NSW to test returned travellers after hotel quarantine

There were 12,521 tests reported in NSW to 8pm on Friday, an increase on the previous day’s total of 10,113.

NSW Health is continuing to screen passengers arriving on flights from Victoria in light of a coronavirus case in a Melbourne hotel quarantine worker reported earlier this week.

Anyone who has been to any of the exposure sites listed by Victorian health authorities who is already in or entering NSW is required to get tested immediately and isolate for 14 days since they were there, regardless of the result, as well as present for testing again on day 12 of their isolation.

New COVID-19 cleaning squads will target Sydney’s train, bus, ferry and light rail services in Sydney CBD, where more than 1000 touch points will be sanitised at five locations every day.

Minister for Transport and Roads Andrew Constance said the roving teams would bolster cleaning services across the commuter network and hand out masks as city workers return to offices.

The rapid response teams will service the network in addition to its regular cleaners, tending to hand rails, Opal card readers, waiting areas and bike racks.

They can also be deployed to areas where there has been a COVID-19 breakout or where a major event is taking place, like the Sydney Cricket Ground.

“More than 1000 touch points are cleaned each shift at Central, Town Hall, Wynyard, Circular Quay and Martin Place, and more than 92,000 masks have been handed out to customers since the squads first popped up during the Northern Beaches outbreak,” Mr Constance said.

The government has also confirmed 1200 extra public transport services, introduced in early December, will continue until at least the end of March.

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More than 4500 extra services are now running across the network in response to COVID-19.

Since March last year cleaners on the public transport network have carried out an additional 1.7 million hours of cleaning across services.

Public transport passenger number remain considerably down on the same time last year, before the pandemic hit Australia.

As at January 12, patronage across the network was down around 50 per cent – 1 million trips – compared to the same day last year.

Masks remain mandatory on all modes of public transport in the Greater Sydney, Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Wollongong areas. On the spot fines of $200 can apply.

Children aged 12 and under are exempt but encouraged to wear masks where it is practical.

Mr Constance said the degree of mask compliance had been “unreal”.

“Avoid everything that we’re seeing in the northern hemisphere around this disease. We want to keep people safe and keep our economy going.”

Former chef Bruna Bringel was unemployed for eight months as a result of the pandemic, before she became a COVID-19 cleaner on the public transport network.

Ms Bringel said she enjoyed the work because it made her feel part of the “taskforce against the virus”.

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With a team of five people, she said she usually took responsibility for handing out masks to the public, having observed people were “more receptive to masks when females are handing them out”.

Around 1700 extra cleaners have been added to the cleaning services on the public transport network since the pandemic began.

Two new cases were recorded in returning travellers in the latest reporting period, bringing the total number of cases in NSW since the start of the pandemic to 4930.