11 July 2021

UPDATED: ACT and NSW declared red zones by Victoria

| David Murtagh
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NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian giving her COVID-19 update this morning. Image: Screenshot.

UPDATED 4:40 pm: The ACT and NSW have been declared red zones under Victoria’s travel permit system by Victoria’s Acting Chief Health Officer.

From 11:59 pm tonight (11 July), the Victorian border is effectively closed to NSW and the ACT – except for Victorian residents returning on a red zone permit for 14 days of quarantine, and for people with exemptions, exceptions or other valid permits (such as specified workers and cross-border residents).

If you aren’t a Victorian resident, you cannot enter Victoria from a red zone without an exception, exemption or other valid permit.

If you try to enter at an airport or seaport, you will be fined up to $4,957 and stay in Hotel Quarantine until return flights can be arranged.

If you try to enter by land, you will be turned away and fined.

Travellers from existing orange zones in New South Wales and the ACT entering Victoria before 11:59 pm tonight can enter on an orange zone permit if they are eligible, including if they are on flights that are scheduled to depart orange zones before 11:59 pm.

Orange zone permit holders are required to isolate on arrival, get tested within 72 hours, and stay isolated until they return a negative result.

A strong police and Authorised Officer presence will continue at Victoria’s land borders and airports. Substantial fines have already been handed down to individuals arriving without a valid permit since current red zones have come into effect.

For more information, visit Victorian Travel Permit System.

3:30 pm: The ACT Government has not yet indicated a change in COVID-19 restrictions despite rising NSW infection rates as Sydney battles a fast-moving outbreak of the Delta strain.

But as NSW braces for the likelihood of more than 100 new cases of the virus on Monday, Chief Health Officer Dr Kerryn Coleman has warned Canberrans that they should be prepared for health advice to change quickly.

On Friday, authorities imposed a two-week home quarantine requirement on people returning from Sydney, extending through the Greater Sydney region to Shellharbour, Wollongong, the Blue Mountains and the Central Coast.

Although there have been no cases beyond the Greater Sydney area, Dr Coleman said that ACT Health continues to closely monitor the situation in NSW.

Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith also said that the situation is NSW was “of increasing concern”.

ACT residents returning from Greater Sydney must quarantine for two weeks and may now only leave home in an emergency or to seek essential medical care, while non-ACT residents must not enter the Territory without a valid exemption and extenuating circumstances.

11 July, 12:30 pm: NSW has reported 77 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8:00 pm last night, and an elderly woman who tested positive on Friday (9 July) has died in Liverpool Hospital.

At a media conference this morning, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she would be “shocked” if NSW did not record 100 cases tomorrow.

She added that the public should prepare itself for new lockdowns.

“I think it’s pretty plain to see the numbers are not going in the right direction at this point of time,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“I’ve foreshadowed [extended lockdowns] for a number of days.

“If people don’t leave home unless they absolutely have to, we’ll come out of this sooner rather than later.”

NSW Health has reported that of the 77 locally acquired cases, 55 are linked to a known case or cluster – 39 are household contacts and 16 are close contacts.

The source of infection for 22 cases remains under investigation.

A close contact of a locally acquired case, a woman in her 90s from south-west NSW Sydney, died at Liverpool Hospital yesterday. She is the first COVID-19 death in NSW for 10 months.

There have been 566 locally acquired cases reported since 16 June 2021 when the first case in the Bondi cluster was reported.

The majority of the 77 new locally acquired cases are linked to known cases and are particularly prominent among family members, friends and other close contacts, such as work colleagues.

People in Greater Sydney have been ordered to stay at home unless it is absolutely necessary to leave.

NSW Health announced this morning: “We cannot have visitors to our homes, and everyone is reminded that your household only includes those who live with you, not any other family members.”

NSW Police have stepped up movement restrictions in Western Sydney.

More to come.

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I think these state wide lockouts are dumb and lazy. I’m cynical enough to think the ACT is included with NSW so the border police in the other states can just be instructed to exclude anyone with a 2xxx postcode, rather than having to deal with exceptions.

Actually perhaps ACT is included with NSW by other states because of our proximity to Sydney – and a minority of selfish ignoramuses who choose to ignore the rules, which most Sydneysiders abide by, thus endangering others and causing disruptive lockdowns to continue longer.

I agree. Incompetence and over reaction from the nanny state, tolerated by a docile and alarmingly compliant population, seemingly only able to obey the latest directive.

Hmmm is that taken from the QAnon phrase book?

I use facts, common sense and logic to define my views and am unfamilliar with the source you rely upon for your own information.

Ridiculous, a complete overreaction. Was due to travel down to Melbourne for a wedding next weekend and my plans are in complete disarray. There have been ZERO cases in Canberra and none in regional NSW. Why are Australians happy with a government that locks us down at every chance? In the UK they have 100k cases a day and very few deaths. In the NSW there has been one death so far and the woman was in her 90s.. You can kiss our freedom and rights goodbye forever as I don’t think anything will change, we’ll be living in lockdown for the next 10 years.

Don’t you think it’s important to put your rant into context, Sam? Yes the UK doesn’t have anything approaching the restrictions some Australians have to endure BUT their level of vaccination (87% have had first shot, 66%have had srcond shot) compared to ours (26% first and 8% second) is a vitally important factor. So, as a later poster has observed, the Vics have a right to be a little paranoid after what they have endured – bearing in mind that vaccination does motmean a petson will mot get the virus and be infectious, it (hopefully) protects the individual from the severe sumptoms and/or side effects. You mention “one death in NSW so far”. So, how many cases and deaths do you believe are acceptable, so that you can travel where you want, when you want?

Oops – can’t edit my typos

In the UK they have nearly 90% with one vaccine dose and approaching 70% with two doses. Compare that to Australia which is about 25% single, 10% two doses.

So yes the UK can let her rip, and we will be able to too when our vaccination rates get to be the same as the UK.

But until then caution is needed and the reason our hospitalisation and death rates have been so low is because of the elimination strategy every state and the feds in Australia are aiming for and have for the most part achieved.

Capital Retro7:47 am 13 Jul 21

The UK is reporting around 30,000 new infections daily. “Let her rip” indeed.

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