News

Killer still about

FEARS that coronavirus is still circulating undetected. combined with one of the lowest testing rates in Greater Sydney. has left interstate travel to Victoria off the cards for locals.

With 26,619 tests carried out over the past four weeks, the test rate for the Canterbury Bankstown LGA was just 70 per 1,000 and NSW deputy chief health officer Dr Jeremy McAnulty warned that the State’s ongoing low daily test numbers remained “of concern”.

Keep test rate high vital

STRICT interstate border controls may have relaxed but residents from Canterbury Bankstown and nine other NSW local government areas classified as ‘red zones’, remain locked out of Victoria.
Seven new cases identified over the weekend were linked to the ‘Berala Cluster’ and although NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases overnight on Monday and Tuesday, falling testing rates continue to worry health authorities.
While 17 Covid-19 cases were identified in Canterbury Bankstown in the past four weeks, testing rates in the South Western Sydney Local Health District (SWLHD) were just 49 per 1,000, the lowest in Greater Sydney.
Warning that the virus may still be in the community, NSW deputy chief health officer Dr Jeremy McAnulty said yesterday that the ongoing low daily test numbers remained “of concern”.
“High testing rates are the key our efforts to identify Covid-19 cases and to prevent the virus from spreading,” he said.
“This is particularly important in western and south-western Sydney.”
“Communities in these areas are asked to be on high alert for symptoms and get tested straight away if they appear, and make sure to isolate until you have a negative result.”
On Sunday, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said easing restrictions in Greater Sydney, including the limit of five visitors in homes and mandatory masks at indoor venues such supermarkets and on public transport, would depend on maintaining high test rates.
“Our ability to ease restrictions does rely on the science and the health advice and we need to make sure we do it at the right time,” she said.
Urging people not to be complacent, NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant also reminded everyone to continue Covid-safe practices such as maintaining social distancing, limits on household visitors, wearing face masks, and practising good hand hygiene, and said it was critical to help “mop up any transmission chains”.