Anyone wanting to leave Greater Sydney will require a permit and singles bubbles for those in areas of concern will need to be registered in tough new rules brought in for areas in lockdown.
Announcing the changes on Saturday, New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said today was the “most concerning” day of the pandemic the state has experienced so far.
NSW recorded 466 new cases and four deaths on Saturday, the highest case spike in the state’s history.
“This is literally a war and we know it has been a war for some time – but never to this extent,” the premier said.
Crisis cabinet agreed to the changes on Friday night, after a horror week of spiking case numbers, which saw multiple new regions plunged into lockdown and police demand new powers to help curb the spread.
Here’s what’s changed:
Fines for breaching public health orders, including lying to contact tracers, will be raised from $1000 to $5000.
A $3000 on the spot fine will be issued to people who breach the two person exercise rule.
A permit will be required for anyone leaving Greater Sydney to enter regional NSW.
Exemptions will be granted for those leaving to visit holiday homes for urgent repairs, but only one person will be permitted to go.
People in singles bubbles in the 12 “areas of concern” within Sydney’s west and southwest must register their bubble, and those involved must live within five kilometres of each other.
The areas of concern are the councils of Bayside, Blacktown, Burwood, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool, Parramatta, Strathfield, and parts of Penrith.
People in those areas are also now not allowed to leave the house for recreation – they must be exercising or supervising children.
Exercise is now limited to 5km from your home or within your LGA for people not living in areas of concern. The rule previously was 10km from your home or within your LGA.
From Monday, there will be enhanced random checkpoints at key roads. Ms Berejiklian said members of the riot squad and highway patrol would be deployed to key local government areas.
An additional 500 Australian Defence Force members will hit the ground in Sydney, after NSW Police requested additional support.
A stay at home payment of $320 will be brought in for residents of hotspot areas who are asked to isolate while waiting for Covid test results, similar to a $450 payment available in Victoria.
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said the rule changes were necessary as authorities continued to have “difficulties getting compliance from some members of the community”.
“The movement particularly in greater Sydney was way too high from our perspective in terms of what we were trying to achieve, and our part in this is to get New South Wales Health ahead of the Delta variant,” he said.
“I am not apologetic. Please don't write in and complain to me, we have given ample warnings and cautions, and that time has gone.”
He said the new rules were necessary as residents continued to exploit loopholes in the existing restrictions, putting the state at further risk.
“The feeling from police, the evidence from police on the ground that the rorts were around people entering regional New South Wales, not for a proper purpose,” he said.
“So we see the permit system strengthened in relation to that. The singles bubble, exercise and recreation collectively were consistently used excuses for people moving around.”
Saturday’s changes come after Premier Gladys Berejiklian unleashed on rule breakers, who she accused of only pretending to not understand the health orders.
“It’s pretty obvious to us, and pretty obvious from the feedback we get from police, that people use the health orders as an excuse to do the wrong thing,” she told reporters on Friday.
“People are saying, ‘Oh, I didn’t know this was this or this was that’. Most of the time that’s not true.
“Can I make this very clear, police are doing an incredible job in terms of compliance, but let’s not pretend that people are doing the right thing.”
On Saturday, she defended her government’s decision to wait eight weeks before introducing the harsher restrictions.
“We have to accept that this is the worst situation New South Wales has been in since day one, and as a consequence of that, there were situation Australia has been in,” she said.
“The delta strain is diabolical, and we have to accept and be real about that.”
https://news.google.com/__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?oc=5
2021-08-14 01:31:20Z
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