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Two new NSW COVID cases as masks mandated

Eastern suburbs residents respond to COVID-19 alerts to get tested after the latest outbreak.

Eastern suburbs residents respond to COVID-19 alerts to get tested after the latest outbreak. Photo: ABC News/Tim Swanston

NSW has recorded two new locally acquired COVID-19 cases, taking the eastern suburbs COVID-19 cluster to six cases.

A woman in her 40s and a man in his 30s both visited the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre.

A 60-year-old limousine driver is thought to be the source, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said Saturday.

“This Delta virus would appear to be a near and present danger to anybody who is in the vicinity,” he said.

“It is a virus that is very capable of transmitting even when we have very fleeting proximity between the individual who is infectious and any of us who might be passing by.”

People who had visited the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre on June 12 between 11am and 12 noon, and June 13 between 1pm and 2pm, and 4pm and 4:30pm, were urged to undertake a COVID-19 test.

Concerns were also raised about the Illawarra’s Broken Drum Cafe after an infected man visited the business on Friday between 10:20am and 10:40pm, with anyone who had been at the site, advised to get tested.

The new cases come a day after Sydneysiders were ordered to wear face masks on public transport until Thursday and Queensland and Tasmania tightened border restrictions for people travelling from NSW hot spots.

CCTV footage showed the case detected yesterday, a man in his 50s, caught the virus from the limousine driver after they were briefly standing near each other in the Myer store at Bondi Junction Westfield.

“It would appear he was somewhere in the range of between 10 and possibly 50-60 centimetres away in a passing situation,” Mr Hazzard said.

“Each had stood not far away from each other from a very short period of time and then it would appear that one of them possibly moved through the airspace that the other one had occupied.”

Four new overseas-acquired cases were also recorded overnight, bringing the total number of cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 5,448.

There were 26,631 tests reported to 8pm Friday night, compared with the previous day’s total of 21,678.

NSW Health administered a record 17,763 COVID-19 vaccines in the 24 hours to 8pm Friday night, including 6,222 at the vaccination centre at Sydney Olympic Park.

A number of new COVID-19 exposure sites have been listed, including the level five food court at Westfield Bondi Junction, as well as level four and the bus interchange near the centre.

It also listed Eden Gardens at Macquarie Park and the limousine car park at Sydney International Airport as new COVID-19 exposure sites.

Western Australia and South Australia have shut the border for those who’ve attended NSW virus exposure sites, while Victoria has tightened restrictions for residents of the City of Sydney, Waverley and Woollahra council areas.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed on Friday that quarantine-free travel will continue with NSW for the time being.

-with agencies

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