Child tests positive to COVID-19, Sydney’s daily local cases rise to eight

NSW Chief Medicial Officer Dr Kerry Chant.

A child has tested positive to COVID-19 outside of Sydney’s Northern Beaches cluster.
NSW Health confirmed to 9News the young patient is connected to the Paddington Alimentari Deli in the city’s east.
The number of coronavirus cases linked to the venue is now four.
The child’s results came in after 8pm, and will be officially counted in NSW Health’s case numbers tomorrow.

The new infection is in addition to the seven other locally acquired cases recorded in NSW today.
All seven were detected in the Northern Beaches region, but the source of three are under investigation.
NSW Chief Medical Officer Dr Kerry Chant said two are household contacts of a previous mystery case on the Northern Beaches, and one is a person who works in the region.

“One is under investigation but has exposures in terms of transport links and works in the Northern Beaches local government area,” Dr Chant said.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said six of the cases are already in isolation.
“Six of the seven are in household isolation and that is a trend will continue to see in the next few days and possibly weeks,” Ms Berejiklian told media today.
“People in isolation, the direct contacts will start to test positive and that is where we will see a large number of case numbers eventuate.”
Dr Chant also raised concerns about “potential spread through the Sydney’s CBD” following emerging cases outside of the Northern Beaches.

She highlighted a number of inner-city venues which are linked to potential community transmission.
“The sports bar at Paragon hotel in Loftus Street in Circular Quay has three cases associated,” she said.

“Anyone at this venue while visiting the hotel as 1245- 3:30pm on Wednesday 16th December for more than one hour are considered closed contacts. Get tested immediately and self isolate for 14 days regardless of the result.
“Anyone who was there for less than an hour needs to get tested immediately and self isolate pending a result.

“Again I want to repeat my urging that anyone who particularly has been in the north-eastern part of the city, including Australia square, MLC Centre and chiefly squares should be alert to symptoms and get tested immediately.”
Meanwhile, Ms Berejiklian urged people to avoid Boxing Day sales in the CBD and reminded the public to wear masks.

“We know this is not the easiest message to give to those retailers, but we want to discourage people going to the CBD tomorrow,” she said.
“All people and staff and people shopping should be wearing a mask inside those venues.”
More than 69,800 people across NSW took a COVID test, beating the 60,184 tests that were reported yesterday.
Ms Berejiklian thanked health workers for giving up their time over Christmas.

“It is an outstanding result,” she said.
“Thank you to everybody who got tested and to all-our frontline workers, pathologists who have literally been working through the night not only to get those tests done but also to give people results in a timely way.”
Three new cases were also acquired overseas and detected in hotel quarantine, bringing the total number to 4643 in NSW.

9NEWS