Overview
In the past couple of weeks, Sydney has seen fluctuating restrictions in response to the northern beaches COVID-19 outbreak. While the NSW Government allowed for relaxed gathering limits for three days over Christmas, Premier Gladys Berejiklian reinstated pre-Christmas restrictions across both the northern beaches and Greater Sydney. Then, changes to the city's New Year's Eve celebrations were announced on Monday, December 28. Now, the day before New Year's Eve, Berejiklian has announced even stricter gathering limits in response to increasing concerns about transmission of COVID-19 in other parts of Greater Sydney — with these new limits to be in place on New Year's Eve and "until further notice".
Come midnight tonight, Wednesday, December 30, households across the Greater Sydney area — which, currently, includes the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast and Wollongong — will be limited to five visitors (including children). For outdoor gatherings outside of the northern beaches, the new limit is 30 people.
Stay-at-home orders remain in place for northern beaches residents until, at the earliest, January 2 for the southern zone and January 9 for the northern zone. For New Year's Eve, residents of the northern zone are still allowed to have indoor and outdoor gatherings of up to five visitors — provided they are also from the northern zone. Meanwhile, for those in the southern zone, the new restrictions will replace the previously announced ten-person gathering limit, with now only five visitors allowed from within their zone.
For the rest of Greater Sydney, the new restrictions replace the ten-person indoor gathering limit and the 50-person cap for outdoor public gatherings announced just days ago. Restrictions on gatherings in regional NSW remain unchanged, with 50 allowed at indoor gatherings and 100 at outdoor.
For venues in the Greater Sydney area — which include hospitality venues — the one person per four-square-metre rule is still in effect. And, a cap of 300 people remains for big venues, even if a large space can hold more than that and still abide by the density requirement. For venues in regional NSW, the limit is one per two square metres.
The announcement comes as NSW records 18 additional cases of locally acquired COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday, December 29. Nine of those are directly linked to the Avalon cluster, while six — all from the same family — are linked to a new cluster in the inner west, known as the 'Croydon cluster'. Three further locally acquired cases are under investigation, with two from members of the same household in Wollongong and one from northern Sydney.
Yesterday saw around 17,267 tests — a significant drop from the high testing numbers between December 24–27 — with the Premier stating she wants the testing rates to "go higher" and for people "to come forward and get tested if you have the mildest of symptoms".
Sydneysiders are also asked to continue to frequently check NSW Health's long list of locations and venues that positive coronavirus cases have visited over the past week — and, if you've been to anywhere listed on the specific dates and times, get tested immediately and self-isolate. You can also have a look at the venue alerts over at this new interactive map.
For more information about the status of COVID-19 in NSW, head to the NSW Health website.