A woman in her 80s has died of COVID-19 in Sydney, the first reported death in the state in 12 days.
The woman’s coronavirus infection was linked to the Our Lady of Lebanon cluster. Her death takes the state’s COVID-19 toll to 53 people.
NSW has recorded 12 new cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday. Four cases were locally acquired and linked to previously reported cases and three were locally acquired from an unknown source.
Five cases were returned overseas travellers in hotel quarantine.
A COVID-19 case linked to Our Lady of Mercy College attended two venues in South-Western Sydney while infectious.
The student visited Westfield Liverpool on Friday August 7 from 10.30am to 11am and 12.30pm to 1pm. She also visited 5th Avenue Beauty Bar at Wetherill Park on Saturday August 8, from 2pm to 3pm.
Anyone at these venues during these times are considered casual contacts and should monitor for symptoms. If symptoms present they should immediately self-isolate and get tested.
There were 24,621 tests carried out in the latest 24-hour reporting period.
Blunt warning issued to wear masks
NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance said that if people don’t start wearing masks on public transport it will become mandatory, and not wearing one could attract a fine.
“We need everyone to put them on so we don’t have Melbourne-style lockdown,” Mr Constance said.
The state government is urging people to wear masks in public places. Credit:Rhett Wyman
“My preference is not to fine people, but if we’ve got to move to that mandatory requirement, that’s what we’ll potentially need to go to.
“If everyone can start wearing them, that’s the best thing we can get everyone to do and be guided by [Chief Medical Officer] Kerry Chant in terms of the mandating of them.
Federal Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd has offered a blunt warning to NSW residents as pictures and reports emerge of people continuing to not social distance when out and about.
"People only have to look across the border into Victoria to see what happens when people don't adhere to the physical distancing restrictions and just don't follow what they're supposed to be doing," Professor Kidd told ABC News Breakfast this morning.
"Everyone in NSW, look at the figures which are happening … At the moment we are still seeing this [stable] level of community transmission occurring in NSW, [but] at any time that could dramatically increase and we could have, in NSW, the same sort of consequences that we're seeing in Victoria. We have to all be doing everything we can to prevent that from taking place."
How NSW fares against Victoria in latest outbreaks
NSW has not seen the significant jump in community transmission of COVID-19 that was recorded at the same time for Victoria one month after the states each recorded new case numbers in the double digits.
NSW has had an average of 11 new cases of community transmission every day since July 13, when new cases first rose to double digits.
In comparison, at this point in Victoria's spike in locally-acquired cases, the state had been recording between 115 to 280 new cases every day for 10 days.
Victoria recorded 278 new cases on Thursday, 60 days after community transmission reached the double digits on June 15.
While NSW has avoided Victoria's trajectory so far, experts have warned against complacency and said that NSW is battling a very different type of spread to that linked to breaches in hotel quarantine in Victoria.
"It's good fortune that [NSW] hasn't had an outbreak in a highly-connected group, it's all about the ability of contact tracers to get to each [potentially infected] person within three days to ensure they can get isolated and stay in isolation," Mary-Louise McLaws, a professor of epidemiology at UNSW and an adviser to the World Health Organisation on COVID-19 infection prevention and control, said.
The worst pub seen so far
On Wednesday it was announced that the Garry Owen Hotel in Sydney's Rozelle was fined $10,000 for what NSW Liquor and Gaming said was a "litany of COVID safety breaches", slamming the venue as "the worst pub seen so far".
Over the weekend, the Riverview Hotel and the Dry Dock Hotel, both in Balmain, Padstow Park Hotel, Padstow Bowling Club, Marrickville Ritz, the Royal Hotel in Randwick and Yai Thai Kitchen in Gosford were also fined for breaches.
New Zealand reported 13 new cases on Thursday, leaving health officials scrambling to trace the source of the infections.
Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham has warned state and territory leaders will need to rely on their own budgets to prop up businesses reliant on interstate travel should they keep borders closed for longer than necessary.
Senator Birmingham told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that state and territory governments should not expect federal assistance for the tourism industry if it was affected by unnecessary state government decisions to limit travel between non-affected areas.
More to come.
With Pallavi Singhal, Mary Ward and Jennifer Duke
Kate Aubusson is Health Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.
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2020-08-13 01:31:00Z
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