NSW public health alert – urgent call for testing

​Due to increasing COVID-19 case numbers associated with the Avalon cluster and concerns over wider transmission, NSW Health is issuing an urgent call to all residents of NSW – not only those in the Northern Beaches – to monitor for COVID-19 symptoms.

Anyone in the state with even the mildest symptoms such as headache, fatigue, cough, sore throat or runny nose, is asked to come forward immediately for testing, then isolate until a negative result is received.

The source of these infections remains under investigation, though genome sequencing points to the strain being of US origin.

Residents of the Northern Beaches have been asked to stay home as much as possible over the next three days to assist with contact tracing and reducing transmission.

Anyone in the Northern Beaches LGA has also been asked today to wear a mask when indoors for at least the next 72 hours, excepting your own home.

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have visited a number of locations around Sydney.

/Public Release. View in full here.