Regional communities have been placed on alert after a man with COVID-19 took a 900-kilometre road trip across the state before learning he was an infection risk.
The 18-year-old man received a text message from NSW Health notifying him the BWS store at Berala, which he visited on Christmas Eve, was associated with coronavirus cases after he had travelled from Broken Hill to Orange via Nyngan on a camping trip, Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said.
An 18-year-old who visited BWS Berala is NSW's latest coronavirus case.Credit:Getty
"Can I thank this individual ... [he] was totally unaware of the issues and acted promptly on our text message," she said, adding the man had a runny nose but no other coronavirus symptoms.
Western NSW is not subject to any coronavirus restrictions: there are no limits on gathering sizes or venue capacity and masks do not need to be worn. The last time a coronavirus case was detected in the area was in July, when a person living at Charles Sturt University's Orange campus with links to a Sydney cluster tested positive while in self-isolation.
The news prompted COVID-19 testing to be scaled up in the region on Tuesday afternoon, including a new pop-up site at Nyngan's Big Bogan statue. People who attended Gourmet Cribtin at Broken Hill for morning tea on Saturday, Birdie Noshery & Drinking est. at Orange for lunch on Sunday or Nyngan Riverside Tourist Park over the weekend have been asked to get tested and self-isolate.
Acting Premier John Barilaro urged regional NSW to stay away from Sydney, particularly the New Year's Test which will be held at the SCG from Thursday with reduced crowd numbers.
"I am concerned about any travel movement into the regions, that's why we are asking people to reduce mobility," he said.
However the government stopped short of barring regional residents from attending the Test as they have people from the western Sydney suburbs of Auburn, Berala, Lidcombe North, Potts Hill, Regents Park and Rookwood, who will face a $1000 fine for attending the Test under a public health order being drafted on Tuesday.
There are now 16 cases associated with the Berala BWS cluster, as well as an additional case in a woman who frequented the Woolworths supermarket next door.
NSW Health has asked anyone who visited the Woolworths between December 20 and New Year's Eve to come forward for testing and an additional testing site in the suburb will open this week.
Police charged one man, fined two others and issued warnings to more than 25 people for not wearing masks on Monday, the first day mask use was mandated in some indoor settings across Sydney and surrounds.
Officers stopped a man in Strathfield after he allegedly stole an energy drink from a nearby grocery store about 9.30am. The man allegedly took off his mask and grew aggressive as police arrested him. He was charged with several offences including shoplifting, resisting police and not wearing a mask.
In a separate incident, police fined a man $200 after he swore at them and told them to fine him for not wearing a mask at Seven Hills train station about midday.
Police also fined a man, 39, at Parramatta Westfield for not wearing a mask after he was allegedly warned earlier in the day.
NSW reported four local and four hotel quarantine coronavirus cases on Tuesday. Three cases were in the Berala area. A close contact of the Croydon cluster in self-isolation also tested positive.
The 18-year-old who travelled to western NSW will be included in Wednesday's figures.
After another day without a case on the northern beaches, local federal MP Jason Falinski called for the upper part of the area to be brought out from lockdown earlier than January 9.
Over November and December, Sydney Airport received 52,225 overseas arrivals, including air crew, an Australian Border Force spokesperson said. NSW Health recorded 345 coronavirus cases in returned travellers during that time.
New Zealand has responded to rising infections abroad by requiring travellers from the United States or UK to test negative if arriving after January 15, but Dr Chant said the strategy was "no silver bullet", noting people can become infected after testing.
"The threat level is never higher than it has been at this current time," she said.
Victoria recorded three new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, all associated with the south-east Melbourne Thai restaurant at the centre of the state's outbreak, which has genomic links to Sydney's northern beaches cluster.
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Mary Ward is a health reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.
Megan Gorrey is the Urban Affairs reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.
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2021-01-05 08:45:00Z
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