NT removes Greater Sydney as hot spot

NT’s Acting Chief Minister Nicole Manison made the announcement on Thursday afternoon.“The Greater Sydney area, including the Blue Mountains along with the Central Coast, will be removed effective immediately,” she said. She added the list of hot spot suburbs in the Northern Beaches area, which will be defined by suburb and postcode, will be listed on the state‘s coronavirus website shortly.She also said the northern beaches area where a cluster has grown to 104 cases would remain as a hot spot with areas defined by suburb and postcode to be listed on the territory’s coronavirus website.

There was also good news for people currently quarantining at the Howard Springs and Alice Springs centres, with news they would be released on Thursday afternoon.
But Chief Minister Manison could not detail a precise time they could leave the facility.
“There is a process that is followed when people leave the facility. So I just ask them to be patient,” she said.“We are going to work to release them as quickly as possible from the facility so they can go about their Christmas plans and again we thank them for their patience through this process.”It comes after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced nine new cases of community transmission in NSW on Thursday, with two still under investigation.The remaining seven were linked to the northern beaches cluster.

People who have been in the Hunter and Bligh streets area, including the Australia Square building, MLC Centre and Chifley Square have been told to monitor for symptoms and get tested should even the mildest symptoms develop.Another new case reported on Thursday attended the Paragon Hotel sports bar at 1 Loftus Street near Circular Quay.Anyone who attended the sports bar for more than one hour between 12.45pm and 3.30pm on Wednesday December 16 has been considered a close contact.Those people should get tested immediately and isolate for 14 days even if they receive a negative result.