With the Sydney outbreak growing, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced her state would close its borders to all of Greater Sydney.
"From 1am Saturday, no one from Sydney will be allowed into Queensland," she announced, as the NSW morning media update was unfolding.
There were 19 new cases of COVID-19 found in NSW in 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday, with two of those identified in overseas travellers.
The rest, NSW Health's Dr Jeremy McAnulty said, were linked to exisiting venue clusters throughout Sydney.
Three were linked to Bankstown's funeral gathering cluster, 10 were linked to Thai Rock in Wetherill Park and two more were linked to Thai Rock in Potts Point.
Another staff member at the Apollo restaurant in Potts Point tested positive to the virus and one more case was linked to the Crossroads Hotel at Casula.
Dr McAnulty said there were more than 18,000 people tested in the 24 hour period.
With new case numbers staying relatively steady for a number of days, Dr McAnulty said people should be checking the NSW Health website on a regular basis as more venues were identified as hot spots.
"We are at a knife's edge, a very critical point in the cases," he said.
Also at the morning update, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the state remained on high alert, but said contact tracers had done "an unbelievable job" to identified venues and contacts so the state could "hold the line".
"We have the opportunity to get through the next few weeks and continue on our strong path," she said.
If this does not happen, she said further lockdown measures may be needed.
She also announced that gyms would now be required to have a COVID safety plan in place and hygiene marshall on shift at all times, even at 24-hour venues which sometimes operate without staff.
"I also want to stress the importance of social distancing," she said. "The 1.5 metres has to be part of our lives for the duration of this pandemic. And if you can't maintain social distancing, you should be wearing a mask."
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Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
