Victoria’s deadly second wave SPREADS to NSW

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A Melbourne teenager on holiday with his family in Merimbula, south-east New South Wales has tested positive for coronavirus – as Premier Gladys Berejiklian considers sealing off border towns.

The boy was tested before he left Victoria and the result came back negative. But after arriving in NSW on July 4, the family was told there had been an error and the boy was positive.  

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said the family members, who did not come from a Melbourne hotspot suburb, were isolating in Merimbula.

The only place they attended was the Tathra Hotel, which had taken the details of 80 patrons there at the time, all of whom have been contacted by NSW Health.

‘The risk to other patrons has been assessed as very low,’ Dr Chant said.

Dr Chant said the family’s conduct had been ‘exemplary’ and they did all the right things, but ‘there is a lot of testing and there will occasionally be these errors’.

NSW on Wednesday recorded eight new COVID-19 cases including seven in hotel quarantine and a woman in her 30s from southwest Sydney. The woman’s case remains under investigation. 

Residents living in towns near the Victorian border have been warned not to travel to other parts of the state, with the premier flagging further action may be needed to isolate those communities.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she was ‘extremely worried’ that the Victorian outbreak could spread to NSW through border communities and wreak similar chaos to that in Melbourne.

‘My level of concern will translate into tougher decisions [if necessary],’ she told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday. 

‘The probability of contagion in NSW given what’s happened in Victoria is extremely high. The probability that we need to be tougher on broader restrictions is extremely high.

‘The government is considering what further action we take to make sure the bubble of these border communities is maintained.’

Ms Berejiklian said more than 60,000 exemption permits were issued overnight for people living in border communities, allowing them to cross the border.

But she warned the widespread community transmission of COVID-19 in Victoria is a huge risk for NSW and urged residents in Albury and other border towns not to travel to other parts of the state.

The premier ‘absolutely’ called on NSW residents still in Victoria to come home immediately or they could be forced to quarantine in a hotel at their own expense.

Such hotels cost about $2,500 in the Northern Territory when they were required for interstate arrivals before the conditions were relaxed late last month. NSW residents returning home right need only to self-isolate.

‘I have no tolerance for people who are continuing their lives as normal,’ Ms Berejiklian said.

‘There is no excuse for people wanting to hang around because they want a few extra days [in Victoria] because they feel like it.’

Ms Berejiklian urged anyone on the NSW-Victoria border to get tested if they had even the mildest symptoms, along with those in tourist areas like Ballina and Byron Bay.

‘Sometimes infection can bubble under the surface for a month,’ she said.

NSW residents were also instructed not to go anywhere near the Victorian border and not enter communities like Albury, as they are being treated as a ‘second border’. 

Ms Berejiklian also flagged some COVID-19 health orders relating to gatherings will be tweaked in the coming days, but that it would be ‘nothing major’.

The premier also warned businesses they risk fines of up to $55,000 if they don’t follow COVID-19 safety guidelines.

Victoria has recorded 134 new cases of coronavirus as the state battles a huge outbreak and the whole of Melbourne braces for a six-week lockdown from midnight.

Only 11 of the new cases are connected to known outbreaks, raising fears that community transmission is spreading around the city. 

Premier Daniel Andrews said there are now 75 cases of the deadly disease in nine social housing towers in north Melbourne which have been placed under hard lockdown, confining 3,000 residents to their homes.

Forty-one people are in hospital with seven fighting for their lives as the state’s testing total passed 1million with 30,000 swabs on Tuesday.

Earlier on Wednesday morning Mr Andrews refused to answer why he employed private security guards instead of using the police to man hotel quarantine for returned travellers.

Dozens of cases from the Melbourne outbreak have been traced back to quarantine breaches after guards broke social distancing rules, interacted with patients and took the virus home to their families.

In an interview on Nine’s Today show, host Karl Stefanovic asked him: ‘How could you blame Victorians yesterday for the outbreak when it was your government’s decision to employ an incompetent private security force to guard those in quarantine?

