NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian (Photo / AP)
Following the implementation of three day compulsory restrictions for the Greater Sydney from 5pm on May 6, NSW Premier Gladys Berejklian was pleased to announce that NSW has recorded no new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the last full 24 hours.
The restrictions were put in place following the positive case of a 50-year-old man who visited a number of locations in search for a BBQ applicance, with his wife also testing positive for a strain of COVID-19 that was matched with a returned traveller at the Park Royal Hotel in Darling Harbour but how they became infected is still unknown.
NSW Health said :
"This highlights the need for everyone in NSW to check in and out of every venue you visit, as this allows NSW Health to complete rapid contact tracing when required," a spokesperson said.
The restrictions include the compulsory wearing of face on public transport and at indoor venues; limit of 20 visitors in one household; a limit of two visitors at aged care facilities; no dancing and singing in indoor venues except those who are performing on stage.
This morning NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said it was still "business as usual" despite the restrictions and she would still be going out for dinner with her family to celebrate Mother's Day on Sunday.
"Don't change what you are doing on Mother's Day — if you are welcoming people into your home, limit it to 20, then if someone does have the virus it only spreads to those 20 people," Ms Berejiklian told the Nine Network.
In the last 24 hours, five new cases were also detected in hotel quarantine and 13,339 tests were undertaken.
With regard to the Trans Tasman Travel Bubble, New Zealand has temporarily been suspended with flights from NSW suspended for 48 hours from last midnight.
"That, to me, is an overreaction," NSW Premier Berejiklian said in an interview this morning. "If that's what the department says they must do, that's what she [Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern] does. But I certainly think the response should also be proportionate to the risk."
Berejiklian said NSW health officials were working hard to "stop a super spreading event" with a slate of new restrictions in Greater Sydney over the next three days to minimise the chances of further cases spreading.
In the meantime, the Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that flights from India are to be resumed on May 15, 2021. There is an estimated 9,000 Australians currently stuck in India and pleas from the public got the government to reconsider its ban to flights from India where COVID 19 cases are very high.