The ACT will shut its borders to Greater Sydney from 4pm today, with anyone entering the ACT from the area to be subject to stay-at-home orders.

Non-ACT residents will require an exemption to enter the Territory from Greater Sydney after 4pm today.

The restrictions take in the metropolitan Sydney area, but do not include the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour. However, people who have been in these wider regions in the past 14 days will be required to complete a declaration form before they travel to the ACT.

The new requirements will be in place for at least a week, until 11.59pm on Friday 2 July, and come after the ‘Bondi cluster’ grew to 65 cases today, plunging four Sydney local government areas (LGAs) into a one-week lockdown. Previous stay-at-home orders for seven Sydney LGAs have also been extended to at least 11.59pm on Friday next week.

Stay-at-home orders mean people will need to stay in their residence except for an approved essential purpose like work or study, shopping for essential supplies and to attend medical appointments. Masks are required when leaving the residence for these purposes, with the exception of vigorous exercise.

Stern warning to Canberrans to avoid Sydney

The message remains clear for Canberrans, especially with the beginning of school holidays today: do not travel into Sydney.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the vaccine rollout was not yet advanced enough to allow the free movement of people, with a “real risk” the virus would spread beyond Greater Sydney and find its way into the ACT.

“What we’ve seen is the number of exposures sites in Sydney continues to grow each day of this outbreak … this is the most concerning outbreak so far this calendar year and the implications are quite significant,” Mr Barr said.

“What we are seeking to do in the ACT is to try and avoid having to put into place harsh restrictions.”

Mr Barr said a “blockade” at the ACT/NSW border wouldn’t be feasible to police entries from Sydney but said compliance checks may be utilised while travel restrictions remain in place.  

Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith defended the ACT Government’s decision, saying there are almost 2,400 people who are already subject to stay-at-home requirements after having been to one of the seven LGAs previously identified, and around 13,500 who said they’d been in Greater Sydney in the past 14 days.

Previous NSW case a false positive

In good news for some Canberrans in isolation, the man who visited Canberra on the long weekend (11-14 June) and returned a potential positive test for COVID-19 has now been confirmed as a false positive case.

All Canberrans quarantining as a result of visiting the National Gallery on Monday 14 June are now free to leave isolation, Ms Stephen-Smith confirmed.

As well, NSW Pharmacy Guild President David Heffernan, who attended a function and the Kingston Hotel in Canberra on Wednesday, has confirmed he has tested negative for the virus, after he was in contact with NSW Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall who tested positive for the virus earlier this week.