A second busy shopping centre has been announced as a coronavirus exposure site after a mystery Covid case was discovered in Bondi.
East Village shopping centre in Victoria Park in the city’s inner-east was visited by the infected man on Monday June 14 when he shopped at Coles and the Taste Growers Market.
A car wash in inner-city Redfern was also exposed on the same date, adding to a growing list of venues in Bondi and Vaucluse.
Authorities are scrambling to track down hundreds of shoppers he may have exposed the virus to at another popular Westfield shopping centre.
New South Wales Health authorities said the man in his 60s from Bondi tested positive to the virus on Wednesday.
He works as an airport driver and his role included transporting international flight crew, health officials said.
The news of a new locally-acquired case sparked long queues at the Bondi drive-through testing clinic (pictured Wednesday night)
A nurse conducts a Covid-19 test at the Bondi Beach testing clinic in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. New South Wales Health said a man in his 60s from Bondi tested positive to the virus on Wednesday
There are reports the frontline worker was not vaccinated, despite vaccines being offered to those working in the quarantine sector since March.
Contact tracers are racing to find Sydneysiders who visited 12 exposure sites including a David Jones store, a cinema, several cafes and restaurants and a bakery in the city’s east and north-west between June 11 and June 15.
The list of potential exposure sites included a number of stores at Westfield Bondi Junction, which the infected man visited on multiple occasions.
There were long queues at the drive-through testing clinic at Bondi on Wednesday night as locals rushed to get tested.
Customers wearing face masks at Westfield Bondi Junction on January 3. Contact tracers are racing to find hundreds of people who may have been exposed to the virus
The testing clinic will extend its hours until 10pm for the next three nights to meet public demand.
The infected man attended a movie screening of The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard at Event Cinemas Bondi Junction on Sunday afternoon.
Anyone who attended the 1.45pm screening in cinema 1 at the venue on June 13 is ordered to get tested immediately and self-isolate for 14 days, regardless of the result:
Other movie goers who were at the cinema on Sunday between 1.30pm-4pm are ordered to get tested and self isolate until further notice from authorities.
The infected man returned a positive result on Wednesday afternoon and will be included in Thursday’s numbers.
The man is the first locally-acquired case in NSW in six weeks.
‘Urgent investigations into the source of the infection and contact tracing are underway, as is genome sequencing,’ a NSW Health Statement read.
Contact tracers are in the process of identifying and calling close contacts and ordering them to get tested and isolate.
The Bondi drive-through testing clinic will be open until 10pm for the next three nights. Pictured is the queue of motorists waiting to get tested on Wednesday night
Three positive Covid cases were earlier found in hotel quarantine at the Radisson Blu (pictured) in Sydney’s CBD
All three positive cases at the Radisson (pictured) arrived into Sydney on the same flight from Doha in Qatar on June 1
The list of potential exposure sites could grow as investigations continue.
The airport worker first attended the Belle Cafe in Vaucluse on June 11 between 9.15am-9.50am and returned on June 12, June 13 and June 14 at various times.
He also attended Sourdough Bakery at Westfield Bondi Junction between 12.40pm-1.10pm on June 11.
He returned to the shopping centre the following day where he shopped in David Jones between 11am-11.40am and Myer between 11.40am-12.15pm.
The man was also at the shopping centre on June 13 for 1.45pm screening of The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard at Event Cinemas .
He dined at two Vaucluse restaurants including Washoku on June 12 between 12pm-1.30pm and Rocco’s on June 14 between 10.55am-11.30am.
The most recent venue he visited was the Celeste Catering Macquarie Park Cemetery Cafe in North Ryde on June 15 between 1pm-1.20pm.
A couple donning face masks are pictured walking nearby a David Jones store which was flagged as a Covid exposure spot
The man visited a number of venues at Westfield Bondi Junction (pictured) while infected
Anyone in Queensland who has visited any of the listed exposure sites at the specified times was ordered to quarantine on Wednesday night.
‘We will be closely monitoring the situation in NSW over coming days,’ Queensland chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said.
‘It’s important that anyone who has been to these venues in Sydney follow the advice of NSW Health, and not travel.’
Anyone who visited any of the potential exposure sites who have since travelled to Queensland must must complete the Queensland Health online contact tracing self-assessment form, get tested and await advice from health authorities.
‘We act quickly in these situations to protect the health and safety of Queenslanders and visitors,’ Dr Young said.
Fears are meanwhile growing of a potential Sydney hotel quarantine outbreak after a traveller was infected with the identical Covid strain to a couple based in an adjacent room.
NSW Health is frantically investigating the development, with the viral sequence of all three cases confirmed as the same UK variant, known as the Alpha variant.
How the transmission occurred on the fourth floor of the Radisson Blu quarantine hotel in the city’s CBD remains unknown.
The couple, who were asymptomatic, returned a positive Covid-19 test following a test on June 3.
The other returned traveller from Doha returned a negative day two test on June 3, before developing symptoms and testing positive two days later on June 5.
In a statement on Tuesday night, NSW Health confirmed the three positive cases.
‘Early possibilities as to where transmission may have occurred from the couple to the secondary case include on the flight, on transport from the airport to the hotel, in the lobby of the hotel, or while in quarantine,’ the statement read.
‘Currently, there is no evidence of further transmission.’
All three positive cases arrived into Sydney on the same flight from Doha in Qatar on June 1.
NSW Health has also confirmed the three positive cases in hotel quarantine (pictured, healthcare workers transport a person into a patient transport vehicle)
The trio were quickly transferred to the Special Health Accommodation where they will remain following their positive results.
As a precautionary measure, all returned travellers who stayed on the fourth floor at the hotel between June 1 and 5 must get tested and self-isolate before receiving further advice.
Additionally, staff who worked on the fourth floor of the Radisson Blu between June 1 and June 5 have also been asked to get tested and isolate.