It’s shaping up to be a bad Christmas for Sydney residents, especially those on the Northern Beaches, with the city’s coronavirus cluster multiplying.
After having only one active case on Tuesday, a cluster was discovered on Wednesday that quickly grew from three to five, and last night numbered 17.
The Northern Beaches region of Sydney – comprising around 250,000 residents – have been asked to get tested and then self-isolate, whereas a procession of Australian states have announced quarantine measures on Sydneysiders that have visited the Northern Beaches recently.
From The ABC:
Western Australia, Tasmania, Queensland, Northern Territory and the ACT have all introduced early restrictions on people who have visited Sydney’s Northern Beaches area in recent days, with further announcements expected on Friday.
The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee met on Thursday night in response to the Northern Beaches cluster, which has now grown to 17 cases.
One of the new coronavirus cases in the region is an aged care worker, prompting authorities to lock down retirement homes in the area while they try to contain the outbreak.
Investigations continue into whether an additional case in south-west Sydney is linked to the cluster.
Here’s a list of Thursday’s key events:
- Anyone who has been to Sydney’s Northern Beaches since December 11 is not allowed to enter Tasmania
- Queensland, NT and Western Australia require travellers who have visited the Northern Beaches to go into quarantine for 14 days
- The ACT says people who have been to Sydney’s Northern Beaches must quarantine and get tested
- NSW reports an additional 12 new cases in the region taking the total on the Northern Beaches to 17.
The Victorian Government is expected to declare new quarantine rules for arrivals from Sydney, similar to Queensland’s, today.
There are also fears the outbreak has swelled further, with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian set to announce further cases at 11am:
The NSW Premier is asking for people to brace themselves for more information which will be released at 11am.
Gladys Berejiklian says more cases have been confirmed overnight.
(The Premier also sounds hoarse.)
— Kirsten Aiken 🌏 (@kirstenaiken) December 17, 2020
The timing of this outbreak could not be worse coming just before Christmas, when families across Australia were scheduled to reunite and holidays were booked.
The only saving grace is that NSW contact tracers have shown an expert capability of controlling outbreaks throughout the pandemic. Let’s hope they can weave their magic again. They will need to bring their A-game.
All we want for Christmas is no more shutdowns.
