Chilling footage emerges of life inside Sydney's 'Covid tower' with more than 100 locals under police guard and not allowed to leave for ANY reason after nightmare unit block outbreak
A Sydneysider locked inside a Covid-infected apartment block in the city's south-west has shared footage of the building under 24-hour police guard.
More than 100 residents in the five-storey block on Devitt Street in Bankstown were plunged into isolation on Monday after several tenants tested positive to Covid-19.
One of the locked-down residents shared footage of the closely-guarded complex to TikTok on Tuesday after the building was classified as a high-risk site.
@meeshellfell Blacktown apartment building lockdown #sydneylockdown #covid #blacktown
♬ original sound - meeshell
Blacktown apartment building lockdown #sydneylockdown #covid #blacktown
♬ original sound - meeshellBlacktown apartment building lockdown #sydneylockdown #covid #blacktown
More than 100 people in the five-storey block on Devitt Street in Bankstown were plunged into isolation on Monday after several tenants tested positive to Covid-19
'Yesterday our apartment block got put into complete lockdown/isolation,' she says while panning over a police van parked on the street below.
'But it looks like I'm under police guard.'
The woman said she knew of five cases of Covid that had spread throughout her block, with a mass testing operation currently underway.
'We had NSW Health come and visit us, and testing teams come to our apartment and test us, I'm negative.'
The tenant said she woke up on Tuesday morning and spotted news crews parked outside the front of the building.
'It's got a bit full on now, but maybe I'm going to be famous,' she joked.
The high-risk site has been visited by nurses, pathologists, health officials and police as six cases of Covid-19 spanning across three households spread through the block
NSW Health have prioritised vaccines in the area after on-site pathologists discovered several cases in the exposure site were linked
A statement from Western Sydney Local Health District confirmed six cases of Covid-19 had been detected in the block spanning across three households.
'Six cases of Covid-19 have been identified in three associated households in an apartment block of 50 units in Blacktown,' the statement read.
'All residents of the building have been determined to be close contacts.'
NSW Health have prioritised vaccines in the area after on-site pathologists discovered several cases in the exposure site were linked.
A resident of the building said everyone inside is 'so stressed' after nurses descended en masse, quickly performing swabs on the 50 units.
'My kids can't go to school, we can't go out for two weeks and I can't work,' the woman told the Telegraph.
The block will remain under 24-hour police guard for the next two weeks with no one to leave or enter the building until at least August 9.
More than 100 residents in the block are now considered close contacts of coronavirus and will be locked in their flats for the next two weeks
A resident of the building said everyone inside is 'so stressed' after nurses descended en masse, quickly performing swabs on the 50 units
It comes as Sydney's Covid cases hit a record 172 cases on Tuesday as the city braces itself for another month under strict stay-at-home orders.
NSW Health flagged a further 49 venues in a late-night public health alert on Tuesday, including 13 supermarkets.
While the west and southwestern suburbs remains the epicentre of the highly contagious Indian Delta outbreak, the focus is now shifting to new areas that had so far been largely unaffected.
There were over a dozen exposure sites listed on the Northern Beaches, three on the North Shore, six in the Inner West and two in Sydney's Sutherland Shire.
As of Monday 14,000 close contacts were in isolation, double the number from three weeks earlier, with 7,500 of those linked to two sites.
Sydney's Covid cases hit a record 172 cases on Tuesday as the city braces itself for another month under strict stay-at-home orders
A potential superspreader event at Belrose Woolworths on the Northern Beaches has put 5,000 shoppers in isolation
Narrabeen Bunnings on Sydney's Northern Beaches has been flagged as a Covid exposure site with infections slowly creeping their way out of the city's south-west epicentre
A potential superspreader event at Belrose Woolworths on the Northern Beaches has put 5,000 shoppers in isolation, while 2,495 close contacts so far have been linked to the Campsie Centre shopping mall in the city's south-west.
Among the venues exposed are four Coles, seven Woolworths, four Bunnings, a McDonalds, an organic bakery and even a skatepark.
Sydney has now recorded a total of 2,397 infections since the the outbreak began last month - with 79 new worrying mystery cases.
Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Shoalhaven, Central Coast and Wollongong have been in lockdown since June 26, but coronavirus cases across the state have only grown - with more and more infectious in the community every day.
Countless people have been unable to work across multiple industries, as the NSW government struggles to contain the spread of the Indian Delta variant of the virus, especially in southwest Sydney.