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SYDNEY: Australia’s most populous state reported on Tuesday (December 22) its smallest one-day increase in new COVID-19 cases in nearly a week, fueling optimism that contact tracing and social distancing were working to control a dangerous new outbreak in Sydney.
New South Wales (NSW) reported eight new locally acquired COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, fewer than the 15 reported a day earlier. Seven of the new cases were traced to a group in Sydney’s northern coastal suburbs, authorities said.
READ: Australia detects a new strain of coronavirus in the UK
“We only had eight cases of community transmission, seven of them directly linked to the Avalon group,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters.
The eighth case was a nurse believed to have contracted the virus from a traveler returning from abroad, authorities said.
Vehicles queue up as medical personnel administer COVID-19 tests at the Bondi Beach Vehicle Testing Center as the city experiences an outbreak in Sydney, Australia, on December 21, 2020 (Photo: Reuters / Loren Elliott) .
The cluster of coronavirus detected in Sydney’s northern beach suburbs last week has now risen to 90 cases as authorities fight to contain the outbreak in Australia’s largest city just days before Christmas.
READ: Victoria Premier of Australia apologizes for lax COVID-19 controls in hotel quarantine
Long lines have formed outside test sites in Sydney, with more than 83,000 people tested on Monday and Tuesday in New South Wales.
Berejiklian praised the “outstanding” public response, but said the virus threatened to continue to spread as the infected visited gyms, pubs and restaurants across Sydney.
“What remains our concern is that, although the number of cases is relatively low compared to what we have experienced in previous days, the number of places that are affected is growing,” he said.
Berejiklian said the two-day drop in case numbers seemed to show that health strategies were paying off, but warned that the situation was still “evolving” and that case numbers could “go back up.”
An intense contact tracing effort is underway, and Health Director Kerry Chant said “many thousands” of people have been ordered to isolate themselves at home for 14 days.
The state government closed the northern beaches, home to more than 250,000 people, for five days starting Saturday, prompting other states to close their borders and throwing Christmas plans into chaos for thousands of families.
The restrictions will be reviewed on Wednesday.
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