Two employees infected with the coronavirus served thousands of customers at a BWS in Berala, which has prompted fears that the cluster is set to explode.
Anyone who visited the bottle shop over the festive period is being considered a close contact and must get tested for coronavirus and isolate for 14 days.
Acting Premier John Barilaro said that Sydney wouldn’t hesitate to enforce a “Northern Beaches-style lockdown.”
“Yeah, absolutely,” he replied to Sunrise.
“We never take anything off the table.”
He’s also urged other states to step up when it comes to quarantine.
“We, as a state, have had 105,000 passengers through Sydney, [we are] doing the heavy lifting,” he said.
“[And] 45 to 50 per cent of those citizens returning to Australia belong to other states.
“It’s like we’re the dry cleaner or car wash – we clean them up and send them off clean to other states.
“What we do need is other states to start lifting their game and taking more people directly into their states rather than NSW being the laundromat,” Barilaro said.
This comes after a south-western Sydney venue operator was fined for a major breach of public health orders as the venue allowed up to 700 guests to attend a wedding.
Between 600 to 700 people attended the wedding in Fairfield, double the amount of patrons allowed at the venue under the NSW coronavirus restrictions.
The operator will be fined $5,000 for the “high level” breach, according to a livid NSW Police Minister David Elliott.
“The police will ensure he gets the $5000 (fine),” Mr Elliott told Today.
“He can challenge that and risk himself six months in jail.”
“It is baffling that somebody would breach it (the public health order) so badly,” Mr Elliott said.
“This isn’t one or two people coming from an area in lockdown or, you know, this isn’t a dozen people that turned up unannounced, this is twice the amount of people that were allowed to attend that wedding reception in an area not far from Berala.”
“It is not about the fines or the punishment, this is about compliance, and people need to realise the police are enforcing a law to keep them healthy,” Mr Elliott said.
“We don’t want to go back into lockdown. That’s why we have introduced these Public Health Orders and I’m very disappointed that the Fairfield police area command has had to go through that over the last 48 hours.
“It is time that western Sydney needs to be well and truly on its game when it comes to complying with Public Health Orders. This just does not make sense.”
He said there was now “potentially 700 people that have to monitor their own health and probably go get a COVID-19 test”.
Photo credits: Today
