Coronavirus: MPs flee as Canberra goes into lockdown

Canberra has been plunged into a seven-day lockdown after a man tested positive for Covid-19, the first ACT infection in more than a year.

Hundreds of cars descend on a Covid testing centre at Exhibition Park in Mitchell, Canberra, on Thursday afternoon. Picture: OnScene ACT

Canberra has been plunged into a seven-day lockdown after a man tested positive for Covid-19, the first ACT infection in more than a year, with three of his close contacts also returning positive tests, as federal MPs fled the territory.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr on Thursday confirmed Covid-19 fragments had been ­detected in wastewater late on Wednesday and a man in his 20s from Gungahlin in the city’s north had tested positive soon after.

Three of his close contacts were found to be positive just 20 minutes after lockdown restrictions kicked in at 5pm on Thursday. The man had been infectious in the community since Sunday, but the source of the virus ­remains a mystery, with multiple exposure sites listed on the ACT Health website.

Mr Barr said the cases represented the “most serious public health risk” the ACT had faced since the start of the pandemic.

“We currently do not know the source of infection, but extensive investigation is under way,” he said. “This is the first time the territory has entered a lockdown of this severity since the start of the pandemic.”

As the lockdown loomed and federal parliament was due to rise at the end of the sitting fortnight, several politicians fled, including Labor politicians Jim Chalmers and Murray Watt.

“The lockdown’s at 5pm – some of us have got kids to go home to,” Mr Chalmers said. “It makes a lot of sense (to leave).”

Parliament is set to return on August 23, three days after the lockdown is expected to lift, however the next sitting fortnight could be pushed back if more cases emerge.

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro warned Canberrans not to cross the border into his state.

“Canberrans are asked to ­remain in the ACT to help stop the spread,” he tweeted. “I’ve asked Commissioner (Mick) ­Fuller to ramp up police resources on the south coast looking for ACT number plates.”

Kerryn Coleman, the territory’s chief health officer, said authorities were concerned by the unknown origins of the case, but she suspected it was related to Sydney’s Delta cluster.

“Right now we have no source or link for this case,” she said. “This is one of the reasons why we are going into a lockdown. We are getting the whole genomic ­sequencing and (we should) have that by lunchtime tomorrow.”

Mr Barr said it was not surprising the ACT’s Covid-19-free streak had come to an end. “If the thought was you could have some kind of sealed Can­berra bubble, that was never possible,” he said.

Authorities said Canberra’s Covid patient zero had been using the check-in app “religiously”, with contact tracing identifying 14 potential exposure sites, including bars, a Pentecostal church and a JB Hi-Fi store.

Territorians will only be ­allowed to leave home for ­essential employment, accessing healthcare, getting vaccinated or tested, and for shopping for groceries. An hour of exercise will be permitted each day. Mr Barr said he hoped the ACT’s high vaccination rates would help. “We have a first-dose rate of over 50 per cent, and a fully vaccinated population around 27-27.5 per cent,” he said. “That is still nowhere near where we need to be.”