While New South Wales’ community transmitted Covid-19 cases continue to rise in numbers, Premier Gladys Berejiklian faces backlash over allowing the cricket Test at the SCG to take place.
New South Wales Labor leader, Jodi McKay, has called on her to stop crowds from attending urging state government to make masks mandatory in certain settings such as places of worship, supermarkets and on public transport.
“Why are we now progressing with a crowd at the cricket? … It just doesn’t make sense to me,” he said.
“I’m urging the premier to make sure the cricket goes ahead … but there is a general feeling there should not be people at the cricket. We shouldn’t have people attending the cricket. We need to make that call now.”
Today’s arbitrary and panicked decision indicates the Andrews Labor government has absolutely zero faith in its contact tracers and case management teams.
— Tim Smith (@TCS1983) December 31, 2020
Meanwhile in Victoria, people queue up in their cars and at hospitals to get tested as the head of biosecurity at the Kirby Institute, Prof Raina MacIntyre, warns of a surge in Victorian Covid-19 cases.
The increase in community transmission cases is likely to come between the first and second week of January following fears that more people that got infected in Sydney have entered Victoria for Christmas celebrations.
At the moment NSW counts 160 active cases following 18 new cases recorded yesterday, Wednesday, with health authorities hoping Christmas and New Year celebrations will not lead to a surge in new infections.
“The appearance of these cases five days after Christmas, on the same day that NSW cases surged upward, is no coincidence,” she told Guardian Australia explaining that the virus behaves predictably.
“We can therefore expect a second surge in cases between January 5 and 14,” she added stressing that the virus usually incubates in 5-6 days even though its total time to show signs and be contagious is 14 days.
Based on that, the people testing positive now most likely contracted Covid-19 on Christmas day and more are expected to be infected tonight and tomorrow as they could be asymptomatic.
Parkdale: Queue of cars for at least 300m awaiting the pop-up testing site at Parkdale to start up for the day. @theheraldsun #COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/tb1Qtl9jBD
— Brianna Travers (@briannatravers) December 31, 2020
Jeroen Weimar, Victoria’s commander of Covid-19 response, said that “We have been in this position before and we are deploying our full outbreak approach around these cases”, adding that extensive contact tracing is under way.
“At this point, our priority is on making sure we’ve got the right supports in place for the close contacts and that people are getting themselves tested. Now more than ever people should not let down their guard. Maintain physical distancing, practice good hand hygiene. Stay at home if you’re unwell and most of all get tested if you have any symptoms at all.”