‘That’s an unbelievably catastrophic bungle right at the front door. Why don’t you explain. Why don’t you just level with the people about what happened in quarantine? What exactly went wrong there. Why don’t you just tell the people?’

Mr Andrews said he ‘did not come on the show to argue’ and dodged the question by saying an inquiry is under way. In a press conference afterwards he said he was not considering resigning.

The heated TV dispute came as:

• Commuters waited 90 minutes to get into NSW after the first border shut-down in 101 years 
• Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the probability of an outbreak in NSW was ‘extremely high’ and she is considering locking down border towns 
• A Melbourne teenager on holiday in Merimbula, south-east NSW tested positive
• The Northern Territory banned Victorians from entering when its borders open on 17 July 
• Daniel Andrews said testing of 3,000 social housing residents would be complete today
• 15 people were fined $1,652 each for holding a party at an Airbnb in Melbourne in breach of rules 

From midnight, Melbourne residents will be only allowed to leave their homes for work and study, giving or receiving care, shopping for essentials and daily exercise near where they live. 

Police will stop Victorians leaving or entering Melbourne with roadblocks and booze bus-style vehicle checks, effectively sealing 5million people inside the city.

Officers said the mission – called ‘Operation Sentinel’ – will use automatic number plate recognition to identify anyone breaking the rules.   

There will also be vehicle checkpoints across the state – including the main arterial roads to regional Victoria.

Officers will continue to make house visits and patrol public places all over Victoria, with $1,652 fines to anyone breaching social distancing restrictions.

Victoria Police made 810 spot checks in the past 24 hours at homes, businesses and non-essential services across the state. They have issued a total of 6,314 fines, including to 15 people who held an ‘AirBnb party’ last night. 

Around 264 ADF soldiers are assisting with on-ground operations, focusing on planning, logistics and transport. They will also play a key role in monitoring the boundary around metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire. 

Gatherings of more than two people who do not live together will be banned; beauty services and entertainment venues will shut; and cafes, restaurants and pubs will be able to offer takeaway only. 

Year 11 and 12 pupils and special schools will go back to class but holidays will be extended by a week for students up to year 10, with remote learning a possibility after that. 

Residents from the rest of Victoria can only enter Melbourne for caregiving, essential shopping and work or study.

Under-pressure premier Andrews said on Tuesday the new lockdown was essential to avoid ‘thousands and thousands’ of cases and ‘many, many people in hospital.’

‘This is a pandemic and it will kill thousands of people if it gets completely away from us,’ he said.  

Mr Andrews said case numbers will ‘get worse before they get better’. He has told Prime Minster Scott Morrison about the new lockdown and requested hundreds of ADF troops to help with enforcement.

The Premier also said he has spoken to Mr Morrison about the possibility of extending JobKeeper and the increased JobSeeker payment, which are due to expire in September, for Victorians who are locked down until 19 August.

‘I am confident that the Prime Minister knows and understands that there will be different forms of hardship in different parts of the country, different industry, different sectors,’ he said. 

After Mr Andrews announced the new lockdown, Victorian Opposition leader Michael O’Brien savaged him for ‘failing to accept responsibility for his own mistakes’ regarding hotel quarantine.

Today marked the first time the NSW-Victoria border has closed since Spanish Flu struck in 1919.  

Australians braved 90-minute traffic queues to get to work this morning on the first day the New South Wales-Victoria border closed for the first time since Spanish Flu struck in 1919 due to a huge coronavirus outbreak in Melbourne.

A line of cars snaked for hundreds of metres along the Lincoln Causeway between Wodonga in Victoria and Albury in New South Wales as 600 police braved heavy fog and temperatures of 3C to man the 1,000km border overnight and this morning.

The two towns are only 7km apart and hundreds of residents live in one and work in the other, meaning the border closure which came into effect at midnight has thrown their lives upside-down.

NSW Police Commissioner told ABC radio that five cars had been stopped and turned around because they came from hotspot postcodes in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire, where communities are preparing for a six-week lockdown from midnight on Wednesday. 

Up to 500 defence personnel are also being deployed to help man checkpoints with road blocks and drones at 55 border crossings.