Multiple wards shut, 70 paramedics in isolation with a doctor and nurse from Sydney's two biggest hospitals infected - as cleaners refuse to enter Australia's busiest Covid unit after being denied ANY protective equipment
Sydney's health system is being ravaged by Covid-19 as a doctor, nurse and pregnant patient at two of the city's biggest hospitals catch the virus and more than 70 paramedics are forced into isolation.
A pregnant woman tested positive on Wednesday after having a cesarean at Liverpool Hospital the day before.
She spent most of the day in the hospital in southwest Sydney and may have visited several areas of the facility.
Sydney's health system is being ravaged by Covid-19 as a doctor, nurse and pregnant patient catch the virus. Pictured: Unaffected health workers at Royal North Shore Hospital on Thursday
A fully vaccinated nurse who worked at Westmead Hospital's Covid-19 ward also tested positive. Pictured: Westmead Hospital in western Sydney
A doctor at the hospital has also tested positive, although it's unclear whether he had contact with the woman.
The hospital has suspended all non-urgent surgery and is deep cleaning all its operating theatres.
Meanwhile, a fully vaccinated nurse who worked at Westmead Hospital's Covid-19 ward - the busiest in Australia - also tested positive.
Cleaners there are refusing to enter the Covid unit, claiming they have been denied access to personal protective equipment.
Health Services Union NSW Secretary Gerard Hayes said the workers were told by NSW Health they would not be given PPE, including booties and hairnets.
There are delays getting properly fitted masks.
The workers were also apparently told they can't shower at the hospital before going home, possibly increasing their risk of contracting spreading Covid-19 to their loved ones and the broader community.
'Our members are asking for basic health and safety provisions. The fact their requests have been denied is incomprehensible,' Mr Hayes said.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard has spoken to hospital management to resolve the issue.
'I have had a chance to speak to the management at the hospital, as well and the union last night,' he told reporters on Friday.
'What is happening as there is some difference of opinion but I've indicated to the team last night that I'd like us to be as generous as reasonable and understanding of our health workers.
'I am being told that is what is happening. They will have to resolve the issue but whatever they want, they will have.'
A pregnant woman tested positive on Wednesday after having a cesarean at Liverpool Hospital the day before
About 70 paramedics are reportedly in isolation after one tested positive in south-west Sydney. Pictured: Paramedics in Brisbane in January
Three paramedics at Liverpool Ambulance station have also tested positive, forcing at least 70 paramedics identified as close contacts into isolation.
The station is being deep cleaned.
Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant confirmed 'a number' of health workers were infected.
She said: 'Pleasingly, many were vaccinated and that would afford them good protection against the disease.
'Healthcare workers can get exposed in community life as well as in hospitals.
'We look at those exposures and the reasons for those acquisitions closely. To be open and transparent, I'm aware there have been exposures in healthcare settings that have led to transmission.'
An aged care home has also been hit by the virus after a cleaner tested positive.
Minchinbury Manor in Rooty Hill, west Sydney confirmed on Thursday night a contract cleaner at the facility had been diagnosed, prompting the centre to close.
'We have isolated all residents and staff throughout the facility and our outbreak management plan has been implemented,' a spokesman said.
Covid-19 is affected Sydney's health system. Pictured: A cleaner earlier in the pandemic
Residents and staff will be tested daily, and five close contacts of the cleaner have been identified and sent into isolation.
About 90 per cent of staff and residents had been vaccinated, and those who remain unvaccinated are expected to be offered a jab in the coming days.
It comes after NSW Health issued new alerts for more than 50 venues, including a Shell petrol station in the Riverina which was visited by a person infected with the virus on Saturday.
The state recorded 65 new local Covid-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday, but Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned there would likely be a spike in cases on Friday as the number of infected people circulating in the community remains high, despite stay-at-home orders.
Of the new cases, at least 35 people were out in the community for part or all of their infectious period - a number that needs to be close to zero before the lockdown can be lifted.
'It has been a stable number, it hasn't grown ... unless it comes down, we can't get out of lockdown,' Ms Berejiklian said Thursday.
Sydney and surrounding regions have been in lockdown for nearly three weeks. That was due to end on Friday but will continue for at least another two weeks until July 30.
Testing clinics in south west Sydney have been packed this week after essential workers from the Fairfield local government area were ordered to get tested every three days if they work outside the area.
With spread through 'fleeting contact' a feature of the Indian Delta strain, the lavish Percy Beames Bar at the MCG could be the site of super-spreader event with hundreds potentially exposed
From Friday, around 12,000 teachers, school staff and aged care workers will be prioritised by NSW Health for vaccination at a new hub at the Prairiewood Youth and Community Centre. The venue was changed from the Fairfield showground, which is being used as a Covidtesting site.
Meanwhile, fears are growing 6.7 million Victorians could be forced to endure strict coronavirus restrictions long beyond the planned five-day lockdown, as a Covid outbreak which began in Sydney wreaks havoc across Melbourne.
