More than a million people living in Sydney have woken up in lockdown as the city battles to bring the latest COVID-19 outbreak under control.
Key points:
- Four local government areas are included in the lockdown: Waverley, Randwick, Woollahra and the CBD
- The partial lockdown is in place until midnight on Friday, July 2
- Authorities have been able to trace all but one case, and the Premier has rejected calls for a broader lockdown
It is the first partial lockdown Sydney has seen since the northern beaches restrictions over Christmas, and residents will be watching the numbers anxiously in the hope it makes an impact.
People who live in, or have worked in the Sydney local government areas (LGAs) of Waverley, Woollahra, Randwick and the City of Sydney have been told they need to stay at home, after NSW recorded 22 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 on Friday.
The Bondi cluster, which began after an unvaccinated limousine driver transported international flight crew, now stands at 65 cases.
ABC News: Tim Swanston
)With a rapidly growing number of venues visited by infectious individuals, chief health officer Kerry Chant said lockdown was the only way to stem the spread of the highly infectious Delta strain.
"Because of the growing number of venues, the fact that we've had confirmed transmission at a number of the venues, we need to reduce people's movements," she said.
"So by the time we're getting to them, they have reduced the limited number of activities or sites that they've done."
Even though contact tracers have been able to link all but one infection to a known case or cluster, NSW health authorities hope the partial lockdown will halt the spread of the virus quickly.
"Whilst we're doing really well with the virus, our contact tracers are doing unbelievable job, the people who we're interviewing are doing a great job, the advice from Health is — we don't want to see this situation linger for weeks, " NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) says the partial lockdown doesn't go far enough. It is calling for stay-at-home orders to be extended to the entire Sydney basin.
AMA president Omar Khorshid said the current restrictions were confusing for people in the city.
"If you work in the CBD but live outside of it, we know if you contract the disease you are going to give it to your family. That is happening with the Delta virus in Sydney right now," he said.
"But the rules don't apply, as far as we can see, to family. And there's also confusion about who's in and who's out."
The Premier said the new stay-at-home orders were not needed across a broader area, but she conceded the situation could change.
"If there's a sudden turnaround and there's a massive improvement, then NSW Health will provide us advice accordingly. If the opposite occurs, NSW Health will provide us advice accordingly," she said.
Economic blow for CBD
ABC News: Gavin Coote
)There are fears that new restrictions in the CBD could push struggling businesses over the edge.
City of Sydney Councillor Angela Vithoulkas said the news would devastate local communities, because the economic implications would last longer than the one-week stay-at-home order.
"I'm sitting here now looking out on to main roads and it looks like a Sunday morning after a big Saturday night — it's a ghost town," she said.
"So my heart's broken into a thousand more pieces knowing that there is additional pain for those businesses who were trying to hang on and were already struggling."
Supplied
)Business NSW CEO Daniel Hunter said the restrictions were "a concerning development" for business, but "a sensible decision".
"If we get on top of this quickly by doing the right thing, it is hoped we can avoid extended lockdowns and the devastating knock-on impacts to business," he said.
Until at least 11:59pm on July 2, people who live in the four affected LGAs, or who have worked there in the past fortnight, have only four valid reasons to leave home. These are:
- Shopping for food or other essential goods and services
- Medical care or compassionate needs
- Exercise outdoors in groups of 10 or fewer
- Essential work, or education, where you cannot work or study from home
NSW Health is continuing to investigate the case of a nine-year-old child who attended St Charles' Catholic Primary School in Waverley.
Health authorities are also extremely concerned about workplace transmission at the Joh Bailey hair salon in Double Bay, and are urging all clients and staff who went to the salon between June 15 and 23 to be tested and maintain quarantine.
Existing COVID-19 restrictions across the state, such as mandatory masks indoors and on public transport, have been extended until 11:59pm on Friday, July 2.
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2021-06-25 18:55:12Z
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