Thousands to spend Christmas in isolation due to Sydney s coronavirus outbreak
TueTuesday 22
updated
WedWednesday 23
Steve Cole will not be able to hug his children on Christmas Day.
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Thousands of people in NSW will be forced to spend their Christmas in isolation, after coming into close contact with a known case of COVID-19 in Sydney s latest outbreak.
Key points:
NSW Health have retraced the footsteps of dozens of positive coronavirus cases
But it means thousands of NSW people who crossed paths with those cases are in isolation
One father said not being able to be near his children on Christmas morning would be tough
Millions have been left separated from loved ones over Christmas after states slammed their borders shut
Shut downs were imposed on Sunday after NSW reported just 30 new covid cases with all of them linked
New South Wales did not decide to close its border to Victoria until the state recorded 127 new local cases
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said leaders have lost their nerve and clearly do not trust their tracing systems
Ms Berejiklian will hold a crisis cabinet meeting on Wednesday to decide on Christmas Day restrictions
The premier said the government will take a cautious but balanced approach when deciding new measures
International airline crews were bundled into buses by police on Tuesday before being taken to mandatory hotel quarantine.
The strict new transportation protocol follows revelations thousands of airline crew were allowed to catch Ubers to hotels of their own choosing to quarantine in NSW.
Video showed masked air staff being loaded onto shuttles and driven to two new quarantine hotels in Mascot, in Sydney s inner south.
Crews will remain at the hotels under guard until their return flights leave Australia.
Australia s chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly said quarantine for international crews has been tightened in NSW, which is trying to suppress a local outbreak centred on Sydney s northern beaches.
Pick on another witch, she told trolls bombarding her social media posts
Gossip wrongly claimed she, husband had been northern beaches spreaders
Ward may have been targeted after saying in March covid was just like the flu
Australian actress Rachel Ward has lashed out at trolls behind a vicious and false viral rumour which claimed she and her husband Bryan Brown were the super-spreaders behind the outbreak of a Covid-19 cluster on Sydney s Northern Beaches.
Ward posted to Instagram last night urging trolls to pick on another witch as she and her husband were wrongly identified in online discussion as being the unnamed couple who failed to self-isolate in the Covid-riddled area.
Advertisement In NSW not only are we cautious with our approach but I think we assess the risk well and then make decisions according to that, unlike some of my other state colleagues who have taken what I think are overreaching actions, given whatâs happened in NSW, Ms Berejiklian said. We try and look at the big picture, we try and be compassionate as well as assessing the health risks.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has cited the lack of mandatory masks and wider stay-at-home orders as reasons to shut his stateâs border to NSW.
However, Ms Berejiklian pointed out that she resisted closing the NSW border to Victoria earlier this year until Melbourne reached triple-figure daily coronavirus cases.