A party held at the Meriton Suites in the Sydney suburb of Waterloo has been linked to three COVID-19 cases this week, and now the serviced apartments have been listed as an exposure site.
The party was held on the night of Saturday June 26. Not only had the City of Sydney local government area already been under lockdown for a day by then, but the whole of Greater Sydney also went into lockdown at 6pm that night.
Three of the attendees have tested positive for COVID-19 so far. None of them have any known links to other clusters.
Now anyone who was at the Meriton Suites in Waterloo from 7pm on Saturday, June 26, to 8am on Monday, July 5, must get a COVID test immediately and isolate for 14 days regardless of the result.
It’s no secret that the Meriton Suites are a home away from home when it comes to hosting house parties in Sydney and on the Gold Coast. It appears that has extended to gathering during lockdowns, too.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard slammed the people who attended the party but also said it was important for people to feel like they can come forward when they do fuck up.
“When you hear of parties going on in the middle of a lockdown you have got to ask, what is the thinking of some of these people?” he told reporters on Monday.
“I would say that those people who are thinking that the rules are somehow not for them, that they are more entitled than the rest of us, you actually have to listen because you may be the people who spread this and keep us in lockdown for a lot longer than the rest of the community would like.”
The state’s Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant also stressed that young people are by no means exempt from lockdown restrictions and other health recommendations just because we’re less likely to fall seriously ill compared to older people.
“It is important to remember that young people themselves can get sick and be hospitalised following COVID,” she said at Monday’s coronavirus press conference.
“So whilst it is that older people are going to be more likely to have severe outcomes from COVID – hospitalisation and death – I want to remind young people that they too might be seriously impacted.”
If you think that might be you, you can suss the full list of exposure sites at the NSW Health website.
