‘Unrecognised’ transmission still in Sydney

“(The local case’s) contact with the infectious person must have been very fleeting,” chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant told reporters on Monday.“We are concerned there are chains of transmission in the community that are unrecognised.“We’re not out of the risk period.”Dr Chant said the missing link between a returned US traveller and the man, from Sydney’s eastern suburbs, had still not been found as of Monday morning. The man in his 50s and his wife tested positive to COVID-19 last week. Neither have links with hotel quarantine, border control or healthcare, sparking concerns about how he caught the disease.Health officials fear someone may have been unknowingly infectious may be going about their business in the community.NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian agreed the man’s contact with an infected person must have been brief.She said authorities have combed CCTV and spoken to “lots of people” to try and determine how he caught it, with the man even detailing the roads he had walked along to contact tracers. “The concern is, if it’s one or multiple people, who are those missing links it was a very fleeting meeting,” Ms Berejiklian told reporters.“That suggests there could be a high level of contagion.”Meanwhile, lines are already forming at a mass vaccination hub in Sydney’s west as the government ramps up its jab rollout. Located at Sydney Olympic Park, the hub will administer 30,000 doses a week in a bid to double the number of jabs distributed across NSW each week.It will operate 12 hours a day and is staffed by more than 300 healthcare workers.Restrictions were due to lift across NSW on Monday, but will stay in place for at least another week in the hopes of finding the ‘missing link’ before the small outbreak spreads further.The only restriction to ease on Monday is the mandatory wearing of masks in retail settings, but workers will still be required to wear them for at least another week.While official numbers will be revealed at 11am, it’s very likely there are no new cases of COVID-19 recorded in NSW on Monday.