NSW has recorded 30 new Covid-19 cases on the first full day of its lockdow

To recap what has happened over a very hectic few hours:

• In the Northern Territory, Darwin, Palmerston and Litchfield have gone into lockdown for 48 hours after the territory recorded four new Covid-19 cases.
• In Western Australia, new restrictions were announced for Perth and the Peel region – but no lockdown – after a new community case was discovered, with a likely source from Sydney.
• In Queensland, two new cases of Covid were detected – but of the Alpha, not Delta, variant.
• Meanwhile, NSW has recorded 30 new Covid-19 cases on the first full day of its lockdown.

In the NT:
• The four new cases have the Delta strain of the virus, and are linked to a mine worker at the Granites gold mine 540km north-west of Alice Springs.
• This worker is believed to have contracted the virus in hotel quarantine in Brisbane. This Delta variant is different to the Delta variant spreading in Sydney.
• Of the four cases, one has travelled to NSW, two are on the mine site and one flew to Darwin and Palmerston.
• Chief minister Michael Gunner said some of the close contacts of these cases “remain unaccounted for” and some were “uncontactable”.

In WA:
• A woman from Perth has tested positive after she visited Sydney to see her son, who lives there.
• Health minister Roger Cook said the state was assuming she also had the Delta variant.
• Cook said the woman was a physiotherapist who visited shopping centres and saw clients, including at some schools, over the past week in Perth.
• He said she “did everything right” and abided by all rules.
• Stage-one restrictions, not a lockdown, have been implemented in Perth and the Peel region. That includes masks indoors and outdoors where social distancing is not possible and limits of 30 people in homes. Spectators were immediately banned from today’s AFL match between the Bulldogs and the West Coast Eagles.

In NSW:
• There are now 110 cases linked to the Bondi cluster.
• Ten new cases were today linked to the Great Ocean Foods seafood wholesaler in Marrickville. Two cases remain under investigation, but both are at least geographically linked to Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
• Premier Gladys Berejiklian defended the government’s decision to delay a full lockdown of Sydney, saying she had followed health advice. She rejected the assertion that it was done to protect her reputation. She did “not regret a single decision we have taken” during the pandemic, she said.
• NSW chief medical officer Dr Kerry Chant said a close contact of the NT mine worker had tested positive in the Hunter New England area of NSW. He was in isolation.

In Queensland:
• Two new cases of community transmission were announced. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said they were a couple who were believed to be linked to the previous hotel quarantine breach in the state. The cases were not linked to the Delta strain.
• Some easing of restrictions in Queensland have been pushed back, meaning, for example, that patronage limits in hotels and bars will not be wound back for at least a fortnight.
• On whether the state will see further restrictions, Queensland chief medical officer Dr Jeannette Young said: “We’ll just have to see how all of this evolves over the next few days.”

Source: The Guardian