NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has repeatedly stated she doesn’t want to impose lockdown on NSW throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, however this is shaping into a real threat as 11 new infections were noted on Thursday.
On Wednesday, a raft of new social distancing restrictions were introduced and residents in seven Sydney councils were banned from leaving the metropolitan area for non-essential reasons.
“We have always said we will not burden our citizens unless we absolutely have to,” Ms Berejiklian said yesterday.
“I am not going to rule out further action, I am not going to rule out what happens beyond a week.”
NSW University Epidemiologist Dr Abrar Chughtai pointed to three key indicators to look at before the imposition of a NSW lockdown: the vaccination status of the community; the kind of cases identified; the virus variant. As far as vaccinations are concerned, only around 20 per cent of the NSW population has received at least one COVID-19 vaccination.
Among the positive cases noted in NSW is that of the state’s Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall, who tested positive after dining at Christo’s Pizzeria in Paddington, which was later identified as an exposure site. He was one of the four Nationals MPs in isolation. The others are Trevor Khan, Steph Cooke and Ben Franklin.
In Victoria, there has been one new local case of COVID-19 from more than 22,000 tests. The case, a close contact of another case, had been in quarantine during their infectious period. At 11.59pm tonight, restrictions are set to ease for the state.
In Queensland, another locally transmitted case was confirmed which is linked to a Portuguese Family Centre visited by a flight attendant who was infected during hotel quarantine.
