Covid: Sydney residents urged to stay home amid new outbreak
Hundreds of thousands of residents in Sydney have been told to stay home after a new outbreak of coronavirus ended a two-week run of no local cases.
Officials are scrambling to trace the source of the infection, which has so far been found in 17 cases across the city's Northern Beaches region.
The New South Wales (NSW) state government warned locals on Friday to "brace" for considerably more cases.
Local residents now face curbs on travel to Australia's other states.
The new cluster has sparked national concern and cast uncertainty over many Australians' plans for a relatively normal Christmas.
Prior to Wednesday, the country had recorded just one locally acquired case in the past fortnight.
In recent months, authorities have lifted most restrictions on daily life and reopened internal borders as Australia beat its second wave - which was centred in Melbourne.
Earlier this week, NSW ended a work-from-home public health order due to the low number of cases.
However on Friday, in response to the Sydney outbreak, several states began reinstating bans or quarantine restrictions on travellers from the hotspot beach region.
Western Australia also announced an even broader two-week quarantine order for all those arriving from NSW.
About 250,000 people live in the Northern Beaches district and have been told to stay at home until Monday and to get tested if they have symptoms.
Other city residents have been told to avoid the area, and to use a mask when on public transport and in public spaces like supermarkets.
Tests have shown that the outbreak in the Northern Beaches is an international strain of Covid-19, state officials said.
But authorities still do not know how it got into the community.
Authorities said one couple had failed to isolate at home while awaiting Covid test results and had spread the virus.
However it's unclear how the couple - who hadn't travelled overseas - became infected.
Overall Australia has recorded 908 deaths and just over 28,000 infections since the pandemic began - far fewer than many nations.
It has been praised for responding quickly to the pandemic with border shutdowns, lockdown measures and aggressive contract-tracing efforts. Some failures, however, have been blamed for deaths.