NSW has recorded two new locally acquired COVID-19 cases bringing the cluster linked to a shopping centre in the city’s eastern suburbs to six.
A woman in her 40s and a man in his 50s both visited the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre, with the man’s case reported yesterday.
NSW Health has also been notified overnight of a new locally acquired case, a 30 year old man, that will be included in tomorrow’s numbers.
A 60-year-old limousine driver is thought to be the source of the outbreak of the highly transmissable delta strain, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said on Saturday.
“This delta virus would appear to be a near and present danger to anybody who is in the vicinity,” he told reporters.
“It is a virus that is very capable of transmitting even when we have very fleeting proximity between the individual who is infectious and any of us who might be passing by.”
People who visited the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre on June 12 between 11am and 12 noon, and June 13 between 1pm and 2pm, and 4pm and 4:30pm, are urged to undertake a COVID-19 test.
There’s also concern about the Illawarra’s Broken Drum Cafe after an infected man visited the business on Friday between 10:20am and 10:40pm, with anyone who had been at the site, advised to get tested.
The new cases come a day after Sydneysiders were ordered to wear face masks on public transport until Thursday and Queensland and Tasmania tightened border restrictions for people travelling from NSW hot spots.
Four new overseas-acquired cases were also recorded overnight, bring the total number of cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 5,448.
There were 26,631 tests reported to 8pm Friday night, compared with the previous day’s total of 21,678.
NSW Health administered a record 17,763 COVID-19 vaccines in the 24 hours to 8pm Friday night, including 6,222 at the vaccination centre at Sydney Olympic Park.
The new cases comes after an unvaccinated limousine driver from Sydney’s east and his wife were diagnosed with the coronavirus and subsequently infected a woman in her 70s at a Vaucluse cafe.
The driver transported international air crews.
NSW Health on Friday evening listed a number of new COVID-19 exposure sites including the level five food court at Westfield Bondi Junction, as well as level four and the bus interchange near the centre.
It also listed a risk of exposure at Eden Gardens at Macquarie Park and the limousine car park at Sydney International Airport.
Western Australia and South Australia have shut the border for those who’ve attended NSW virus exposure sites, while Victoria has tightened restrictions for residents of the City of Sydney, Waverley and Woollahra council areas.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed on Friday that quarantine-free travel will continue with NSW for the time being.