The subtle change NSW health officials made overnight that make it ILLEGAL for more than one person to visit another household
Health officials in New South Wales have made a subtle change to public health orders overnight to make it illegal for more than one person to visit another household.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Thursday urged Sydneysiders to limit trips for care or compassionate reasons to one person as the city's spiralling Covid-19 outbreak reached 395 cases overnight.
Greater Sydney is approaching a third week of lockdown which has been extended until at least July 16 as health authorities struggle to contain the virus.
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant and other officials spent Thursday night amending the public health order to make it illegal for more than one person to visit another household to give 'care or assistance', The Daily Telegraph reported.
Pictured: A pedestrian wearing a face mask in Chatswood, Sydney on Thursday. Health officials in New South Wales have made a subtle change to public health orders overnight to make it illegal for more than one person to visit another household
Ms Berejiklian announced the new guidelines during Wednesday's press conference, adding health officials were finding the greatest number of cases among household contacts.
'Please avoid visiting family and friends because you are not allowed to,' she said.
'When we talk about providing care or compassion, we are talking about one person visiting someone who might be isolated, dropping off essential services or goods.
'We are not talking about visiting extended family members, we’re not talking about visiting friends.
'The saddest message out of all of that is that people with the virus are passing it on to those they love the most.'
Healthcare workers transport a person into a patient transport vehicle at the Arcare Aged Care facility in Melbourne on June 2
Police will ramp up their patrols of Sydney's south-west from Friday, with 100 extra officers stationed in the suburbs (pictured, police patrolling Sydney on Thursday)
Health chiefs have meanwhile warned restrictions will continue if community transmission isn't quashed.
Police patrols will be ramped up in Sydney's south-west from Friday morning to 'ensure compliance' with lockdown restrictions, with shoppers warned they may be stopped and questioned over whether what they're buying is 'essential'.
The singling out of Liverpool, Fairfield and Canterbury-Bankstown residents and restricting of their movements has outraged community leaders, who have questioned why their wealthy eastern suburbs counterparts haven't endured the same police enforcements.
Police patrols will be ramped up in Sydney's Covid-hit south-west from Friday morning to 'ensure compliance' with lockdown restrictions
NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant is concerned about the surge in unlinked cases and described case numbers as 'stubborn', saying infections had already 'broken containment lines' in the south-west.
'We are finding more unlinked cases now, where as early on it was very linked,' she told the Daily Telegraph.
Dr Chant said the drive towards zero community transmission will continue as the vaccine rollout finally begins to ramp up, signalling an extension of lockdown, but that attitudes towards the spread could change when enough people were vaccinated.
'It is hard with (the current) level of vaccine coverage not to see a significant escalation in cases,' she said.
'I'm also very conscious that vaccine will be available in the near future in sufficient quantities to protect us and (we can then) have a different conversation about community transmission at that time.'