NSW records 16 new Covid-19 cases

NSW Health announced 10 new locally acquired cases in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, seven of which were announced yesterday.

There were also 13 new locally acquired cases confirmed after the official reporting period, meaning they will be included in tomorrow’s numbers. There are now 37 cases linked to Sydney’s outbreak.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced a raft of new restrictions, with authorities expressing their concern over the highly-infectious nature of the Delta strain of Covid-19.

From 4pm today, June 23, the following restrictions will apply for Greater Sydney, Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Shellharbour:

• No more than five visitors to any household, including children

• All customers must be seated at hospitality venues

• Masks will be compulsory in all indoor non-residential settings, including workplaces, and at organised outdoor events

• No singing or dancing at venues, except weddings which can have 20 people on the dance floor at one time

• The one person per 4sqm rule will be reinstated

• Outdoor seated events will be limited to 50 per cent seated capacity

• Dance and gym classes will be capped at 20, with masks required

• Previous public transport capacity limits, represented by green dots, will be reintroduced

Anyone who lives or works in the City of Sydney, Waverley, Randwick, Canada Bay, Inner West, Bayside, and Woollahra LGAs cannot travel outside metropolitan Sydney for non-essential travel.

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Ms Berejiklian held off on announcing a lockdown, but urged all residents to “abandon non-essential activities” and not attend social gatherings unless absolutely necessary.

When asked why authorities weren’t considering a lockdown at this time, Ms Berejiklian said she didn’t want to burden citizens with more restrictions “unless we absolutely have to”.

“We know basically where the super spreading events have been, we know where the virus is circulating, and we don’t want to take any further action than what we have now. This relies on all of us reining in our behaviour, all of us following the health orders that are coming into place from 4pm,” she said.

“I am not ruling out any further action, but I am also confident that if we adhere to the health orders today, we will have a good chance of getting on top of this outbreak. I am not going to rule out further action, I am not going to rule out what happens beyond a week, because we don’t know.”

Authorities on edge as more mystery cases found

There are now five Covid-19 cases with unknown sources, with authorities scrambling to track down their origins.

Officials have not yet been able to find the source of an infection announced yesterday in a nine-year-old child who goes to a school in Waverly.

Chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said there were also urgent investigations underway to find the source of four of the new infections announced today.

“The cause of our concern is that we have had people infection is in the community unknowingly,” she said.

Dr Chant said it was clear there were unrecognised chains of transmission within the community that needed to be tracked down.

“Our major focus is in this south-eastern Sydney broad area including the CBD to make sure that we have picked up any unrecognised transmission,” she said.

“There has obviously been some strains of transmission that have had the ability to amplify and we need those high testing rates and everyone to follow public health advice.”

Superspreader party behind major infection spike

Eight of the cases announced on Wednesday attended a party in West Hoxton, with Dr Kerry Chant labelling it a “superspreader” event.

NSW authorities revealed a previously reported case, believed to be a worker from Bondi Junction, attended the party with about 30 other people. They have all been tested and are in isolation.

Dr Chant said the infectious person who attended the party did not have any symptoms, hadn’t attended venues of concern and had no idea they had contracted the virus.

They developed symptoms the next day and immediately got tested.

A two-year-old child who attended the party has also tested positive, triggering an alert at a daycare centre 60km southwest of Sydney.

Little Zak’s Academy at Narellan Vale issued an email alert late on Tuesday declaring a positive case visited the centre on Monday from 9am to 5.15pm

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Health Minister Brad Hazzard said NSW was dealing with a “very real and present danger”, revealing he was as worried now as he had been “any time since January last year”.

“We have gone from that near and present danger to a very real and present danger not just in a shopping centre but right across Sydney. We need all take this seriously,” he said.

“We each have the future of our fellow NSW residents and Sydney residents in our hands.”

Mr Hazzard said the danger posed by the Delta variant meant now was “no time for stupidity”.

“There should be no reluctance to wear masks in all circumstances that have now been described,” he said.

“Wearing masks at work will be different but necessary. Wearing masks when you go to the footy, some of these outdoor events, we know the temptation will be to sit there whether with a mineral water or beer and say, ‘Well I don’t have to wear the mask because I can make this last for the whole game.’ If you do, you are putting the entire community’s health at risk. This is no time for game-playing, it is no time for stupidity.”

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Debate over whether Sydney should go into lockdown

The decision not to send Greater Sydney into lockdown has sparked a debate among health experts, with some warning rejecting tougher restrictions is a gamble while others saying it is possible the spread could be contained with the current rules.

Melbourne University epidemiologist Tony Blakely told news.com.au that mystery cases were the key determinant, and it remained possible a lockdown was the safer option.

“Maybe. That is for those on (the) ground to decide. It is all about probabilities,’’ he told news.com.au

“Not going into lockdown, but masking up, might have a 50 per cent or more chance of success. Lockdown? Nearly 100 per cent.”

However, Professor Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases physician and microbiologist, said he believed a lockdown now was premature.

“So, you know, a lockdown where you put five million people locked in their home, so to speak, I think is a pretty big step in my view and it isn’t warranted unless you’ve got a lot of uncontrolled community transmission,’’ he said.

“And that really means you’ve got a lot of mystery cases you don’t know where they’re coming from.”

Ms Berejiklian brushed off questions of whether a lockdown was needed following the first surge in cases on Tuesday, saying authorities were confident the current restrictions match the risk-level posed by the outbreak, but said tougher rules could be considered if there was an increase in unlinked cases.

“If we suddenly have a number of unlinked cases and if we suddenly have them outside the geographic region they are concentrated in that will obviously adjust the health advice and we will respond to that,” she said.