Millions of Sydney residents who live or work in Woollahra, Waverley, Randwick and the City of Sydney have been locked down from 11.59pm tonight for a week until Friday.
Gladys Berejiklian imposed the draconian stay-at-home orders on Friday morning after the state recorded 11 new local Covid-19 cases with a further 17 to be included in tomorrow’s numbers.
Six of the eleven cases recorded on Friday were mentioned on Thursday night, meaning there are 22 cases that have not been revealed.
Residents and visitors to the Eastern suburbs continue to get tested for COVID-19 at St Vincent’s Hospital pop-up testing clinic at Bondi Beach in Sydney on Friday
All of the new cases are linked to others except for a nine-year-old school student whose infection is under investigation.
The lockdown applies to residents who live or have worked part-time or full-time in the hotspot suburbs in the past two weeks.
They are allowed outside only for work, education, essential shopping, care-giving and exercise in groups of ten or less.
‘If you live or work in those Local Government Areas, you need to stay at home unless absolutely necessary,’ Ms Berejiklian said.
Other residents in Greater Sydney will have to wear masks indoors and limit household visitors to five until Friday July 2.
Residents who live or work in the City of Sydney, Waverley, Randwick, Canada Bay, Inner West, Bayside, and Woollahra local government areas cannot travel outside metropolitan Sydney for non-essential reasons.
Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant explained why millions of residents who work in the CBD but do not live in hotspot suburbs have been locked down.
‘The rationale for including the stay-at-home order to follow the workers is because we know that many of the workers do live outside those geographical LGAs.
‘We want them to follow those stay-at-home orders so we don’t establish seeding in Western Sydney and southwestern Sydney,’ she said.
Sydney’s latest outbreak, which has led to mandated mask-wearing, was sparked by a limo driver who was unvaccinated and not wearing an N95 mask when he collected flight crew.
Sydneysiders queue outside a vaccination centre in Sydney on June 24
The New South Wales government was reportedly warned about the dangers of taxi drivers transporting flight crew from Sydney Airport four months ago but did not tighten health regulations.
Under a state public health order, international arrivals are not allowed to take ride share vehicles, public transport or taxis – but the order does not apply to flight crew.
A New South Wales Transport Workers Union official raised the issue with NSW Health but was told ‘the airlines are in charge’, a source told The Australian.
Jon Bailey’s hair salon in Double Bay is deep cleaned on Thursday due to the outbreak
The rules state that airlines must organise ‘appropriate transportation’ to take foreign crew to government quarantine and crew who live locally to their homes.
The driver, who is in his 60s, said he was scared of blood clots, an extremely rare side effect of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is only recommended in Australia for people over the age of 60.
He told A Current Affair that he had a family history of blood clots and was not an anti-vaxxer.
But Health Minister Brad Hazzard said there was ‘no excuse’ because he could have got the Pfizer vaccine due to his frontline role.
Reporter Lauren Golman, who interviewed the man, said: ‘He has not received any kind of pressure or encouragement to have the vaccine. I’m not sure if he has had conversations with his employer.’
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said vaccines were available and said it was the state government’s responsibility to require them.
‘The doses were available and on this case that worker was not vaccinated and the NSW Premier has made it very clear that they’re investigating into how that occurred,’ he said in Parliament on Thursday.
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said police believe they cannot take any action against the man because there was no requirement for him to be vaccinated.
This is the limo driver who caught the virus from international air crew and spread it around Sydney without realising
But he told 2GB radio host Ben Fordham that officers are seeking ‘legal advice’ to see if there is any way to punish him.
‘We have sent the case for urgent outside legal advice and have done that due to the significance of this outbreak and the community concern.
‘We need to tick every box in terms of making sure whether he has or hasn’t definitively breached the Public Health Orders,’ he said.
It comes as thousands more Sydneysiders risk being plunged into isolation after patients visited dozens of busy venues spanning 17 suburbs, from the east to the North Shore and a busy shopping centre in the city’s west.
In a late night drop of new exposure sites on Thursday, NSW Health put alerts out for a host of new venues including a Kmart, Domino’s Pizza and several popular coffee shops.
