SYDNEY, Dec 30 (NNN-AGENCIES) – A jump of 18 locally acquired COVID-19 cases, in New South Wales (NSW) today, prompted increased concern with a fresh cluster in Sydney’s inner suburbs expected to grow.
Half of the new cases were located outside the original outbreak area of Sydney’s Northern Beaches, with six linked to a family in the inner west suburb of Croydon, and three under investigation.
Contact tracers were unable to link the six cases in Sydney’s inner west to a known source, and concerns were raised over the family’s movements during the Christmas period which saw 34 other people identified as close contacts.
“We are expecting that there will be additional cases linked to that cluster, just because of the number of close contacts they had over the period of Christmas and the preceding days,” NSW Chief Health Officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said.
Two of the cases under investigation were detected in the city of Wollongong, 70 km south of Sydney.
One of the infected individuals travelled to Sydney in mid-Dec and visited locations in the city, prompting warnings for those who had been in the same area.
The nine additional cases linked to the original outbreak took its total to 138, with the area remaining in lockdown until at least Jan 9.
Outside the lockdown area, limits on outdoor gatherings in Greater Sydney were reduced from 50 to 30 people, while the maximum numbers of visitors allowed in households dropped from 10 to five.
“Our preferred advice is that, people just stay home for New Year’s Eve, but if you must have people over, don’t have more than five and please make sure you have adequate social distancing, good ventilation,” NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said.
Physician and journalist, Dr Norman Swan, said, restrictions did not go far enough, as a precautionary measure and suggests a two-week lockdown of Sydney.
“The risk here is that it’s spreading through greater metropolitan Sydney and Greater Sydney, and you don’t know where it is and there are clusters that you may not have identified,” Swan said.– NNN-AGENCIES
