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Jenny Evans / Getty Images
People seen queuing at a pop-up Covid-19 testing site in Sydney, Australia.
A group of coronaviruses on Sydney’s northern beaches sees the peninsula entering a near-lockdown and the group jumps to 28 people, and authorities say they have originated the infection in an American strain that may have entered Australia earlier. from December.
Meanwhile, international aircrew arriving in the Australian state of New South Wales, starting Tuesday, will be placed in supervised hotel quarantine arrangements until their departure.
NSW recorded 15 new local Covid-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm Thursday, while another case related to northern beaches was discovered in a person who had traveled to Queensland since then.
Another 10 people were confirmed positive for the virus after 8 p.m. Thursday.
READ MORE:
* Coronavirus: Sydney’s group grows to 17 when a dozen more Covid-19 cases are identified
* Two new cases of Covid-19 on Sydney’s northern beaches, one in the southwest
* Coronavirus: Australia’s death toll at 255 as Melbourne grapples with lockdown
On Thursday, NSW Health recommended that residents of the northern beaches stay home, avoid non-essential activities and do not leave the area for the next three days.
Senior care facilities in the area have closed to visitors, including a facility in Avalon Beach, where a Covid-positive woman worked.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt declared northern beaches a Covid-19 hotspot for government support on Friday, increasing local supply of personal protective equipment and contact tracing assistance.
Jenny Evans / Getty Images
A cluster of coronaviruses on Australia’s northern Sydney beaches has risen to 28 people, and authorities say they have caused the infection in an international case.
Genomic sequencing has linked the group to an American strain of the virus, which may have entered New South Wales in a traveler who returned in early December.
That traveler has never left the hotel’s quarantine system, which means that the connection between that case and the northern beaches remains unclear.
“If we get through this in the next two or three days, we can all have a much better Christmas,” New South Wales State Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters.
Berejiklian admitted that the government’s recommendations may be toughened if the numbers of Covid-19 cases on northern beaches are not flattened out. That included applying the use of masks.
NSW Health Director Kerry Chant confirmed Friday that a major Covid-19 seeding event had occurred at Avalon RSL on December 11, followed by an equally significant seeding event at Avalon Bowlo on December 13.
Of the outbreak of 28 forts, eight people from the group attended Avalon RSL (RSA), 16 attended Avalon Bowlo and two both.
Jenny Evans / Getty Images
Residents of Sydney’s North Beaches have been asked to stay home for three days while a new cluster of Covid-19 from abroad grows.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the outbreak served as a reminder of the virus’s potency amid a “flood” of complacency. NSW previously logged 26 days and then 12 days without a local Covid-19 case.
“Until we have a vaccine, we will not have a solution,” Hazzard told reporters.
“There will always be the possibility that something will come out of somewhere.”
Several states responded to the outbreak Thursday and Friday by reducing return access for New South Wales residents, with Western Australia ordering anyone entering from New South Wales from Friday to 14 days of self-isolation.
Anyone who has already entered WA from NSW since December 11 should be tested and isolated until they receive a negative result.
The state of Victoria stated that newcomers to the state who have been to the northern beaches since December 11 should be tested and quarantined, and strongly advised its residents to avoid the metropolitan city of Sydney.
Starting Saturday, it will introduce a permit system for New South Wales travelers.
The Queensland government announced that new or imminent arrivals who have been to the northern beaches since December 11 should be tested and quarantined for 14 days.
Those measures will tighten from 1 a.m. Saturday, when travelers to Queensland from Sydney who have been to the northern beaches will be forced into hotel quarantine.
Tasmania has banned anyone who has visited any of the places on New South Wales’ health alert list, while South Australia and the Northern Territory also tightened restrictions.
Berejiklian also said international aircrew arriving in Sydney will be held from Tuesday in two police-supervised quarantine hotels until their return flight out of the country, usually within 72 hours.
Berejiklian said the airlines were currently in charge of ensuring compliance with the aircrew quarantine.
