The NSW premier says the number of new local COVID-19 infections in the Sydney outbreak is stabilising but warned the numbers are likely to keep bouncing around.
NSW recorded 65 new local COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday 14 July, but Gladys Berejiklian warned the number of infected people in the community was yet to decline, despite stay-at-home orders.
Of the new cases, at least 35 people were out in the community for part or all of their infectious period – a number that authorities want to drive down to zero.
“It has been a stable number, it hasn’t grown … (but) unless it comes down, we can’t get out of lockdown,” Ms Berejiklian told reporters.
Five million NSW residents will endure at least another fortnight of lockdown after a run of high daily coronavirus numbers forced the state government on Wednesday to extend stay-at-home measures at least until Friday 30 July.
There are 19 COVID-19 patients in intensive care in NSW, with five ventilated.
Ms Berejiklian says movement around Greater Sydney needs to drop even further and again implored people to stay home unless essential.
She defended current work-from-home settings, saying residents able to work from home were already doing so. She said it was impossible to achieve “perfection” in the settings for workers obliged to leave home.
Organisations have long been obliged to have COVID-safe plans in place for workers and numerous businesses have shut due to the incompatibility of their operations with current health orders, Ms Berejiklian said.
“There never will be (perfection) no matter where you draw the line … but what I do know is that the green shoots are starting to show,” the premier said.
Ms Berejiklian also urged people not to visit doctors or pharmacists with COVID symptoms, saying some had become infected in those settings.
Infection numbers continue to rise in southwest Sydney and a new 24-hour coronavirus testing clinic has opened at Fairfield.
There are now three testing sites in the area operating around the clock.
The clinics were inundated this week after essential workers from the Fairfield area were ordered to get tested every three days if they work outside the area.
Two of Sydney’s major hospitals are also on alert after a nurse and a patient were diagnosed with COVID-19, but authorities say they are not panicked.
A pregnant patient at Liverpool Hospital, in Sydney’s southwest, was diagnosed as COVID-positive on Wednesday after undergoing a procedure.
The hospital cancelled elective surgery to deep clean the operating theatre while close contacts are being tested and isolating for 14 days.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said hospital management “understood what needs to be done” and were satisfied with the handling of the outbreak so far. He said the hospital was well equipped to replace isolating staff.
A nurse who worked at Westmead Hospital in the COVID-19 ward has also tested positive for the virus but there are no cases yet linked to the health worker.
The nurse was vaccinated and is currently asymptomatic.
NSW Health on Thursday afternoon confirmed another suspected case, at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse for cancer treatment in Sydney, was a false positive.
Later on Thursday, 2GB radio reported two southwest Sydney paramedics had picked up COVID-19, with contact tracing underway.
COVID-19 exposure alerts were issued on Wednesday for two work sites in Greenacre, as well as Shell at Jindera and Shell Coles Express in South Gundagai in southern NSW after an infected removalist travelled through the area.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison says relief is on its way for parents, who will no longer have to pay for child care they’re not using during lockdown.
The measure could benefit around 216,000 families across 3,600 centres.
AAP
