Coronavirus live update: NSW premier adds new restrictions on greater Sydney as northern beaches locked down, UK tightens Christmas rules | World news

Via the AP: Thailand reported more than 500 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the highest daily tally in a country that had largely brought the pandemic under control.

The 548 new cases, most of them connected with an outbreak at a wholesale seafood market on the outskirts of Bangkok, come after Thailand saw only a small number of infections over the past several months due to strict border and quarantine controls.

Health officials said 516 of the new cases, most of them migrant workers from Myanmar, were found in connection with the outbreak at the Klang Koong shrimp market in Samut Sakhon province.

All of those infections were linked to a 67-year-old seafood vendor who tested positive for the coronavirus earlier, the director-general of the Department of Medical Sciences, Opas Karnkawinpong, said in a news conference broadcast to all TV channels on Saturday night.

The first case at the market was confirmed on Thursday, followed by 13 more on Friday.

“While there is a likelihood of finding more infections in crowded foreign communities around the shrimp market, they are low-risk groups because they are working age and healthy,” Opas said. He said most of those who tested positive were asymptomatic.

Samut Sakhon Gov. Veerasak Vichitsangsri said late Saturday that strict measures, including a 10pm-5am curfew, will be taken in the province to combat the outbreak.

The restrictions will be in effect until 3 January.

Samut Sakhon is 34 kilometers (21 miles) southwest of Bangkok, the capital.
With fewer than 5,000 cases and 60 deaths, Thailand has been able to control the virus. Prior to this week’s outbreak, there had been very few cases of local transmission and life was mostly back to normal.

More detail from SA premier Marshall on the new border changes:

“As of midnight tonight anybody who has been in the Greater Sydney area will be required to complete 14 days of suitable quarantine on arrival. They will need to have testing on arrival, plus on day five and on day 12.”

Anybody who has been in regional New South Wales will be required to have that testing, but they will not be required to isolate at this point.

It’s a hard border for anyone who’s been on the Northern Beaches – you can not get into the state.

Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton has urged mask wearing as a key (and easy) form of virus mitigation that everyone can do.

“My position on masks is that it is a very small thing to require people. It makes a difference. The science is in on masks. It reduces the risk of transmission. I would recommended in any circumstances where people can’t physically distance appropriately.”

The other neighbouring states are also reacting the the NSW outbreak.

South Australia has just enacted similar rules to Victoria, with premier Steven Marshall announcing that from midnight tonight any arrival from greater Sydney must compete 14 days of quarantine and mandatory testing. Anyone who has been on the northern beaches is banned from entry entirely, according to local media.

In Queensland, Gold Coast police chief superintendent Mark Wheeler has said his officers were on standby to return to checkpoint duty within 24 hours if given the order by government. The border checkpoints were dismantled just three weeks ago.

You can read about all the current Australian border restrictions in place here.

Victoria is also working backwards to try to isolate anyone who has come in from the affected areas before this week’s awareness. Part of that has been to examine flight manifests.

“We started with 300 and whittled it down to 70 people who we think we were in the northern beaches during the relevant timeframe. They will be closely monitored.”

Andrews declines to make political commentary on NSW regulations, but notes Victoria’s are currently stronger.

“I think for the regulations the NSW government have outlined, they have further steps today, they are largely of an advisory nature and who knows how things will play out over the next couple of days.

“But I am not going to wait around while they add to their rules. We are going to protect what we have built and that is why the border will be closed from midnight tonight.”

With immediate effect, people in border communities can travel freely when they present their driver’s licence, says Jeroen Weimar, deputy secretary of the health department.

He warns there will be queues, as were seen last time border restrictions were in place.

“Since yesterday morning we have introduced the permit system and a set of controls around people travelling in from NSW. We have had over 200,000 permits already issued in the last 30 hours or so and I thank everyone who has gone through that permit system,” he says.

About 3,000 people arrived on planes from NSW yesterday and three were found to have come from the hot zones and were taken into quarantine.

“Today we were expecting 35 flights from NSW into Victoria, around 3,400 passengers, and we will meet them and ensure they have the right permit and the right to be here.”

Andrews makes it clear: these restrictions will not lift at midnight Wednesday (when the northern beaches lockdown is currently set to end – although that’s liable to change).

