Police have blasted a ‘silly’ woman who fled Victoria on a train to Sydney despite not knowing the results of a coronavirus test, just hours before a strict new public health order came into effect.
The woman, who was waiting to receive the results of a COVID-19 test, was intercepted by police at Central Station in Sydney on Thursday morning.
While the border remains open, anyone who lives in or has visited 36 Victorian suburbs identified as COVID-19 hotspots is banned from entering New South Wales.
Under the new public health order, they face fines of up to $11,000 or even six months jail if caught.
‘This morning we found somebody with symptoms who had actually been tested in Victoria and then got on a train and came to Sydney,’ NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard told reporters on Thursday.
‘Now, that’s about as silly as it gets.
Officials are seen screening passengers off the Melbourne to Sydney train at Central Station on Thursday (pictured) after one woman arrived while still awaiting COVID-19 test results
Five people were caught at Sydney Airport arriving from hotspots, while a woman who was awaiting COVID-19 results arrived from via train (pictured, Central Station on Thursday)
Five people were caught at Sydney Airport arriving from those hotspots (pictured, staff at the airport ready to screen passengers on Thursday)
‘If you’re feeling sick, and have any symptoms of a cough, cold or flu-like illness – do not go out, do not travel.’
The woman is now in self-isolation and waiting on the results of her virus test.
She wasn’t fined because ‘it would appear that she was on the train before the order started’.
NSW Health began testing passengers arriving into the state from Victoria from 12am on Thursday.
Five people were caught at Sydney Airport arriving from the affected hotspots, while one woman who was awaiting COVID-19 testing arrived from Melbourne via train.
Passengers arriving in Sydney from Melbourne told Daily Mail Australia of their shock at the lack of questions being asked before departure.
NSW Health began testing passengers arriving into the state from Victoria from 12am on Thursday
A large team of police officers, nurses and airport staff began greeting new arrivals to Sydney from Thursday, on the hunt for visitors from Melbourne’s hotspot suburbs (pictured)
They said the first they had been quizzed about visiting a hotspot was in Sydney, by which point they could have potentially infected a plane load of people.
Mr Hazzard said passengers coming into NSW from Victoria will be ‘screened’ at airports and train stations.
NSW residents who return from Melbourne hotspots, meanwhile, will be required to self-isolate at home for 14 days and could face similar penalties if they skip quarantine.
The health minister also warned that Victorians from outside the Melbourne hotspots who visit NSW should brace for extra attention from police, including having their cars stopped.
Residents of 36 Melbourne suburbs have been sent back into lockdown for a month in a bid to contain a high number of new coronavirus cases detected in the past fortnight.
Victoria on Thursday reported 77 new COVID-19 cases, compared with eight in NSW, all of them returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Thursday said she couldn’t confirm temperature checks at Sydney airport.
A Balmain, Sydney Woolworths (pictured) worker tested positive to COVID-19 after spending two weeks in hotel quarantine in Victoria
Ms Berejiklian said extra measures will be taken to keep high-risk visitors from Victoria out of the state.
‘We’re saying to those people in those hot spots, while the community transmission is where it is, you’re not welcome in NSW,’ she told The Today Show.
She later said checks at airports will start from Friday.
‘We are looking at what we can do additionally and we understand health officials will be conducting some checks at the airport as we speak,’ she said.
Ms Berejiklian said officials may check ID to determine a visitor’s residence before granting entry to NSW.
Meanwhile, a Sydney supermarket worker who tested positive to COVID-19 after spending two weeks in hotel quarantine in Victoria has been deemed a low-risk by state health authorities.
A health worker is seen giving out a coronavirus test in Melbourne on Thursday (pictured) after 36 suburbs were put on lockdown
The NSW man spent two weeks in hotel quarantine in Victoria and tested positive to COVID-19 after returning to Sydney and working at Woolworths in Balmain.
NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said the man tested positive to the virus after his employer noticed he had minor symptoms.
He worked at the store on June 27-28 and 50 employees are now in isolation after being identified as close contacts. The store has undergone a deep clean.
The man had been in hotel quarantine in Victoria from June 11 to June 26 after flying from Bangladesh. He tested positive to COVID-19 on day four of his quarantine period.
Dr Chant said he was assessed as not infectious and cleared of the virus before he was discharged, but it’s unclear if this assessment included another COVID-19 test.
The man travelled from Melbourne to Sydney on a Jetstar flight JQ510 on June 26 and authorities are contacting passengers who could be considered close contacts.
The man had worn a mask on his flight from Melbourne to Sydney, but there are still concerns he could have infected those sitting near him.
He reported persistent symptoms to NSW Health in Sydney and is believed to have been at the ‘tail end’ of the infection while he was working at the store.
‘The level of virus detected is very, very low … but because he’s also got symptoms we’re just treating this as the utmost of precaution that he may be infectious,’ Dr Chant told said on Thursday.
‘We do assess the risk as low.’
She said remnants of the virus may still exist in people for up to eight weeks, but people are deemed non-infectious if they’re symptom-free for 72 hours and if at least 10 days have passed since the onset of symptoms.
One patient in NSW is currently in intensive care and 68 people are being treated by NSW Health.
The woman, who was waiting to receive the results of a COVID-19 test, was intercepted by police at Central Station in Sydney on Thursday morning (pictured, officials at the station)
Some 3211 total confirmed cases have been reported in NSW from more than 870,000 COVID-19 tests.
People trying to enter NSW stadiums from this week will also be required to show their driver’s licence to prove they’re not from Victoria.
But the NSW-Victoria border will not be closed.
Meanwhile, limits on attendance numbers in NSW were relaxed from Wednesday for funerals, weddings, places of worship and community sport, as long as the one-person-per-four-square-metre rule applies.