/Live breaking news: Sydney COVID-19 case had ‘high viral load’; virus fragments in sewage

Live breaking news: Sydney COVID-19 case had ‘high viral load’; virus fragments in sewage

Live breaking news: Sydney on edge after man with ‘high viral load’ tests positive to COVID-19

Officials in NSW are bracing for a potential COVID-19 outbreak after a Sydney man with a “high viral load” visited 14 suburbs over five days. 

news.com.au

May 6, 2021 6:20AM
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New Sydney COVID-19 case has high viral load making him potentially highly infectious

Officials in NSW are bracing for a potential COVID-19 outbreak after a Sydney man with a “high viral load” visited 14 suburbs over five days. 

Premier Gladys Berejiklian and chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant announced the news yesterday afternoon, putting at least 19 venues across the city’s north, east and west on alert. 

Global biosecurity and infectious disease expert, the University of NSW’s Professor Raina MacIntyre, told the ABC the next two weeks will be critical in knowing “if the virus’ spread is growing or not”. 

“It is worrying because it’s unknown where this man acquired this infection. Who did they get infected from? That’s the real question of interest,” she said. 

It comes as more than 42,000 residents in Sydney’s inner west have been warned to look out for any COVID-19 symptoms after virus fragments were found in wastewater from a sewage plant. 

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Biden administration

Officials in NSW are bracing for a potential COVID-19 outbreak after a Sydney man with a “high viral load” visited 14 suburbs over five days. 

Premier Gladys Berejiklian and chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant announced the news yesterday afternoon, putting at least 19 venues across the city’s north, east and west on alert. 

The man in his 50s, from Sydney’s east, had not returned from overseas and doesn’t work in a frontline profession. Dr Chant told reporters there was no working hypothesis “at this stage” for how he had been infected.

Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gaye Gerard

“Within two weeks, we’ll know if the virus’ spread is growing or not,” Professor Raina MacIntyre, a University of NSW expert in global biosecurity and infectious disease, told the ABC.

“It is worrying because it’s unknown where this man acquired this infection. Who did they get infected from? That’s the real question of interest.”

The news came after more than 42,000 residents in the city’s inner west were also warned to look out for symptoms, after virus fragments were found in the Marrickville Sewage Network.

The catchment takes sewage from Dulwich Hill, Marrickville, Summer Hill, Lewisham, Ashfield, Haberfield, Petersham, Lilyfield and Leichhardt.

Bikie link in alleged MacGill ‘betrayal’

Bill

Australian Test cricket great Stuart MacGill did not inform police for a week after he was allegedly kidnapped at gunpoint for ransom because he felt “threatened and scared”.

A NSW Police press conference about MacGill’s ordeal has heard the legendary spin bowler was “quite scared about going to police at all” after allegedly being abducted and beaten.

Picture: Supplied

Four men, aged 27, 29, 42 and 46 years old will appear in court this afternoon charged over the alleged kidnapping plot.

It is alleged one of the men charged – Marino Sotiropoulos, 46, – is the brother of MacGill’s recent partner Maria O’Meagher.

The other three charged are brothers Frederick, 27, and Richard Schaaf, 29, and Son Minh Nguyen, 42.

The Daily Telegraph reports Richard Schaaf is an associate of the Comanchero bikie gang.

Melinda hinted at marriage tensions

Chief Health Officer

Bill and Melinda Gates’ decision to get divorced after 27 years together came as a shock to many this week, but it’s not the first time we have caught a glimpse of the private tensions inside their very public partnership.

One of those glimpses came two years ago, when Mrs Gates was interviewed on Australian radio. At the time, she was promoting her book The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World, which contained some unusually candid anecdotes from her personal life.

Picture: Getty Images/Getty Images for Global Citizen

Mrs Gates spoke to Triple J host Tom Tilley, who now hosts The Briefing, a daily news podcast with Southern Cross Austereo.

She was frank about the challenges that came with being married to a man as powerful as Mr Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft – though the hurdles she described might have sounded familiar to many less famous couples.

‘Dead bodies on the street’: Slater slams PM

Biden administration

Cricket great Michael Slater has challenged to Prime Minister to a debate as he delivered another brutal sledge over the flight ban for Aussies trying to flee India.

Slater called on Scott Morrison to “take your private jet and come and witness the dead bodies on the street!” before saying he would debate him “anytime” in a series of blistering tweets.

In the latest war of words between the pair, the broadcaster returned fire after the PM dismissed his claim that the Morrison Government could be left his “blood on his hands” over the Indian flight ban.

Amazing to smoke out the PM on a matter that is a human crisis. The panic, the fear of every Australian in India is real!! How about you take your private jet and come and witness dead bodies on the street!

— Michael Slater (@mj_slats)

“Amazing to smoke out the PM on a matter that is a human crisis,” Slater said. “The panic, the fear of every Australian in India is real!! How about you take your private jet and come and witness dead bodies on the street!”

Slater defended himself over questions of “greed over common sense” saying, “Your government granted me permission to work so I can pay for 3 beautiful children through school and pay a mortgage. So where does common sense lie.”

He added: “I challenge you to a debate anytime PM.”

– Samantha Maiden

‘Extraordinary’: US COVID-19 reversal

Biden administration

The Biden administration has announced support for waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines.

The move was in a response to the “extraordinary circumstances” of the COVID-19 pandemic, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement.

Picture: Nicholas Kamm/AFP

“The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines.

“We will actively participate in text-based negotiations at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) needed to make that happen.

“These negotiations will take time given the consensus-based nature of the institution and the complexity of the issues involved.”