New South Wales has recorded 124 Covid cases overnight after a record day of testing in Sydney – but 48 of them were infectious in the community and 57 have still yet to be linked to known clusters.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said despite attempts to restrict movement in the Fairfield LGA in the city’s south-west, health officials were finding high levels of ‘spillover’ of the highly-contagious Delta variant into the neighbouring Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool regions.
The 124 cases were detected from 85,185 tests to 8pm on Wednesday night, the most conducted in a single 24-hour period in NSW during the entire pandemic.
The spike in cases is the highest during Sydney’s latest outbreak; the last time there were this many infections found in NSW in one day was during the first wave in April 2020.
Of the new locally-acquired cases, 54 were found in south-west Sydney (43 per cent) and another 40 (32 per cent) were found in the city’s west in a worrying sign authorities have failed to contain the outbreak.
The latest figures were announced just minutes after Queensland shut its border to NSW to stop the Sydney cluster from spreading north.
Ms Berejiklian said the virus was still spreading rapidly in the city’s west and south-west in households and workplaces.
‘This disease is so contagious and when you have, literally – in one industry – thousands of people moving around, that means potentially thousands of cases of transmission every day,’ she said.
Pictured are Sydneysiders wearing active gear in Cronulla in Sydney’s south on Thursday morning. Sydney is almost four weeks into a strict stay-at-home lockdown
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the decision to close her state’s border with NSW on Thursday morning on Twitter, as she is still in Tokyo sealing Brisbane hosting the 2032 Olympic Games.
The border closures will come into place from 1am on Friday morning.
Victoria meanwhile has recorded another 26 Covid-19 cases overnight as hundreds more residents were ordered into self-isolation after a famous inner-city market was exposed to the virus.
The state’s Department of Health said the new cases were all linked to known outbreaks.
Thursday’s increase is the highest daily rise in Victoria since September 18 of last year when the state was hit by a deadly second wave of cases.
Prahran Market meanwhile in Melbourne’s inner south-east has been declared a tier-one exposure site after a shopper visited at least six stalls while infectious.
All customers and staff who were at the market between 9.40am and 11.15am on Saturday must get tested and self-isolate for 14 days.
‘We have just been made aware that a confirmed Covid-positive shopper visited Prahran Market on Saturday, July 17 between 9.40am and 11.15am,’ a spokesman for the market said.
‘[The Department of Health] advises us that the customer visited a number of traders including Pete n Rosie’s Deli, Q le Baker, Prahran Seafoods, John Cester’s Poultry and Game, Gary’s Quality Meats, Reliable Fruit and Veg and Market Lane Coffee.
The market will be closed on Thursday for deep cleaning.
A BWS and a Woolworths supermarket were overnight among a string of other venues announced as Covid-19 exposure sites in Victoria.
The sites were listed on Wednesday night as Victorians endured their first day of the extended seven-day lockdown brought in to stem the spread of the highly-contagious Delta variant.
The BWS liquor store in Caulfield North, in Melbourne’s south-east, was exposed to the virus on July 15 between 3.25pm to 3.50pm.
Those who stopped by the bottle shop during these times must isolate for 14 days regardless of a Covid test result.
The adjacent Woolworths supermarket was also listed during the same times but those who attended the store are only casual contacts meaning they only need to isolate until given a negative result.
The popular Craigieburn Central shopping mall, in northern Melbourne, was also exposed to the virus with shoppers who visited the centre on July 15 from 3pm to 6.15pm urged to get tested and isolate immediately.
Of Wednesday’s 22 new locally-acquired cases, just six were in the community while infectious.
FIND THE LATEST EXPOSURE SITES NEAR YOU
A police car is seen driving past cafes at Bronte Beach in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on Thursday morning
A group are pictured at Bronte Beach on Thursday morning as the sun rose on Sydney’s east
Pedestrians wearing masks walk past the entrance to Prahran Market in Melbourne’s inner south-east. The market has been declared a tier-one exposure site after a shopper visited at least six stalls while infectious
The state has 18,000 primary contacts and another 10,000 secondary contacts affected by the current outbreak who have been tracked and traced.
Meanwhile, those who visited the Sunbury Square Medical Centre in Sunbury, north-west of Melbourne’s CBD, on July from 6pm to 8.30pm must isolate for two weeks regardless of their Covid test results.
The same rules apply to diners at the Solunar Cafe in Mildura, in north-western Victoria on July 12 from 2.15pm to 2.30pm.
Just six of the new infections recorded on Wednesday in Victoria were out in the community while infectious (pictured residents walking in Melbourne’s CBD)
Pictured: Two pedestrians line up for a Covid test in Melbourne’s CBD after a seven-day lockdown extension was announced on Tuesday
Victorians are in the midst of their fifth lockdown due to a recent outbreak of coronavirus (pictured vaccination clinic on Chapel Street in Melbourne)
A tram service in the City of Yarra has also been put on Covid alert – as has an Australian Post Shop in Narre Warren North in Melbourne’s south-east.
The growing list of exposed venues around the state is bad news for Victorians who are in the midst of their fifth lockdown.
The state’s health minister Martin Foley said however it was positive so few cases were out in the community while infectious.
‘What this means is that our contact tracers and our restrictions are working in tandem to beat this virus,’ said Mr Foley.
‘That should give us confidence that this process is working, and it is working because millions of Victorians are backing it in and doing the right thing.’