Australia news LIVE NSW and Victorian COVID-19 cases and exposure sites grow Sydney lockdown extended and masks back on in Melbourne

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Two new 24-hour testing clinics are operating in the Fairfield area today in Sydney’s west, bringing the total number of 24-hour clinics in Fairfield to three.

NSW Health is scrambling to deal with the demand for swabs after bringing in new mandatory testing rules for locals working outside the virus-ravaged area.

A man undergoes a test for COVID-19 at the Endeavour Sports Reserve testing clinic in Fairfield West.Credit:Louise Kennerley

An existing drive-through clinic at Fairfield Showground moves to 24-hour operation from 6am today. Another 24-hour clinic is set to open at the Mounties Club car park at Mount Pritchard from 10am. And a 24-hour clinic opened at Endeavour Sports Park on Tuesday morning.

The hours of the Wetherill Park drive-through clinic have also been extended. It now runs from 7am to 10pm.

As we reported yesterday, one of Victoria’s new coronavirus cases is a teacher who works at a school about 60 kilometres north-west of Melbourne but lives in Barwon Heads, close to the regional city of Geelong.

Two members of that teacher’s family, who also live in Barwon Heads, have tested positive. As a result, staff and students at a local primary school on the Bellarine Peninsula have been told to limit their movements.

A parent at Barwon Heads Primary School, Simon Quirk, tweeted on Wednesday night that everyone at the school has been told to isolate and get tested.

Mr Quirk said a testing centre was being set up at the local Country Fire Authority and everyone had been assigned a time to get tested on Friday.

Crossbench Senator Jacqui Lambie was speaking on the Today show earlier this morning.

Here’s what she had to say about the situation Victoria is facing this morning:

Crossbench Senator Jacqui Lambie.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

“Those bloody poor Victorians, I tell you. They must have had a gutful ... to be honest with you.

“We have to get those vaccines moving. People are at the end of their tether. A lot more people wanting to step up to the plate to get those vaccines. It has been bungled the whole way through. They [the federal government] should have had the mRNA ones and I have gone and got my shot. I did that about two weeks ago.

“I thought for goodness sake for the sake of the elderly down here in Tasmania I will bite the bullet. What really annoys me the younger kids will have to ... get the AstraZeneca because we seem to have a heap of them, and line up and do that. We know that that Delta variant really bites. So do they risk taking AstraZeneca to get that availability or do they wait and see whether they catch the Delta strain?

“It is just really not a nice morning. Eighteen months to get their crap together up there in Parliament and still it’s a mess, mate. Absolute mess.”

Monash University Associate Professor James Trauer was speaking on Seven’s Sunrise just moments ago.

He was asked if a snap lockdown is inevitable in Melbourne after Victoria recorded 11 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday.

Associate Professor James Trauer of Monash University. Credit:Scott McNaughton

“It seems likely,” he said.

“We have seen increasing cases over the last few days, more exposure sites every day and we know that if we go early with lockdowns, the earlier we go, the shorter they need to be. We need to get on top of this and we still don’t really understand the scale of the number of cases that have been created at the moment. I would really support an early lockdown.”

A fully vaccinated nurse working on the COVID-19 ward at Sydney’s Westmead Hospital has tested positive to the virus and NSW Health is conducting urgent investigations into the source of the infection.

In a statement, a spokesman for NSW Health said a staff member at the hospital tested positive yesterday during routine surveillance and is now isolating at home. The nurse did not have any symptoms.

A Westmead Hospital nurse has tested positive for COVID-19Credit:Kate Geraghty

“The staff member wore full personal protective equipment at all times while working, as did their colleagues,” the spokesman said.

“There has been no further transmission associated with this case to date.”

Patient care at the hospital has not been impacted and continues as normal.

In case you missed it, the Victorian Health Department listed more than 30 fresh COVID-19 exposure sites late last night.

Nine of the new tier 1 exposure sites are various shops at the DFO shopping centre at Bundoora in Melbourne’s north-east. A McDonald’s in Craigieburn, in Melbourne’s north, was also declared a tier-1 site, as were two tram routes, a sporting club and a football and netball club.

Drive through COVID testing in Melbourne earlier this year.Credit:Getty Images

In Victoria, people who have visited a tier 1 site during the specified times must immediately isolate, get a coronavirus test and quarantine for 14 days regardless of the result.

