Sydney COVID cases expected to decline, London to Australia flights hit $38,000 after cap slashed - The Sydney Morning Herald

Hunt warns against gouging as airfares soar ahead of new arrival caps

By Rachael Dexter

Airlines have been warned against profiteering from desperate, stranded Australians trying to get home before passenger arrival caps are halved in 11 days time, amid warnings that some carriers could stop passenger flights to Australia altogether.

Ticket prices for London to Sydney flights over the next fortnight bounced erratically on Saturday, at times as high as $38,000, the day after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a reduction to just 3000 inbound passengers a week in response to the risks posed by the Delta strain of COVID-19.

A search for a one-way flight from London to Sydney on midday Saturday.Credit:Google Flights

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt warned airlines against price gouging in the wake of the new passenger limits. “I hope there is nobody who seeks a commercial advantage from difficult circumstances and that’s a strong, clear message,” he said on Saturday.

Cutting the cap on commercial arrivals by half will exacerbate the difficulty 34,000 stranded Australians already face in returning home.

The end of Australia’s zero COVID strategy came slowly, then all at once

By Latika Bourke

When the decision to drop Australia’s zero COVID-19 strategy was made, it was swift and prefaced by very little political debate.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison told Australians that he and the state Premiers had agreed a “new deal” – a pathway from a pre-vaccination period focused on suppression of the virus “to one that sees us manage COVID-19 as an infectious disease like any other in our community”.

It was last July that national cabinet committed to its goal of “suppression of COVID-19 until a point in time a vaccine or effective treatments are available, with the goal of no local community transmission”. That meant elimination.

This confirmed the country’s course of snap lockdowns and the Fortress Australia policy, which culminated in the threat to ban and fine Australians if they tried to return home from India.

Signalling the end of elimination is an important symbolic shift, the first step towards restoring freedoms such as the right to leave the country, freedoms that went unquestioned before the pandemic emerged in Wuhan, China.

But the new deal is still just a sketch, awaiting input from the Peter Doherty Institute on the ideal vaccination rate targets to fill in the details of when and how.

Read the full story here.

New Sydney exposure sites

Supermarkets in western Sydney, an eastern suburbs cafe and a Service NSW centre in the city’s inner south are among venues added to NSW Health’s exposure sites list overnight, which now numbers more than 300 active exposure venues, public transport routes and flights.

Anyone who attended the following venues at the times listed is a close contact and must immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days, regardless of the result.

Lakemba, Hop Hung Asian Grocery, 38C Haldon Street, Wednesday, June 30, from 11.20am to 11.40am
Strathfield, Strathfield Plaza Medical Practice, 11-23 The Boulevard, Thursday, July 1 from 1.30pm to 2.10pm. The date for this venue was previously listed as Monday, June 28.
Double Bay, Bake Bar, L/15 Kiaora Lane, Sunday, June 20, from 11am to 11.30am
Homebush West, Ram’s Food, 17c/16-20 Henley Road, Friday, June 25 from 11.10am to 12.10pm
Botany, Service NSW, 5 Lord Street, Monday, June 28, Wednesday June 30, and Thursday, July 1, from 8am to 5pm each day.
Five Dock, Pharmacy 4 Less, 1a/125 Great North Road, Tuesday, June 29, from 10.40am to 10.55am
Five Dock, Chemist Warehouse, 89 Great North Road, Tuesday, June 29, from 10.30am to 10.40am
Mortdale, Woolworths, 84D Roberts Avenue, Wednesday, June 30, from 5.30pm to 6.40pm

Anyone who attended the following venues at the times listed is a casual contact and must immediately get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result.

Auburn, Wing Fat Meat Market, 88-90 South Parade, Sunday 27 June from 10.00am to 10.10am
Drummoyne, Chemist Warehouse, 19 Roseby St, Tuesday 29 June, 10.30am to 10.40am
Potts Point, Woolworths Metro, Icon Building, 81 Macleay Street, Tuesday 29 June, 6.15pm to 6.30pm
Bonnyrigg, Aldi, 718 Cabramatta Road, Wednesday 30 June from 6.00pm to 6.30pm
Sydney Olympic Park, The Locker Room, 15 Olympic Boulevard, Saturday 26 June, 10.00am to 7.00pm
Auburn, Auburn Central Sunshine Fruit, corner Queen Street and Harrow Road, Sunday 27 June, 10.00am to 10.30am, Monday 28 June, 3.30pm to 4.30pm
Auburn, David’s Asian Food Supermarket, 82 South Parade, Sunday 27 June, 10.10am to 10.20am
Auburn, Hamro Asan Bazaar, Shop 6, 8-10 Northumberland Road, Monday 28 June, 3.30pm to 4.30pm
Homebush West, K.W. Barbeque Shop, 10/90-95 The Crescent, Tuesday 29 June, 4.00pm to 4.15pm
Homebush West, Di Yuan Asian Groceries, Shop 1-3, 90-95 The Crescent, Tuesday 29 June, 4.20pm to 4.30pm, Homebush West
Tan Hung Long Supermarket, 90-95 The Crescent, Tuesday 29 June, 4.30pm to 4.45pm
Casula, Costco, 20 Parkers Farm Place, Tuesday 29 June, 7.50pm to 9pm
Lakemba, Aldi, 212-226 Haldon Street, Wednesday 30 June, 11.30am to 11.45am
Parramatta, Country Growers, 159-175 Church Street, Wednesday 30 June, 5.35pm to 5.55pm
Parramatta, Coles, Westfield Parramatta, Campbell Street, Wednesday 30 June, 5.45pm to 6.05pm
Paramatta, Spices of India, 111-113 Church Street, Wednesday 30 June, 6.00pm to 6.15pm

