NSW Health has issued an urgent alert advising of several new venues in Sydney’s southwest that have been exposed to coronavirus.
The majority of venues are in Campsie, with locations also in Casula and Bankstown.
Anyone who visited the venues at the noted times is considered a casual contact, NSW Health said on Saturday.
Campsie Big W: the public is warned to isolate and get tested if you were there on Sunday 3 January from 1.20pm – 1.40pm
Coronavirus testing at Merrylands in Sydney’s southwest, a region of the city where a number of affected venues are located
Those who were at Casula Costco on Saturday, 2 January (4.45pm to 6.15pm) and Bankstown Myer on the ground floor on Wednesday, 6 January (11.30am to 12.40pm) are at risk.
At Campsie the following locations are affected: Big W, Sunday 3 January (1.20pm to 1.40pm), Chemist Warehouse, Friday, 8 January (12pm to 12.30pm) and Campsie Medical and Dental, also on Friday 8 January (10.40am to 11.30am).
People are advised to get tested immediately and then self-isolate until receiving a negative result. If symptoms appear, get tested again.
NSW Health advised that the Burwood venues announced on Friday have been removed from the list after experts determined the person was not infectious when they visited.
There were 86 separate health alerts for NSW venues listed on the NSW Health website on Saturday night along with 27 for public transport routes.
Two new alerts were issued for Glen Street, Belrose, with both an Aldi and a Woolworths affected on Thursday 24 December – the day before Christmas, from 12pm to 1pm.
Chemist Warehouse also in Campsie in Sydney’s southwest. Get tested and isolate if you were here on Friday, 8 January from 12pm to 12.30pm
A series of 418 bus routes have also been added from Hurlstone Park Station, Duntroon Street, to Marrickville Road from 30 December through to 7 January, according to the latest alert. The train from Hurlstone Park to Marrickville, Campsie and Bankstown is also affected.
To double check all the current places and times of concern, the public is urged to read the lists of latest covid notifications at the NSW Health website.
Coronavirus fragments have also so far been found in sewage at eleven pumping stations including Northmead, Quakers Hill, Ulladulla, Wollongong, Camellia North and South, Warriewood, Liverpool, Glenfield, Hornsby Heights and Brooklyn.
NSW Health said it knows there are people with coronavirus living in the Warriewood, Northmead, Quakers Hill and Camellia catchment areas.
Myer Bankstown in Sydney’s southwest: get tested if you were on the ground floor on Wednesday, 6 January from 11.30am to 12.40pm
Health workers testing for coronavirus at Merrylands in southwest Sydney on Thursday
Casula Costco is subject to a new alert for Saturday, 2 January from 4.45pm to 6.15pm
The Department is asking everyone in those area to be vigilant in monitoring for symptoms, to isolate and get tested immediately if any appear.
In the Ulladulla area, there have been no recent known cases, meaning there may be undetected infections in the community or someone with the virus has visited the area.
The health department is asking everyone in the south coast catchment area to be vigilant in looking for symptoms including in Narrawallee, Milton, Mollymook, Ulladulla, Burrill Lake and Lake Tabourie.
Campsie Medical and Dental in Sydney’s southwest is on alert for those who were there on Friday 8 January from 10.40am to 11.30am: get tested and isolate
NSW Health only recorded one new case in the 24 hours to 8pm Friday bringing the total number of active cases in the state to 110.
Australia is on edge as new mutant super-strains of highly infectious coronavirus threaten to wreak havoc across the country.
The new highly infectious South African mutant strain was found in quarantined travellers in Sydney, and the equally infectious UK mutant strain is threatening to break out of Queensland.
New South Wales refused to shut its border to Queensland but has put in place a new Public Health Order forcing anyone entering from the Greater Brisbane area to stay at home.
Under the new rules, put in place on Friday, anyone entering NSW from Greater Brisbane must go directly to their home or place of accommodation and stay there until 6pm on Monday, 11 January.
A family of four that flew in to New South Wales from South Africa have tested positive for the highly infectious coronavirus super-strain, putting health authorities on edge.
On Thursday night, NSW Health detected the South African variant in PCR samples from the family, who are in hotel quarantine.
The discovery has alarmed NSW Health authorities, as the South African strain has independently mutated the exact same genomic variant as the United Kingdom super-strain – making both strains nearly 50 per cent more transmissible than the original virus.
Analysis of by Imperial College London researchers confirmed the new strains may be nearly 50 percent more transmissible, based on samples taken from nearly 86,000 Britons.
NSW Health has taken extra precautions to move all 16 passengers who shared the family’s flight from South Africa to Sydney to Special Health Accommodation, where all coronavirus travellers are quarantined.
In both the UK and South Africa, the mutated strains are becoming the norm, displacing the original virus as they are highly adapted to spreading.
There is no evidence the disease is any more harmful than the original virus, only that it spreads faster and easier.
Medical teacher Dr John Campbell who combats coronavirus myths on his YouTube channel explained that the two different variants had developed the exact same genomic mutation but separately – just as both bats and birds had both evolved wings, but separately.
The new mutation makes the South African and UK variants equally hyper-infectious, due to identical changes in their spike protein casing he said in an update on December 20.