Stay at Home Orders for Parts of Sydney Amid Outbreak

People queue in their cars to get tested for COVID-19 at a pop-up testing clinic at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia on June 25, 2021. Dean Lewins/AAP Image via AP

The New South Wales (NSW) government has imposed stay-at-home orders in four areas of Sydney after an outbreak of the Delta variant of the CCP virus grew on Friday.

Sydneysiders who live or work in the local government areas of Woollahra, Waverly, Randwick, or the City of Sydney itself will now be locked down until July 2.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said everyone in those districts would need to stay home unless absolutely necessary. Residents can only leave their homes to attend work, study, provide care, or buy essential items.

Residents may also exercise in groups of no more than 10.

“We appreciate what impact this will have significantly on businesses, especially in the CBD and those four council areas we’ve announced,” Berejiklian said.

“And whilst we’re doing really well with the virus—our contact tracers are doing an unbelievable job, the people who we’re interviewing are doing a great job—the advice from [NSW] Health is, we don’t want to see this situation linger for weeks.

“We would like to see this situation end sooner rather than later,” she said.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian at a press conference in Sydney, Australia, on Nov. 4, 2020. Brook Mitchell/Getty Images

Berejiklian announced that pre-existing restrictions for other areas of Greater Sydney as well as Central Coast, the Blue Mountains, Wollongong, and Shellharbour would remain in place until midnight on Friday next week.

Those who live or work in the Inner West, Canada Bay, or Bayside council areas are also barred from leaving metropolitan Sydney.

The news of the localised lockdowns comes as the outbreak grew again, with eleven cases detected in the 24 hours to 8 p.m. on Thursday night—six of which were already reported.

There were 17 further infections after 8 p.m. that will be recorded in Saturday’s tally; this brings the total number of the Bondi cluster to 65.

However, 14 of the new cases are linked to pre-existing infections.

NSW Chief Health Officer, Dr. Kerry Chant, said the large number of exposure sites with confirmed transmission meant that increased restrictions were needed.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant at a press conference in Homebush in Sydney, Australia, on Aug. 17, 2020. Brook Mitchell/Getty Images

“The key issue is because of the growing number of venues, the fact that we’ve had confirmed transmission at a number of the venues, we need to reduce people’s movements,” Chant said.

NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys said police had already handed out infringement notices for breaches to the new rules, including some on public transport.

Meanwhile, Deputy Premier John Barilaro, Health Minister Brad Hazzard and the premier have all tested negative to COVID-19 after the NSW parliament was declared a potential exposure site on June 24, after Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall tested positive.

Berejiklian also thanked the state’s Covid Tracing Team, which she said were doing an amazing job and noted that NSW Health was on top of all cases bar one, which they had yet to trace back.