New South Wales minister infected with Covid-19 as Sydney cluster grows

Michael Howie
·2 min read
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian prepares to address a press conference on Thursday (AP)
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian prepares to address a press conference on Thursday (AP)

A New South Wales government minister has been infected with Covid-19 and another is in isolation amid a growing cluster in Sydney.

Agriculture minister Adam Marshall was told on Thursday that he had tested positive after dining with three government colleagues at a Sydney restaurant on Monday, which an infected person had visited earlier.

All four had been attending Parliament as recently as Tuesday.

Health minister Brad Hazzard said he was self-isolating after being exposed to a potential case at Parliament House.

Mr Hazzard said that, while standing next to premier Gladys Berejiklian at daily pandemic media briefings, he thought she was “fairly safe”.

Pandemic restrictions tightened in Sydney on Thursday as a cluster of the delta variant, first identified in India, increased and states banned travel from either parts of Sydney or from anywhere in New South Wales.

A jogger runs under the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Thursday (Getty Images)
A jogger runs under the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Thursday (Getty Images)

The cluster, which had grown to 31 cases by yesterday, began last week when a Sydney airport limousine driver tested positive. He was not vaccinated and is suspected to have been infected while transporting a foreign air crew.

Police were considering charging the driver and his employer with a range of offences, a spokesman said.

Ms Berejiklian said: “Since the pandemic has started, this is perhaps the scariest period that New South Wales is going through.

“It is a very contagious variant but at the same time we are at this stage comfortable that the settings that are in place are the appropriate settings.”

Sydney residents queue outside a vaccination centre (AFP via Getty Images)
Sydney residents queue outside a vaccination centre (AFP via Getty Images)

Australian states have closed their borders to travellers either from parts of Sydney or from anywhere in New South Wales and New Zealand has stopped quarantine-free travel from New South Wales for at least three days.

Victoria state said it would continue to ease pandemic restrictions in its capital Melbourne following a fourth lockdown, despite a Melbourne resident testing positive after returning from Sydney on Sunday.

Australia has been relatively successful in containing coronavirus clusters, although the delta variant is proving more challenging.

The pandemic has claimed 910 deaths in Australia, which has a population of 26 million.

The only Covid-19 death since October was an 80-year-old man who became infected overseas and was diagnosed in hotel quarantine.

Read More

Gibraltar holds referendum on having exceptions to strict abortion ban

Britney Spears speaks out against ‘abusive’ conservatorship

Justin Timberlake and Mariah Carey rally for Britney after hearing

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest Stories

  • House on the brink of approving Ukraine and Israel aid after months of struggle

    The House is preparing in a rare Saturday session to approve $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies, Democrats and Republicans joining together behind the legislation after a grueling months-long fight over renewed American support for repelling Russia's invasion into Ukraine. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson — putting his job on the line — relied on Democratic support this week to set up a series of votes on three aid bills, as well as a fourth that contains several other foreign policy proposals.

  • Welcome to 'peak boomer' era: A wave of retirees is about to blow through their savings and cling to Social Security to stay afloat

    While more older boomers tend to have a pension, a looming wave of younger retirees are about to strain the economy and Social Security.

  • Senate passes reauthorization of key US surveillance program after midnight deadline

    WASHINGTON (AP) — After its midnight deadline, the Senate voted early Saturday to reauthorize a key U.S. surveillance law after divisions over whether the FBI should be restricted from using the program to search for Americans’ data nearly forced the statute to lapse. The legislation approved 60-34 with bipartisan support would extend for two years the program known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It now goes to President Joe Biden’s desk to become law. “In the nick

  • Heat beat Bulls 112-91 to secure the eighth seed for second straight year

    MIAMI (AP) — Tyler Herro scored 24 points and was an assist shy of a triple-double, rookie Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 21 points and the Miami Heat grabbed the last spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs, running away from the Chicago Bulls 112-91 in a play-in tournament elimination game Friday night. Kevin Love scored 16 and Bam Adebayo added 13 for Miami, which gets this as a reward: a rematch of the last two East finals against the Boston Celtics. It’s Round 1 this time, the Heat set to be huge u

  • Senate Passes Renewal Of Controversial Surveillance Law

    Civil liberties and privacy advocates said the renewal did not do enough to protect Americans from being spied upon.

