'On notice': Sydney braces for lockdown to contain COVID-19 outbreak by Christmas

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Sydney is braced for wider coronavirus restrictions just days from Christmas in a frantic attempt to contain the outbreak that plunged the northern beaches into lockdown on Saturday and threw holiday plans into disarray.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian pleaded with all Sydneysiders to limit their activities over the next few days and stay home "unless you really have to" go out, threatening to reimpose restrictions as soon as Sunday morning.

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia is yet to make an official decision but the worsening COVID-19 outbreak has put about 150 sailors into lockdown on the northern beaches. "We saw in Melbourne they tried a targeted lockdown in particular suburbs where the outbreak seemed to be clustered but it had already spread," she toldBurnet Institute epidemiologist Mike Toole said he was concerned the NSW government was too reliant on its "gold standard" contact tracing system at the expense of measures such as social distancing and mandatory masks."I have been saying the same mantra over the years: go hard and go fast.

Preliminary genome sequencing confirmed the virus strain circulating on the beaches was imported from the United States. Virus samples from the Avalon cluster came close to matching a sample in a woman who flew into Sydney on December 1.But health authorities still don't know how the virus was introduced to the northern beaches and all avenues of investigations are ongoing.

Meanwhile, despite the Premier's pleas to avoid unnecessary trips outside, there was a hive of activity at the Colisum Theatre at West HQ - formerly known as Rooty Hill RSL - on Saturday afternoon as concerts by The Wiggles attracted thousands of families from across the state.

 

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