Eerie photos show Sydney reduced to a ghost town after the Harbour City’s two-week lockdown was initiated – with an alarming 52 new exposure sites added overnight.
Sydney Harbour, usually lined with Sydneysiders and tourists on a Saturday night visiting the many bars and restaurants that line its shores, saw a turnout of only a few out exercising.
Stay-at-home orders will apply to all of Greater Sydney including the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, and Wollongong areas from 6pm on Saturday and will be in place until midnight on Friday July 9.
A further 52 exposure sites were added overnight as the city comes to grip with its most dangerous coronavirus period to date.
A Virgin flight attendant also has tested positive for the virus on Saturday night, with health officials from New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland are all scrambling to contact people potentially exposed on up to five flights.
Eerie photos show Sydney reduced to a ghost town after the Harbour City’s two-week lockdown was initiated
Sydney Harbour, usually lined with Sydneysiders and tourists on a Saturday night visiting the many bars and restaurants that line its shores, saw a turnout of only a few out exercising
The city’s new light rail system was running at extremely limited capacity, with public transport virtually non-existent throughout the city
Virgin Australia confirmed crew worker was potentially infectious working five flights over two days on June 25 and June 26
The Virgin flight attendant who was infected with the virus while working on five flights through Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast has sent health authorities scrambling as they attempt to contact trace anyone onboard.
Virgin Australia confirmed the crew worker was potentially infectious working five flights over two days on June 25 and June 26.
‘Virgin Australia can confirm that a Sydney-based cabin crew member has tested positive to COVID-19 after undertaking a rapid result test this evening. State and Federal health authorities have been notified,’ the airline said in a statement.
‘The crew member is now in isolation, and Virgin Australia is rapidly contacting all team members who are close contacts. Virgin Australia is requiring those crew members to cease flying, get tested and isolate.’
Virgin say the woman was from a ‘known cluster in Sydney’ and was ‘not aware’ they were a close contact until their shift ended on Saturday.
The affected crew member is a close contact of a positive COVID-19 case from a known cluster in Sydney. Virgin Australia understands the crew member was not aware they were a close contact of a positive case until after they completed their last flight today.
‘The crew member also had an overnight layover in Melbourne on 25 June 2021, staying at the Holiday Inn Express Southbank. While in Melbourne, the crew member remained in hotel isolation under prescribed COVID protocols for overnighting crew members from New South Wales.’
A Virgin flight attendant also has tested positive for the virus on Saturday night after potentially being infectious on five flights through Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne
Circular Quay, usually bustling with people from all around Sydney and New South Wales, was eerily quiet with the famous steps leading up to the Opera House completely bare
Town Hall train station is among 26 new Covid hotspots identified across Sydney in a late night alert from NSW Health, including upmarket restaurants and take-aways, just hours after more than 6million people went into two-week lockdown.
Eight of the locations – including the upmarket Bistro Moncur in Woollahra, a favourite among the Eastern Suburbs social set and wealthy locals – are considered close contact sites.
The list includes a Sunday evening screening of box office smash Fast & Furious 9 at an Auburn cinema.
The gym at Coogee Diggers RSL is also on the latest exposure list, with a near-two hour window for close contacts.
Anyone there at the times listed must get tested and go into isolation for two weeks regardless of the result.
The new sites make it 52 new exposure sites for Sydney on Saturday alone, with the situation threatening to get out of control as the city locks down.
The growing number of venues also includes another Woolworths and the same pub that was at the centre of a previous outbreak.
The alert for Great Ocean Foods in Marrickville has now been extended to take in all day every day from Monday June 21 until Friday June 25.
The Crossroads Hotel in Casula has again been named a high-risk exposure site and anyone who attended the pub on Wednesday June 23 from 7pm to 10:30pm must immediately be tested and self-isolate for 14 days.
In July last year a Melbourne freight worker visited the pub for a party, which resulted in at least 34 cases. He claimed he didn’t know he was sick.
Churrasco restaurant in Coogee, Speedo Fitness Club in Bondi Beach and hair salon in Hurstville were also included in Saturday evening’s latest exposure drop.
Stay-at-home orders will apply to all of Greater Sydney including the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, and Wollongong areas from 6pm on Saturday and will be in place until midnight on Friday July 9.
Locals are only allowed to leave their houses for four reasons, which include for school or work if unable to do so from home, medical reasons including to get the vaccine and to give care, for essential shopping and to exercise outside in groups of no more than ten.
‘There is no curfew. You can leave your home at any stage to purchase any essential goods that you need to and that is a given. Be thoughtful and considerate about fellow citizens and no need to panic buy,’ Ms Berejiklian said on Saturday during a media briefing.
‘I said that this the scariest time since the pandemic started and that’s proven to be the case.’
Regional NSW will follow restrictions that were previously placed on Sydney which include having only five visitors at a house, wearing masks indoors, hospitality venues reduced to one person per square metre and outdoor venues reduced to 50 per cent capacity.
‘So for those parts of New South Wales that aren’t in lockdown, restrictions still apply because we want to make sure that if there have been any occasions where people unknowingly have taken the virus outside into the regions, that we don’t have any spread in those regions,’ Ms Berejiklian said.
Weddings will be able to go ahead over the weekend but will be banned from Monday.
Funerals can continue with a maximum of 100 guests and masks indoors while community sport will also be shut down over the next fortnight.
Shops will remain open and financial assistance will be available.
Residents in the Greater Sydney region will endure two weeks of lockdown from Saturday night (pictured Sydney CBD on Saturday)
Sydney residents were undaunted by the new stay-at-home-orders, soaking up the sun on an unusually warm late-June day on Saturday. Pictured: Woman on Coogee Beach on Saturday
The Crossroads Hotel in Casula has again been named a high-risk exposure site and anyone who attended the pub on Wednesday June 23 from 7pm to 10:30pm must immediately be tested and self-isolate for 14 days
The Churrasco restaurant in Coogee has been listed as a high-exposure site by NSW Health
Pictures show the New South Wales capital’s landmark locations, including the Opera House, CBD and Bondi Beach, completely deserted with stay-at-home-orders now in place for the entire Greater Sydney region.
The images cast a stark contrast to the scenes of Friday night, where residents from the four local governments initially put into lockdown attempted to celebrate their final hours.
Images of revellers flocking to bars and restaurants in Bondi, Coogee, Surry Hills, Darlinghurst and the CBD showed Sydneysiders undaunted by the growing coronavirus outbreak in their city.
One man was seen stumbling out of a pub on the beach in Bondi, losing his balance as he friends laughed in the background.
Saturday night saw Australia’s most populated city reduced to something post-apocalyptic, with empty streets, car-less roads and patron-less bars.
Circular Quay, usually bustling with people from all around Sydney and New South Wales, was eerily quiet with the famous steps leading up to the Opera House completely bare.
The city’s new light rail system was running at extremely limited capacity, with public transport virtually non-existent.
The images cast a stark contrast to the scenes of Friday night, where residents from the four local governments initially put into lockdown attempted to celebrate their final hours
The images cast a stark contrast to the scenes of Friday night, where residents from the four local governments initially put into lockdown attempted to celebrate their final hours