Page 279 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 9 February 2021
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emerged in December in the northern beaches area of Sydney. Genomic testing showed that the strain was an international variant of the virus currently circulating in the United States. I understand that NSW Health is still investigating how and when this international strain entered the country and how it spread to the community.
At a similar time, a van driver transporting international air crew was infected with a different variant of the US strain of the virus. It appears that there was no link to what became known as the northern beaches cluster; however, these two instances revealed a very urgent threat requiring action and response. Community transmission occurred at locations in and around Avalon, in the northern beaches area, resulting in at least 28 linked cases by 18 December 2020 and more that later emerged.
At this time, the ACT government responded by issuing advice to ACT residents not to travel to the northern beaches area of Sydney. Given the increase in cases and the ongoing evidence of community transmission, the ACT put in place a public health direction declaring the northern beaches local government area a COVID-19 affected area. This required anyone who had been in the northern beaches area on or after 11 December 2020 to self-quarantine for 14 days from the date they were last there.
This direction initially included the requirement for those entering the ACT who had been in the COVID-affected area associated with the northern beaches cluster to make a declaration and enter 14 days of quarantine. This measure complemented the requirement by New South Wales for people in the northern beaches region to remain at home. As the situation evolved in the days following, changes were made to our public health directions reflecting the broadening list of New South Wales COVID-19-affected areas in the Greater Sydney, Nepean-Blue Mountains and Wollongong regions.
Madam Speaker, the ACT’s response to the Sydney situation saw the strongest travel restrictions between the ACT and New South Wales that have been implemented to date, effectively introducing travel restrictions with COVID-19-affected areas of New South Wales. ACT Policing actively enforced these measures by taking a multi-pronged approach, including at-home quarantine checks, vehicle checks at the ACT-New South Wales border, and pop-up RBT-style stations at locations across the ACT. From Monday, 11 January 2021, ACT Policing’s COVID-19 Taskforce was bolstered with support from the ACT Emergency Services Agency, ACTESA, volunteers to speak with people undertaking home and hotel quarantine.
I am pleased to report that the rate of compliance across the ACT has been extremely high throughout the pandemic, and the Canberra community has been very receptive to COVID-19 restrictions. The decision to implement strict travel restrictions with New South Wales was not taken lightly, and I acknowledge that this interrupted holiday and travel plans for many Canberrans at a time of year when many of us look forward to visiting loved ones. The Chief Health Officer deemed this a necessary measure to protect our community until case numbers were brought under control in the affected areas. All other jurisdictions put in place border restrictions with New South Wales to reduce the risk of cases spreading beyond New South Wales. Indeed, both Victoria and Queensland experienced confirmed cases linked to this cluster,
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