Police are poised to lay charges after a Sydney woman allegedly spread the coronavirus in Newcastle for two days after being fined for breaching health orders and told to return home.
Officers conducting Opal card checks at Cardiff train station on the morning of Thursday, July 29, warned a 21-year-old woman that she was in breach of public health orders and must return to Sydney.
"She advised police she had boarded the train at Strathfield and intended to get off at Epping, however, had fallen asleep," police said in a statement.
At 1.45am on Friday, July 30, police were called to Sandgate Road, Shortland, on an unrelated matter.
Officers approached a vehicle parked nearby and spoke with two women, aged 20 and 21, who provided digital driver's licences indicating they were from western Sydney.
Neither could provide police with a reasonable excuse for leaving the Greater Sydney area and both were issued $1000 fines for breaching the public health order and told to return to Sydney.
Police said the women had left the location, indicating they would comply with that direction, but investigations had revealed they had failed to leave Newcastle.
"Further inquiries have also revealed that both women attended several other locations whilst in the Newcastle City and Lake Macquarie police districts," police said.
The women are expected to face charges.
The Newcastle Herald understands one of the women is the person identified by Hunter New England Health on Wednesday as the Sydney resident who sparked the Hunter's COVID-19 outbreak.
HNEH said a "young adult" had caught a train to Newcastle on July 27, attended a party at Shortland on July 28 then gone to pubs, parties and shops until Sunday, August 1, before returning a positive test.
"This person ... attended multiple venues across the region, including licensed venues, shopping centres, a party in Shortland and the Blacksmiths beach gathering," HNEH said.
"The Shortland party and Blacksmiths beach gathering are confirmed transmission events."
In the news
- Charges laid over crash that claimed young Knight's life
- Business calls for Newcastle-specific guidance as lockdown extends
- 'I feel robbed': Pfizer fracas continues for Belmont vaccine hub
- 24 Hunter cases as Berejiklian extends region's lockdown
- How COVID cost the Knights a $2 million profit
- Sword of Damocles hangs over PEP-11 six months later
The Hunter was ordered into lockdown on Thursday, August 5, four days after health authorities found a "very high viral load" in sewage at the Shortland and Burwood wastewater plants and smaller traces at Belmont.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian has extended the region's week-long lockdown until next Thursday after the Hunter recorded another 24 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday, bringing the region's August total to 77.
The virus has spread to aged care homes, schools and construction sites and sparked exposure scares at dozens of businesses.
Tests on the Toronto and Raymond Terrace wastewater plants have also returned traces of the virus.
The Blacksmiths gathering on July 30 was identified as the source of the outbreak until the Shortland party and other exposure sites emerged from two days earlier.
"We plead with the community that if you are a confirmed case or contact to please provide us with all the information our contact tracers require to quickly inform our community that a venue may be an exposure site," HNEH public health controller Dr David Durrheim said on Wednesday.
NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant told an upper house inquiry on Tuesday that a "handful" of people were "absolutely doing the wrong thing" when they seeded "two COVID-19 clusters" in Newcastle.
The list of Newcastle exposure sites stretches back to the morning of Wednesday, July 28, at the university's International House, a residential complex for students, and includes Shortland Hotel, Shortland 7-Eleven, Big W at Jesmond and five shops at Charlestown Square.
HNEH added the Cambridge Hotel, Great Northern and Babylon bar to its list of exposure sites on Tuesday.
.jpg?w=600)