Some of the new tier 2 sites included an Officeworks in a suburb of Geelong, train routes from the busy Flinders Street Station in Melbourne’s CBD and a tram stop. Flinder’s Street Station itself has also been declared a tier 3 site.

Mask-wearing rules were reintroduced at 11.59pm on Wednesday, meaning Victorians now have to put their masks back on in the office and at secondary schools.

For all the venues of concern relevant exposure windows, visit the Victorian health department’s website. You can also use our interactive graphic (which will be updated later this morning).

The Riverina region in southern New South Wales is on high alert after infectious removalists â€" the ones who travelled from Sydney to Victoria, sparking an outbreak in north-west Melbourne â€" told state health authorities they’d stopped off at petrol stations in the regional towns of Jindera and Gundagai.

Anyone who visited the following venues during the relevant times is considered a close contact of a positive coronavirus case and must immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days regardless of the result:

The Shell Coles Express in South Gundagai on Thursday, July 8 from 1pm to 1.30pm; and

The Shell on Urana Street in Jindera on Saturday, July 10 between 11.15am and 11.45am.

For a full list of the NSW exposure sites that came through late last night, visit the state health department’s website.

A major hospital in the centre of Sydney’s coronavirus outbreak has been forced to postpone all non-urgent surgery after a patient tested positive to COVID-19, sending dozens of staff into strict isolation as the testing system struggled to cope with the widening crisis.

The operating theatres at Liverpool Hospital, the largest in the city’s south-west, have undergone deep cleaning after the patient, who is believed to have been pregnant and having a C-section delivery, returned a positive test on Wednesday. NSW Health said emergency surgery at the hospital is continuing.

The hospital scare came as the NSW government announced a two-week extension of Greater Sydney’s lockdown and as an outbreak in Victoria grew to 11 cases, with thousands who attended an AFL match at the MCG between Carlton and Geelong being directed to test and isolate and the southern state considering reinstating its own coronavirus restrictions.

Read the full story here.

COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar says health authorities will eventually “throw the book” at the three Sydney removalists who breached their permit conditions, withheld crucial information from contact tracers and spread the highly infectious Delta variant to six other people.

New details of the trio’s trip emerged on Wednesday â€" more than 36 hours after Victoria’s public health team began interviewing them â€" prompting Mr Weimar to express “exceptional frustration” at the men’s lack of transparency.

COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar.Credit:Justin McManus

The men arrived in Melbourne on July 8, on a special workers permit for freight drivers to deliver furniture in the City of Hume and pick up another load in the City of Maribyrnong.

Families were at home at both locations and are now isolating. CCTV footage and witness statements revealed the removalists were not wearing masks. The Ariele Apartments in Maribyrnong have been locked down as a result of one of the deliveries. Four people in the building have since tested positive, as well as the elderly parents of one resident.

Read the full story here.

Good morning and welcome to another day of our live coverage.

It’s Thursday, July 15. I’m Broede Carmody. Here’s everything you need to know before we get started:

Melburnians are waking up to mandatory masks in offices and schools. The new restrictions were announced shortly before midnight last night and authorities are considering whether a lockdown is needed (which would be the city’s fifth).

Victoria recorded 11 cases yesterday, with nine linked to a north-west apartment block visited by infectious removalists from Greater Sydney. The other two cases are linked to a family in the City of Hume in Melbourne’s northern fringe. Of those two cases, one is the final family member to test positive and the other is a man who attended the same Coles as one of the family members (who should have been isolating at home). Ten of those 11 total cases will be included in today’s numbers.

Greater Sydney’s lockdown has been extended for another two weeks. NSW recorded 97 new coronavirus cases yesterday (with 24 of those infectious in the community), up from 89 total cases the day before.

There are 71 COVID-19 patients in NSW hospitals. Twenty are in intensive care. Of those, four are on ventilators. There’s also been long queues at testing sites.

And Prime Minister Scott Morrison remains on the defensive after Victoria accused him of being the “Prime Minister for NSW”. Earlier this week, the Commonwealth announced increased emergency payments for Greater Sydney workers who’ve had their hours reduced due to the city’s extended shutdown.

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