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Mass testing after outbreak in Sydney

Author
Newstalk ZB / news.com.au,
Publish Date
Thu, 17 Dec 2020, 5:09PM
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. (Photo / AAP)
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. (Photo / AAP)

Mass testing after outbreak in Sydney

Author
Newstalk ZB / news.com.au,
Publish Date
Thu, 17 Dec 2020, 5:09PM

NSW is grappling with a coronavirus outbreak yet again with contact tracers in overdrive to bring a handful of mystery cases under control before Christmas.

The state now has six locally acquired cases – all of which are yet to be traced – with five in the Northern Beaches region of Sydney and one in the city’s southwest.

Sydney was put on high alert yesterday after a 45-year-old man, who transports international aircrew from the airport, tested positive to coronavirus.

A few hours later, a couple, aged in their 60s and 70s from Sydney’s Northern Beaches, also tested positive to coronavirus.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard today confirmed two more people had tested positive in the city’s north – a woman in her 50s and a man in his 60s. The woman’s partner has also acquired the disease.

The six infections are NSW’s first cases of community transmission since December 3.

Hundreds of Sydneysiders are now looking at an isolated Christmas after a coronavirus outbreak in the city's north.

Hazzard said the government would work hard to try and ease some of those isolation orders before next week.

"If we had a choice we would have preferred to have put a lot more information together before we came and discussed it with the public but we have to share this with our community because as I said before, they're the heroes at the front-line and they're the ones who are doing what we've asked them to do," he said.

"But of course as with previous announcements, when it is early on in an issue, when more information becomes available, if we can pull back some of that information we certainly will, with Christmas coming up.

"We will share any more information we get during the day by way of a release."

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