Coronavirus: Gladys Berejiklian stares down Sydney lockdown call

Gladys Berejiklian has resisted calls to impose more stringent restrictions on Greater Sydney.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian in Sydney on Thursday. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

Gladys Berejiklian has stared down calls to impose more stringent restrictions on Greater Sydney, as NSW recorded another 10 new locally acquired cases.

The NSW Premier resisted ­renewed pressure from leading ­infectious disease experts who called for mandatory masks use and a short, sharp lockdown across Greater Sydney, after another cluster in the heart of the city emerged on Wednesday.

With nine locally acquired cases announced on Thursday directly linked to existing clusters — the tenth, a man from western Sydney, is believed to be an old case or false positive — Ms Berejiklian said she wouldn’t impose new restrictions lightly.

“Pleasingly, we have seen the numbers go down today but it’s very volatile. They’re going to bounce around,” Ms Berejiklian said on Thursday morning.

“This is a very unpredictable, contagious disease, but we also ­appreciate we don’t want to put more burdens on our citizens than we need to. It’s a very fine line.”

As she stressed her reluctance to mandate masks, in opposition to the swift decision taken by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, Ms Berejiklian implored Greater Sydney residents to ensure they continued to take steps to mitigate the risk of transmission.

“Can I stress again, if you’re at an indoor place, if you’re going grocery shopping, if you’re in a place of worship, you have to wear a mask, you should be wearing a mask,” she said.

“You shouldn’t be catching public transport really at this stage if you’re not wearing a mask, and we want to strongly continue to encourage that.”

 

After the emergence of the Croydon cluster in Sydney’s inner west, and two unlinked cases were identified in Wollongong, several epidemiologists called on the NSW government to enact further restrictions in a bid to curtail the spread of the virus, including staging the Sydney Cricket Ground Test, scheduled for January 7, without spectators.

While Ms Berejiklian said she wouldn’t hesitate to make changes if the outbreak deteriorated, with the health advice continuing to support 50 per cent capacity at the ground, she held firm in her belief the third Test should go ahead as planned. “If there is an opportunity for us to hold events, we should … because at the end of the day what’s on the line, yes, community safety always comes first … but we also have to keep jobs going, we don’t want to see more people out of their job, out of their livelihood,” she said.

“If there’s an opportunity for us to also protect jobs and improve the morale of our citizens and keep mental health high and to try to have a sense of normality, why shouldn’t we strive for that?”

After several days of low testing numbers, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said she was pleased with the almost 28,000 tests conducted to 8pm on Wednesday, but foreshadowed further restrictions might be implemented if more unlinked cases emerged and testing numbers fell to previous levels.

 

“Until we got the Croydon cluster, we were on a more pleasing trajectory,” Dr Chant said. “If we start seeing cases where we don’t know the source of them, and particularly in the presence of low rates of community testing, that elevates our risk threshold and it means we will be having to take even more precautionary action.”

With massive lines for testing clinics in Wollongong disappearing overnight, and still no direct link between the Croydon and ­Avalon cluster, Dr Chant said Greater Sydney was not out of the woods yet. “In terms of Wollongong, I think we’ll have a better picture over the next 24 to 48 hours but we can’t give the all clear until we have a significant period of time where we are absolutely confident there’s been no community chains of transmission,” she said. “What concerns me is when I have those missing chains of transmission because it means we haven’t effectively stopped them and that’s why it’s important that as we go about on New Year’s Eve, we reflect on our behaviours.”

Although the fall in cases of community transmission provided momentary relief for NSW health officials, several public health alerts were issued for a swath of venues across Sydney’s northwest and western suburbs, including Bankstown La Piazza and Anytime Fitness in Kings Park.

 

For Ms Berejiklian, after a ­tumultuous 12 months, she hoped Thursday’s good news would continue into the New Year.

“In 2021, we are all hoping it will be easier than 2020 and let’s start off the year on a positive foot, by respecting the restrictions that are in place, but also demonstrating common sense because good government policy and restrictions doesn’t cover every situation and every single venue and every ­single circumstance,” she said.