Northern Beaches' Stay-at-Home Orders Have Been Extended Until January

In a bid to contain a COVID-19 outbreak, Sydney's northern beaches have been under stay-at-home orders since Saturday, December 19.

Initially flagged to end on Wednesday, December 30, those orders have today been extended until at least Saturday, January 9 for the northern half of the northern beaches and until at least Saturday, January 2 for the southern half. Which means, yes, that they'll be in place for NYE.

The good news for northern beaches residents is that — similarly to the privilege allowed over Christmas — you'll be allowed to have small gatherings in your home for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

For those two days, people in the northern zone will be allowed up to five people in their homes (including adults and children) and those in the southern zone will be allowed ten people. Residents can't leave their zones, however, and people from Greater Sydney cannot enter the region.

Limited outdoor public gatherings, which were given the OK on December 26, continue, too, which allow for groups of up to five to gather for recreation and exercise purposes in the northern zone and ten in the south.

Under the newly extended stay-at-home orders, residents in both zones can only leave homes for one of four reasons: shopping for food or other goods and services; travel for work or education purposes if unable to work from home; exercise; and medical or caring reasons.

If you need a refresher on the zones, the NSW Government has split the northern beaches into two zones — a northern and southern section, using the Narrabeen Bridge and the Baha'i Temple as a boundary. You can see a map below.

The announcement comes as NSW records five additional cases of locally acquired COVID-19 in the 24 hours leading up to 8pm on Sunday, December 27. All of them are in the northern beaches.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said that while the number of new daily cases is trending down, "there are still too many concerning aspects for us — of those cases and also of not really being able to identify what we call the intermediaries, those unlinked cases — for us to really ease restrictions in the way that we know that the northern beaches community wanted us to do so."

For Greater Sydney, Central Coast, the Blue Mountains and Wollongong, restrictions are changing slightly for NYE, too, with limit on outdoor public gatherings halving from 100 to 50. Gatherings inside homes continue to be capped at ten. For the rest of regional NSW, indoor gatherings are 50 and outdoor public gatherings 100.

The NSW Government has posted a handy rundown of new restrictions here:

For the Northern Beaches peninsula zone (North of Narrabeen Bridge, and east of the Baha'i Temple), the following rules apply until January 9:

• The health situation remains volatile and the current restrictions will remain in place to suppress community transmission.
• However, indoor and outdoor gatherings will be allowed for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day but will be restricted to five visitors in total from within your zone (and includes at homes).
• Current arrangements allowing five people to gather outdoors (not at homes) for exercise and recreation, from within the same zone, continues.
• No restaurants, cafes, pubs or clubs (except for takeaway) will be permitted to open, including for New Year's Eve.

For the remainder (southern zone) of the Northern Beaches, the following rules apply until January 2:

• The health situation remains volatile and the current restrictions will remain in place to suppress community transmission.
• However, indoor and outdoor gatherings will be allowed for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day but will be restricted to 10 visitors in total from within your zone (and includes at homes).
• Current arrangements allowing 10 people to gather outdoors (not at homes) for exercise and recreation, from within the same zone, continues.
• No restaurants, cafes, pubs or clubs (except for takeaway) will be permitted to open, including for New Year's Eve.

For Greater Sydney, Central Coast and Wollongong the following rules apply:

• Gatherings in the home remain at 10 visitors in total (including children).
• Outside gatherings (such as picnics) will be restricted to 50 people in total (down from 100).

For regional NSW there is no change to current arrangements

For more information about the northern beaches outbreak and current restrictions, head to the NSW Health website.