Heat around the corner: $1000 fines for attending parties in summer crackdown
NSW Police is putting the heat on summer party-goers, cracking down on large gatherings and issuing $1000s fines for anybody that attends a private residence with more than 20 people.
This comes as Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the "positive news" that NSW recorded only one local case of COVID-19, but warned the community not to become complacent.
NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Tony Crandell, who heads the police coronavirus operation, said the Public Health Order was being amended as the state heads into the party season.
"With the warmer weather coming, and more social activities, we expect large gatherings of people, particularly in private residences for parties,” he said.
"Police are taking this very seriously: we don't want an increase of people coming together to equal an increase of coronavirus cases, we don't want complacency to creep in.”
The changes mean if you go to a gathering at a private residence and you know there are more than 20 people there, you are liable for a $1000 fine, Mr Crandell said.
Changes have been made to the Public Health Order as the weather begins to warm up.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
"The liability shifts from just the person who arranges the gathering to everybody that attends that gathering,” he said.
The changes to the Public Health Order, which come into effect from midnight on Monday, also includes changes to party bus operations.
Mr Crandell said people on a party bus, whether they were having a party or just being transported to different venues, must be socially distanced. If not, the driver or operator of the bus now face a fine of $1000.
State registers one locally acquired case
Four new cases were recorded in NSW on Monday. Three were in returned overseas travellers and one was a locally acquired case linked to the Eastern Suburbs Legion Club in Waverley.
Almost 2.5 million tests have been conducted in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic, but testing numbers have dropped over the past two weeks, NSW Health spokeswoman Christine Selvey said. Just over 9300 tests were reported in that period, down from more than 14,400 on the previous day.
"While there has only been one new locally acquired case recorded in the past 24 hours, the virus is likely circulating among people in the community with mild symptoms," Dr Selvey said.
"This means there is still a risk of outbreaks and a resurgence of cases."
Dr Selvey urged anyone with symptoms, particularly those living in the south-western, western and south-eastern Sydney areas to come forward for testing.
"This is even more important with the upcoming school holidays, when people will travel across the state," she said.
On Monday evening, Newmarch House, the scene of one of the state's deadliest coronavirus outbreaks, was investigating a possible new COVID-19 case.
"With the support of NSW Health, we are currently determining if there is a positive case of COVID-19 at Newmarch House," an Anglicare spokesperson said. "Already as a precaution, we have implemented our protocols and infection control procedures."
The aged care facility in western Sydney was an early epicentre for the virus in NSW, where 71 residents and staff became infected, and 17 residents died.
In Melbourne, playgrounds have reopened and single people are now allowed to have a single visitor in their social bubble in the first easing of stage four restrictions today, as Victoria recorded 35 new cases and a further seven deaths.
Queensland recorded no new cases, but the state's Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young said Queensland would need to hit a 14-day streak of no cases of community transmission before restrictions in the south-east would be eased again.
With NSW welcoming around 2500 returned travellers to hotel quarantine every week, Ms Berejiklian said she would "love to see the other states take their fair share."
"We're doing so much more than all the other states combined ... so I'd just say to other states, please ease the burden of Australians coming back, please accept to raise your limits."
She added that she did not want to take resources away from police or contact tracers to increase hotel quarantine program.