Health experts have three days to work out how Covid spread from a traveller
Testing has linked the cases to a returned US traveller - but there is a missing link
The positive case is a man in his 50s, but he had no contact with quarantine
Restrictions are set to be lifted on Monday at 12.01am - but link must be found
He visited 14 suburbs in Sydney while infected with Covid-19 last weekend
Masks are mandatory, dancing banned and only 20 people are allowed in a home
Mystery Australian COVID-19 case spurs return of masks, travel bans
May 6, 2021 3:17 PM PHT
Reuters
Australian officials reinstated social distancing measures in Sydney as New Zealand partially suspended the pair s travel bubble on Thursday, May 6, amid fears an Indian variant case of COVID-19 could spur a significant outbreak.
The swift action was taken a day after a 50-year-old man became the first reported local transmission case in New South Wales state in more than a month, with the source of his infection baffling health officials.
Further testing determined the man was infected with a variant first detected in India and genomic sequencing had linked the case to a returned traveler from the United States, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said on Thursday, but there was no clear transmission path between the two people.
Speedy tracing systems, movement curbs have largely reined in the spread of COVID-19 in Australia.
Sydney:
Australian officials reinstated social distancing measures across greater Sydney on Thursday, as they scrambled to find missing tranmission links in a COVID-19 case connected to an Indian variant of the virus.
With many people expected to gather over the weekend for annual Mother s Day celebrations, the New South Wales state government restricted household gatherings to 20 guests and limited aged care facility visitors to two people per resident.
Masks will be mandatory on public transport and at indoor venues. All the restrictions, which cover around 5.3 million people in the country s biggest metropolitan area, take effect at 5 p.m. local time and are scheduled to last until Monday morning.
Mysterious Case of Indian COVID Variant Forces Curbs in Sydney
Australia on Thursday reinstated curbs related to social distancing in Sydney to trace the missing transmission links of the mystery case of the Indian COVID-19 variant.
| 6 May 2021 11:18 AM GMT
Sydney- Sydney forces Australian authorities to impose curbs related to social distancing on Thursday, as they hastily attempt to find the missing transmission links in a mysterious COVID-19 case linked to the Indian variant of the virus.
The restrictions are also extended to Sydney s neighboring regions of Wollongong, the Central Coast, and Blue Mountains.
Reckoning that the huge gathering of people over the weekend on the occasion of the annual mother s day celebration could potentially add to the difficulty for officials to trace the missing link of the Indian COVID-19 variant, the authorities limited household gatherings to 20 guests and restricted aged care facility visitors to two per resident. Read more