Coronavirus NSW: Gladys Berejiklian lashes panicky premiers border closures

Gladys Berejiklian has berated other premiers for causing unnecessary ‘suffering’ ahead of a NSW cabinet meeting to decide on lifting restrictions for Sydneysiders by Christmas.

Gladys Berejiklian says ‘there are parts of NSW completely unaffected by this current outbreak and yet everybody in NSW is suffering because other state leaders made decisions’. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Gladys Berejiklian has berated other premiers for causing unnecessary “suffering” by overreacting to the Avalon Covid cluster by slamming borders shut, ahead of a NSW cabinet meeting to decide on lifting restrictions for Sydneysiders by Christmas.

The anger within the NSW government over states hastily closing borders was such that Deputy Premier John Barilaro flagged the possibility of refusing to quarantine in Sydney interstate residents returning from overseas.

Mr Barilaro said NSW could consider sending travellers to quarantine in other cities. “We’ll have plenty of notice, we’ll know who’s coming in and we could organise a commercial or charter flight,” Mr Barilaro said. “They don’t want to pay but they want to lecture us … they’re not the ones carrying the heavy burden.”

The hotel quarantine program has become a flashpoint of anger for the NSW Premier and her ministers, who are angry that NSW takes the risk of the program as other states close borders.

“We know the infection rates are going up overseas,” the Premier said. “We don’t stand here and tell you how many were Queenslanders or Victorians. I do feel NSW has done more than its fair share and I ask other states to do the same and I look forward to other states stepping up.”

“There are parts of NSW completely unaffected by this current outbreak and yet everybody in NSW is suffering because other state leaders made decisions.”

But with a low number of new coronavirus cases linked to the city’s northern beaches outbreak on Tuesday, some senior NSW government officials are pushing for restrictions to be eased ahead of Christmas unless there is a significant rise in infections announced on Wednesday.

Mr Barilaro said figures similar to the eight revealed on Tuesday would mean there was a “a valid argument to look at easing some of those restrictions” in Sydney and the northern beaches.

 

Others, including Health Minister Brad Hazzard, said the community would expect the government to be cautious when deciding to ease the current rules.

“Clearly the NSW government doesn’t want to be imposing restrictions on families getting -together for Christmas,” Mr Hazzard said.

“Equally, unless we get the health advice that says that the risks are not such that we could end up having a further ¬deterioration of the Avalon cluster, I would think the community would want us to err on the side of caution.”

Seven of the eight cases reported on Tuesday were immediately linked with the northern beaches cluster, leaving one mystery infection: a healthcare worker who had transported returning travellers.

Health authorities on Tuesday evening issued new alerts for the Orange Central Shopping Centre and, the Paddington Alimentari Deli a busy cafe in inner-city Sydney where any customer over three days starting last Thursday is now considered a close contact.

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said urgent genomic testing was being conducted on the healthcare worker transporting positive COVID-19 cases returning from overseas.

Figures obtained by The Australian show NSW has taken 23,668 Victorians since March 28, when the hotel quarantine program was established.

Victoria has only taken 21,733 total returned travellers; its program was shut down for several months due to failures with its hotel quarantine regime.

More than 42,000 of the 89,574 travellers who quarantined in NSW during that time were residents over other states, according to the figures, which were last updated on Monday.

NSW has taken just more than half, 50.9 per cent, off all returning travellers to Australia, followed by Queensland with 29,988 (17.1 per cent) and Western Australia with 23,028 (13.1 per cent).

Mr Barilaro said he would raise the possibility of returning interstate residents to their respective states to quarantine if other premiers did not reconsider their position on border closures.

“Let’s say tomorrow there’s a low number of new cases and we can lift some restrictions,” Mr Barilaro said. “If you leave it up to them they won’t do anything for two weeks, and it impacts so heavily on Christmas Day, Boxing Day sales.”

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley seized on a COVID-19 case who had returned from NSW, the state’s first locally acquired in 53 days, as vindication that the hard border was needed.

“There are many, many exposure sites in Sydney that have seen many, many people come to Melbourne from those exposure sites beyond the northern beaches,” Mr Foley said. “This is not over by a long shot.”

A health worker at a COVID testing site in Newport, northern Sydney. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Business groups are urging state leaders to agree to a single set of rules that would govern localised lockdowns and when, and if, state borders should close.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott said: “Knee-jerk border closures have thrown thousands of Australians into limbo and cost millions of dollars in cancelled reservations and bookings.

“Managing the health situation and giving people the certainty to make plans for the future are not mutually exclusive.”

Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases export who sits on the commonwealth Infection Control Expert Group, said border closures were not sustainable in the long-term as a response to clusters of the kind seen on Sydney’s northern beaches.

“Border closures were originally planned when you had a lot of mystery cases in the community, not clusters,” Professor Collignon said.

“The advantage of clusters is you actually know where all the infection came from, and you take measures to isolate or quarantine people who are close contacts.

“To some degree, to have this zero tolerance for any risk will, over a year or two or three, not be sustainable. And perversely, it breeds complacency.”

But University of Melbourne epidemiologist Tony Blakely said Victoria and South Australia were justified in closing their borders to people from hotspots in Sydney. Western Australia and Queensland have closed their borders to all residents of Greater Sydney and the northern beaches.

Cars snake through deserted playing fields at a pop-up testing site in Sydney’s North Narrabeen. Picture: Jeremy Piper