Restrictions return to NSW to avoid Covid outbreak

The NSW government has again tightened restrictions for restaurants, cafes, weddings and funerals.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian in Sydney on Friday. Picture: Jeremy Piper

The NSW government has again tightened restrictions for restaurants, cafes, weddings and funerals, introducing new measures it hopes will minimise COVID-19 transmissions if there is an outbreak.

While the state continues to maintain relatively low rates of daily infection, Premier Gladys Berejiklian pressed ahead on Friday with a suite of new restrictions targeting sectors deemed “higher risk” by the government’s health advisers.

The requirements, to take ­effect next Friday, will cut the maximum group booking in restaurants and cafes from 20 to 10, in line with pubs and clubs that had similar rules enforced earlier this week.

NSW Health disclosed eight new coronavirus infections in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday, two of whom were returning international travellers now in hotel quarantine. There were a further five cases of the virus ­between 8pm Thursday and 9am on Friday, leaving a total of 13.

A number of the cases were linked to the Crossroads Hotel in Casula, a cluster which includes 42 known infections — although 27 of those cases had not attended the hotel but contracted their infections through contact.

Other recent infections have included a woman in her 30s who worked at the Thai Rock restaurant in Stockland Mall at Wetherill Park between July 9 and Tuesday.

Three cases have been linked to the venue and a health alert has since been released urging anyone who dined at the restaurant to get tested and self isolate for 14 days regardless of their symptoms.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said officials had contact or attempted to contact about 10,000 people who may have been infected with the virus.

There are 101 people with the coronavirus being treated in the state, with one in intensive care.

Under new rules, venues will have to register as COVID-safe, and submit their COVID safety plans to the government, allowing any customer the opportunity to provide real-time feedback on any lax health safety standards.

Weddings and corporate events will also be limited to 150 people, subject to a 4sq m rule. These venues, too, will have to register as COVID-safe, and guests will have to remain seated: dancing, singing and mingling between groups will be severely restricted.

“These rules will give businesses and the community a ­degree of certainty into the foreseeable future, and help NSW avoid uncontrolled virus spread,” Ms Berejiklian said.

New limits will also be introduced for funerals and places of worship, with both to be capped at holding 100 people, subject to the same 4sq m rule.

The decision to tighten ­restrictions follows a tumultuous fortnight for NSW authorities.

Officials have scrambled to contain an outbreak of transmissions that emerged in southwestern Sydney, sparking off a chain of contaminations and heightened concerns about a return to lockdown conditions.

Senior members of the government have vigorously argued against a return to such quarantine conditions during leadership meetings on the subject. They have insisted that doing so could significantly harm the state’s fledgling economic recovery.

The government also signalled a tightening of compliance measures: venues that flout the new restrictions face fines and even temporary closure.