23 June 2021: **THIS IS NOW OUTDATED HEALTH ADVICE**
Northern Beaches residents are exempt from new indoor mandatory mask wearing rules as new cases emerge elsewhere in Sydney, though everyone is encouraged to wear one and minimise contact with others as cases escalate.
The NSW eastern suburbs cluster has risen to nine cases. Premier Gladys Berejiklian said to minimise spread seven council areas, including the Sydney CBD, will need to wear masks when indoors.
Northern Beaches Council area was not on that list, but high testing rates and general precautions are encouraged.
Ms Berejiklian said she hoped the indoor mask wearing mandate would not need to be applied to everyone but that would depend on case numbers over the next few days.
June 19: NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has told a press conference there “is no positive case on the Northern Beaches.”
The statement followed several media reports and social media posts claiming there had been a confirmed case of Covid-19 on the Northern Beaches. Manly Observer briefly addressed the claim this morning in a social media post, saying we had been told by Health no confirmed case existed.
A couple of social media posts in local Facebook groups claimed to have seen an email about a confirmed case affecting a kindy in Bigola. Our investigations into the existence of that email yielded no evidence, but each person we spoke to who posted had heard from a third party. It may have been a suspected case that later proved to be a false positive.
While the Northern Beaches has no confirmed cases or contact venues currently, there are growing issues with cases spread via Bondi Westfield by the highly infectious Delta strain. The Health Minister called it a “near and present danger to anyone in our community.”
NSW recorded two locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, one of which was announced yesterday morning and is included in today’s numbers.
NSW Health has also been notified overnight of a new locally acquired case that will be included in tomorrow’s numbers. They are all in the CBD and Eastern Suburbs. You can view all the contact venues here.