Sydney lockdown to last extra four weeks

Greater Sydney’s lockdown will be extended but the construction industry will begin a tentative revival from Saturday and rapid Covid-19 tests may be used for ­essential workers.

A cyclist makes his way through a near-empty George St in the Sydney CBD on Tuesday. Picture: AFP

Greater Sydney’s lockdown will be extended for at least four more weeks but the construction industry will begin a tentative revival from Saturday and rapid Covid-19 tests may be deployed to prevent the spread of the virus through ­essential workers.

As NSW recorded its highest number of daily infections since the outbreak started, a crisis cabinet meeting signed off on the month-long lockdown extension as part of several critical decisions, including a roadmap on how to deal with extended stay-at-home orders.

Treasury officials have begun talks with business on an increased assistance package and the government has flagged a “singles’’ bubble to allow welfare visits with loved ones.

As Premier Gladys Berejiklian declared she wanted to keep NSW residents safe but at the same time “make sure we can live life more freely’’, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews mounted a ­direct assault on the handling of the Sydney outbreak.

As he announced an end to his own lockdown, Mr Andrews ­revealed he had excluded residents of an additional four southern NSW local government areas from travelling to Victoria without speaking with Ms Berejiklian because he was “too busy to pick up the phone today”.

Mr Andrews said the exclusions were made because the NSW government refused to lock Sydneysiders in the city, as he ­repeated his calls for a “ring of steel’’ to circle Sydney and a city-wide curfew imposed.

“You are not just making ­decisions for NSW, you are making decisions for the whole country,’’ Mr Andrews said.

“We have all lived it and we’ve all been touched by the tragedy of it, and it’s on that basis and from that experience that we say we think these things, like a ring of steel around Sydney, and perhaps settings that are consistent across Sydney ... I don’t reckon any Victorian needs convincing that everything we did is worth trying in Sydney right now.

 

“Like a curfew, for instance. Like all manner of things. All manner of things. It all, as a package, worked here and I see no reason why you wouldn’t be considering those things in other cities, whether they be Sydney or anywhere else.”

Tensions between premiers have been growing as states have battled outbreaks and scrambled to secure vaccine supplies while Pfizer imports were scaled up.

A national cabinet meeting last Friday rejected NSW calls for more vaccines to be redirected to southwest Sydney from other states. West Australian Premier Mark McGowan said on Friday his state would not provide NSW with extra doses of Pfizer, criticising Ms Berejiklian for “half-baked measures”.

He repeated his attack on Monday: “The NSW government has made some terrible mistakes. they’ve got to take it more seriously.’’

On Tuesday, Ms Berejiklian said: “We have our own course here in NSW, we have a mission to keep our community safe but also to make sure we can look forward to living life more freely.”

NSW recorded 172 cases of the virus in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday, 79 of which were known to be moving around the community at some point while infectious. Ms Berejiklian said she had been told by the federal government that NSW would be “awash” with the Pfizer vaccine in October, but continued to urge Sydneysiders to accept the AstraZeneca jab.

Health officials said that while hotspot regions of southwestern Sydney were seeing positive signs of slowing mobility and transmission, the virus appeared to be gaining prominence in the city’s western suburbs, particularly Canterbury-Bankstown.

With the state preparing to move into a lengthy period of hibernation, NSW Treasury officials have begun drawing up new support plans for businesses, with peak advocacy group Business NSW calling for an overhaul of the current JobSaver scheme. The industry body’s chief executive, Daniel Hunter, said the current grant scheme of up to $10,000 per week for businesses was a worthy package but “insufficient” for medium and larger enterprises employing greater numbers of staff.

“While JobSaver is targeted towards retaining the employment relationship, capital intensive businesses are still at significant risk, particularly those that have large repayments on property, plant and equipment,” Mr Hunter said.

He warned of large-scale job losses. “What we need is this package to be scalable for businesses of all sizes, so it maintains employment and keeps businesses afloat… otherwise many businesses across Greater Sydney will never re-open and jobs will be lost for good.”

Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive Wes Lambert also supported an overhaul of JobSaver.

“Larger businesses in the hospitality industry are reporting they’re not eligible for stimulus and many businesses are indicating the rental relief will not go far enough in the extended lockdown and calling for a return of the landlord code of practice,” Mr Lambert said.

He said a decision to extend the lockdown would be catastrophic for the hospitality industry.

Ms Berejiklian has spent days delaying critical announcements concerning the construction industry and face-to-face learning for students but is expected to announce a suite of measures on Wednesday to prepare the state for a lengthy period of stay-at-home restrictions. The Australian revealed on Tuesday this would include a “singles bubble” designed to allow individuals to meet indoors, even if they are not involved in an intimate relationship or doing so for compassionate reasons, per the current health orders.

Treasury modelling for restrictions extending to September 17 were presented to the crisis cabinet forecasting significant job losses, with some officials suggesting this was a more accurate depiction of the lockdown’s length.

NSW Health director of health protection Jeremy McAnulty said the department was reviewing rapid antigen testing technology that could be used for critical workers and businesses to determine if they were carrying the virus. It is understood this technology may also be used for Year 12 school students to allow them to return to face-to-face learning.

Covid-19 testing in Blacktown, western Sydney, on Tuesday. Picture: Jeremy Piper