Add Category
New South Wales has reported no new locally acquired coronavirus cases on the first full day of new restrictions in the state, but contact tracers are still working to find the source of an infection in a man who had no links to overseas travel or hotel quarantine.
No new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 were detected in the 24 hours between 8pm Wednesday and 8pm Thursday, out of 13,339 tests. There were five new cases in hotel quarantine.
A man in his 50s tested positive to the virus on Wednesday but contact tracers have still not determined how he contracted the virus. The man lives in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, had not travelled overseas and does not work in a hotel quarantine, border or health role.
The man’s wife tested positive on Thursday but nine other close contacts have not tested positive as of Friday morning.
Sewage testing also revealed on Thursday that there were fragments of the virus in Sydney’s inner west, in a catchment area covering Dulwich Hill, Marrickville, Summer Hill, Lewisham, Ashfield, Haberfield, Petersham, Lilyfield and Leichhardt.
People in those suburbs have been urged to get tested if they have even the mildest symptoms.
The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, did not front her usual Covid-19 press conference on Friday but told Channel Seven earlier in the day she was “very pleased with how things are going”.
“The only concern for us is obviously the fact that at least one person has been in the community going about their business for a few days, having the virus and not knowing they have it,” she said. “It could be more than one but we know there are missing links.
“That’s why we’ve brought in what we believe are very proportionate restrictions over the weekend. We’re just saying to people, ‘Go about your daily business, just be extra safe.’”
On Thursday Berejiklian announced restrictions would come into place from 5pm and continue until 12.01am on Monday, with households limited to welcoming 20 guests, and masks made compulsory on public transport and in all public indoor venues.
Dancing and drinking while standing up at indoor venues will not be allowed, though dancing will be allowed at weddings, and visitors to aged care facilities will be limited to two people.
Also on Thursday New Zealand paused its quarantine-free travel bubble with NSW for 48 hours as a result of the new cases but its Covid response minister, Chris Hipkins, said this would be under “constant review”.
Hipkins said this meant the bubble could be reinstated earlier than the 48 hours, or extended beyond it, depending on developments.
The NSW chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, also said on Thursday that laboratory testing had revealed infected man’s strain of Covid matched a case who had returned from the US and quarantined at the Park Royal hotel at Darling Harbour in Sydney.
But she said contact tracers had not identified any location where the pair could have come into contact.
New potential exposure sites were also released on Thursday night and Friday morning by NSW Health, which include the restaurant XOPP in Haymarket, on the mezzanine level, 1 Little Pier Street, on Wednesday 28 April from 1.30pm to 2.30pm; Bondi Trattoria, 34 Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach, on Thursday 29 April 2021 from 12.45pm to 1.30pm, and Fratelli Fresh in Westfield Sydney, F5 Pitt Street, on Tuesday 27 April 2021 from 1.15pm to 2.15pm.
Anyone who attended the venues at those times should get tested immediately and self-isolate until a negative result is received.