

AMA president Omar Khorshid says governments will have to decide what level of population immunity coronavirus they want before opening up international borders. Credit: Tony McDonough

The World Health Organisation's experts say people who have been vaccinated would still need to take the same precautions as now - including quarantine arrangements - until a level of herd immunity is achieved.

The federal Department of Health said it was not yet clear whether two of the main vaccines to be used in Australia, AstraZeneca and Pfizer, will prevent coronavirus being transmitted to others, although they are effective at reducing the severity of the disease.

Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid said it was clear Australia's quarantine arrangements were here to stay "until we have at least all of our vulnerable population vaccinated and possibly the entire population".

Read more here.

Unshorn sheep that missed their spring haircut are suffering under the weight of their wool due to an acute shortage of shearers caused by grounded Kiwis who are no longer travelling Australia because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Shearer, Richard Hutchinson, usually has several shearers working with him at this time of year, but because there is less stock, due to the continuing drought across NSW, he is working alone.Credit: Janie Barrett.

A structural void is opening up in the workforce as the national flock rebounds from this year's drought-induced all-time low in sheep numbers with wool producers saying their industry needs to do more to encourage young Australians to take up the shears.

The president of Wool Producers Australia, Ed Storey, said a "crisis" was developing in remote wool growing areas like north-west NSW, which struggle to attract enough shearers away from high rainfall areas in Victoria, Tasmania and eastern NSW.

"I'm hearing that some people are a month or two behind in their shearing and that can be critical for both animal welfare and production," Mr Storey said.

Read more here.

The threat of a COVID-19 outbreak in Greater Sydney will consume health authorities in the coming days, as the number of mystery cases outside the northern beaches multiplies and testing rates nosedive.

Mrs Macquarie's Chair, usually a favoured viewing spot on New Year's Eve, will be fenced off this year.Credit: Sam Mooy

Three new unlinked cases have been detected in Greater Sydney: one in the inner west, one in northern Sydney and another in a Wollongong resident who had visited the Sydney CBD.

The new infections bring the number of mystery cases outside the northern beaches to seven, flaming fears that the virus could again be spreading by stealth in pockets of the city.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned all of Sydney could face a coronavirus crisis equal to that of the northern beaches if the origins of the stray chains of transmission are not detected soon.

"The risk in Greater Sydney, in greater NSW, is almost as high as the southern tip of the northern beaches," Ms Berejiklian said. “We don’t want people to think we’re out of the woods - far from it.”

Read more here.

With just 10 cases of COVID-19 detected on the lower northern beaches, and the mayor calling for the southern part of the beaches to be freed from lockdown, we want to hear from businesses in the area how they have been coping with their second lockdown of the year.

A deserted Sydney Road Seaforth at 11am on Sunday. This road leads to Manly and is usually packed with traffic on Sundays. Credit: Rick Stevens

Tell us how your business or someone you know is coping with the restrictions below.

Bertin couldn't pay for his swim teaching licence after he lost his job in the pandemic.

Bertin Huynh lost his job in the pandemic. Credit: Steven Siewert

The unemployed swimming instructor said his “faith in humanity had been restored” after readers of The Sydney Morning Herald offered him financial support.

Bertin Huynh, who featured on the front of Tuesday's paper, receives the coronavirus supplement on top of the JobSeeker payment, which will be cut by another $100 a fortnight from Friday. The Kingsford resident lost his job as a swimming teacher after the pandemic hit, and said he couldn’t afford to renew his swimming instructor licence.

Patris Fudeh said she would pay for Mr Huynh’s licence and offered him a job as a swimming instructor for her 10 and 12-year-old sons after reading his story.

“He seems like a nice young man and has been quite sensible with his future planning, and I just thought it would be nice for me or our family to reach out and see if we can support him with work or obviously paying for his swimming licence,” Mrs Fudeh said.

Read more here.

Western Australia has recorded one new case of COVID-19 today in hotel quarantine bringing the State’s total to 859. South Australia recorded zero new cases and conducted 4370 tests yesterday.

The confirmed case in WA was a woman in her 30’s acting as a guardian for a family member who is under 18 and had returned to Perth from overseas and tested positive to COVID-19.

They both remain in hotel quarantine. There were 1385 people swabbed to test for coronavirus yesterday in WA.

There are 14 active cases now being monitored by WA Health.

Britain must vaccinate two million people a week to avoid a third wave of COVID-19, a London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine study reported by Reuters says.

Margaret Keenan, the first patient in the UK to receive the British approved Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.Credit: AP

“The most stringent intervention scenario with tier 4 England-wide and schools closed during January and 2 million individuals vaccinated per week, is the only scenario we considered which reduces peak ICU burden below the levels seen during the first wave”, the study, which is yet to be peer-reviewed, said.

“In the absence of substantial vaccine roll-out, cases, hospitalisations, ICU admissions and deaths in 2021 may exceed those in 2020,” the study said.

The UK has had more than 71,000 deaths and recorded more than 2.3 million cases of COVID-19 infections as of late Monday, a Reuters tally found.

On Thursday 600,000 people in the United Kingdom had received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine since inoculations began.

Reuters