Worrying alert for a major Sydney hospital as a PREGNANT woman having a C-section tests positive to Covid - after spending all day at the busy complex
A pregnant woman has tested positive to Covid after undergoing a caesarian section at one of Sydney's busiest hospitals.
The woman was at the Liverpool Hospital for the procedure on Tuesday and spent almost the entire day there - possibly visiting a number of hospital areas.
All non-urgent surgery has been delayed and deep cleaning of the operating theatres is underway.
Contact tracers have also interviewed the woman - with some close contacts already tested and instructed to isolate and for 14 days.
Emergency surgery is continuing as normal.
The woman's positive test is to be included in Thursday's Covid case numbers.
A woman who was at Liverpool Hospital for a C-section birth has tested positive to Covid (file image)
NSW recorded 97 new local COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday, with at least 31 of them circulating in the community during part of all of their infectious period.
The lockdown fo Greater Sydney and surrounding areas was scheduled to end on Friday but will now remain in place until at least July 30.
It means more than five million people will endure at least five weeks of lockdown. Restriction settings across regional NSW remain unchanged.
The state's schools will also continue with online learning.
The NSW premier says newly announced government support should cushion the financial blow - with the state and federal governments on Tuesday announcing an extensive financial support package.
Two pedestrians walk along the Bondi Beach boardwalk on Wednesday. Lockdown restrictions are in place across Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast and Wollongong
The state government expanded a business grants program and will cut or defer payroll taxes for most companies, while workers who have lost eight or more hours a week due to lockdowns will be able to apply for up to $600 per week in federal support.
The increase in workers' payments kicks in once a lockdown exceeds 21 days.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Wednesday that an extension to lockdown provisions was inevitable given the extent of COVID-19 spread in the community.
But the new financial support measures would help people avoid unnecessarily leaving home.
'We want to see this lockdown end in a timely way but no matter how long we need, we will have that support for businesses and individuals,' Ms Berejiklian told reporters.
An entire apartment block in Rosebery has been placed on alert after a casual contact stayed at the complex from last Thursday to Monday
A pedestrian walks through Kings Cross in Sydney's inner-city on July 13
A new list of 28 Covid exposure sites across Sydney has been revealed, as health officials admit a Woolworths all the way in Dubbo was listed by mistake.
Among the concerning new venues are seven Woolworths stores across the city, a Coles, post shop, and two medical centres that were all visited by an infected person.
Four of the sites are Tier one, meaning anyone who visited at the times of concerns are considered close contacts and must get tested immediately and isolate for 14 days - regardless of the result.
They include Fairfield's Sunshine One on Friday July 9 from 10.40am to 11.40am, Cabramatta Medical and Dental Clinic on Tuesday July 13 from 10.30am to 11.30am and nearby True Scan Radiology later on the same day from 11am to 1pm.
Meanwhile, Redfern's Strawberry Hills Post Shop, in the city's inner-west, was impacted on Thursday July 8 from 1pm to 2.30pm.
The 24 casual contact sites include Bonnyrigg Bunnings, and supermarkets in Fairfield Heights, Waterloo, Merrylands, Fairfield, Riverwood, and Wetherill Park
An entire apartment block in Rosebery, just south of the CBD, has also been placed on alert after a casual contact stayed at the property for five days from last Thursday to Monday.
Hundreds of residents and those who visited Valentine Place residential apartment complex have been advised tp get tested and isolate until a negative result is received.
Anyone who visited BWS Bondi Junction on Saturday July 10 from 3.45pm to 3.50pm has been urged to monitor for symptoms
NSW Health also issued an alert for a supermarket in Dubbo, in the state's central north, in Wednesday's exposure sites list.
But the department quickly retracted the warning, saying the actual Woolworths of concern was located in Sydney's southwest and that there are no known cases out in Dubbo.
'There is no venue of concern in Dubbo,' NSW Health wrote on Twitter.
' correct venue is in Riverwood.'
Most of the 28 venues of concern are located in Sydney's southwest, where the outbreak is currently concentrated after spreading from its epicentre in the eastern suburbs.
Health workers are working around the clock to test thousands of residents at the Fairfield Showground drive-through clinic
Thousands of residents in the Covid hotspot of southwest Sydney have also been forced to queue for up to eight hours to be tested for Covid.
Residents in the Fairfield local government area who work outside the region must now get tested every three days under a new rule by the NSW government.
However the preparations for the testing onslaught appeared to be inadequate, with understaffing meaning there was a queue outside the 24-hour testing centre at Fairfield Showground which stretched back for kilometres from 6am on Wednesday.
Fairfield has a population of around 180,000 - with about 45,000 estimated to work outside the LGA.
Traffic queues along Smithfield Road stretched for kilometres on Wednesday morning