As it happened: NSW toughens lockdown restrictions after 111 new cases; Victoria records 19 new cases

Supermarkets, cafes, Kmart stores and a medical centre are among a list of new COVID alerts for venues and transport routes released by NSW Health late on Saturday evening.

Anyone who attended the following locations is a close contact and must get tested and isolate for 14 days since their last day at the site, regardless of the result:

• Belmore
  • Raw Coffee Bar, 426 Belmore Rd from Wednesday 7th July to Friday to 16th July between 5am - 3pm
  • Belmore Medical Centre, 479 Belmore Rd on Thursday 8 July between 2.50pm – 3.10pm

Anyone who attended the following venues at the times listed is a casual contact who must immediately get tested and isolate until a negative result is received:

• Fairfield
  • Fruitmania at Fairfield Forum, 8-36 Station St on Friday 9 July between 12.20pm – 12.35pm
  • Coles, Fairfield Forum, 8/36 Station St on Sunday 11 July between 6.55pm – 7.25pm
  • Aldi Fairfield Forum, 8/36 Station St, on Saturday 10 July between 2.15pm – 3.15pm
• Dulwich Hill
  • IGA, 398-400 New Canterbury Road, on Friday 9 July between 8.55am – 9.05am, and on Wednesday 14 July between 5.10pm – 5.25pm
• Cabramatta
  • Speedway Petrol Station, 267 John Street, on Saturday 10 July between 4.30pm - 4.35pm
• Roselands
  • Kmart, Roselands Shopping Centre, 24 Roselands Drive on Sunday 11 July between 5.30pm to 5.45pm
• Wetherill Park
  • Chemistworks, Stockland Wetherill Park Shopping Centre, 561 Polding Street on Wednesday 14 July between 8pm – 8.15pm
  • Greenway Supacenta, The Horsley Drive, Monday 12 July between 5.25pm – 5.40pm
  • Officeworks, Greenway Supacenta, The Horsley Drive on Monday 12 July between 5.35pm – 5.40pm
• Hoxton Park
  • Aldi, 510 Cowpasture Rd on Friday 9 July between 12.20pm – 12.45pm
• Glebe
  • Kmart Broadway, 1 Bay Street, on Thursday 8 July between 3.40pm – 4.25pm, and Thursday 8 July between 6.45pm – 7pm
• Belmore
  • Metro Petroleum, 442A Punchbowl Road on Sunday 11 July between10am – 11am
• Canley Heights
  • Tobacconist & Gifts, Shop 1A, 238 Canley Heights Rd on Sunday 11 July between 9am – 9.15am
• Kingsford
  • IGA, 361 Anzac Parade, on Thursday 15 July between 11am – 11.30am
• Prairiewood
  • 7-Eleven, 485-487 Smithfield Road on Monday 12 July between 8.50am – 9.25am
• Wakeley
  • IGA, Cnr Lomond Street and Bulls Road on Tuesday 13 July between 6pm – 7.15pm
• Greenfield Park
  • BP, Lot 1, Cnr Greenfield Park Road and Mimosa Rd on Tuesday 13 July between 5.10pm – 5.40pm
• Faulconbridge
  • Coles Express, 575-581 Great Western Highway, on Wednesday 14 July between 12.55pm – 1.05pm
• Rooty Hill
  • Rooty Hill Supermarket Butchery, 29 Rooty Hill Road, on Wednesday 14 July between 1pm – 1.15pm
  • PharmaSave, Shop 1/3, 52 Rooty Hill Rd, on Wednesday 14 July between 1.20pm – 1.25pm
• Glenfield
  • Glenfield Station Fastfood & Delicatessen, 72 Railway Parade, Wednesday 14 July, 8.10am – 8.25am
• Clemton Park
  • Priceline Pharmacy, 13/60 Charlotte St, on Monday 12 July between 11.45am – 12.10pm
• Merrylands
  • Woolworths Stocklands, McFarlane Street, on Monday 12 July between 7pm – 7.15pm, and on Wednesday 14 July between 12pm – 12.15pm
• Ashbury
  • 3 Tomatoes Café, 121 Holden Street on Monday 12 July between 6.50am – 7.05am and 7.15am – 7.30am, and on Wednesday 14 July between 7.20am – 7.35am
• Colyton
  • Shell Urbanista Café and Convenience, 88-90 Great Western Highway, on Tuesday 13 July between 6am – 6.20am
• Marsden Park
  • IKEA, 1 Hollinsworth Road, on Monday 12 July between 8am – 4p
• Kareela
  • Kareela Grocer, Shop T8 Kareela Village, Freya St on Thursday 15 July between 2.45pm – 6.45pm
• Green Valley
  • Woolworths, 187 Wilson Road, on Thursday 15 July between 2.45pm - 1pm

