Why us?: Fairfield community responds to Covid-19 mandates

About 1am on Wednesday, Fairfield resident Sam Couri had ­finally had enough.

Sam Couri at a local Covid testing site. Picture: Ryan Osland

About 1am on Wednesday, Fairfield resident Sam Couri had ­finally had enough.

For hours, the burning lights of bumper to bumper traffic had glared into her bedroom as frantic essential workers lined up for mandatory Covid testing, out of fear they wouldn’t otherwise be permitted to go to work.

Horns were blaring, loud music was playing and at times frustrations boiled over into bursts of road rage.

“It was a long and painful night,” Ms Couri said, yawning as she leaned on her mailbox the next morning. “I just don’t know why this government is targeting our area.”

Her neighbour, Daryl Blanch, was unable to get to work on Wednesday morning because of kilometres of queueing vehicles blocking his path out.

“I leave at five every morning, but wasn’t able to get out of my driveway,” he said. “It’s like I’m a prisoner in my own home.”

On Tuesday, Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced a new mandate that required residents from the Fairfield region who worked in other LGAs to be tested at a local clinic every three days.

By her 11am press conference on Wednesday, she regretted the snap decision.

“I apologise if anyone was inconvenienced,” she said, announcing an update to the mandate to allow Fairfield essential workers who were asymptomatic to be tested outside the LGA.

“That is why today, based on the health advice … we are saying to ease pressure and it is not just the clinics and testing capacity but also the traffic conditions as well.”

The new advice simply confused the local community.

Welder Phu Vi Lam was one worker dragged out for testing before he went to his afternoon shift in Moorebank on Wednesday.

“I’ve been in this queue for two hours already, and it’s not moving very quickly,” he said.

“They’re being unfair to Fairfield. Why didn’t we see this when the Bondi Covid happened? Why us?”

Ricky Ing of ING Construction in Fairfield. Picture: Ryan Osland

“I waited for hours this morning to get a test,” Ricky Ing, owner of ING Constructions said. “It turns out I could have waited until Saturday, but now I’ll have to complete another test then, too, because it wasn’t clear.”

Mr Ing said his company of six staff has been forced to introduce a Covid-19 clause in their building contracts, as further onsite restrictions and supply delays were beginning to hamper projects.

“We’re already dealing with material supply problems of up to three months and now additional Covid restriction will mean we’ll all need to get tested and risk jobs running over time … and that’s not our fault.”

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant on Wednesday said while the health authorities were “intensely focused” on the virus in Fairfield, they must not neglect surrounding LGAs, as the outbreak continued to grow.

“It is important that we don‘t keep losing focus on adjacent local government areas of Liv­erpool and also Canterbury-Bankstown.”

Some 97 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in NSW on Wednesday, 70 of which were from southwest Sydney.