Race to stop Sydney's Covid cluster from growing

People are seen lining up at a Covid-19 pop-up testing location at Avalon Recreation Centre on...
People are seen lining up at a Covid-19 pop-up testing location at Avalon Recreation Centre on December 18, 2020 in Sydney. Photo: Getty Images
A coronavirus cluster in Sydney's northern beaches stands at 28 cases, with authorities expected to announce more infections on Saturday morning.

The case numbers will be updated early this afternoon NZ Time.

On Friday afternoon, NSW Health issued a lengthy list of venues visited by confirmed cases.

They include numerous places around the northern beaches, but also Cronulla RSL Club, Westfield Bondi Junction, a Turramurra hair salon, a Woolloomooloo restaurant and other venues and transport routes around Sydney.

The warning periods range from December 11 to December 16.

The northern beaches remains in a quasi-lockdown, with NSW Health encouraging people to stay home and not leave the area. Beaches are closed.

On Friday afternoon, health authorities issued a 72-hour advisory to wear masks when indoors. The advisory does not extend beyond the beaches region.

The state Labor opposition says the measure does not go far enough, calling on the government to make masks mandatory on public transport, in supermarkets and shopping centres and in places of worship.

Other states acted on Thursday and Friday to prevent the cluster jumping borders, with more barriers for NSW residents erected by Western Australia, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

Anyone who enters WA from NSW will be forced into 14 days of self-isolation, and people who have been in the northern beaches will not be able to enter Victoria or Queensland without quarantining.

Genomic sequencing has connected the cluster to a US strain of the virus, which may have entered NSW in a returned traveller in early December.

That traveller has never left the hotel quarantine system, meaning the connection between that case and the northern beaches remains unclear.

"If we get on top of this in the next two or three days, all of us will be able to have a much better Christmas," Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters on Friday.

Ms Berejiklian admitted the government's recommendations may tighten if Covid-19 case numbers on the northern beaches don't flatten. That included the enforcement of mask usage.

With many Australians planning to travel for the holiday period in the next few days and weeks, all eyes will be on the Sydney cluster.

Add a Comment