Virus found in sewage within Queensland-NSW border zone
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New South Wales Health has found COVID-19 fragments at the Byron Bay sewage treatment plant, which is within the Queensland-NSW border zone that was reinstated overnight.
The plant services about 19,000 people in Byron Bay, Wategos, Suffolk Park, Sunrise and Broken Head, with NSW Health officials saying the discovery is of “great concern”.
Wategos Beach near Byron Bay, with the Byron Bay light house in the background.
Credit:Peter Braig
NSW health authorities fear there could be undetected virus cases in Byron Bay.
Josh Dye, Lucy Carroll and Daniella White17:24, Jul 23 2021
Jenny Evans/Getty Images
Residents of Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast and Wollongong are subject to stay-at-home orders with people only permitted to leave their homes for essential reasons.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has described Sydney’s outbreak as “a national emergency” after another 136 new Covid-19 cases were recorded on Friday and an elderly man died with the virus. As the outbreak continues to worsen, health officials have recommended vaccines be urgently redirected to prioritise south-western and western suburbs. There were 53 people who were infectious in the community, the highest since the outbreak began, and 17 in isolation for part of the time.
Facebook forced to limit Sydney lockdown misinformation spread via WhatsApp theguardian.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theguardian.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Parts of NSW Central West Sent Into Snap 7-Day Lockdown [Headlines]
Residents in the Orange, Blayney, and Cabonne Shire Council areas are only allowed to leave home for essential reasons. And other top news.
Today’s headlines from the Hope News team. You can listen to hourly bulletin updates at hopenews.com.au.
Parts of the NSW’s Central West have been sent into lockdown, after a delivery driver from Sydney spread COVID-19 to a local factory worker.
Residents in the Orange, Blayney, and Cabonne Shire Council areas are only allowed to leave home for essential reasons for the next seven days.
Scott Morrison has suggested the percentage of Australians who need to be vaccinated to end coronavirus lockdowns is 65 to 70 per cent.
In a radio interview on Wednesday morning, the Prime Minister said the stunted jab rollout - which has only vaccinated 14.09 per cent of over 16s - was not to blame for 14 million people being told to stay at home in Victoria, South Australia and Greater Sydney due to outbreaks of the highly-contagious Delta variant.
He said the country would always have needed harsh restrictions this winter because even if the rollout went perfectly not enough people would be jabbed.