Sydney COVID northern beaches cluster grows by seven

Dr Chant said the nurse has transported several patients, including positive COVID-19 cases, which may be how the nurse contracted the virus. She said a close workplace contact of the health care worker has also come back positive after 8pm last night, and will be included in tomorrow’s figures.

“We are obviously doing urgent genome sequencing to confirm that that is the source of their infection and those results will be available later today,” she said.

Dr Chant said NSW Health is currently looking into whether there were any breaches in protocol that would have resulted in the transmission.

“Sometimes, those are inadvertent. So sometimes a patient will take off a mask. Sometimes a patient doesn’t tolerate wearing a mask at a particular point in time. There are always a number of elements. I don’t want to speculate until we have the genome sequencing,” she said.

It is “inevitable” that some issues with transmission will happen, Dr Chant said, but she stressed that the fact that the cases are being picked up shows the system works.

Dr Chant said she feels “proud to be a NSW resident at this time” given the community’s response to calls for testing.

Dr Chant said as contact tracers work around the clock, about 50 more venues visited by a COVID-19 case were uploaded to the NSW government website listing at midnight.

“We’re taking a very low threshold for listing those venues so please keep alert and share that information with your friends as well,” she said.

The list includes a number of venues across Sydney – outside the northern beaches – where transmission has been found to have occurred.

“We are concerned in transmission events occurring outside the northern beaches because residents in those areas are not subject to the same lockdown provisions,” Dr Chant said.

She highlighted The Rose of Australia, a pub in Erskineville in Sydney’s inner west, where a positive case visited on December 15 while infectious and another diner tested positive on Sunday.

“We believe there has been transmission from the first person to the new case at the venue, as they were both diners there at the same time,” she said. “The second case was part of a work dinner and all attendees at that dinner are being tested, but we’re also investigating how the contact between the first and second person occurred.”

Dr Chant thanked the pub for its efforts in working with NSW Health to investigate the transmission and urged anyone who had been there to self-isolate. She also highlighted:

• Paddington Alimentary Deli and Cafe: Patrons seated from December 17-19 are close contacts and should get tested and isolate for 14 days
• BodyFit gym in Blacktown: A confirmed case visited on December 16, 17 and 18 from 7am-8am. Anyone who attended at those times is also a close contact.

Dr Chant said NSW’s sewage surveillance program detected traces of the virus at a treatment plant at Hornsby Heights on Saturday from a system that drains parts of Berowra, Cowan, Berowra Heights, Hornsby Heights, Mount Colah, Mount Ku-Ring-Gai, Asquith, and a small part of Hornsby.

She said NSW Health is already aware of two positive cases in the area who are linked to the Avalon cluster, but “as a precaution we want people to pay attention to that positive result”.

It may be linked to known cases in the area, “but regardless we urge people in those areas to be vigilant for symptoms and attend for testing,” Dr Chant said.

Dr Chant also provided information about a family who drove to Victoria from NSW and stopped at a regional town.

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She said the family stopped at Oliver’s Real Food Outlet at Gundagai, mid-to-late afternoon on December 18.

“So advice will be going out to the community in Gundagai who may have also accessed that real food outlet,” she said.

Earlier this morning Victorian health officials said a 15-year-old girl had tested positive to COVID-19 linked to the northern beaches outbreak.

Ms Berejiklian is standing firm on her decision not to mandate mask wearing, but said everyone in Sydney should be wearing a mask indoors.

“Clearly if the case numbers were going in the opposite direction, you’d look at all the settings but given where we are now, we believe very strongly [in] having a proportionate response to what we’re experiencing,” she said.

The Premier said the health advice “strongly” recommends that when people are in indoor settings “you should wear a mask”.

“I wore my mask yesterday when I was shopping and I expect everybody else to as well. If you’re catching public transport, if you’re going shopping, if you’re at a place of worship, at any indoor event you should wear a mask in greater Sydney,” she said.

Noting members of the community had received fines from police for using their phones while stopped in their cars waiting to be tested in Bondi, Ms Berejiklian said “common sense prevailed” in seven of those cases which were reverted to a caution – but she said “this is why NSW is cautious before you mandate anything because it then raises a whole level of different issues.”

“To date the overwhelming response from the community has just been fantastic and we want everybody to keep it up.”