Coronavirus Australia news: northern beaches cluster at 68; state borders close to Sydneysiders | Australia news

Two people have been issued Penalty Infringement Notices and fined over allegedly breaching restrictions in the northern beaches.

A 60-year-old man from Padstow and a 39-year-old woman from Bankstown – both in Sydney’s south west – were fined after they were stopped in Manly on East Esplanade at 4pm on Sunday afternoon.

NSW police alleged that the two “did not have a lawful excuse or exemption for being in the northern beaches”.

“Both were issued an infringement notice for fail to comply with requirement of public health order,” police said. “They were also directed to leave the area.”

NSW health minister Brad Hazzard has also just been on ABC TV.

He said that health authorities were still investigating how the virus spread from the US to the northern beaches.

We know a woman got off a flight from Los Angeles on 1st December. She went straight into hotel quarantine but her genomic sequencing indicates it is extremely close to the strain of the virus that is circulating on the northern beaches.

“She is certainly a person that we have got to look more closely at. How could it have possibly got from her to the beaches when she is still in a quarantine hotel? It is a human system.

“People have to accept this is a human system and if someone picked up a bag by mistake and then put it down, it could be anything that she might have handled. It just could be anything at all on that front. We don’t know the answer at this point.

He adds that he has seen testing ramp up on the northern beaches.

I am a northern beaches resident and looking around the area yesterday, the only people who were out in great numbers were people getting tested. That is a big positive. I am expecting big numbers today, possibly the biggest ever in terms of the number of people getting tested. They have been out in massive force.

Seven hundred Victoria police officers have been deployed to establish checkpoints along the state’s border with NSW, according to health minister Martin Foley.

AAP also reports that the Victorian government requested 200 to 300 Australian defence force personnel to help with planning, logistics and surveillance on Saturday night, but defence has so far only committed to 50 additional personnel.

Defence say they already have 235 personnel supporting Victoria’s hotel quarantine program and any additional ADF backup will “not provide direct support to vehicle checkpoints on the NSW/Victoria border”.

“Defence has provided extensive support to Victorian authorities under Operation Covid-19 Assist, with more than 3,000 ADF personnel deployed to Victoria since June,” an official told AAP.

Hazzard, who lives on the northern beaches, is asked what chance the region has of being under lockdown for Christmas.

He declines to give an estimate, and says the region will have to wait for the “crisis cabinet” on Wednesday.

The NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, is speaking on ABC Radio Sydney now.

He is asked why the state has not made masks mandatory – even on public transport.

Host Josh Szeps asks him: “Why not just mandate them? Is part of the thinking it become a big culture war issue and people become more antagonistic?”

Hazzard says: “We want people to feel like we are on the journey with us. If we make it compulsory the big issue is, the bus drivers become the policemen.”

He says that bus drivers have told him strongly that they don’t want to have to deal with this.

“We have already seen enough aggression on the buses,” he says.

Rather than make them mandatory, he and the premier are urging people to wear masks.

“Right now you should be wearing masks anywhere inside the premises, other than your own home.”

Late last night, NSW Health declared new potential exposure sites – mostly in the northern beaches, but including one location in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, and a bus route.

Anyone who was at the following new venues is considered a close contact and should get tested immediately and self-isolate for 14 days, regardless of the result:

• Anytime Fitness, 7 Taronga Place, Mona Vale, on Thursday 17 December between 9.50am and 12.45pm;
• G Fitness, 72/80 Evans Street, Freshwater, on Tuesday 15 December between 11am and 12.45pm;
• 4 Pines, 313 Barrenjoey Rd, Newport, on Wednesday 16 December between 4.30pm-9pm;
• Twenty-One Espresso, 21 Knox Street, Double Bay: Any staff working on Tuesday 15 December, and patrons seated in the indoor section on that day for more than 1 hour between 7.10pm and 8.15pm and 8.25pm and 9.10pm.

Anyone at the following venues is considered a casual contact and should get tested immediately and isolate until they receive a negative result:

• Northern Beaches Indoor Sports Centre, Jacksons Rd, Warriewood, on Tuesday 15 December between 6.30pm and 9.30pm;
• Twenty-One Espresso, 21 Knox Street, Double Bay: Any patrons who were in the restaurant for less than 1 hour, or those who sat in the outdoor area on Tuesday 15 December between 7.10pm and 8.15pm and 8.25pm and 9.10pm on Tuesday 15 December;
• Flower Power, 22 Macpherson St, Warriewood, on Friday 18 December between 8.45am and 9.30am;
• Bowen Island Bakery, 383 Barrenjoey Road, Newport, on Friday 18 December between 9am and 9.30am.

Times have been revised for the Garfish restaurant in Manly, it is now:

• Garfish Manly, 1/39 E Esplanade, Manly, on Thursday 17 December between 6.45pm-10pm.

And advice has been updated for 4 Pines, Newport. Anyone who attended this venue on Tuesday 15 December from 6pm to 10pm should get tested immediately and self-isolate for 14 days.

And anyone on the following bus route is considered a casual contact, and should get tested and isolate until a negative result is received:

• Bus Route 199 on Saturday 12 December, departing Palm Beach 10.10am and arriving at Manly Beach at 11.30am.

The full list of venues is here:

Good morning and welcome to our live coronavirus and Australian news blog today. It’s Naaman Zhou here with you.

All eyes will be on Sydney today, with the next update on case numbers scheduled for 11am.

Yesterday, NSW reported 30 new cases of Covid-19, but all were linked to the continuing northern beaches outbreak. The total number of cases linked to the cluster is now at 68.

And in overnight news, the World Health Organisation has said that the new virus variant, which is spreading across the UK and Europe, has been detected in Australia, with at least one case. There is no evidence that this variant reacts differently to any vaccines.

Stay with us for all the latest.