Infected worker at 'Australian Visa Now' in Sydney's Covid-riddled south-west tests positive to the virus after working for SIX days while infectious - as 26 new exposure sites are revealed
- A flood of exposure sites have been flagged by NSW health after spate of cases
- NSW recorded 112 Covid infections on Monday bringing total cases to 678
- A worker at a visa consultancy centre in Fairfield worked six days while infected
An employee at a visa consultancy centre in Sydney's Covid-ravaged southwest worked for six days while infected with Covid-19, potentially exposing hundreds of staff and customers to the Indian Delta strain.
Health experts fear language barriers in the culturally-diverse south-western suburbs are the reason important public health advice is not hitting home.
It comes as a swathe of new venues were added to Sydney's relentlessly growing Covid exposure list, including alerts for Coles, Woolworths and Bunnings.
New South Wales recorded an alarming 112 new cases of the virus on Monday, bringing the total number of infections since Sydney's latest outbreak began to 678.
An employee at a visa consultancy centre in Sydney's Covid-raved Fairfield (Australian Visa Now, pictured) worked for six days while infected with Covid-19, potentially exposing hundreds of staff and customers to the Delta strain
Health workers at a pop up Covid testing clinic at the Fairfield Showgrounds in Sydney are pictured on Monday, July 12, 2021
A group of young people donning face masks are pictured in Sydney's Liverpool
Of major concern to contact tracers is a worker at the visa consultancy centre who worked from Monday July 5 to Saturday July 10 while likely infectious.
The unwitting worker has sent hundreds of staff and customers into isolation and there are now heightened fears the employee could have spread the virus to a high number of people.
Anyone who has attended Fairfield Australian Visa Now on the above dates between 9:30am to 4:30 is considered a close contact and must immediately get tested and self isolate.
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Fairfield Heights Woolworths was also issued with a public health alert with several times listed.
Shoppers who visited the busy supermarket on Thursday July 8 from 5.40pm 5.50pm and later from 6pm to 7pm. And on Saturday July 10 between 12.40pm to 12.55pm, are considered close contacts and urged to immediately get tested and self isolate.
Two other venues in Fairfield Heights - the Boulevarde Pharmacy and the Babylon Bakery were also flagged by NSW Health.
The Australia Post Office at Bondi Junction's Eastgate Shopping Centre (pictured) was listed by NSW Health
Anyone who attended the Bondi Junction Post Office (pictured) on Friday July 9 between 3.50pm to 4pm considered a casual contact
But while health authorities are concerned about the rising case numbers in the western suburbs, transmission is also continuing in the eastern suburbs - the original epicentre of the outbreak.
The Australia Post Office at Bondi Junction's Eastgate Shopping Centre was listed by NSW Health with anyone who attended the venue on Friday July 9 between 3.50pm to 4pm considered a casual contact.
It's the same story for shoppers at Pyrmont Coles, with anyone who attended the inner city store on Monday July 5 from 1pm to 1.20pm also considered a close contact.
Earlier on Monday, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the 'vast majority' of cases were in the Fairfield local government area in Sydney's south-west and called for its residents to stay home as part of the city's three-week lockdown unless they absolutely have to go out.
She said health officials were also still seeing high levels of transmission in the Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool government areas.
Fairfield Heights Woolworths (pictured) was flagged by NSW Health as an exposure site
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian appears flustered at a Covid press conference in Sydney, Monday, July 12, 2021 announcing that the state recorded 112 new infections
Pyrmont Coles (pictured) was also issued with public health alert by NSW Health
'The risk is everywhere in those areas,' she said. 'We have to be upfront with where the virus is circulating at the moment.'
Monday's triple-figure rise in coronavirus cases is the largest daily increase since April 2020. The state's outbreak that began on June 16 has now reached 678 infections.
Of the new locally-acquired cases, NSW Health said 48 were still under investigation and 41 of them were household contacts of previously known infections.
In a lone bright spot though for Sydneysiders, there were only 34 cases out in the community while infectious compared to the 45 announced on Sunday.
However, Ms Berejiklian said there would have to be zero - or nearly zero - active community cases a day for her to consider easing the lockdown on July 16.
A woman wears a face mask as she walks through the central business district of Sydney, Friday, July 9, 2021
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Dr Chant said the virus was spreading the most rapidly in the south-west Sydney suburbs of Fairfield, Smithfield, Bossley Park, Fairfield Heights, Fairfield West, Wakeley, Bonnyrigg, Glenfield and West Hoxton. Pictured: A health worker is seen at a pop up Covid testing clinic at the Fairfield Showgrounds in Sydney, Monday, July 12, 2021
'That is the number that we need to see go down to as close to zero as possible, before we can get advice from Health to say the lockdown can end,' she said.
'It's critical, that's something all of us have a role to play in.'
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said there were now 18 patients suffering from Covid-19 in the state's intensive care units - of which 14 are under the age of 35.
'That is dispelling the notion that you are not going to get sick from Covid if you're young,' she said.
A shopper is pictured at a fruit and veg store in the Old Town Centre at Bankstown, Sydney on Monday
A police officer on a motorbike patrols Sydney's Bankstown area on Monday morning
A woman on a scooter wearing a face mask is pictured shopping in the Old Town Centre in Sydney's Bankstown
Dr Chant said the virus was spreading the most rapidly in the south-west Sydney suburbs of Fairfield, Smithfield, Bossley Park, Fairfield Heights, Fairfield West, Wakeley, Bonnyrigg, Glenfield and West Hoxton.
She said health officials were also finding an increasing number of cases in the 18 to 20-year-old age group in the south Sydney LGAs of Georges River, Bayside and Sutherland.
'The reason I am reading these locations out is we need to make sure that every member of that community understands that every time they go out of their house for an essential good, they need to assume that someone next to them has Covid,' she said.
