Coronavirus: mask use urged for public transport

NSW Health is urging commuters to wear face masks on public transport after seven new coronavirus cases have emerged with multiple train and bus routes flagged.

Commuters at Sydney’s Chatswood station await their train on Sunday. Picture: Damian Shaw

NSW Health is urging people to wear face masks on public transport as the state recorded seven new coronavirus cases on Sunday, with multiple train and bus routes flagged as a concern.

Passengers on eight different bus and train routes were identified as close contacts of some of the state’s new cases on Sunday, including buses 442 and X39 and train journeys between Merrylands and Parramatta in the west. Anyone associated with the routes between August 24 and August 27 is being urged to monitor symptoms and get tested immediately if feeling unwell.

A NSW transport worker sanitises entry gates to Central Station oin Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Adam Yip

Surveillance footage revealed that mask-wearing levels at ­Sydney stations were as low as 30 per cent in August, prompt­ing renewed calls for the government to make it compulsory.

The state’s seven new cases on Sunday included a student at a western Sydney school and five linked to Sydney’s CBD cluster, which has grown to 28 cases.

Health authorities urged ­people to stick to the 1.5m rule, but also singled out public transport as a situation where people should be wearing masks.

Two new gyms — Virgin ­Active on Pitt and Margaret streets — in the CBD have been connected to new cases, as well as two venues in Carringbah to the city’s south.

St Paul’s Catholic College in Greystanes, in the west, will be closed for deep cleaning on Monday after a student ­attended school while infectious. Close contacts are being notified.

Meanwhile, Ryde Secondary Campus will reopen on Monday after a staff member had tested positive.

Broadway shopping centre in inner-city Ultimo told customers that a person who tested positive to COVID-19 visited the homewares store House on August 24 at 2pm.

Anybody who was at the store at that time should monitor for symptoms and self-isolate if necessary. The store was closed for a deep clean on Sunday.

Face mask usage in Sydney was as low as 30 per cent in August prompting calls to make masks compulsory. Picture: Damian Shaw

Broadway shopping centre said in a community statement that based on the current health advice, shoppers who visited other stores in the centre at that time, or who visited House at ­another time, should not be alarmed.

One of the new cases diagnosed in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday was a returned ­traveller in hotel quarantine and ­another was locally acquired, with the source still under ­investigation.

Justice Health revealed that a staff member at the inner-city Surry Hills police cells complex has tested positive to corona­virus.

In a statement, NSW Health said the community must remain “vigilant” as COVID-19 continued to circulate in the community.

There were 19,626 tests done in NSW, down from 24,632 the previous day.