Stay-at-home orders were extended across all of Greater Sydney, including the Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Wollongong, over last weekend (26 June) and are expected to remain in effect until 9 July.
Premier, Gladys Berejiklian said the extension followed updated health advice from NSW Chief Health Officer, Dr Kerry Chant about the growing risk to the community.
“Everyone in Greater Sydney must stay at home unless it is for an essential reason,” Ms Berejiklian said.
She said people could leave their homes to shop for food or other essential goods and services; for medical care or compassionate needs; for a COVID-19 vaccination, unless identified as a close contact; to exercise outdoors in groups of 10 or fewer; and for essential work or education which couldn’t be done from home.
Ms Berejiklian said community sport and weddings weren’t permitted to take place; funerals would be limited to one person per four square metres with a cap of 100 people; and masks must be worn indoors.
“We understand this is a difficult time for everyone, however, we need to take these steps now to get on top of this outbreak,” she said.
Dr Chant urged community members to play their part in controlling the virus’ spread by getting tested.
“We need really high testing rates to make sure we’re stopping any chains of transmission and we’re continuing to urge people to come forward for testing,” Dr Chant said.
“What I want to see in progressive days is that we start seeing all of the cases being effectively isolated that we’re announcing,” she said.
“At the moment we are still seeing some cases that were potentially infectious in the community, but what we’re hoping is, because of the lockdown, the number of interactions those cases have had, where there is the potential for transmitting the virus, would have decreased significantly.”
Dr Chant said it was critical that while stay-at-home restrictions were in place, people minimised how much they left home and followed precautions such as social distancing and mask wearing while out for essential reasons.
“Please do not go out, get someone else in your household, if you’re at all unwell or any have COVID symptoms, please immediately isolate and get a test and have the daily routine also checking your mobile phone and also watch the website for updated venues of concern,” she said.
Minister for Health, Brad Hazzard said supervision and compliance checks would be increased to make sure everyone was doing the right thing.
Further information on COVID-19 restrictions can be accessed on NSW Health’s website at this PS News link.
