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

Queensland records no locally acquired COVID-19 cases as state closes borders to six Sydney council areas

 

Police will ramp up patrols and vehicle intercepts on the Queensland border.(

ABC News: Jennifer Huxley

Queensland has declared more New South Wales local government areas COVID-19 hotspots as the southern state's cluster of the highly infectious Delta variant grows.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said as of 1:00am on Thursday, Queensland will close its borders to Sydney, Bayside, Woollahra, Canada Bay, Inner West and Randwick council areas.

The state already declared the Waverley Council area a hotspot.

Travellers from those areas will be barred from entering the state, while Queenslanders returning from those areas will be placed in hotel quarantine.

Non-Queensland residents who have visited those areas will need an exemption to enter the state and will also need to quarantine.

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 Care About Others ?  -  Vaccinate Today.

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

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
• Covid travel restrictions in Australia
• Vic hotspots list; Qld hotspots; Victoria restrictions explained
• Covid vaccine rollout numbers: tracking vaccination progress
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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.