Masks To Be Mandatory On Sydney Public Transport Following Detection Of Delta Variant

New South Wales' Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, announced that masks would be mandatory on public transport in the Greater Sydney region from 4PM on June 18.

The Australian Medical Association said it was 'highly likely' more restrictions would be required in Sydney to prevent a major Coronavirus outbreak.

Sydney’s cluster in the Eastern Suburbs stood at three cases on Friday morning, but that number was expected to rise after it was revealed that the man at the center of the outbreak had the highly-infectious Delta variant.

AMA President, Doctor Omar Khorshid, told 9 that the variant was more transmissible than anything previously seen in Australia.

If somebody’s sitting on a bus this morning, who doesn’t know they have the Delta variant, they could easily spread it to multiple people and within a day or two, it is out of control. Masks work. Social distancing works. Through that, we can hopefully prevent a need for any lockdowns

- Omar Khorshid

There were also concerns that Sydney’s outbreak may have crossed into the Australian Capital Territory, with a man who visited a gallery and a local Canberra café reportedly testing positive to the virus.

While authorities assessed whether the result was a false positive, anyone who visited the National Gallery of Australia or Via Dolce Pasticceria on Monday was advised to get tested and isolate until receiving a negative result.

The comprehensive list of New South Wales exposure sites is available here.

'Highly Likely' That More Restrictions Will Be Required In Sydney

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