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Coronavirus Australia: Waverley school student among 10 new NSW Covid cases

A Waverley school student is among 10 new virus cases as Covid-19 mask restrictions extend to Greater Sydney.

An unfolding Covid-19 outbreak has overwhelmed testing clinics in Sydney’s east and forced a Waverley primary school to close, with Queensland poised to slam its border shut to NSW residents.

Tens of thousands of people who attended Westfield Bondi Junction were ordered to get swabbed after the Bondi cluster ballooned to 21 cases.

On Tuesday, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said a Year 3 student at St Charles’ Catholic Primary School in Waverley was the one mystery infection among 10 new cases. The surprise diagnosis has worried health officials and alarmed parents, who rushed to pick up their children from the school of about 365 students on Tuesday afternoon.

As contact tracers raced to identify a link between the student and three key transmission events — Westfield Bondi Junction, Vaucluse’s Belle Cafe, or a Salvation Army store in Tempe — the Premier announced mask rules would be extended until June 30.

“It is only when you are eating or drinking indoors at a venue that you can’t or shouldn’t wear a mask,” she said. “In every other circumstance, if you live or are in Sydney, you must wear a mask.”

As the outbreak grew, it was ­announced that the number of Pfizer vaccine doses sent to NSW would be doubled to 200,000 a week. And New Zealand paused its quarantine-free travel arrangement with NSW from midnight on Tuesday. The trans-Tasman bubble between NSW and New Zealand will be suspended for 72 hours.

Anyone who has visited an exposure site in Victoria, NSW, Queensland or the ACT is barred from entering New Zealand for at least 14 days, while NZ moved to resume free travel with Victoria from midnight Tuesday.

Ms Berejiklian said the state’s response to the eastern suburbs outbreak had been “proportionate”, appearing to temporarily rule out a lockdown. But residents in Sydney, Wollongong and the Shellharbour region will be required to wear masks indoors and on public transport until June 30.

NSW recorded five locally acquired cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday, but two infections were announced before the daily cut-off. An additional seven cases were recorded after the 8pm cut-off on Monday, bringing the Bondi cluster to 21. Six are household contacts of previous cases who have been in isolation, while one is the St Charles’ school child.

On Tuesday, chief health officer Kerry Chant said investigations into the source of the child’s mystery infection were ongoing.

“The quicker we can get the people who are close contacts we can actually get them isolating before transmission has occurred,” Dr Chant said. The school is 1km from Westfield Bondi Junction, where a “fleeting” transmission event between two people was identified on June 12-13 after a review of CCTV footage.

NSW Health has also drastically expanded its advice for people who visited Westfield Bondi Junction as officials try to determine the extent of transmission at the shopping centre.

Anyone who was there between June 12 and 18, including the carpark, is asked to get tested.

As well as the Year 3 student, Dr Chant said one further case, a woman in her 20s, was a potential community risk. “(She) is a worker at Bondi Junction and we believe she was exposed again probably through fleeting contact with one of the infectious people,” she said.

All five cases reported to 8pm on Tuesday are close contacts or linked to previous clusters. They include a woman in her 60s from the Illawarra who is a close contact of a previously reported case and has been in isolation and a woman in her 40s from Sydney’s northern suburbs who is a close contact and has been in isolation.

Queensland’s potential restriction on Sydney residents comes as it prepares to welcome Melbourne residents in time for school holidays. One new local Covid case was detected in Queensland on Tuesday, linked to an international flight crew member.

The man tested positive while in quarantine and authorities are not overly concerned.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the border will reopen to Melbourne at 1am on Friday. Travel from Sydney into Queensland is still allowed, except for people who have visited an exposure site or been to the Waverley Council area in the past 14 days.

Read related topics:Coronavirus

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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/coronavirus-australia-waverley-school-student-among-10-new-nsw-covid-cases/news-story/e143625ef5490ca730e9734d2f023eb6