Coronavirus Australia live news: NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian provides update on Sydney northern beaches Covid cases | Australia news

Chant: “My anxiety is we have not found the direct transmission route and we cannot be sure we have blocked the transmission line”

Chant: “If you have to go out, please wear a mask”.

She confirms there are “missing” people, who were possibly responsible for chains of the virus but have not been identified.

“The critical element is get tested and please do not go out and about if you have symptoms.”

Berejiklian said earlier that we shouldn’t make the assumption there is a “super-spreader”.

Chant adds now they are still looking for people who could be the source, despite the traveller who returned on 1 December being treated as if they were infectious at the time they arrived in Sydney.

“We’ve got to keep a very open investigation.”

She confirms the aircrew who played up a few weeks ago were tested, and the breaches were notified to NSW police.

Hazzard also confirmed he had a Covid test last night.

He lives on the northern beaches and had symptoms that were similar to hay fever, but he tested negative.

Hazzard says there are 2,000-3,000 people aircrews coming into NSW each week, and it was important for the state to deal sensibly with airlines.

“We don’t want them to say we aren’t flying into NSW,” he said. “We are delicately negotiating.”

The premier says one airline was found to have breached its own guidelines a few weeks ago when its crews were allowed to attend venues around Sydney.

None of the venues were on the northern breaches.

She said it was difficult to punish the crews, given many weren’t Australian and were travelling in and out of the country.

“In any given time there are … several hundred travelling in and out on any given day.”

Chant is being asked again about the possible source of the cluster who she said earlier could be a traveller infected with a strain of the virus that is similar to that found in the US.

“This is a person who was in hotel quarantine. It’s similar, but it doesn’t allow us to confirm that person is the source.”

Hazzard confirms the woman arrived in Australia on 1 December and went into hotel quarantine. She fell ill a few days later, was transferred to a “health hotel” for possible and confirmed cases, and tested positive soon after.

Berejiklian hopes it does not come to enforcing strict lockdown rules in the northern beaches. She says the community has responded well so far so she did not feel there was a need to go down the “mandatory path” but “we will if we have to”.

“I can’t rule out that option until we know what the next 24 to 48 hours looks like.”

“We can’t risk that … The infection rates in North America and in Europe are going through the roof.”

Berejiklian stresses that the existing systems were not the problem – compliance was. Because crews were able to stay at more than 20 hotels, it was difficult to check up on them. She is also emphasising that does not mean the infection has been confirmed to have come from airline workers.

Berejiklian confirms that from Tuesday there will be only two hotels where aircrew will be allowed to stay, and they will be near the airport, making it easier for police and health officials to check up on them.

“It means there will be better compliance.”

Chant confirms that a person from the Avalon RSL cluster was contacted in Queensland by contact tracers, and told to come back to NSW. They had flown to Queensland, but drove back, and received the positive test result during the drive back.

Authorities are now contact tracing those on the plane.

“This is a journey for everybody. Be on it and get tested.”

“This is a salutary reminder that we are in a one-in-100-year pandemic,” Hazzard adds.