Australia politics live update: NSW reports 16 new Covid cases; premier Gladys Berejiklian announces new Sydney restrictions; NZ, WA, Qld and Victoria tighten borders

 

NSW urgently investigating four mystery cases overnight. Follow all the latest updates, live

• New Zealand suspends travel bubble with NSW as Victoria shuts border to parts of Sydney
• NSW mask restrictions; NSW and ACT coronavirus hotspots
• Covid travel restrictions in Australia; Victoria Covid hotspots
• Wellington may face lockdown after visit by infected Australian tourist
  
  
  
  

 NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian gives an update on the state’s Covid outbreak on Wednesday morning. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Mark McGowan has updated the travel advice for NSW – and it goes a little further than Queensland and Victoria:

Following updated health advice related to the Covid-19 outbreak in New South Wales, WA has strengthened its border controls to reduce the risk of the virus coming into the WA community. NSW has transitioned from ‘very low risk’ (with a test and quarantine regime) to ‘medium risk’ under our controlled interstate border, effective from 11am today (23 June).

This returns us to hard border arrangements with New South Wales. Under the medium risk classification, travel from or through NSW is no longer permitted, except for exempt travellers. This also applies to anyone who may have been in NSW since 11 June and has not subsequently been in a ‘very low risk’ State or Territory for 14 days – this includes anyone travelling from the ACT who has travelled into NSW in that time.

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 For the unvaccinated, the world will never truly be safe

Ten new local COVID-19 cases recorded in NSW as mandatory masks extended for seven days

 

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Source: AAP

Ten new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases have been recorded in New South Wales, taking the number of infections linked to a Sydney cluster to 21, amid fresh fears over "fleeting" transmission at a Bondi Junction shopping centre. 

The official case tally for Tuesday was five cases, including two announced on Monday. Seven additional cases were detected after the 8pm cut off and will be included in Wednesday's figures.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced extended mandatory mask restrictions on Tuesday, with all people in Greater Sydney, Wollongong and Shellharbour required to wear a face mask while indoors for an additional seven days.

The three new cases included in Tuesday's numbers include a woman in her 60s from the Illawarra, a woman in her 40s from Sydney's northern suburbs, and a woman in her 20s from the eastern suburbs who is believed to have contracted the virus through "fleeting contact" while working at Westfield Bondi Junction.

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 Don't Be a Fool  --  Get Vaccinated

How did Brisbane's COVID-19 quarantine hotel breach happen?

 

Professor McMillan said he does not feel Australia needs to consider extending quarantine to 21 days

ABC News: Ben Harris

Professor McMillan said the hotel quarantine system has been working "very well" based on the latest data, but there were drawbacks.

"We've seen 350,000 people [go] through the system and less than 20 escapes [of the virus]," he said.

"But that has resulted in two lockdowns in Brisbane and a short lockdown in Western Australia and longer lockdowns in Melbourne."

Professor McMillan said if Australia wanted to bring back international students and expats, larger quarantine facilities similar to those at Howard Springs in the Northern Territory would be required.

"We know that 95 per cent of people will be positive by day 14," he said.

"Given the success of the program in terms of the figures, the cases of people who have become positive after testing negative is quite small, so I don't think we need to go to 21 days [quarantine] at all."

Singapore and Hong Kong recently extended their quarantine periods from 14 days to 21 days.

The Commonwealth has recently approved a purpose-built quarantine facility to be built in Melbourne – in addition to one that has been operating in the Northern Territory.

However, a Queensland proposal has been dismissed by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on multiple occasions.

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 Anti-Vaxers have Rocks Between their Ears

Long Covid or vaccine side effect fears: the choice is clear for holdouts

Many who are reluctant to get inoculated may fear some unknown long-term side effects of the jab

But they must also consider the risks of being infected and suffering from symptoms for many months because, for the unvaccinated, the world will never truly be safe.

A coronavirus patient breathes through an oxygen mask in a temporary Covid-19 care centre in New Delhi. Photo: dpa

A common reason given by those unwilling to get vaccinated is that they worry about unknown long-term side effects from Covid-19 vaccination. Never mind that these vaccines were developed by some of the brightest scientific minds around, built on decades of research on how medicines can be developed more quickly and safely. Never mind that they have been thoroughly tested and found to be safe, and that we have been using vaccines for over 200 years to prevent the spread of diseases such as measles and chickenpox. 

If people are worried about the “long-term” unknown side effects of getting jabbed, they should consider the alternative set of long-term risks they are exposing themselves to. One must ask what risks they are willing to take: either this fear of some long-term unknown side effect of a vaccine, or the well-established risks that getting infected with Covid-19 brings.

