New South Wales has recorded 13 cases of Covid-19 community transmission overnight but Premier Gladys Berejiklian has stopped short of sending Sydney into a hard lockdown.
Ms Berejiklian said health officials had found 10 local cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday night – nine of which had already been announced.
Since that cut-off though, she said an additional 13 infections had been found in the community – eight of whom were at the same party.
From 4pm on Wednesday, household gatherings will be limited to five visitors and masks will be compulsory in all all indoor non-residential settings including workplaces.
Drinking while standing at indoor venues will also be banned once again and those who live and work in seven hotspot suburbs will not be allowed to leave metropolitan Sydney unless they have an essential reason.
A worker directs traffic along Campbell Parade at the Bondi Beach drive-through Covid-19 Clinic on Wednesday.
The one person per four square metre rule will also come back into force.
Queensland earlier on Wednesday morning slammed its borders shut to people travelling from Sydney’s hotspots after the coronavirus outbreak in Bondi Junction skyrocketed to 21 cases on Tuesday.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk confirmed in a press conference on Wednesday morning that anyone who had been in the seven Sydney councils designated as high-risk will be forced to enter hotel quarantine from 1am Thursday.
Those areas include the City of Sydney, Waverley, Woollahra, Bayside, Canada Bay, Inner West and Randwick – about 782,000 residents.
‘We cannot afford to have this Delta variant out in the community,’ Palaszczuk said as the state recorded another case transmitted in hotel quarantine.
‘We have serious concerns. We will be easing restrictions across Queensland this weekend but we cannot have the Delta variant out in our community.
She said Queensland will be following Victoria’s lead overnight by banning anyone entering from the seven-exposed areas.
‘We’re focusing on those council areas at the moment but this advice could change, that’s dependent on what we see in the next few days.’
There were no community transmissions of the virus recorded in Queensland overnight.
Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young says the extreme risk of the Delta variant has forced the state to immediately introduce the measures. The state recorded one new case of the variant overnight.
‘The risk is so much higher now than it was only a year ago,’ she said.
Anyone currently in Queensland who had visited any of the seven suburbs after June 12 must immediately seek a test and isolate.
More than 15,000 vaccines were administered on Tuesday in Queensland.
Health workers are pictured at the Bondi Beach Drive-through Covid-19 clinic in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on Wednesday
Fears the Bondi Covid cluster has spread 60km away as a childcare centre in Sydney’s south-west is forced to close after a positive case spent a day there
Health officials fear the Bondi Covid cluster has spread 60km south after a childcare centre was forced to close following a visit from a positive case.
Little Zak’s Academy at Narellan Vale, in Sydney’s southwest, revealed late on Tuesday that a young girl with the virus visited the centre.
‘It has come to our attention from the NSW Health Department and Liverpool Health that we have a confirmed Covid-19 case from one of our children in our centre that attended yesterday (Monday),’ the centre said in an email sent to parents.
The infected girl was in room ‘2-3’ between 9am and 5.15pm.
‘The girl and her family are doing well and resting at home,’ the centre said.
‘By 6pm the centre was closed and our Covid action plan was put in place.
‘All staff were personally called and notified within 60 minutes of that happening and all parents were notified within 90 minutes of that happening.’
Little Zak’s Academy at Narellan Vale, in Sydney’s southwest, revealed late on Tuesday that someone with the virus visited the centre
The childcare centre is currently closed while it undergoes a deep clean.
Queensland has slammed its borders shut to Sydney hotspots after the coronavirus outbreak in Bondi Junction skyrocketed to 21 cases on Tuesday
Anyone entering Queensland who had been in the seven Sydney councils designated as high-risk will be forced to enter hotel quarantine from 1am Wednesday
The Queensland government also turned blame on Scott Morrison’s federal government and their refusal to introduce regional or national quarantine centres to combat the increased threat to hotel quarantine.
‘Hotel quarantine is not proving as effective as it was. We’re seeing that with room to room transmission, and that just underlines what we’ve been saying for a very long time now,’ Deputy Premier Steven Miles said.
‘There has been a very long time we could have built and maintained regional quarantine facilities.’
The decision comes after Mark Kilian and his wife Anneli flew from Los Angeles to Sydney on June 15 after being granted a travel exemption by the federal government and NSW Health attempting to say goodbye to his dying father
The decision follows Mark Kilian and his wife Anneli flying from Los Angeles to Sydney on June 15 after being granted a travel exemption by the federal government and NSW Health attempting to say goodbye to his dying father.
The Kilians then tried to leave NSW on a $15,000 private charter plane but were refused a quarantine exemption by Queensland Health officials.
Mr Kilian’s 80-year-old father Frans weighs just 44kg and is dying of pancreatic cancer in a hospital on the Gold Coast.
Mr Kilian’s 80-year-old father Frans weighs just 44kg and is dying of pancreatic cancer in a hospital on the Gold Coast
Queensland Health has rejected the couple’s quarantine exemption application four times even though they are both fully vaccinated and even offered to wear hazmat suits and tracking devices during their visit.
‘Dr Young and i have had a lengthy discussion – what we’d like to see from the New South Wales government, if they want to break the 14-day hotel quarantine for the couple, they can provide how they safely transfer the couple from Sydney to the Gold Coast,’ Palaszczuk said during Wednesday morning’s press conference.
When told her New South Wales counterparts had proposed a plan, she said it needed to be put to the state’s Chief Health Officer before being decided.