Victoria will keep these restrictions going for as long as health experts advise, he says.

Victoria stands ready to help NSW, and he preemptively thanks everyone involved in the logistics.

“Can I say to all of those in greater Sydney and the Central Coast, please do not come here. You must stay in your state to keep Victorians safe and play your part in a national Covid-19 policy response. This is a national system working as it should.”

If you’re a Victorian returning from those NSW areas you have until midnight Monday to get back and go into home quarantine. Arrive any time after that and you have to go into the hotel system.

“We’re giving Victorians just that little bit extra because there may well be a situation where they are not so much choosing to come home, they may have to come home, and we think it is proportionate and appropriate for them to quarantine at home,” says Andrews.

They will be registered, they will be checked up on, they will have to get a test.

“There will be 700 members of Victoria police who will have various checkpoints, many, many checkpoints along the NSW- Victoria border. There will be a permit system so if you want to travel to Victoria by road you will need to get a permit. You will need to get another permit if you had one issued yesterday because circumstances have changed.”

Dan Andrews up now.

He’s begun by talking about the need for vigilance despite Victoria’s success since it got its outbreak under control.

“We are set to enjoy a Covid-safe Christmas, a Covid-safe summer, but we can’t take any of those settings, our position, for granted.

There are two additional cases in Victorian hotel quarantine, bringing the total number of active cases to 12. The state hasn’t had a local transmission in 51 days.

Now to the border announcements:

With a growing number of exposure sites and “every chance there are people with this virus” who haven’t been tested or contacted, there could be many cases in other parts of Sydney.

“I have to announce on the best of public health advice, that from 11.59pm we will declare all of greater Sydney and the Central Coast a red zone,” he says.

“Beyond that the northern beaches will become a hot zone and what that means is that nobody who is from those parts of Sydney, greater Sydney or has visited that part of greater Sydney will be allowed to travel back to Melbourne or any part of Victoria.

If you do arrive back or travel here you will face 14 days of mandatory hotel quarantine.

Switzerland approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Saturday, and immunisation is set to start just after Christmas, AFP reports.

Health minister Alain Berset said a two-month “meticulous review” by the country’s medical regulatory authority had concluded the vaccine was safe and its benefits outweighed its risks.

“We can start vaccinating in the coming days,” Berset said, adding that about 2 million vulnerable people – the elderly and people with pre-existing conditions – would have priority.

The country of about 8.6 million people has been recording more than 4,000 new cases and 100 deaths every day. There have been a total of 400,000 infections and nearly 6,000 deaths since the pandemic began.

Hello this is Helen Davidson here to take you through the next few hours of coronavirus updates as the world logs 75m cases of the virus.

Because it’s the weekend, this is combined coverage of both international and Australian updates. In a moment we’ll have a press conference from the Australian premier of Victoria, Dan Andrews, which is likely to see new border regulations with NSW.

While most NSW residents are concerned about not being able to gather with their families this holiday season, let us not overlook this other tragedy.

Magic Mike Live Australia has had to cancel a performance scheduled for today.

And with that, I will hand the blog over to Helen Davidson.

Finally, Brad Hazzard was asked if NSW health had any way of knowing if international flight crews had breached quarantine.

He said that police had in two instances charged flight crews for breaching quarantine.

And with that, and a final thank you to the people of the northern beaches, which happens to be his electorate, the press conference is over.

Dr Kerry Chant was asked why a reported exposure at Mona Vale golf club was not on the NSW health list.

She said sometimes there was a delay in identifying a venue because they were taking a “very cautious approach to identifying venues.”

She said this outbreak was “analogous to the concerns around the Crossroads time”.

That’s the outbreak that began at the Crossroads Hotel in southwest Sydney in July, seeded from Melbourne’s second wave outbreak.

There are many similar elements. To be perfectly frank, there seems to be quite a consolidation of places in a tight geographical area at the moment. They have clearly expressed my concerns about the fact that we don’t know the exact pathway this virus got into the Northern Beaches.

And there have been some seeding events. And people have travelled outside the Northern Beaches. For those reasons we are cautious and asking the community to follow the public health advice and do the right thing so that we can control the spread.