The side effects of the vaccine are well known in the short term, and the risk of any long-term side-effects is minute, in the expert opinion of those who developed these vaccines. But what about the risks associated with getting infected?

In the short term, a significant number of people get very sick, and many die. And the long term? An increasing number of studies are reporting people suffering from symptoms for many months after they were infected with Covid-19.

 

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 Covid is NOT a Joke or Hoax - Millions have Died - Will You Be Next?

NSW and ACT Covid-19 exposure sites: map of Sydney hotspots and list of Canberra coronavirus case location alerts

 

A health worker in Bondi, NSW conducts a Covid test. Check the full list and map of Covid-19 public exposure sites around Sydney and Canberra ACT for coronavirus hotspots and case location alerts.New hot spots have been added at Bondi Junction, Drummoyne, Newtown, Hurstville, Parramatta, Tempe and more. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

Here are the current coronavirus hotspots and Covid-19 public exposure sites in Sydney, regional New South Wales and Canberra – including Bondi Junction, Drummoyne and Shellharbour – and what to do if you’ve visited them

• Follow LIVE Australia Covid news for updates from NSW, Vic, Qld and more
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• Vic hotspots list; Qld hotspots; Victoria restrictions explained
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Authorities have released a list of public exposure sites in Sydney, regional NSW, and Canberra ACT visited by a confirmed case of Covid-19.

Here are the current coronavirus hotspots, Covid exposure sites, venues and case location alerts and what to do if you’ve visited them. See the full list and map below.

List of NSW and Sydney Covid public exposure sites

Users viewing this page via Google Amp may experience a technical fault. If the following table is not displaying correctly, please click here to reload the page on theguardian.com which should correct the problem.

To help you find the exposure sites you’re looking for, the list can be sorted by suburb or site name by clicking or tapping on the column headings in the table.

To see the column headings and sort them, this page needs to be viewed on desktop or, if using a mobile web browser, by turning your phone sideways to view the page in landscape.

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 You have the power to help your family and friends get vaccinated.

 

State takes testing to ‘a new level’ in fight against Delta COVID-19 strain

Tens of thousands of people who visited one of Sydney’s biggest shopping centres have been asked to get a COVID-19 test regardless of symptoms as health authorities change their approach in an attempt to “flush out” undetected cases of the fast-spreading Delta variant.

It comes as the eastern suburbs cluster grew to nine cases on Sunday, with three new locally acquired cases reported. Masks are now required indoors across large parts of the city.

Masks are compulsory in seven local government areas - Randwick, Bayside, Canada Bay, Inner West, City of Sydney, Waverley and Woollahra - including in retail, theatres, aged care facilities, for front-of-house hospitality staff and on public transport.Credit:Edwina Pickles

Numerous venues, including several shops at Birkenhead Point shopping centre in Drummoyne, were added to the list of possible exposure sites on Sunday.

NSW Health asked anyone who was at Westfield Bondi Junction, including the car park, at any time on the weekend of June 12 and 13 to get tested but only people with symptoms and those at specific exposure venues at certain times are asked to also isolate.

The most recent cases include a woman in her 30s, a household contact of a man also in his 30s who frequented Westfield Bondi Junction and spent time in Wollongong and a man and woman, both in their 50s from the Sutherland Shire, who were in isolation and are close contacts of existing cases.

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 Don't Be a Fool  --  Get Vaccinated

 

‘Victoria is a powder keg’: Experts fear virus still circulating as testing rate drops

 

The queue for a COVID-19 test at Normanby Street in South Melbourne on Wednesday.Credit:Paul Jeffers

Coronavirus is still smouldering away in Victoria, infectious diseases experts suspect, as plummeting testing numbers fuel fears of undetected cases circulating in the community.

Melbourne infectious diseases physician Michelle Ananda-Rajah said until vaccine uptake rose substantially, testing remained the most critical measure in Victoria alongside contact tracing to avoid another mass outbreak, but she feared “coronavirus fatigue” was leading to a drop in testing numbers.

“Victoria is a powder keg that could blow at any time,” Dr Ananda-Rajah said. “Right now, we are primed for a third wave because we are largely unvaccinated against the disease. Winter is here and we know infections go up at this time. On top of this, we’ve got more transmissible variants of the virus in the mix.”

COVID response commander Jeroen Weimar said health authorities remain extremely concerned the virus was still circulating after a vaccinated nurse had tested positive and may have been infectious while working at Epping Private Hospital on June 14. “There is a full, instant response team working through the circumstances,” he said on Wednesday.

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Don't be Selfish  --  Vaccinate Today.