Breaking: Masks will be mandatory indoors in NSW and density limits will return from midnight tonight, Premier Dominic Perrottet has announced. Follow our live news coverage:
“Pulling together multiple pieces of evidence from overseas countries such as South Africa and the UK, and using some of our own emerging data, it indicates that infection with Omicron is likely to be milder than infection with [the] Delta [variant], with the risk of hospitalisation being around 60 per cent to 80 per cent less than for Delta.
The language of “personal responsibility” has largely evaporated from today’s press conference in NSW, after days of Premier Dominic Perrottet insisting that the government did not need to mandate the wearing of masks indoors. “No-one in the world knows yet exactly what the implications of Omicron will be. So the precautionary steps the government has announced today, some are commencing, particularly the mask-wearing tonight, just after midnight, and others commencing on the day after Boxing Day.”
“We had 15,000 bookings two weeks ago. Last week we had 61,000. So the NSW Health team have really stepped up because the community have come in and are actually getting the testing. But there are spaces and we need you to get out there and do that.”NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has announced masks will be mandatory across the state in indoor settings from midnight tonight, and workers are encouraged to work from home.
Mr Perrottet said that “we do want to limit mobility, just as we get through this period of time and particularly in relation to ensuring that our health workers are able to be on the job and provide that care and support for those who are unwell”. Health Services Union NSW secretary Gerard Hayes said paramedics are expecting a “summer they have never seen before” as the volume of triple zero calls escalates with increasing COVID-19 cases and other traumas and injuries over the holiday period.
The COVID-19 testing clinic in Stanmore in Sydney’s inner west was at capacity this morning, with police having to clear traffic and wait times for walk-ins up to 3 to 4 hours.Long lockdowns in NSW and Victoria separated thousands of families this year, causing people to miss weddings, funerals and birthday celebrations.
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