The city recorded six more cases on Friday morning, taking the outbreak total to 24.
Up to four footy fans have already been found to have caught the virus at the MCG on Saturday from a man who lives in an infected north-west Melbourne apartment block, with one of the stadium's busy bars now feared to be a super-spreader site.
Sources close to the Andrews government said that officials were aiming to tighten restrictions, not go back into lockdown, until they found out people had caught the virus from strangers at the stadium.
The stay-at-home order came into effect on Thursday, July 15 at 11.59pm as public health officials try desperately to keep a lid on the latest outbreak, which has since jumped to 18 cases.
But even if the outbreak is contained and the lockdown ends as planned on Tuesday, millions of Victorians face strict restrictions that could last weeks.
The lockdown rules around hospitality, masks and the number of visitors in homes are likely to be slowly wound back over time rather than removed immediately.
Pictured: Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews announcing new lockdown
In a welcome reprieve, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a newly-introduced $600 relief payment from the Federal Government for hard-hit Victorians.
The highly infectious Indian Delta strain is feared to already be spreading throughout Melbourne after the Percy Beames bar at the MCG was flagged as a Covid exposure site, sending hundreds from all over Victoria into self-isolation.
Already, 6,500 Victorians are in lockdown, including a complete 14-day isolation for residents of the Ariele Apartments in Melbourne's north-west, where infected Sydney removalists first spread the virus.
Exposure sites have since popped up in Frankston, in Melbourne's southeast and Hastings on the Mornington Peninsula, indicating the five-day circuit breaker may not be enough to contain the rapid spread and that the stay-at-home orders will inevitably be extended past Tuesday.
Mr Andrews made the call to shut down the state after Sydney's surging outbreak spread to Melbourne last week, when the team of infected removalists travelled to Victoria under essential work permits.
Prime Minister Morrison has since declared $600 disaster relief payments would be made available to workers who have been hit hard by the lockdown.
But while some residents see the draconian restrictions as a necessary measure to contain the virus, hundreds of anti-lockdown protesters took to the streets in protest demanding Mr Andrews' resignation.
Health workers are seen at a Melbourne Covid Testing Site at Albert Park in Melbourne on Thursday , with a spiralling list of close and casual contacts
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT VICTORIA'S NEW LOCKDOWN
- The lockdown is scheduled to run from Thursday July 15 at 11:59pm until Tuesday July 20 at 11:59pm.
- There will be only five lawful reasons to leave home
1. Essential shopping
2. Two hours of daily exercise within a 5km radius
3. To seek or provide medical care
4. Work or study that cannot be done from home.
5. To go and get vaccinated.
- Face masks will be mandatory indoors and outdoors
- Schools will return to online learning
- 5km travel limit for essential tasks, including shopping and exercise
- If your business was closed during the last lockdown, they must close this lockdown
- Hospitality open for takeaway only
- General retail is closed, as well as all non-essential businesses
- Visitors to the home are banned
- Funerals capped at ten people, while weddings are banned
- Professional sport can proceed but with no crowds
- Outdoor parks and play areas are open, but those indoors must close
The Sydney removalists had the appropriate permits to enter the state despite the Harbour City's spiraling number of Covid cases, which has now surpassed 900.
The three-man team arrived at a home in Craigieburn on the northern outskirts on of Melbourne July 8, where they dropped off furniture.
A Craigieburn family of four who had recently returned from NSW have since tested positive, before breaking their red permit rules and infected a stranger at a nearby Coles.
Later that same day the removalists travelled to Maribyrnong in Melbourne's west, to the Ariele Apartment complex.
The Ariele Apartments in Maribyrnong, Melbourne, has been placed into quarantine along with its 200 residents
BREAKDOWN OF VICTORIA'S GROWING COVID-19 CLUSTERS
REMOVALIST CLUSTER
* 13 cases
* Five cases linked to residents of the Ariele Apartments in Maribyrnong where NSW removalists worked on July 8
* A resident in his 60s passed on the virus to his parents, aged 89 and 90, who live in Craigieburn
* He also attended an AFL game between Carlton and Geelong at the MCG on Saturday with a friend, a Bacchus Marsh Grammar teacher
* The friend, a Barwon Heads man in his 50s has since tested positive as have two members of his household, another man in his 60s and a nine-year-old child
* An adult and a child who were sitting in the same section of the MCG as the two men have also tested positive in a case of suspected 'stranger-to-stranger transmission'
* Another case was on Thursday afternoon detected in a man in his 20s who was in the MCC Members' Reserve area at the MCG at the same time as the two men
HUME FAMILY CLUSTER
* Five cases
* A family of four returned from NSW, three by car and one by plane on July 4 and July 8. All four have progressively tested positive since Sunday
* A man in his 30s who attended Coles Craigieburn at the same time as one of the family members and knows the family is also infected.
CLOSE CONTACTS AND EXPOSURE SITES
* 1500 primary close contacts, 5000 secondary
* More than 75 exposure sites including two gyms, a football club and multiple metro trains and trams