Coronavirus warning for Sydney residents as shocking photos emerge from beach party
NSW Health has called for ramped-up testing in the City of Sydney LGA as health authorities look to curtail community transmission in central and eastern Sydney.
The announcement comes as NSW Police confirmed they were forced to shut down a mass gathering in Maroubra on Sunday evening.
Video of scores of people at the event dancing to drums and music at Jack Vanny Memorial Park have emerged online.
“We’ve been divided for far too long over a virus with a 99 per cent recovery rate,” a caption on one video of the event read.
“We will not submit, we will rise in community spirit.”
A NSW Police Force spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia in a statement the event was shut down and attendees were moved on without incident.
A 33-year-old male, who was one of the organisers of the event, has been fined $1000 on Monday due to a breach of COVID-19 restrictions, the spokesperson said.
According to the video’s description, the event was organised by Sydney Drumming and was attended by more than 200 people.
Calls for people who visited City of Sydney to get tested
Cases across the Eastern Suburbs and inner-city locations have begun to rise in recent weeks.
NSW Health are now encouraging the hundreds of thousands of people who have either visited or live in the City of Sydney LGA, to seek testing regardless how mild symptoms are.
“NSW Health is asking anyone who lives in or has visited our local area in the past 2 weeks to get tested, even if you have mild COVID-19 symptoms such as a runny nose or scratchy throat,” City of Sydney said on Monday.
The vast LGA consists of several major suburbs including the CBD, Potts Point, Surry Hills, Glebe and Alexandria.
The area joins Campbelltown, Canterbury Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Liverpool and Parramatta LGAs as areas under increased surveillance by NSW Health.
The move comes as Sydney Girls High School in Moore Park was the latest location to be shut down after a student tested positive.
All students have been instructed to isolate.
Cases begin to grow in inner and eastern Sydney
It follows the large outbreak in and around Potts Point late last month, centred around the Apollo and Thai Rock restaurants, with dozens of cases in the cluster.
According to NSW Health, there are 15 active cases in the City of Sydney LGA.
Waverley and Woollahra LGAs in the city’s east have a combined eight active cases.
University of NSW epidemiologist Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, who is also a World Health Organisation advisor, told Yahoo News Australia face masks should be mandatory in NSW areas that are declared hotspots.
“It’s still not good [in NSW]... we’ve got problems,” she said.
On Monday, seven new cases were confirmed, however lower numbers in recent days haven’t eased fears of community transmission for Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
“Melbourne didn't get worse because of the number of cases they had," she said on Monday.
"They had undetected community transmission which then unknowingly got to a stage where it … formed a number of different clusters and we certainly don't want that to happen here."
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