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Key posts
- If you’re in Sydney, when can you leave home?
- Virgin attendant tests positive after flights to Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland
- Good morning, here is the latest
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If you’re in Sydney, when can you leave home?
Sydneysiders are waking up to their first day of a city-wide strict lockdown in almost a year. The following rules are in place for all of Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour from 6pm yesterday until midnight Friday, July 9.
Weddings can go ahead today, but must be cancelled from tomorrow until the end of the lockdown. There are 15 other reasons that people can leave home, according to the public health order. These include:
- Obtaining food, goods or services for personal needs of the household
- Travelling for work if necessary
- Travelling for childcare if necessary
- Travelling for education if necessary
- Exercising outdoors in your area of residence
- Obtaining medical care or fulfilling carer’s responsibilities
- Moving to a new place of residence
- Providing care or assistance, including personal care, to a vulnerable person
- Donating blood
- Undertaking any legal obligations
- Accessing public services (such as social or employment services, domestic violence services or mental health support)
- Children seeing parents or siblings who do not live in the same household
- Priests or members of religious orders going to their place of worship
- To avoid injury or escape harm
- For emergencies or compassionate reasons, including where two people are in a relationship but do not necessarily live together
You can return to our list of rules and travel restrictions anytime here.
Virgin attendant tests positive after flights to Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland
Late last night we learned that passengers and crew members from five Virgin Australia flights were being contacted after a flight attendant tested positive to COVID-19.
Virgin confirmed that the cabin worker returned a positive reading after undertaking a rapid test result on Saturday night. The airline said said the infected crew member was not aware they were a close contact of a positive case until after they completed their last flight on Saturday.
Five Virgin Australia flights have been affected by a positive COVID-19 case.Credit:Getty Images
In a statement, Virgin said the affected crew member is a close contact of a positive COVID-19 case from a known cluster in Sydney. Virgin said it was contacting all staff who were deemed close contacts. All would be asked to get tested and isolate.
NSW Health at 10.55pm last night issued a public health alert for the flights, saying all NSW passengers were being considered close contacts and must call its COVID-19 line (1800 943 553), get tested and isolate for 14 days, regardless of the result:
Friday, June 25
- VA939 Departed Sydney at 11.51am; arrived Brisbane at 1.25pm
- VA334 Departed Brisbane at 2.59pm; arrived Melbourne at 5.16pm
Saturday, June 26:
- VA827 Departed Melbourne at 9am; arrived Sydney at 10.14am
- VA517 Departed Sydney at 11.14am; arrived Gold Coast at 12.40pm
- VA524 Departed Gold Coast at 1.26pm; arrived Sydney 2.47pm
Victoria’s Department of Public Health has also recorded all public areas of Melbourne Airport Terminal 2 and the terminal’s Axil Coffee Roasters as exposure sites between 6.30am and 7.30am on Saturday. Terminal 3 is listed as being an exposure site between 5.20pm and 6.50pm on Friday and again on Saturday between 8am and 9am.
The airline said that the flights – with the exception of VA334 between Brisbane and Melbourne – were carrying a “limited number of passengers” due to NSW border restrictions, and facilitating “essential travel” only.
“The crew member also had an overnight layover in Melbourne on 25 June 2021, staying at the Holiday Inn Express Southbank,” Virgin said in its statement.
“While in Melbourne, the crew member remained in hotel isolation under prescribed COVID protocols for overnighting crew members from New South Wales.”
Good morning, here is the latest
Good morning and welcome to another day on our national news blog, my name is Natassia Chrysanthos and I’ll be bringing you your news updates this morning. There’s been a lot happening this weekend as the COVID-19 situation escalates in Australia. These were the key developments yesterday:
- Sydney entered lockdown at 6pm last night. The stay at home order for people in Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Central Coast, Wollongong and Shellharbour will last until Friday, July 9. NSW recorded 12 new cases yesterday and we’re expecting more today.
- The Victorian government made all of regional NSW and ACT an zone at 1am this morning, meaning all travellers from those areas will need to test and isolate on arrival. Melbourne recorded one new local COVID-19 infection yesterday, a primary close contact of an earlier identified case from the Southbank apartment complex.
- A miner in the Northern Territory has tested positive for COVID-19, with health authorities saying he may have contracted the virus at a Queensland quarantine hotel. There are 754 workers currently at the Granites gold mine, around 560 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs, in isolation and NT contact tracers are racing to reach approximately 900 people.
- And the New Zealand government has announced it is suspending the trans-Tasman bubble to all of Australia for three days from late Saturday due to “multiple cases and outbreaks”.
We’ll keep you updated with further news and case numbers as they’re announced throughout the day.
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