New South Wales (NSW) Premier Gladys Berejiklian is due to make an announcement following new COVID-19 public health alerts in western Sydney.
The new public health alerts have been issued for a western Sydney venue and additional public transport routes following confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Anyone who attended Centrelink in Auburn on Jan. 14 in the afternoon should get tested immediately and self-isolate until a negative result occurs.
Those who travelled on train services between Warwick Farm and Auburn on Jan. 14 and Jan. 15 have also been given the same health directions.
One local case of COVID-19 infection was reported on Saturday in a western Sydney man believed to be linked to the Berala bottle shop cluster.
It comes after days without a locally transmitted infection.
All people who were in the dental, physio and imaging waiting room of the Wentworthville Medical and Dental Clinic between 11.30 a.m. and 1.15 p.m. on Friday are now considered close contacts.
“(They) must immediately get tested and self-isolate for 14 days regardless of the result,” NSW Health said on Saturday afternoon. “Anyone who was in other areas of the clinic at that time should monitor for symptoms and immediately isolate and get tested if they appear.”
Just 14,547 tests in NSW were reported to 8 p.m. on Friday—down on the previous day’s total of 16,070.
NSW has flagged the possibility of loosening restrictions on Greater Sydney next week but one of the conditions is high testing rates.
The testing rates are “not where we would like them to be,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters on Friday.
The premier is due to provide the state with an update on Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, Victoria is also watching Sydney closely, as it considers moving parts of the city from “red” to “orange” in its traffic-light permit system.
Travellers from orange zones still need to self-quarantine for 14 days but don’t need to apply for an exemption to enter Victoria.
“There are clearly some local government areas within Greater Sydney that have now gone a number of days of cases without transmission,” Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said in Melbourne. “I will look very intensively at the epidemiology across Greater Sydney over the next couple of days.”
By Greta Stonehouse and Luke Costin
