NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has confirmed that the number of COVID-19 cases linked to the fast-growing Northern Beaches cluster has risen to 28.
It had been a blissful few weeks with zero to very-low COVID-19 case rates in NSW, but Sydneysiders have woken up to NSW Health’s appeal to anyone who lives from The Spit Bridge in Manly to Palm Beach — approximately 250,000 people — to stay at home for the next three days from today (Friday) to Sunday.
This follows the confirmation of the Northern Beaches cluster which grew from two cases to 17. As of today, it’s been announced that that number has now risen to 28.
Gladys Berejiklian has said that Greater Sydney should be on high alert for the spread of COVID-19, and urged Sydneysiders to reduce “non-essential mobility”.
“We want everyone in Greater Sydney to help us out to make sure you’re wearing a mask if you’re catching public transport, going grocery shopping, if you’re at a high-risk event, and try to reduce your non-essential mobility,” she said in her statement.
“If we get on top of this in the next two or three days, all of us will be able to have a much better Christmas but if we don’t get on top of it in the next few days, it could mean further restrictions down the track,” she continued.
People have flocked to Twitter to express their frustrations with the situation:
lmao, northern beaches has a covid outbreak and the governments like, “uwu pwease stay home, y-you know…..if you want t-to”
but if this happened in western sydney cops would be instantly on the scene beating the shit out of anyone trying to get groceries
— dickgirl supremacy (@gay4gundam) December 17, 2020
Good thing about the new cases of COVID in Sydney northern beaches is nobody leaves the northern beaches, so the rest of Sydney is safe #COVID19Aus
— 💧Nick 🌈 (@NMaconachie) December 16, 2020
