Covid 19 coronavirus NSW: Fifth day without community transmission

Sydney, New South Wales. Photo / 123rf

Four new cases of coronavirus have been diagnosed in New South Wales up to 8pm on Tuesday, but zero community transmission.

Wednesday marks the fifth day in a row of no community transmission in the state – though Premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned the run will not last forever.

There were 13,575 tests reported over the 24-hour period, compared with just 6381 in the previous 24 hours.

Despite her wariness over the lack of community transmission, the Premier acknowledged NSW was in a good position to begin continuing relaxing restrictions.

She told reporters on Wednesday the Government would consider easing some rules around hospitality after the school holidays.

"Our focus is on NSW – it's about making sure we're doing as much as we can to support our economy, to support jobs," she said.

"We're looking at opportunities in hospitality. Sydney has been completely smashed. The regions have a real opportunity for positive growth, but Sydney itself has been smashed in hospitality and tourism."

Berejiklian said although she was cautious, she was "very courageous" when it came to jobs – provided health advice deemed it appropriate.

The Premier took a strong stance against Queensland as well, calling for the border controls to come down "as soon as possible".

"I don't feel the border is appropriate, and should not be in place," she said.

"You can't test your own system [of protections against the virus] if you can't even be bothered taking the border off."

But she

said she was wary of a Victorian border opening until she sees how the state fares once Melbourne's lockdown has been lifted.

"It's one thing to have close to zero cases when you've got restrictions in place and a lockdown in place, and another thing to see what happens once those restrictions ease."

Kevin Mack, the mayor of the border city of Albury, told the Herald Sun on Tuesday that he's hopeful of an end-of-October opening, but the Premier wouldn't commit to a timeline.

"We would need confidence that Victoria is able to maintain a reasonable amount of cases after restrictions ease", Berejiklian said.