  • Trump set to gain national delegates as the only choice for Wyoming Republicans

    Republicans in Wyoming will decide Saturday which presidential candidate will get their state's votes at the GOP national convention this summer — but they will have only one choice. Former President Donald Trump will be the only candidate listed on a presidential preference poll at the state Republican convention in Cheyenne. The poll will decide how all 29 of Wyoming's delegates to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee pledge their first-round votes. Trump clinched the Republican nom

  • California is rolling out free preschool. That hasn't solved challenges around child care

    CONCORD, Calif. (AP) — A year before I-Ting Quinn's son was old enough for kindergarten, she and her husband had the option to enroll him in “transitional kindergarten,” a program offered for free by California elementary schools for some 4-year-olds. Instead, they kept their son, Ethan, in a private day care center in Concord, California, at a cost of $400 a week. Transitional kindergarten's academic emphasis was appealing, but Ethan would have been in a half-day program, and options for afters

  • ‘Still together, win or lose’: Kings fans experience highs and lows at DoCo as season ends

    Fans cheered on the Sacramento Kings during a play-in game in New Orleans at DoCo.

  • Israel and Iran's apparent strikes and counterstrikes give new insights into both militaries

    Israel demonstrated its military dominance over adversary Iran in its apparent precision strikes that hit near military and nuclear targets deep in the heart of the country, meeting little significant challenge from Iran's defenses and providing the world with new insights into both militaries' capabilities. The international community, Israel and Iran all signaled hopes that Friday's airstrikes would end what has been a dangerous 19-day run of strikes and counterstrikes, a highly public test between two deep rivals that had previously stopped short of most direct confrontation. As all sides took stock, regional security experts predicted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government and the country's allies would emerge encouraged by the Israeli military’s superior performance.

  • Tennessee Volkswagen employees overwhelmingly vote to join United Auto Workers union

    CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — Employees at a Volkswagen factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, overwhelmingly voted to join the United Auto Workers union Friday in a historic first test of the UAW’s renewed effort to organize nonunion factories. The union wound up getting 2,628 votes, or 73% of the ballots cast, compared with only 985 who voted no in an election run by the National Labor Relations Board. Both sides have five business days to file objections to the election, the NLRB said. If there are n

  • Fans, commentators react as Kings lose to miss the playoffs. ‘Only saw two guys with a pulse’

    After the Sacramento Kings’ season evaporated, the TV analysts shared these last words.

  • Jordan Montgomery shines in his delayed season debut with the Diamondbacks

    SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Jordan Montgomery's debut with the Arizona Diamondbacks went better than is tune-up starts in Triple-A. The 31-year-old left-hander cruised through six innings against the San Francisco Giants, allowing one run and four hits with three strikeouts on 78 pitches on Friday night. Montgomery was the last marquee free agent to come off the board, waiting until days before the season started to sign a one-year, $25 million deal with the Diamondbacks. He had two tune-up starts in T

  • Sacramento Kings | Coach Mike Brown postgame press conference

    Coach Mike Brown addresses the media after the Sacramento Kings fall to the New Orleans Pelicans

  • Ingram, Valanciunas lift Zion-less Pelicans past Kings and into the playoffs

    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Brandon Ingram scored 24 points, Jonas Valanciunas added 19 points and 12 rebounds, and the New Orleans Pelicans booked a spot in the NBA playoffs with a 105-98 victory over the Sacramento Kings in a play-in tournament elimination game on Friday night. The Pelicans won without leading-scorer Zion Williamson, who strained his left hamstring right as he reached the 40-point mark in a play-in loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night. Undaunted, New Orleans used a balanced

  • 3 rescued after small plane flips at Paso Robles airport

    One person was sent to the hospital after the incident on Friday.

  • Q1 2024 Schlumberger NV Earnings Call

    Q1 2024 Schlumberger NV Earnings Call

  • Astros vs. Nationals Highlights

    Justin Verlander and the Astros take on Riley Adams and the Nationals on April 19, 2024

  • Donald Trump will use his weekend reprieve from the courtroom to campaign in North Carolina

    WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — On a weekend reprieve from the courtroom, former President Donald Trump will campaign Saturday in North Carolina as he juggles legal troubles and his rematch against President Joe Biden. Trump’s evening stop in the coastal city of Wilmington marks his first rally since his criminal hush money trial began this week with jury selection in Manhattan. The occasion offers the former president a fresh chance to amplify claims that his multiple pending indictments are an establi

  • Program helps Colorado women impacted by divorce become financially savvy

    A Colorado woman is on a mission to help other women impacted by divorce become financially savvy.

  • The drug war devastated Black and other minority communities. Is marijuana legalization helping?

    ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) — When Washington state opened some of the nation's first legal marijuana stores in 2014, Sam Ward Jr. was on electronic home detention in Spokane, where he had been indicted on federal drug charges. He would soon be off to prison to serve the lion's share of a four-year sentence. A decade later, Ward, who is Black, recently posed in a blue-and-gold throne used for photo ops at his new cannabis store, Cloud 9 Cannabis. He greeted customers walking in for early 4/20 deals. A