The City of Sydney has been declared a coronavirus hotspot as an outbreak in the east of the city continues to grow.
The local government area has more than 240,000 residents and covers about 25 square kilometers of the city’s CBD and surrounding suburbs.
It stretches from Circular Quay past Central Station to Camperdown, Glebe and Chippendale in the inner-west, and to Eastlakes and Rosebery in the south.
Sydney’s CBD streets were eerily quiet on Saturday. The entire CBD area was declared a coronavirus hotspot on Monday after a slew of new cases linked to the CBD and the city’s east
To the east, where the outbreak is spreading, it encompasses Elizabeth Bay, Potts Point, Darlinghurst and Kings Cross.
NSW Health declared the City of Sydney a coronavirus hotspot on Monday following recent confirmed cases in the east including at Cafe Peron in Double Bay and the Den Sushi restaurant in Rose Bay.
The move comes after the Thai Rock restaurant in Potts Point sparked an outbreak of 37 cases and a number of new infections linked to CBD venues surfaced over the past two weeks.
An airline passenger from Melbourne is checked off by NSW Police at Sydney Airport on August 8. All passengers from Melbourne must go into hotel quarantine
Sydney Girls High School in Surry Hills, Sydney was shut after a student tested positive after attending for four days. The academically selective school has students from 143 different Sydney postcodes raising fears about its spreading potential
A further case was found in a student at Sydney Girls High School, Surry Hills, forcing the school to close on Monday and trial HSC exams to be postponed.
The student attended while infectious on August 6, 7, 10 and 11, and it is not yet known if it has spread or if it was linked to an existing cluster, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Sydney Girls High School is an academically selective state school that has about 940 high school students drawn from 143 different postcodes around Sydney, escalating its potential to spread the coronavirus city-wide.
New South Wales residents are on high alert as case numbers climbed by seven in the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday, bringing the state’s total to 3768 of which 117 are now active and 54 dead, NSW Health said on Monday night.
The virus is steadily burning through the state having jumped the border from Victoria, as increasing numbers of outbreaks and clusters infect suburb after suburb.
The majority of outbreaks have come from pubs, restaurants and schools.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned ‘that the ‘mystery’ community transmission cases where no known cause is found are the biggest risk.
‘Whilst the case numbers have pleasingly been declining, my anxiety remains the same – if not higher – because every week we have an accumulation of undetected, unsourced cases,’ she said.
NSW Education Department has moved to ban anyone with flu-like symptoms from attending school.
‘Students and staff with flu-like symptoms will need to provide a copy of a negative COVID-19 test result before being permitted to return to school,’ the guidelines say.
School formals, dances, social events, and graduation ceremonies have also been put on hold under the new rules that come into force on Wednesday.
Group singing and the use of wind instruments in group settings is also now banned.
Epidemiologists have warned that some people who carry the coronavirus show no symptoms at all, so this will not prevent the virus from spreading through asymptomatic carriers.
NSW Health has also issued an urgent alert after a worker at Sydney Markets in the inner-west suburb of Flemington tested positive.
New South Wales health authorities have issued an urgent alert after a person worked at a market in Sydney’s inner-west while infectious with COVID-19.
A health worker tests drivers for coronavirus in Castle Hill Showgrounds in Sydney’s north-west
The virus is also continuing to spread in Sydney’s south-west and western suburbs.
While most other states and territories in Australia are largely virus-free, Victoria continues to struggle to subdue its outbreak.
Victoria recorded 282 new coroanvirus cases to bring their total to 17,027 on Monday.
It was the state’s deadliest day with 25 new deaths, including 22 linked to outbreaks in aged care facilities.
The new infection numbers show a welcome decrease on previous days, however.
The number of daily infections has been steadily dropping since the state entered strict Stage Four lockdown.
A Victorian man was caught trying to cross into NSW without a permit by flying a light aircraft over the border on Monday.
Police were called about 12.30pm on Saturday after a light aircraft flown by the 61-year-old Victorian landed at Deniliquin Airport.
The pilot was directed to return to Victoria immediately and fined $1000.
Worldwide coronavirus cases have topped 21.9 million with 774,394 deaths according to Worldometers statistics late on Monday night.
The US continues to have the largest number of infections with 5.6 million cases and 173,186 deaths.