'It could change': Lockdown hint as NSW battles 'scary' outbreak
The NSW Deputy Premier has hinted that Sydney's need for lockdown to stop the spread of a highly contagious strain of Covid-19 could change at any time.
The state currently has 48 cases attached to an outbreak of coronavirus in Sydney, with 36 attached to a cluster in Bondi.
There has been mounting pressure on Premier Gladys Berejiklian and health authorities to put Sydney into lockdown.
On Friday, Deputy Premier John Barilaro told Nine’s Today Show he did not believe there needed to be a lockdown “at this stage”, but admitted it could still happen.
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“It is not just the numbers, it is the detail, the information we have behind the scenes that our expert health officials look at that gives us the confidence to make the decision and the advice at this stage is not to lock down,” he told the program.
“But that advice could change in the next few hours and it could change over the weekend.”
PM confident with Sydney's lockdown call
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was confident Sydney would not need to go into lockdown.
"New South Wales, I have no doubt, has the gold standard contact tracing system not just in Australia but in the world," he told Sky News.
"My fellow Sydneysiders can feel very confident that if anyone can get on top of this without shutting the city down it is the NSW government."
NSW Parliament was suspended on Thursday after NSW Agricultural Minister Adam Marshall tested positive for coronavirus.
Mr Marshall is isolating after visiting exposure site Christo's Pizzeria in the inner-east Sydney suburb of Paddington on Monday night alongside Nationals colleagues Trevor Khan, Steph Cooke and Ben Franklin.
The premier told reporters on Thursday it was “perhaps the scariest period that New South Wales is going through” given the contagious nature of the Delta variant.
Ms Berejiklian will speak to the media at 11am.
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