As Sydney battles a Covid-19 outbreak on the northern beaches, the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has announced “modest changes” for residents during the Christmas period.
If you live in Sydney, here are the rules for household gatherings for the next few days.
What are the rules in greater Sydney?
Under the current restrictions introduced on 20 December, Sydneysiders who live outside the northern beaches may have 10 visitors to their homes. On 24, 25 and 26 December, this will be relaxed slightly. You can have up to 10 adult visitors to your home as well as children under the age of 12, who will not be counted towards this total. This is 10 visitors, plus children under 12, not including the people who already live in the household.
Importantly, you are not allowed to split up your 10 guests across multiple visits across the one day.
From 27 December, the rules will revert back to a hard limit of 10 visitors.
Aside from these changes to household gatherings, the existing rules imposed on 20 December will remain in place. The rules apply to people in the greater Sydney region, the Central Coast and the Nepean Blue Mountains. Separate rules apply in the northern beaches.
What about the northern beaches?
The northern beaches area is now under stay-at-home orders imposed between 17 December and 11.59pm on Wednesday.
On 24, 25 and 26 December, those rules will be eased and a new boundary dividing the northern beaches will be created. The north-south boundary is at Narrabeen Bridge and another east-west boundary exists at the Baha’i Temple on Mona Vale Road.
For those who live north of the bridge and east of the Baha’i Temple, you will be allowed five guests to your house between 24 and 26 December, but only if they live in this same region. As before, people will not be able to enter or leave this zone unless it is for the four approved reasons. From 27 December, household gatherings will be prohibited again.
For northern beaches residents south of Narrabeen Bridge, the rules will be different. Between 24 and 26 December, you will be allowed 10 guests to your home, plus children under 12. Your guests may come from outside this zone but not from north of the bridge. While you can have household guests from the rest of Sydney, you will not be allowed to leave your area unless it is for the four approved reasons.
The government will reassess the rules for residents south of Narrabeen Bridge after Boxing Day.
I’m in regional NSW. What does this mean for me?
There are no changes to the rules in place in regional NSW.
More information about the Covid-19 restrictions in the state is available at the NSW Health website.
You can find the latest information on NSW hotspots here. And the border restrictions in place for NSW residents here.
