There are fears of a fresh outbreak in New South Wales after a community COVID-19 cluster in the Australian state ballooned by another 10 cases on Tuesday.
There are now 21 cases linked to the growing Bondi cluster - but Premier Gladys Berejiklian dampened fears a lockdown was imminent, saying most infections have been linked back to a source.
However the new infections have prompted health authorities to extend a rule making mask use mandatory in public venues to all of Greater Sydney, bar the Central Coast.
Of the new community cases, two were announced on Monday. One is a woman in her 50s from Sydney’s northern suburbs, and the other a man in his 30s from Sydney’s eastern suburbs. They are both close contacts of previously reported cases.
Three further infections were reported before the 8pm cutoff on Monday night - one a woman in her 60s from Illawarra, one a woman in her 40s from Sydney’s northern suburbs, and one a woman in her 20s from the eastern suburbs.
The first two are close contacts of previously reported cases and the latter is linked to the Bondi cluster, with further investigations underway into her infection.
NSW Health revealed there had also been seven locally acquired cases notified after the 8pm cutoff. Six of these are household contacts of previous cases who have been in isolation, and one is a child who attends primary school in the eastern suburbs.
These seven cases will be included in Wednesday's numbers.
In a press conference, Premier Gladys Berejiklian noted that while there were 10 new cases, just one hadn't been linked to existing cases and all but two were already in isolation.
The one case yet to be linked is the primary school student. Berejiklian said the school is in the process of notifying parents and urged parents to wait for instructions from them.
"We are keen to make sure that students and parents have access to testing and we want to make sure there isn't a rush with all parents descending on the school at the same time.
"We want to make sure that that is managed in a good way and we thank the school already for starting the communication."
Earlier on Tuesday, Queensland's Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said she was happy with residents travelling to Melbourne - but urged them to reconsider travel to New South Wales.
"There have been more exposure venues in NSW so I reiterate that people should reconsider their need to go to Greater Sydney," Dr Young said.
"People need to look before they travel anywhere in New South Wales and should reconsider if they really need to travel."
She said anyone who had been in New South Wales in the last 14 days should check whether they'd visited any exposure sites.
