Australia’s leading medical group said that the New South Wales (NSW) state government has put the rest of the country at risk by its decision not to go “hard and early” in its response to a COVID-19 outbreak on Sydney’s northern beaches, which is suspected to have also caused new cases in Victoria state.
Victoria yesterday recorded 10 new local cases, bringing active cases in the state to 29.
Trace testing has linked the new Melbourne cluster to the NSW outbreak.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Australian Medical Association vice president Chris Moy said that the NSW government was “playing the odds” by relying heavily on its contact tracing system instead of imposing a quick lockdown to stop the spread across Sydney.
“They have put themselves and put the rest of the country at risk,” Moy told Fairfax Media. “I can completely understand why Victoria has reacted [by] closing the border very quickly, because they are very worried about this.”
Victoria only recently overcame a second wave, which prompted overnight curfews, lockdowns of Melbourne and other areas and which killed more than 800 people out of Australia’s death toll of 909.
The state had gone more than two months without a new case until the new outbreaks over the past week.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has resisted pressure to force Sydney into lockdown, mandate masks and ban crowds at some sporting events, despite the number of cases in her state growing from none to 170 in two weeks.
University of Melbourne epidemiologist Tony Blakely said that the New South Wales government should have locked down the northern beaches outbreak 48 to 72 hours earlier than it did.
“They were slow,” Blakely said, adding that he was also among many experts in Australia scratching their heads over why the state was unwilling to mandate masks.
From midnight yesterday, masks were mandatory at shopping centers, on public transport and in entertainment venues such as cinemas, with fines to come into effect tomorrow.
Last month, many states opened their borders freely to other states, and the hope was to have Australia completely open by Christmas, except for international travelers.
However, the Sydney northern beaches outbreak has prompted new restrictions.
The newest occurred at midnight on Friday, when Victoria closed its border to NSW, prompting traffic bottlenecks as people raced to beat the closure.
Once in Victoria, COVID-19 testing sites had long lines as travelers waited for mandatory testing. Anyone who was not able to return by that deadline faced a 14-day quarantine.
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