By Megan Gorrey
NSW recorded 2482 COVID-19 cases and one death on Saturday, as dozens of people who attended The Cliff Dive in Darlinghurst last Saturday were forced into isolation.
The bar has been linked to at least 23 confirmed cases, with South East Sydney Local Health District asking anyone who attended the venue from 8.45pm on December 11 to get tested and isolate until a negative result is received.
Meanwhile, in Byron Bay dozens of schoolies revellers were told to isolate after an outbreak at a holiday park on the far north coast of NSW.
There were 206 coronavirus patients in NSW hospitals, slightly down from 215 on Friday but up from 192 patients on Thursday and 166 on Wednesday. Of those hospitalised, 26 were in intensive care, a figure which has remained stable (24 patients were in intensive care on Friday). Of those, nine were on ventilators to help them breathe.
Guests at a holiday park in Byron Bay, pictured here on Friday night, have been told to isolate after a COVID-19 outbreak. Credit:Nine
The number of cases reported on Saturday sets another daily record for NSW, after a total of 2213 cases on Friday and one death, and 1742 cases on Thursday.
The person who died was a woman in her 90s who acquired her infection at the Gillawarna Village Aged Care Facility in Georges Hall, in south-west Sydney. She was fully vaccinated and had underlying health conditions. NSW Health said she was the fourth person to die in connection with an outbreak at the aged care facility.
There were 137,149 tests in NSW in the 24-hours to 8pm Friday, as people planning to travel interstate for festive celebrations joined long queues at testing sites with those identified as close or casual contacts.
Forty-one additional COVID-19 cases were genomically sequenced as the Omicron variant of the virus, bringing the total confirmed cases with the variant to 226.
Police were helping guests at Discovery Park Byron Bay on Friday night.Credit:Nine
However, NSW Health said the Omicron variant likely accounted for the majority of Saturday’s new cases. The authority said that, given the surging number of infections, staff would only undertake genomic sequencing for the Omicron variant “in the circumstances where it will make a clinical difference to the care of a patient”.
“For instance, where it will inform treatment choices as some therapies work with Delta but not for Omicron, and in situations where it will inform public health action,” the department said on Saturday.
NSW Health is advising residents to wear a mask in areas where they cannot physically distance from others, and to consider using a rapid antigen test before going out if they do not have any symptoms of the virus.
In Victoria, the state recorded seven deaths and 1504 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, with 384 people with the virus in hospital. Queensland recorded 31 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, up from 20 cases on Friday. The state has recorded 12 cases of the Omicron variant. An alert has been issued to passengers who travelled on flight VA511 from Sydney to the Gold Coast from 9.18am to 9.36am on Wednesday, December 15, as they have been deemed contacts of a COVID-19 case.
Tasmania recorded one new case, as the state’s health authorities issued alerts for people who travelled on two flights from Sydney in recent days, who are considered contacts of a positive case: QF1563 from Sydney to Launceston between 11.04am and 12.41pm on Thursday, December 16, and QF1533 Sydney to Hobart between 6.30am and 8.32am on Wednesday, December 15.
NSW Health said late on Friday that four cases of coronavirus had been detected among guests at Discovery Park Byron Bay, with results for another six guests who were tested yet to be confirmed.
A spokeswoman for the Northern NSW Local Health District said it had strongly advised all guests to isolate within the park grounds, where Nine News reported at least 100 recent school-leavers were holidaying.
Police were at the site helping guests at the park on Friday afternoon.
The health district spokeswoman said guests would be provided with further advice about testing and isolation requirements, and those who tested positive for COVID-19 could be moved to special health accommodation.
Rising cases in NSW are being driven by a number of exposures in Newcastle and Sydney nightlife spots, largely among attendees in their 20s.
Of the 2482 cases reported on Saturday, 899 were from the Hunter New England local health district, 362 from south-east Sydney, 286 are from south-west Sydney, 232 are from central Sydney, 219 from western Sydney, and 159 from northern Sydney.
Nearly 100 people linked to the “On Repeat: Taylor Swift Red Party” music event, held at the Metro Theatre on George Street, tested positive in the past week. All 600 attendees were advised to get tested and isolate.
A large number of cases have also been linked to Newcastle venues The Great Northern Hotel, Finnegan’s Hotel and The Cambridge Hotel, from gatherings last weekend.
First and second dose vaccination rates in NSW have remained stagnant: as of Saturday, 94.9 per cent of people aged 16 and over have had one COVID-19 vaccine dose and 93.3 per cent are fully vaccinated.
The bulk of shots being administered now are booster doses.
Responding to the spread of the virus, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Saturday that Australia’s plan for living with COVID-19 was “not about case numbers” and that “what matters is hospitalisation, ICU, people on ventilators and severe illness”.
He reiterated the country’s safety measures responding to coronavirus had to protect “lives and livelihoods”.
“Australia can’t go back. We have to go forward. We have to live with this virus. We have to live with it safely.”
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2021-12-18 09:12:48Z
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