Another shock came as coronavirus fragments were found in a Bourke sewage treatment plant, 750km away from Sydney in the far north-west of NSW, where there has never been a single known case.
The wastewater finding indicates the virus may have already escaped the NSW capital and has somehow reached vulnerable outback areas.
Meanwhile, in scenes reminiscent of the first wave of Covid in March 2020, Coles and Woolworths’ shelves across Sydney have once again been stripped bare of loo roll.
Neither of the supermarkets have re-introduced buying limits on toilet paper, but frustrated shoppers have called out others for stockpiling.
A total of 181 exposure sites have been announced in Greater Sydney since the latest outbreak began, bringing in a raft of new restrictions (pictured, commuters in masks on Thursday)
This terrifying map shows the 17 suburbs announced as having Covid exposure sites in a worrying late night drop on Thursday
Officials announced 11 new cases of the highly-infectious Indian Delta strain on Thursday, bringing the total number of infections linked to the Bondi cluster up to 36 – with several more lingering mystery cases.
Since the outbreak began last week, 181 exposure sites have been added to the burgeoning list – 33 of which were added on Thursday night alone in suburbs sprawling right across Australia’s largest city.
Covid-infected residents have been on 23 public transport routes, and anyone who visited one of 53 venues across Sydney over the past few days has been told to get a test and isolate immediately, regardless of the result.
In the surprise late night announcement just after 11pm, authorities demanded anyone who has visited a series of cafes, restaurants and gyms across Bondi, Potts Point, Darlinghurst and Alexandria contact NSW Health immediately, get tested and isolate for 14 days even if the test is negative.
Anyone who dined at Coffee, Tea & Me in Potts Point or who visited the pool or the change rooms at the Elixr Health Club in Bondi Junction on Sunday has been told to do the same.
Likewise, diners in the inner west who went to Cantine Verte Café or The Pommery Cafe in Alexandra on Monday has been given the same advice.
In Bondi, people who went to Elixr Health Club but did not go to the change rooms or the pool have been told to isolate until a negative test is returned.
Anyone who visited in Westfield Paramatta (pictured) on Wednesday has been told to isolate until they test negative after the shop was visited by an infected person
Commuters are seen wearing face masks as they arrive at Circular Quay by ferry on Thursday, as the number of Covid cases grew by 11 in Sydney
The same advice goes for anyone who went to Harry’s Bondi, Bondi Relish, La Piadina, Lyfe Cafe, Royal Hotel, Fitness First Platinum or Fitness First on Spring Street in the beachside suburb on Sunday or Monday.
In the west, anyone who went to Amart Furniture in Bankstown on Sunday, Domino’s Pizza or Big Bun in Merrylands on Monday, or Kmart in Westfield Paramatta on Wednesday has been told to isolate until they test negative.
Further south, shoppers who went to Crossroads Homemaker Centre in Casula on Sunday has been told to stay at home for 14 days until they get a negative test, or if they went to Gregory Hills Town Centre, in the city’s south-west.
An exposure site was also added in North Sydney, with anyone who visited Priceline Pharmacy on Walker Street on Monday told to isolate until testing negative.
Famed Sydney salon boss Joh Bailey warned more than 1,000 customers and staff at his flagship outlet in Double Bay have been exposed to coronavirus by an infected hairdresser.
It was initially revealed that the hairdresser, who lives in western Sydney, worked three consecutive nine-hour shifts at the salon from Thursday June 17 to Saturday June 19.
But in a another worrying development on Thursday night, NSW Health announced that the salon had been exposed to coronavirus for nine full days – from the moment it opened to the second it closed – between June 15 and June 23.
Skin Medi Spa and Wellness, in the same complex is under a similar order with anyone who visited from Wednesday June 16 to 23 Wednesday – at all times – urged to isolate and get tested immediately.
Famed Sydney salon boss Joh Bailey warned more than 1,000 customers and staff at his flagship outlet in Double Bay have been exposed to coronavirus by an infected hairdresser (pictured, former WAG Phoebe Burgess at the salon earlier this week)
In the west, anyone who went to Amart Furniture in Bankstown on Sunday, Domino’s Pizza (pictured) or Big Bun in Merrylands on Monday has also been told to get tested