Coronavirus Australia: NSW records 110 new cases as South Australia records 7

South Australia has recorded six new cases of COVID-19 as it faces its first day of a week-long lockdown.

“Unfortunately, we have new cases to report and concerning new exposure sites in addition to that,” Premier Steven Marshall said at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.

SA had already announced one new virus case earlier on Wednesday

The new cases are linked to an exposure site at the Tenafeate Creek winery at Yattalunga, north of Adelaide.

“We believe this was an exposure site on Sunday afternoon from 1.45pm through to 4.30pm,” Mr Marshall said.

SA’s virus cluster is linked to an 81-year-old man who recently arrived in Australia from Argentina and quarantined in Sydney before travelling to Adelaide, where he tested positive.

Genomic testing has confirmed the man became infected while in Sydney, not while in Argentina.

NSW records 110 new virus cases overnight

NSW has recorded 110 locally acquired COVID-19 cases and at least 60 of those people were circulating in the community for part or all of their infectious period.

“That is a high number but a number which reflects the high amount of testing that we had,” Premier Gladys Berijiklian said on Wednesday.

“The simple message is this is really serious.”

There was a record number of tests - nearly 84,000 - conducted in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday.

Of the new cases, 43 were infectious in the community for the entire time and 17 were the community for part of their infectious period. The isolation status of 13 cases remains under investigation.

NSW Health said 54 cases are linked to a known case or cluster - 40 are household contacts and 14 are close contacts - and the source of infection for 56 cases is under investigation.

Since the Greater Sydney outbreak began on June 16, there have been 1528 cases and five people have died.

Two new overseas-acquired cases were also recorded overnight.

QLD RECORDS NO NEW CASES

Queensland has recorded no new locally-acquired cases of COVID-19 two days after a woman from the state’s far north tested positive.

The state government conducted 12,876 tests across Queensland overnight, but there were no positive results for COVID-19 by Wednesday morning.

There had been concerns the relatives and friends of the woman who has COVID-19 - who travelled from the Sunshine Coast to the far north via Brisbane - would test positive.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young is convinced the woman caught the virus at a Melbourne pub and has the more highly infectious Delta strain.

She returned to Queensland on July 13 and stayed with friends on the Sunshine Coast but two days later was told by Victorian officials that she’d been at a tier-one exposure site - the Young & Jackson Hotel in Melbourne.

The woman presented for testing but returned a negative result, and was active in the community on the Sunshine Coast, and to a lesser degree in far north Queensland, while infectious.

She returned a positive result late Monday night, after flying north to Cairns and then travelling by private vehicle to her family’s home at Mareeba.

The woman, aged in her 20s, was fully vaccinated with Pfizer and wore a mask on public transport on the way from the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane airport, and on a Virgin flight VA791 from Brisbane to Cairns on July 16.

Dr Young said test results from the woman’s friends at Maroochydore and family at Mareeba would be a good indicator of whether Queensland is in trouble or not.

She dined at the Rice Boi restaurant at Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast, between 6.45pm and 8pm last Thursday, and shopped at the Sunshine Coast Plaza shopping centre that day, between 3.55pm and 4.15pm.

One new overseas acquired case of COVID-19 was detected in hotel quarantine in Queensland on Wednesday.

VICTORIA RECORDS 22 NEW LOCAL CASES

Victoria has recorded 22 new local coronavirus cases on the sixth day of its extended statewide lockdown.

The new infections are linked to the current outbreak, which originated in NSW and now totals 107 cases.

A new case was also recorded in hotel quarantine, bringing the total number of active cases in the state to 118.

Some 59,355 tests were processed in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning, while 18,099 Victorians received a vaccine dose at one of the state-run hubs.

It comes after Premier Daniel Andrews on Tuesday announced the state’s initial five-day lockdown would be extended until at least 11.59pm on July 27.

Mr Andrews said the state had avoided a “NSW-style, long, lengthy, very challenging lockdown” but authorities needed more time to “extinguish” the outbreak.

“We’re dealing with an outbreak that we think we are running alongside and we just need to get in front of it in order to pull it up,” he said.

He said easing restrictions while new case numbers are in the single digits isn’t an option, due to the speed and ease with which the Delta variant has spread.

Four new tier-two exposure sites were added overnight in Richmond, bringing the total number of sites to more than 350, while more than 18,000 primary close contacts, including two apartment blocks, are self-isolating.

Meanwhile, permits to enter Victoria from a red zone have been suspended for two weeks.

Only authorised workers and those who apply for and receive an exemption are now able to travel between Victoria and NSW, although border bubble arrangements will remain in place.

South Australia was also declared a red zone overnight, as it joined Victoria and Greater Sydney in lockdown.

The federal government has confirmed Victorians impacted by the extended lockdown will be able to claim disaster payments of up to $600 a week from Friday.

A beefed-up support package for lockdown-hit businesses will also be announced by the Victorian government on Wednesday.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA RECORDS ONE NEW CASE

South Australia has recorded one new locally acquired Covid-19 case on Wednesday.

Premier Steven Marshall announced the additional case just after 7am, which takes Adelaide’s cluster to a total of six cases.

The Premier plunged the entire state in lockdown overnight due to the rising cases, which have been confirmed the highly contagious Delta variant.

The outbreak was sparked by an 81-year-old man who completed hotel quarantine in Sydney after returning from Argentina with his daughter and flew to Adelaide on July 8.

He presented to Modbury Hospital on Sunday with symptoms before testing positive, putting the hospital’s emergency department into lockdown.

NSW TOWN LOCKED DOWN AFTER INFECTED PET FOOD DRIVER SPREAD VIRUS

Residents of the central-western NSW town of Orange and its surrounds have woken to a snap seven-day lockdown after a COVID-19 positive pet food delivery driver visited the area and infected another person.

The lockdown in the Orange, Blayney and Cabonne local government areas announced on Tuesday marks the first time a stay-at-home order has been imposed in regional NSW.

Deputy Premier John Barilaro says it’s a tough but appropriate response, given the highly infectious nature of the Delta strain of the coronavirus.

“We are hoping that there are no other infections, but we don’t know and we won’t know and we don’t want to take that gamble,” he told ABC television Wednesday.

“If we have to do more we will do more.”

Mr Barilaro also pointed to the national vaccine rollout, saying the federal government “has let us down’, with demand outstripping supply.

“It is a real issue for the federal government. They promised more.”

NSW Health has issued COVID-19 alerts for Orange - including a petrol station, Officeworks, Woolworths, pizzeria and tobacco shop - after the delivery driver infected a man who works in Blayney and then went to multiple Orange venues.

Residents of the three affected council areas can only leave to shopping for essential items, medical care or compassionate needs, exercise in groups of no more than two and for work or tertiary studies that can’t be done from home.

Schools remain open, but with restrictions including mandatory face masks for all teachers.

Funerals in the areas will be limited to 10 people from Friday.

Masks must also be worn indoors and outdoors where social distancing cannot be maintained.

STATE-BY-STATE BREAKDOWN

TODAY

NSW - 110 NEW CASES

VIC - 22 NEW CASES

QLD - ZERO NEW CASES

WA - TBA

SA - SEVEN NEW CASES

TAS - TBA

ACT - TBA

NT - TBA