New South Wales

NSW tightens COVID-19 restrictions across Greater Sydney

Eliza Sayon Jul 9, 2021

2 min read

With the number of infectious cases and unlinked cases of community transmission continue to grow, the NSW Government has decided to tighten restrictions across Greater Sydney including the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour.

Starting 5 pm today, outdoor public gatherings will be limited to two people. Members of the same household are excluded from this rule.

NSW citizens are also mandated to stay within their Local Government Area or within 10kms of home only for exercise and outdoor recreation. Carpooling between non-household members is not allowed for the time being.

Browsing in shops will now be prohibited and only one person per household per day may leave the home to go shopping.

The NSW Government also announced that funerals will be limited to ten people in total by Sunday, June 11.

However, the state government retained the four reasons residents are allowed to leave their homes:

Shopping for food or other essential goods and services (one person only);
Medical care or compassionate needs (only one visitor can enter another residence to fulfil carers’ responsibilities or provide care or assistance, or for compassionate reasons);
Exercise with no more than 2 (unless members of the same household);
Essential work, or education, where you cannot work or study from home.

While the lockdown restrictions across Greater Sydney have been changed, the lockdown restrictions in regional NSW will remain as is.

The tightened restrictions are based on health advice from the NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant.

The NSW Government believes that the new restrictions are necessary due to the increasing number of unlinked cases in the community.

While they understand that the current circumstances will be difficult for the community and businesses, the state government is grateful to their constituents for their understanding and patience.

High testing numbers are key to finding unrecognised chains of transmission in the community, so NSW citizens are encouraged to come forward for a COVID-19 test even if they only have the mildest of symptoms.

Eliza Sayon

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Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.