A man in his 70s from Penrith in Western Sydney has become the latest locally acquired COVID-19 case, NSW Health says.
He is among six new cases of COVID-19 reported in the 24 hours to 8:00pm on Friday, with the other five being returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
There are no further details about the man’s condition at this stage.
“This case is under investigation and all close contacts have been contacted,” a NSW spokesperson said.
The number of COVID-19 tests in the state has now passed 810,000, with a record number of 23,733 tests being done in the reporting period.
There are 58 cases of COVID-19 in NSW, with none in intensive care and 2,784 now recovered.
The latest locally acquired case follows a man in his 30s from south-western Sydney reported as a confirmed case on Monday.
Two new cases also appeared late in the week student at Lane Cove West Public School and Camden High School, forcing the brief closure of both schools.
All of the other new cases reported continue to be those in hotel quarantine.
Hotel quarantine extended
NSW Health is stepping up its control of hotel stayers, with any refusing the request of a test on day 10 of their stay to face a further 10-day quarantine extension.
It said since it established the 10-day test on May 10, 11,634 travellers had been tested with 59 being positive.
Since March 29, when mandatory hotel quarantine began, 105 travellers have tested positive.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said of the more than 11,000 travellers who had entered mandatory quarantine, “a number” had refused the 10-day test since it was introduced on May 15.
“We are stepping up the requirement and if they don’t have that test then they’ll have to stay in quarantine for another 10 days,” he said.
“This is one more step in our arsenal of keeping our community in NSW safe.”
He said at any time there are about 3,000 returned travellers in hotels.
He added about 150 people had refused the 10-day test so far.
“That obviously presented some issues but as it turns out at the moment, we don’t believe any of those have been problematic.”
NSW Health also continues to warn against travel to Melbourne, while Victoria deals with a fresh spike in community transmissions.
-ABC
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