From Monday, all residents of Australia’s largest city will be required to wear masks when shopping, using public transport, in cinemas and casinos and in places of worship.
Photographer: David Gray / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: David Gray / AFP / Getty Images
Wearing a mask in Sydney will be mandatory at most indoor public venues, as Australian health authorities are struggling to get on top of new virus groups that have disrupted the country’s highest summer holiday period.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told Sydney on Saturday that all residents of Australia’s largest city should wear masks from Monday when shopping, in public transport, in theaters and casinos. Individuals who violate the rule, and who also apply in Wollongong, Central Coast and Blue Mountains, will be fined A $ 200 ($ 154), she said.
New South Wales has added seven new local businesses in the last 24 hours, expanding the size of a group originally confined to the Northern Beach region of Sydney, which has spread to other parts of the city and now infected more than 150 people. The prime minister announced other restrictions on Saturday, including limiting the size of gym classes, weddings and funerals.
“This strategy in New South Wales is to keep life as normal as possible, but also to make sure we maintain and even increase economic activity,” Berejiklian said.
The announcement comes as neighboring Victoria said it was detecting ten new virus cases obtained through local transmission, the majority of which were linked to an outbreak in the capital Melbourne. That city had one of the worlds last year strictest and longest exclusions, and was previously the only place in Australia where wearing masks was made compulsory.
Australia has managed to largely suppress the transfer of communities through careful testing and contact tracing, and by placing restrictions on international arrivals and isolating all travelers returning from overseas travel for 14 days in quarantine hotels.
Authorities believe the new outbreaks in Australia’s two most populous states are likely to be due to the removal of many border restrictions between countries that allow people to travel more freely during the summer holidays. The detection of the latest clusters has led some states to re-install hard borders, wreaking havoc on thousands of families traveling between the countries for holidays.
Berejiklian said on Friday that she did not consider Victoria’s decision to close its border with New South Wales to be a good use of resources. On Saturday, Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley responded by saying he was “not apologizing” for the decision, after the transfer tests showed the outbreak of the state in Sydney.
The branch in New South Wales of the Australian Medical Association welcomed the decision to make masks mandatory in Sydney Victoria’s decision to introduce the measure in the state on Thursday.
Bangkok includes playgrounds; Sydney Mandates Masks: Virus Update
“This is a crucial decision, especially as more people return to work after the holidays and trains and buses become increasingly crowded,” the statement said.
Other changes to the rules announced Saturday include that the southern areas of Northern Beaches be considered part of Greater Sydney, potentially easing restrictions in those suburbs. In the rest of the region, home orders remain until January 9, with no visitors allowed and non-essential businesses able to remain closed.
Despite the latest restrictions on Sydney, Berejiklian has said she is still committed to hosting a cricket match from January 7 at the Sydney Cricket Ground between Australia and India. The game will feature a multitude of to 24,000 people a day over as many as five days.
“This is an example where the government strategy in New South Wales is to retain jobs, to preserve the community’s morale and well – being, while making sure we are Covid safe,” she said.
(Updates with new details throughout the 8th paragraph.)