Sydney, surrounds to enter 14-day lockdown

More than five million people in Greater Sydney and its surrounds will go into a 14-day lockdown as health authorities try to regain control of a coronavirus outbreak that has ballooned to 80 cases.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian says residents of Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast and Wollongong will only be able to leave home for essential purposes from 6pm on Saturday.

Those reasons include work, to shop for essential items, to seek medical care, or for caregiving or compassionate reasons.

Anyone in NSW who has been to Greater Sydney since June 21 is also being asked to stay at home for the entire lockdown period.

“The NSW government has always prided itself on taking the expert health advice,” Ms Berejiklian told reporters.

“We’re never afraid to take a decision that we need to take to keep our citizens safe and even though we don’t want to impose burdens unless we absolutely have to, unfortunately, this is a situation where we have to.

“I said (earlier) that this is the scariest time since the pandemic started and that’s proven to be the case.”

The snap lockdown comes after another 12 new virus cases were recorded in NSW and exposure venues spread beyond the eastern Sydney hotspots to the northern beaches and western Sydney, where people have potentially been infectious for days.

Exercise outdoors is allowed in groups of up to ten, and COVID-safe funerals can proceed with up to 100 people.

Weddings are allowed to go ahead on Saturday and Sunday with restrictions in place, but must be cancelled from Monday onwards.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard urged people not to try to find a way around the restrictions.

“When you do that, you might feel self-satisfied for a moment or two, possibly even for longer, but you won’t feel as satisfied if you spread the virus, so please do not do that,” he said.

Ms Berejiklian urged people not to panic buy, or stress about money with shops to remain open and financial assistance to be available.

“It’s never easy when all of us have to face these circumstances, but we’re all in the same situation,” she said.

“We’ve had to do this before. We know the drill.”

Authorities will reassess the need for the lockdown in a week, but Ms Berejiklian said it’s unlikely to be shortened.

“We could assess after seven days but I want to be very upfront with the public: this will be for all intents and purposes a two-week lockdown,” she said.

“I don’t want to take away from that but if there is a dramatic change and the health advice says that we can get out of a lockdown earlier (we may) but I’m not anticipating that.

“The best advice from Health is that we should brace ourselves for additional cases.”

Restrictions have also been introduced for regional NSW.

No more than five visitors are allowed for a household each day, masks are required indoors and restrictions apply to weddings and funerals.

All hospitality has to be seated and the one person per four square metre rule has been revived, while outdoor events are allowed to operate at 50 per cent capacity.

The restrictions are required to ensure the virus doesn’t take hold in the regions if Sydney travellers unknowingly spread it there, the premier said.

Some 29 cases were recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm on Friday, 17 of which had already been announced, taking the cluster to 80 cases.

More than half weren’t in isolation from the beginning of their infection period.

Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said the virus was moving too fast for authorities to shut it down.

“Despite testing numbers being quite high and the contact tracers getting in contact with people rapidly, what we’re seeing is by the time we’ve got there and uncovered the chains of transmission, we have a number of people infectious in the community,” Dr Chant said.

Even some of the premier’s own staff have been identified as close contacts after being near Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall, who has the virus.

Authorities are still trying to work out whether any other people in Parliament House are close or casual contacts.

“Fortunately, I wasn’t there when that occurred, but a number of my staff have been identified as close contacts,” Ms Berejiklian said.

Meanwhile, following an investigation into how a Sydney limousine driver at the centre of the city’s coronavirus outbreak was not vaccinated, Police Commissioner Mick Fuller confirmed on Saturday there was insufficient evidence to establish that either the driver or his employer breached any public health orders.