Buses:

Route 400N, from Westfield Eastgardens, Bunnerong Road, Stand A, to Anzac Parade after Strachan Street Kingsford, Thursday 24 June, 12:30am to 12:39am
Bus 420, from Coward St opp Lionel Bowen Park, Mascot, to Westfield Eastgardens, Bunnerong Road, Stand A, Thursday 24 June, 2:55pm to 3:05pm

Trains:

T8 Airport/South line service to Revesby, from Central Platform 23 to Mascot Platform 2, Thursday 24 June, 8.10am to 8.20am
T8 Airport/South line service to Revesby, from Central Platform 23 to Mascot Platform 2, Friday 25 June, 7.55am to 8.10am
T8 Airport/South line service to Central, from Mascot Platform 1 to Central Platform 21, Friday 25 June, 12:20pm to 12:30pm

Anyone who attended the following locations at the listed times should monitor for symptoms, and if they appear, immediately get tested and self-isolate until they receive a negative result.

Bondi Junction, Woolworths, 530 Oxford Street, Monday 28 June, 9.00am to 9.15am
Parramatta, Westfield Parramatta (whole of complex), 159-175 Church, Wednesday 30 June, 5.30pm to 6.15pm

‘Glimmer of hope’ with new Sydney COVID cases expected to decline

By Mary Ward

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says there are “green shoots” in the pattern of COVID-19 cases in NSW that give her greater confidence Sydney’s lockdown can end later this week as planned, despite the 35 new cases announced yesterday.

Of those, only nine were moving about the community for their entire infectious period, compared with 12 of the 31 cases announced on Friday. NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant and several health experts said reducing that figure was key to exiting the lockdown.

Beachgoers at Bondi on Saturday.Credit:Brook Mitchell

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age understand the number of new cases recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday – to be confirmed on Sunday – decreased significantly with very few mystery cases, suggesting the Greater Sydney lockdown was working.

“We have seen the tide turn. We have seen those green shoots,” Ms Berejiklian said on Saturday. “While, as predicted, the number of cases is going up, we are seeing a greater proportion of those cases in isolation, which is exactly what we want to see.”

Ms Berejiklian and Dr Chant sounded the alarm about pristine winter weekend weather drawing large crowds in public places, although outdoor transmission of the virus was less likely.

Read the full story here.

Good morning

Good morning, and welcome to our live blog. I’m Megan Gorrey.

Here’s a recap of yesterday’s top stories you might have missed:

Victoria’s move out of its remaining COVID restrictions will be partially linked to how the outbreak is managed in NSW, COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar says.
For the second day in a row, NSW recorded its highest number of local COVID-19 cases over the past year, as government and health authorities express optimism that Sydney’s lockdown may still be lifted at the end of Friday, 9 July.
Queensland avoided any further extension to the snap lockdown of parts of the state, despite a handful of new cases on Saturday, with contact tracers urgently working to find the final links that will tie all the cases together.
Epidemiologists disputed Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s claim that coronavirus will be able to be treated “like the flu” when Australia reaches a high vaccination rate, saying contact tracing and widespread mask wearing may be needed for years to avoid excess deaths.
The financial burden from Perth’s latest lockdown stretched into the weekend for wineries, restaurants, pubs and bars and will have implications for hospitality businesses across Western Australia as the state enters two weeks of school holidays.
Australia’s pathway out of the pandemic relies heavily on the Pfizer vaccine, but the majority of the nation’s 40 million doses are at least three months away.
And in London, the Australian government has told the UN high commissioner that blocking an Australian man’s wish to return home to support his mother during her cancer treatment did not cause him “irreparable harm”.

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2021-07-03 21:34:18Z
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