Scott Morrison’s Covid-19 rescue mission

Canberra will step in to support Sydney businesses - a policy shift that underscores the threat to the economy.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said it is ‘highly unlikely’ the Greater Sydney lockdown will be lifted on Friday as planned. Picture: AAP

The federal government will step in to help support businesses crippled by Sydney’s extended lockdown – set to stretch for weeks as contact tracers fail to keep up with surging Covid-19 infections – as health ­officials expect more than 100 new cases by Monday.

In a marked shift in policy underscoring the threat to the ­national economy, Scott Morrison and Josh Frydenberg held a phone hook-up with NSW Premier ­Gladys Berejiklian and state Treasurer Dominic Perrottet on Sunday to discuss a joint financial assistance package for businesses that will be devastated by the prolonged shutdown.

Only last week, the federal government had told state officials to finance their own rescue package by going further into debt.

Details of the package, which will also broaden assistance to households and workers who have lost income, is to be considered by the federal government’s Expenditure Review Committee on Monday.

Victoria became the latest state to close its borders to all of NSW – despite no cases recorded outside Sydney – with a decision from Queensland on whether it will do the same expected on Monday.

With 77 new cases recorded to 8pm on Saturday, including at least 33 who were in the community while infectious, Ms Berejiklian conceded the numbers “aren’t going in the right direction”.

“I’ll be shocked if it’s less than 100 this time tomorrow,” she said.

“And the few days afterwards will be worse, much worse than we’ve seen today.”

 

The state also recorded its first Covid-19 death since late December – an unvaccinated 90-year-old woman from Sydney’s southwest.

There are 52 people with the virus in hospital, including 23 aged under 55, 11 of those younger than 35 and six younger than 25.

Ms Berejiklian said it was “highly unlikely” that the Greater Sydney lockdown would be lifted on Friday as planned.

“I’ve always said we need that exposure number in the community to be as close to zero as possible, so we’re confident we haven’t missed any chains of transmission,” she said.

Officials privately conceded that the government had already decided the lockdown would not be lifted; instead, tougher restrictions were being examined.

The NRL is already preparing to shift clubs into Queensland for at least a month from Wednesday after an emergency meeting of the Australian Rugby League Commission on Sunday afternoon.

It had already decided to move Wednesday’s third State of Origin match from Newcastle to the Gold Coast to allow crowds to attend.

Learning from home for Sydney schoolchildren Sydney is also likely to extend beyond next week, when students had been expected to return to the classroom.

With the source of infection for 22 of the latest cases still under investigation, several health experts called for curfews, the shuttering of retailers and the imposition of a 5km travel radius.

The death of the 90-year-old reinforced the government’s plea for Sydneysiders to stay at home and not visit extended family, with 50 of the 77 new cases announced on Sunday close family members.

The state’s chief health officer, Kerry Chant, is so concerned about the growing outbreak that she is recommending people who have had one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine talk to their doctor about cutting the interval between their first and second doses from three months to six weeks.

Although studies have shown this reduces the effectiveness of the vaccine, Dr Chant said the ­urgency of a second dose to deal with the Delta strain of Covid-19 was paramount.

 

“We might sacrifice a bit of long-term protection but we’re making sure you’re protected earlier and at this time, that’s the strategy we’d suggest,” she said.

The commonwealth’s vaccination program co-ordinator, ­Lieutenant General John Frewen, on Sunday said 300,000 doses brought forward for southwest Sydney would start to circulate next week.

“They will be brought into play with absolute priority into southwest Sydney, west Sydney and southeastern Sydney,” he said.

No further restrictions were announced on Sunday but several epidemiologists and infectious diseases experts believe only tougher lockdown measures will halt the spread of infections.

University of Melbourne epidemiologist Tony Blakely said authorities should implement restrictions similar to those New Zealand put in place last year amid fears the Delta variant was moving much faster through the community than previous strains and that current vaccine coverage levels offered little protection.

That included a 5km exercise rule, closure of restaurants and cafes for takeaway, closure of construction sites and nothing left in the grey zone of “essential work”.

Federal chief medical officer Paul Kelly said he was confident Sydney would start to see the benefits of the lockdown soon because the current high numbers reflected restrictions in place two weeks ago. “We know that there have been further lockdowns during that period, and further advice over the last couple of days, and that will take good effect on this type of outbreak,” he said.

The number of infections spreading between people in the same household hit 39 on Sunday, rising from a previous record of 25 cases reported on Friday.

Crowds of people defy social distancing rules to wait in line to receive a COVID-19 vaccination at the NSW vaccination hub in Sydney. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

The threat of social gatherings was highlighted by Sunday’s numbers. A further 11 cases were linked to a “super­spreader”party at the Meriton Suites in inner-city Waterloo two weeks ago, bringing linked cases to 46 – seven people who attended the gathering and 39 subsequent contacts.

Authorities are alarmed that the Covid safety message isn’t getting through.

On Saturday afternoon, police at Marrickville in the city’s inner west found 15 men around a table playing cards in a smoke-filled room. The men – aged between 56 and 89 – were each given $1000 infringement notices.

In another case in the early hours of Sunday morning, police were alerted to a party in a Sydney Olympic Park apartment and found 10 people, aged between 18 and 20, celebrating an 18th birthday. The partygoers pleaded ignorance of the public health orders, although some were found trying to hide in the unit. All were issued $1000 infringement notices and the party was shut down.

Deputy Police Commissioner Gary Worboys said people were still making a conscious decision not to stay at home and not to comply with the health orders.

“These examples highlight incredibly selfish and irresponsible behaviour, which we cannot and will not tolerate,” he said.

NSW Health’s sewage surveillance program has detected fragments of the virus in a number of sewerage systems in Sydney.