Thank you for joining us on another night of our free coronavirus blog. David Estcourt here closing it for another night and recapping the day’s top stories from our reporters throughout Australia.

Leading today was news that south west Sydney residents will be subject to stricter restrictions on their movement after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced 111 new cases to 8pm last night. One man died with COVID-19 on Friday night.

In Victoria, authorities discovered that eighteen of the state’s latest COVID-19 cases were infectious in the community for an average of 1.7 days, vindicating the government’s “go hard, go early” lockdown strategy. Remaining cautious, health authorities refused to rule out an extension of the five-day snap lockdown.

This is what else was making news on Saturday July 17:

• Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Brisbane’s lord mayor Adrian Schrinner will fly to Tokyo on Sunday under a veil of secrecy in preparation for their pitch to Olympic officials later this week to bring the 2032 Games to the state’s south-east.
• Conservative British media personality Katie Hopkins has admitted she has been deliberately flouting infection control in hotel quarantine in Sydney, after flying into the country this week.
• In Tokyo, Olympics organisers said on Saturday a person has tested positive for COVID-19 at the athletes’ village, the first case at a site where most competitors will be staying, raising new doubts over promises of a “safe and secure” Games.
• With cases swelling in 49 states and hospitalisations on the rise, the US is seeing a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” in parts of the country where inoculation rates are low, the head of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said.
• Close to one in four state MPs who responded to a Herald survey are currently unvaccinated against COVID-19, with NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham saying he’s holding out on vaccination until he can get a Pfizer jab, despite being eligible for AstraZeneca.
• South-west Sydney residents reacted with a mix of anger and resignation to the tightening of pandemic restrictions on Saturday, as the NSW government was accused of making the region a “giant quarantine camp”.

South-west Sydney residents reacted with a mix of anger and resignation to the tightening of pandemic restrictions on Saturday, as the NSW government was accused of making the region a “giant quarantine camp”.

On Saturday afternoon about 100 people converged on a park in Bankstown to protest the tougher restrictions. Police confirmed several people were arrested at Paul Keating Park and the crowd had been dispersed. No charges had yet been laid.

Many shops in Fairfield were shut ahead of the deadline for non-essential retail to close from midnight on Saturday, and there were few people on the normally bustling streets.

The COVID-19 outbreak has already reduced business at Fairfield Plaza Fruit World by 50 per cent, owner Rafid Elias said, although he was selling more barbecues.

Authorities are scrambling to contact soccer fans who attended a Euro finals event at a CBD pub on Monday.

Soccer fans piled into The Crafty Squire on Russell Street in Melbourne’s CBD to watch England play Italy in the 2020 Euro finals, which were played this week after being postponed last year.

On Saturday night the Western Public Health Unit had begun contacting people they suspected were at the event and warning them to immediately quarantine, get tested and isolate.

The message also encouraged people to contact anyone they knew were there to also undertake isolation.

Dozens of truck drivers gathered their vehicles on Sydney’s Anzac Bridge, choked surrounding arterial roads and honked their horns on Saturday afternoon in an apparent protest of the state government’s decision to shut down the construction industry for two weeks as part of a COVID-19 lockdown.

It was not immediately clear how the protest was organised, with the Transport Workers Union and CFMMEU distancing themselves from the action when contacted.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced all construction in Greater Sydney would be paused until July 30 as part of an increasingly strict COVID-19 lockdown aimed at stopping the spread of the Delta variant.

Baz Stowers, one of the organisers of the protest and an administrator for the Official Sydney Tippers page, said people were gutted by the sudden shutdown of the entire construction industry.