Stay at home: Christmas chaos over shock cluster on Sydney’s northern beaches

Holiday plans are in chaos as Western Australia and Queensland consider restricting travel from Sydney amid a growing cluster on the northern beaches.

Northern Beaches residents line up to be tested at Mona Vale hospital in Sydney on Thursday. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Holiday plans are in chaos as Western Australia and Queensland consider restricting travel from Sydney, as health authorities scramble to contain a growing coronavirus cluster on the city’s northern beaches.

More than 270,000 Sydneysiders have been asked to stay at home for three days and avoid travelling outside the area after the northern beaches cluster grew to 17 cases on Thursday.

Warnings have also been ­issued as far afield as the Kirribilli Club on Sydney’s lower north shore and the Penrith RSL club in the city’s far west after a musician at the centre of the cluster performed at both venues.

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan on Thursday ­announced recent arrivals from NSW would have to get a COVID test and self-isolate until they ­received a negative result. From Friday, anyone arriving from NSW will have to self-isolate in “suitable premises” for 14 days and be tested on day 11.

The Avalon RSL. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Mr McGowan met health officials on Thursday and flagged the possible reintroduction of a hard border in the lead up to the Christmas holiday period.

Queensland’s Chief Health ­Officer, Jeannette Young, warned the state’s residents to reconsider their travel plans in case the ­northern beaches was designated a hotspot.

From Friday, anyone who has been in the region will not be able to visit Queensland aged-care homes and hospitals.

“The next 24 hours are critical in suppressing the risk of the virus spreading,” Dr Young said.

State and territory chief health officers held an emergency meeting on Thursday night to discuss the outbreak. The meeting of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee could produce advice for national cabinet on measures considered necessary to limit the spread.

The Business Council of ­Australia urged Mr McGowan and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk not to reimpose hard border restrictions.

“In the lead-up to Christmas, families and businesses are relying on state premiers and leaders to take the same proven, evidence-based approach to their borders as NSW did throughout the year,” BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott said.

“A confidence-sapping stop-start approach to the economy would be a job destroyer.”

Josh Frydenberg also cautioned states from closing their borders, and said it would slow the economic recovery.

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan. Picture: Getty Images

“Australia is opening up and the recovery is underway and Australians are back spending and Australians are back investing and Australians are back travelling and most importantly of all, Australians are back at work,” the Treasurer said.

Earlier on Thursday, Mr McGowan said WA could ban travellers from NSW if it became clear the coronavirus had spread more broadly around Sydney.

“If we need to we will put up a hard border with NSW,” Mr McGowan said.

“I realise that would be very ­upsetting for many people.

“But if the medical advice says that’s what we need to do to protect the people of Western Australia, we will do it.”

NSW Health on Thursday evening issued an alert asking residents of the Northern Beaches Local Government Area — which stretches from Manly in the south to Palm Beach in the north — to “keep to your household group”.

“As a number of new cases are currently being interviewed, it is likely that a number of new venues will be identified and that people in the northern beaches may have ­attended these venues,” NSW Health said in a statement.

The request to stay at home is not a direction.

The cluster was first detected on Wednesday when a woman in her 60s and a man in his 70s tested positive to COVID-19.

The Australian reported that neither had isolated while waiting for their coronavirus test results, and visited a number of venues in Palm Beach and neighbouring Avalon.

One of the new cases is an Education Department employee who worked in inner-city Eveleigh on Monday.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said earlier on Thursday that she was confident this was a new outbreak — and likely from an overseas source — after sewerage surveillance from last week had returned negative.

Despite the growing outbreak, tourism and business groups say authorities should be allowed to contact trace and isolate cases while the country remains open.

Acting Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Ross Lambie said states should adopt highly targeted ­responses after business confidence had begun to recover ahead of the holiday period. “Travellers have also booked trips for Christmas and the ­summer holidays,” Dr Lambie said.

“There would be chaos, disappointment and economic fallout for tourism businesses if decisions are taken that are disproportionate to the risk.

“People in business have the opportunity to make up some ground lost during this busy trading period so let us all hope that the news from NSW shows that the health situation is quickly controlled and that we can keep the positive momentum for economic recovery going.”

Josh Frydenberg warned states against closing borders, saying it would slow the economic recovery. Picture: Gary Ramage

Acting Queensland Premier Steven Miles urged Queenslanders to delay their Christmas holiday to Sydney for a day until a decision was made whether to ­restrict travel. “Over the next 24 hours we’ll monitor that situation very, very closely and so to anyone ­currently in Queensland who might be planning Christmas travel to that region we just urge you to take caution,” he said.

The tourism industry has warned that any border closures at this time of year would have a significant impact on their business. Some operators earn 60 per cent of their annual incomes ­during the December-January holiday period.

Australian Tourism Industry Council executive director Simon Westaway said: “We’ve been through so much this year, we’ve toed the line and also called out when we felt the border situation got politicised.

“It’s a time for cool, measured heads; we’re hoping that will prevail. Hard borders are not the long-term answer, particularly domestically.”

As well as imposing a 14-day quarantine period on all new ­arrivals from NSW from Friday, Mr McGowan said anyone who had arrived in his state from NSW since December 11 would need to present for a COVID test within the next 24 hours, and would need to self-quarantine until a negative result was ­confirmed.

Scott Morrison said Mr McGowan was a “cautious guy” but was well aware of the many West Australian families looking to reunite over Christmas who would not want to see those plans disrupted.

“Australia is going to have a Christmas that few other countries are going to have and I think that’s a great credit to the tremendous work that’s been done of course here in NSW by (Premier Gladys Berejiklian) but right across the country,” the Prime Minister said. “Australia is open again and I think Australians really like that. And I think Australians are going to work hard to keep it that way and I think premiers and chief ministers are very keen to achieve that as well.”