There are fears the Berala Covid-19 outbreak could spread to regional New South Wales after an 18-year-old man tested positive after travelling to Orange, Nyngan and Broken Hill on a camping trip.
The case was on top of four new locally-acquired cases reported in NSW in the 24 hours to 8pm Monday. Three of those were connected to the Berala cluster in western Sydney, and one linked to the Croydon cluster.
Health authorities were advised on Tuesday morning that the 18-year-old man had tested positive after travelling to western NSW on a camping trip before becoming symptomatic. The NSW chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said the man did the right thing and got tested after receiving a text message on Monday about the outbreak at the BWS in Berala.
[He] woke up, had a little bit of a runny nose just yesterday and went out and got a test and did the right thing, she said.
This gentleman was totally unaware of the issues [but] acted promptly on our text message and thank you so much.
The acting NSW premier, John Barilaro, urged people in Orange, Nyngan and Broken Hill to come forward for testing.
The other new cases included a man in his 50s who visited the BWS at Berala on 24 December and a woman in her 40s who visited the Woolworths at Berala, but not the bottle shop.
Chant said this meant the NSW Health team was now concerned about transmission occurring at the Woolworths next to the BWS, which was now also listed as an exposure site over the Christmas and New Year period.
The NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, also announced people in Berala and the surrounding suburbs would be fined $1,000 if they attended the upcoming cricket Test at the SCG, which has been limited to 25% capacity.
If you live in Auburn, Berala, Lidcombe North, Regents Park or Rookwood, we would love you at the Test in a non-Covid year, but we cant [this year], he said.
The SCG have asked you not to come, but it will be backed in. If an officer stops you and you happen to be at the SCG, then you will find yourself receiving a $1,000 fine.
Among the list of suburbs to be banned, Rookwood is a cemetery with no living residents.
In Victoria, there were three new locally-acquired cases of Covid-19 recorded in the state, all connected to the Black Rock Thai restaurant outbreak.
Health authorities expressed optimism that the outbreak, which now totalled 27 cases, had not spread beyond the restaurant.
Although there were a number of other exposure sites listed by the Department of Health and Human Services where people who attended were being asked to get tested and isolate, Jeroen Weimar, the commander of the Covid response in Victoria, said on Tuesday the outbreak had so far been confined to the restaurant, and in home settings.
It is positive to see that all the cases that weve identified in the Black Rock cluster have all been in the primary close contacts, Weimar said.
Its exceptionally positive that every single day that weve been talking about the Black Rock cluster, any new positives identified [are] within people who have already been asked to isolate and quarantine for 14 days. And that of course gives us a very good chance of containing this cluster as we move along.
At the moment 900 primary close contacts and 400 secondary close contacts were isolating.
Meanwhile, Victorias police minister, Lisa Neville, called on all states to test and quarantine flight crew from international flights, after eight of the last 1,000 flight crew to come through Victoria in the past two weeks tested positive for Covid-19.
Neville said this was a much higher positive rate than among returned travellers.
The flight crew positive cases were among 27 people who had tested positive since hotel quarantine resumed on 7 December. Since then, 5,354 people had been through the new program.
Neville also defended the states tough border policy, which had led to many Victorians being either in self-isolation or stuck in NSW.
Andrew Mitson returned with his partner around New Years Eve, and said they scrambled to return from NSW, and although they made it before the hard border closure, the self-isolation requirement did not make sense.
We can understand the need for border closures, but this was handled very poorly, he said.
People who could make it out in eight hours are now able to go for a walk, among every other thing Victorians can do. We are stuck in our apartment and I am not sure if I am allowed to even take my rubbish to a shared bin area.
Dr Greg Low told Guardian Australia he was travelling from his home north of Coffs Harbour through green zones in NSW to get to Victoria for an operation, but was also required to isolate.
Changing the rules within a few hours is just not fair. It takes far longer than that to get here, he said.
We did everything right. We followed their rules to a tee. We drove many hours longer, just to meet their requirements and now were stuck in self-isolation.
There were 248 Victorians in hotel quarantine who had returned from NSW.
A letter distributed to some of those held in quarantine on Tuesday informed them they could apply for exemptions, Neville said.
Neville said the state had received 2,798 applications for exemptions to the hard border closure. Of those, 153 people didnt need an exemption due to the emergency exemptions, and 57 exemptions had been granted.
They are being dealt with case by case. There are no blanket exemptions, Neville said.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, told 3AW radio he had spoken with the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, about the problems faced by Victorians heading back from NSW, and indicated the state might make some changes to the policy.
Theyre working through their issues and the border arrangements that they put in place.
Victoria has yet to announce any changes, but Neville said on Tuesday people planning to travel to Victoria from NSW in a week or two should apply for an exemption now.
The Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, also confirmed on Tuesday that WA had detected three cases of the UK variant of Covid-19 in returned travellers in hotel quarantine.