More than six million residents across Greater Sydney are likely to be stuck at home for another month as the state prepares to announce a four-week extension to the city's COVID-19 lockdown today.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian is due to confirm the lengthy increase in stay at home orders when she gives her daily update at 11am.
The new rules will be in response to case numbers, which remain stubbornly high despite a lockdown being in place for a month already.
READ MORE: Death of elderly Sydney woman linked to family gathering and apartment lockdown
The state recorded 172 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, with 60 of those infectious in the community.
It was a new record for the state during the current outbreak.
The premier is also likely to reveal a number of new measures to bring the outbreak under control.
That includes the introduction of daily rapid COVID-19 tests for essential workers, which was proposed at an emergency cabinet meeting yesterday.
The rapid tests, which return results in 15 minutes, would likely be done at work over the next six to eight weeks.
READ MORE: Western Sydney apartment block locked down after six people test positive to COVID-19
It would mean testing hundreds of thousands of people every single day.
Year 12 students could undergo daily testing too in order to get them back into classrooms.
Construction will also be able to restart in Greater Sydney from Saturday.
However, tradies who live in Blacktown, Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool will face restrictions and there could be bans on being able to work on homes where the owners still live in the property.
From today, anyone aged over 18 will be able to walk into one of 450 pharmacies across the state and request to be vaccinated with AstraZeneca.
GPs and health authorities are urging people to get vaccinated to curb the spread of the high contagious Delta variant.
'Another month of restrictions, at least'
Infectious diseases expert Professor Peter Collignon says Sydney's extended lockdown could last longer than the month expected to be announced today.
"The average incubation period is five days," Professor Collignon told Today.
"There is probably another month of restrictions coming, at least. And it may be longer."
He says restrictions will be around "for quite a while" even when the main lockdown is lifted.
"You don't just have a lockdown and then stop it altogether. So there will be ongoing restrictions, I would think, for at least at least a couple of months on when restaurants do open - how many people you can have, what happens with gyms, what happens with all the indoor areas where we know this virus transmits more readily?
"It will depend on the numbers we see. It won't suddenly go back to normal.
"It will be a gradual reduction of restrictions."
He pointed to the situation in Victoria, which has just ended its lockdown but a number of measures remain in place, including limits on household visitors.
"You have restrictions that are ongoing and you loosen these restrictions as time goes on and you are sure you are not getting a lot or minimum transmission."
from 9News https://ift.tt/3zMUNRz
via IFTTT
0 Comments