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SYDNEY (REUTERS) – Australian states and territories began on Friday (December 18) to impose border restrictions after 28 cases of Covid-19 were detected in a cluster on Sydney’s northern beaches, fearing it would increase. the number of infections.
“Everyone in the greater Sydney area should be on high alert,” New South Wales (NSW) state premier Gladys Berejiklian told a news conference on Friday when announcing 10 new cases.
Health authorities fear the cluster has spread to other areas of Sydney, Australia’s most populous city, as they have not yet determined the source of the infections.
NSW has urged roughly a quarter of a million residents in affected Sydney suburbs to stay home for three days.
“My anxiety is that we have not found the direct transmission route and we cannot be sure that we have blocked the transmission line,” said Kerry Chant, NSW’s health director.
Authorities believe the initial broadcast sites were two clubs on Avalon Beach, but have named more than 30 potential subsequent broadcast sites, from banks and post offices to supermarkets and pharmacies, and have advised people who have visited the sites. get tested.
Hospitals in affected suburbs and emerging test sites have been flooded with many people waiting hours to get tested.
The main public facilities in the northern beach area, such as swimming pools and playgrounds, have been closed, and the entry of visitors to the facilities for the care of the elderly has been prohibited.
All the beaches along the 29 km stretch of coastline have been closed until Monday (December 21).
Restaurants in the area, which were gearing up for a big Christmas trade, said they were having massive cancellations.
Christmas travel chaos
New border restrictions threw the Christmas travel plans of thousands of people into chaos on Friday.
Many people flocked to Sydney airport to try to leave the state for fear of harsh border closures. Some travelers leaving New South Wales were placed in immediate hotel quarantine for 14 days when they landed in another state.
The state of Queensland and the Northern Territory require that people who have been to the northern beaches be quarantined for 14 days.
The state of Western Australia imposed this on anyone from New South Wales.
Australia’s second most populous state said that people from New South Wales will now require a permit to enter Victoria.
The backlog and subsequent travel chaos affect Australia’s streak of success in containing Covid-19.
As of this week, Australia had gone more than two weeks without local transmission, allowing most states and territories to remove almost all barriers to social distancing.
Such was the optimism that Australia projected on Thursday that its economy will recover from its first recession in three decades faster than anticipated, after containing the spread of Covid-19.
Australia’s hopes for a rampant economic recovery, led by domestic tour operators such as Virgin Australia and Qantas Airways, now seem unlikely.
“We have dealt with this before, we will deal with it again. It is important that people remain calm on these issues, ”said Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
“There is no magic formula that will make the pandemic just go away.”
Australia has reported just over 28,000 coronavirus cases and 908 deaths since the pandemic began and estimates that the majority of active cases in the country are returned by foreign travelers in hotel quarantine.
NSW said on Friday it had fined 13 crew members on a LATAM Chile flight to Sydney A $ 1,000 each for allegedly not following orders and isolating themselves.
As a result of the violation, the state will now require international flight crews to conduct a mandatory quarantine at a handful of government-designated hotels.
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