Travel restrictions costing NSW $180 million per week

Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Treasurer Dominic Perrottet are urging other states to scrap domestic coronavirus travel restrictions after Victoria reopened to parts of Sydney and government figures reveal the borders stalemate is costing NSW close to $180 million per week.

As NSW recorded zero cases of community transmission on Monday, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced the state would downgrade all but 10 of Sydney's 35 local government areas from 'red' to 'orange' risk.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Treasurer Dominic Perrottet.Credit: Nick Moir

Ms Berejiklian said the move, which will allow Sydneysiders from orange LGAs to travel to Melbourne but isolate until receiving a negative coronavirus test, was a "step in the right direction".

However, she said there should be no domestic border restrictions given federal health authorities have declared there are no Commonwealth hotspots.

Mr Perrottet said while health concerns were a priority, "we also need to ensure livelihoods are protected as well". Government figures from Destination NSW show interstate visitors spent $9.5 billion in NSW in 2019, or close to $180 million per week.

“The more borders are opened up, the better the chance people have of getting back to work and getting on with their lives," Mr Perrottet said.

Monday's announcement from the Andrews government means thousands of Victorians will be able to return home after 25 Greater Sydney local government areas moved from "red" to "orange" at 6pm.

However, anyone who has visited any of the city's remaining 10 "red" local government areas in the 14 days prior to their arrival in Victoria will not be allowed to enter. Those areas are: Blacktown, Canada Bay, Burwood, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Inner West, Liverpool, Fairfield, Parramatta and Strathfield.

People eligible for the travel permit must have a coronavirus test within 72 hours of arrival and self-isolate until they receive their result.

Queensland will consider whether it reopens its border to Greater Sydney on January 28, giving NSW Health authorities 10 days to source nine unlinked cases to existing clusters, including the new group found on the weekend.

The state requires declared hotspots to record 28 consecutive days without any unlinked cases before it will remove quarantine requirements for travellers.

Genome sequencing indicated mystery cases identified in Sydney's west on the weekend were linked to the Berala cluster.

However, the source of infection for the group – a man and his six close contacts – is still unknown, resulting in an ongoing contact tracing effort.

People who attended Auburn's Village Tavern on December 28, January 7 or last Wednesday, the Berala Hotel on December 30 or the Auburn Hotel last Tuesday have been asked to come forward for testing after cases attended while potentially infectious.

Although all active cases in Greater Sydney have been genomically linked to existing cases, there are nine cases which have not been epidemiologically linked (where a point of transmission is identified). These include the western Sydney man on the weekend, as well as cases in Mount Druitt and the upper northern beaches last week.

In separate radio appearances, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Ms Berejiklian called for borders to reopen to NSW.

"I always encourage [state leaders] to act on the medical advice, and all the hotspot definitions have been lifted at a Commonwealth level," Mr Morrison told 2GB on Monday afternoon, remarking "we've so far avoided this third wave".

Despite Sydney's mask mandate remaining, children, parents and staff will not be required to wear face masks while on site at the city's public schools, under guidelines updated ahead of the start of the 2021 school year later this month.

Children aged 12 and over will need to wear a mask while travelling to and from school on public transport and may also be required to wear it while completing activities off school grounds.

According to the guidelines, which have been provided to schools, parents and guardians of children starting kindergarten and years 1, 2 and 7 will be allowed to attend school grounds on the first day of class to send them off.

NSW's testing numbers were low on Monday, with 8773 tests were reported in NSW to 8pm on Sunday, compared with 12,764 in the previous 24 hours.

Government and health authorities have said they want the state to record 25,000 to 30,000 daily tests to give them confidence to ease restrictions.

Data from NSW Health's weekly COVID-19 surveillance reports shows Western Sydney Local Health District did not see the same bump in testing during the height of the Berala outbreak as was observed a fortnight earlier while the Avalon cluster took hold.

In the week ending December 26, Northern Sydney Local Health District conducted more than 120 tests per 1000 people.

However, Western Sydney's rate was only 30 tests per 1000 people in the week ending January 9. Nearby South-Western Sydney Local Health District – which contains some of the suburbs identified as closely linked to the Berala cluster – reported about 15 tests per 1000 people.

Eight cases were reported in returned overseas travellers in hotel quarantine on Monday, bringing the total number of cases in NSW since the start of the pandemic to 4885.

with Lydia Lynch and David Estcourt

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