Photographer: Lisa Maree Williams / Bloomberg
Photographer: Lisa Maree Williams / Bloomberg
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Sydney’s 5 million people are urged to limit activities over the next few days to avoid venting a coronavirus outbreak that is closed at state borders and threatens to shatter the Christmas festivities.
A new health order on Monday restricts gatherings in Sydney’s homes and entertainment venues for at least three days, while New South Wales state officials work to track down the source and contain a growing group involving 83 of people.
“We are on a precipice,” he said Marylouise McLaws, Professor of Epidemiology, Hospital Infections and Infectious Disease Control at the University of New South Wales. It may take a seven-day order for Sydney to “stay home” to stop the spread of the virus, and it would be prudent for residents to reduce holiday festivities if they don’t cancel them altogether, she said.
An empty Wynyard station in Sydney on December 19th. Authorities are still trying to identify the source of the Sydney cluster.
Photographer: James D. Morgan / Getty Images
Raina MacIntyre, a professor of global biosafety at the university, said Christmas and New Year’s Eve pose significant risks to increased transmission as people move to the suburbs and organize family gatherings.
“If we do not prevent this chain of events, we could analyze thousands of cases in January,” she said, adding that face masks should be mandatory indoors, such as shopping malls.
Australia has been at the forefront of nations that have managed to suppress SARS-CoV-2 transmission in the past, keeping the total number of cases reported by Covid-19 at less than 29,000, including 908 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. This is done through rigorous testing and tracking of contacts and the closure of the international border – all returned trips abroad are forced to isolate themselves for 14 days in quarantine hotels.
Authorities are still trying to identify the source of the Sydney cluster, but previous outbreaks in Victoria and South Australia have been linked to violations at quarantine hotels that have seen the virus leak into the community.
Fifteen locally purchased Covid-19 cases were reported on Monday, all linked to the Avalon cluster in Sydney’s Northern Beaches area, said New South Wales Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian. But potential coronavirus carriers have visited dozens of sites in Sydney, raising concerns that the virus could be widely distributed in Australia’s most populous city.
Tasmania, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia have imposed border restrictions and quarantine measures to prevent passengers from the Sydney subway or surrounding areas from spreading the virus, while Western Australia has restricted entry to anyone in New South Wales.
Shares of Australian tourism and leisure companies have fallen amid news of border restrictions and the fact that a wider blockade in Sydney could eliminate summer holiday plans. Qantas Airways Ltd., which had added flights to and from Sydney over the Christmas period, fell by up to 6.3%, while Flight Center Travel Group Ltd. was down 7.1%.
Australian travel stocks have hit the Sydney virus outbreak
Victoria, which has not reported community-acquired cases of Covid-19 for 51 days, will deploy 700 police officers to border checkpoints, Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said.
Covid Sydney Spurs Hotspot Blocking northern beaches
No scales
Sydney Metropolitan Household Meetings are limited to 10 visitors until at least 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, the New South Wales Department of Health said. Interior settings, including places of hospitality and places of worship, are limited to one person per 4 square meters (43 square meters), with a maximum of 300 people. It is also forbidden to sing and sing indoors.
Home orders for about 250,000 residents in the local government area on the north beaches will also continue until midnight on Wednesday. The region includes the popular suburb of Manly and Palm Beach, where the Australian soap opera “Home and Away” was filmed in 1988.
On Wednesday, a “crisis cabinet” will decide whether the northern beaches will face a Christmas blockade, Health Minister Brad Hazzard told Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Monday. Sydney is continuing plans for the New Year’s Eve party, but is reviewing the situation on a daily basis, he said.
– With the assistance of Angus Whitley, Tim Smith, Matthew Burgess and Jason Scott
(Updates with the latest infections)