评论
打印
Health authorities are in a race against time to track down hundreds of people across Sydney who may have come into contact with positive cases as Christmas gatherings hang in the balance. Overnight, New South Wales Health has added 13 more locations to the list of places in Sydney where COVID-19 could have been spread, including busy pubs and a large gym. 83 cases have now been linked to the cluster which first emerged at Avalon.
Other states are now enforcing tough rules on arrivals from New South Wales. Hard border closures have been re-introduced in Queensland overnight with anyone entering the state from the greater Sydney hotspot now sent into quarantine. And Victorians who fail to return home from Sydney or the New South Wales central coast will now also have to quarantine if they try to come back across the border.
Victoria's premier Daniel Andrews says a lack of oversight rather than the use of private security was the key failing of the state's botched hotel quarantine scheme. The final report from the inquiry into the bungled program found no-one had taken ownership of the decision to engage private guards.
And European Union officials are meeting in Brussels to decide on a coordinated response to prevent the spread of a more contagious strain of coronavirus from Britain. More than 40 countries have banned UK arrivals, while trucks have banked up at ports after France imposed a 48-hour ban on entry. Supermarket shelves in Britain have been stripped bare.
