The annual New Year's Eve fireworks in Sydney's CBD will be a TV-only event this year with Gladys Berejiklian shutting down public access to the harbour foreshore following five new COVID-19 cases.
Prime viewing positions along the harbour foreshore had been allocated to front-line workers from across the state to enjoy the fireworks.
NSW Premier Glady Berejiklian is shutting down the Sydney harbour foreshore to large crowds of revellers this New Year's Eve.Credit:Wolter Peeters, Sam Mooy
However, the NSW Premier said the health risks posed by large numbers of revellers congregating in the Sydney central business district were too great.
A short, seven-minute fireworks display will continue at midnight, with the NSW Premier urging people to watch from home instead. The only way to watch the fireworks live will be from buildings with a view.
"So on New Year’s Eve, we don’t want any crowds on the foreshores around Sydney whatsoever," she said.
"However, if you have a booking for a restaurant or another hospitality venue, so long as the 4 square metre rule is in place, and those venues have COVID-safe plans and you have a permit from services New South Wales. You’ll be allowed into those venues in the CBD.”
We don’t want any crowds on the foreshores around Sydney whatsoever.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian
Anyone visiting the Sydney CBD will require a New Year’s Eve pass. Revellers will be barred from entering the designated public zones around Circular Quay, North Sydney and the City.
Outdoor gatherings across Greater Sydney also will be reduced from 100 to 50 people. Council events for New Year's Eve across Sydney will continue but must be controlled. People must be seated and not mingle.
Ms Berejiklian thanked the 15,300 people who came forward for testing in the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday. She said the state recorded five new cases of community transmission in the reporting period.
She said a NSW man in his 70s also died last week from respiratory complications following a COVID-19 infection diagnosed in March. His death brings NSW's total to 56 deaths.
Four of the locally acquired cases are linked to the Avalon cluster. Investigations continue into the source of this cluster, which now numbers 126. The fifth local case is linked to a previously reported case on the northern beaches whose source of infection is not yet linked to the Avalon cluster and remains under investigation.
"All of them [the new cases are] on the northern beaches and all of them obviously associated in one way or another with the Avalon cluster," she said.
The Premier also flagged the easing of restrictions for the southern section of the northern beaches earlier than their northern zone counterparts. She said the southern section was recording significantly fewer cases.
"And whilst we're seeing the trends go the way we hope they do, there are still too many concerning aspects - of those cases and also of not really being able to identify what we call the intermediaries, those unlinked cases, for us to really ease restrictions in the way that we know that the northern beaches community wanted us to do so.
"We are still going to have to ask you [southern section residents] to follow the stay-at-home provisions until January 2.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced the New Year's Eve restrictions which will see people unable to entre the CBD unless they have a permit.Credit:Rhett Wyman
"On New Year's Eve, however, you will be allowed to have 10 people into your home, but unlike Christmas, those 10 people include children and it also means they have to be from your zone, from the southern part of the northern beaches.
"We don't want people moving in and out of the area for the next few days. We want to keep the area separate to make sure that any untraced chains of community transmission have actually been clamped down."
On Sunday evening, NSW Health released a number of new venue alerts for areas outside of the northern beaches lockdown zone, where residents have been now been under a public health order for more than eight days.
Anyone who attended Cibo Cafe at North Sydney on Wednesday, December 16 from 11.30am to 12.45pm should immediately get tested and self-isolate for 14 days.
A case also attended a number of venues in Casula - the south-west Sydney location of the Crossroads Hotel, which sparked an outbreak in July when a truck driver attended after travelling from Victoria - while infectious on Christmas Eve.
Anyone who attended Casula Priceline from 6.30pm to 7pm, Coles Casula Mall from 7pm to 7.30pm or Radio Bombay Restaurant from 7.30pm to 7.50pm should immediately get tested and then self-isolate until they receive a negative result.
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Laura is a crime reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.
Mary Ward is a health reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.
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2020-12-28 00:30:00Z
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