Covid 19 coronavirus: NSW issues new alert as cluster from Thai restaurant keeps spreading

Nursing assstant Milly Brown conducts a Covid-19 swab test as large crowds queue at a Bondi Beach drive-through testing clinic. Photo / Lisa Maree Williams, Getty Images

NSW Health has issued a warning for Sydney diners as public health detectives work to figure out how the city's worst cluster seems to keep spreading.

Health authorities are asking anyone who attended the Thai Rock Restaurant at Potts Point, in Sydney's east, for two hours or more between July 15 and July 25, to immediately be tested for coronavirus and self-isolate for 14 days since they were there, regardless of symptoms.

Anyone who was there between the same dates for less than two hours should watch for symptoms and immediately isolate and seek testing if they appear.

The warning from NSW Health comes after a person who attended Thai Rock Potts Point on July 17 tested positive.

A deserted Wharf side Cafe seen at Sydney Olympic Park. Photo / Izhar Khan, NurPhoto via Getty Images

A staff member at the restaurant has now tested positive, and the venue has been closed for cleaning.

Investigations into the source of the infection and contact tracing are under way.

The owners of Thai Rock Potts Point also own Thai Rock in Wetherill Park, a cluster that now has 67 cases of coronavirus linked to it.

NSW Health said investigations to date have not identified links between cases at the two sites.

Large crowds queue in their vehicles at a Bondi Beach drive-through testing clinic in Sydney. Photo / Lisa Maree Williams, Getty Images

Meanwhile, Victoria recorded 459 new Covid-19 cases and 10 new deaths, marking the state's deadliest day since the pandemic began.

The global number of coronavirus cases have crossed 16 million, more than half of them in the Americas and the Caribbean, according to an AFP tally.

The 16,050,223 cases include 645,184 fatalities with the United States the worst-hit country, registering 4,178,021 infections and 146,460 dead.

Latin America and the Caribbean have recorded 4,328,915 cases and 182,501 dead followed by Europe on 3,052,108 cases and 207,734 dead.

The spread of the pandemic continues to accelerate and more than five million cases have been declared since July, which represents a third of the total number of cases since the pandemic began.

The World Health Organisation says more than a million cases had been recorded in each of the past five weeks, with over 280,000 being reported on July 24 alone.

As long as #COVID19 is circulating, we are all at risk. That’s why we’re asking everyone to treat the decisions about where they go, what they do and who they meet with as life-and-death decisions – because they are. pic.twitter.com/ALeUcT1uv4

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) July 25, 2020

The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is Belgium with 85 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Britain with 67, Spain 61, Italy 58, and Sweden 56.

The spiralling numbers are particularly worrying because the tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the WHO, probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.

Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases while others still have limited testing capacity.