NSW Premier says Victoria coronavirus spike is ‘a wake-up call’

NSW residents “should be in a state of high alert” as coronavirus cases continue to spike in Victoria, Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said.

Gladys Berejiklian has provided an update on coronavirus in NSW. PICTURE: NCA NewsWire/Adam Yip

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned NSW residents to be on “high alert” over the next few weeks, as authorities race to find out if any of Victoria’s spiking coronavirus cases have jumped the border.

“If somebody asked me what our status of both sentiment and action should be today and the following few days and weeks – and I say weeks – it‘s that we should all be in a state of high alert,” she said on Thursday morning.

“We should all be more conscious of the fact that there could be elements of community transmission, especially in those border communities, that haven’t been picked up.”

So far, there has been no evidence of community transmission, with the only two new cases out of hotel quarantine family members in Albury who had visited Melbourne.

Ms Berejiklian had flagged she would tighten restrictions around gatherings today, and was considering putting Albury, a town on the state border, into its own lockdown, but backed down on the extreme measures, choosing to focus on testing before taking any action.

13 new cases of #COVID19 have been diagnosed in NSW between 8pm on 7 July and 8pm on 8 July.

11 of the new cases are returned travellers in hotel quarantine. The earlier reported 2 probable cases in Albury are now confirmed cases. pic.twitter.com/d9H3PSkHgi

— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) July 9, 2020

She declined to comment on the types of action the government would take if the testing showed ‘seeding’ of the virus, but noted indoor activities were more dangerous than outdoor ones, and that the government had previously commented on what “high risk activities” were.

“I want to stress that what’s occurred in Victoria is a wake-up call for all of us about how contagious the virus is, how it doesn‘t take very long for things to escalate quickly, and how it doesn’t take very long for that rate of community transmission to increase and so all of us have to be on high alert,” she said.

Ms Berejiklian also backtracked on earlier claims she was considering charging NSW residents who were still in Victoria for a mandatory two-week hotel quarantine upon their return.

Instead, she said the government was “seriously considering” charging those returning from overseas - who were asked to come home in March.

State leaders will meet with the Federal Government tomorrow to discuss lowering the daily cap of returning overseas travellers.

There were 13 new cases of coronavirus in New South Wales on Thursday, bringing the state’s total to 3264.

Of those, 11 were returned travellers and two were Albury residents.