However,after a phone hook-up of 240 business leaders later on Saturday,thelist of essential jobs was expanded to include people working at garden centres,bottle shops,factories and other roles such as delivery drivers.
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Supermarkets,neighbourhood shops,kiosks and retailers of office supplies were added to the list of essential workers along with alcohol retailers and cellar door premises as well as various manufacturing roles.
NSW recorded 105 new cases on Sunday and the fourth death in this outbreak,with a woman in her 90s from south-eastern Sydney dying on Saturday. There have now been 60 deaths in NSW during the pandemic and 1242 cases in the current outbreak.
There are 76 people in hospital,with 18 people in intensive care,seven of whom require ventilation. In the reporting period,there were 66,671 tests.
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Premier Gladys Berejiklian said devising the new restrictions on Saturday was the most testing time of her political career.
“I am not embarrassed to say that in public life,yesterday was probably the most difficult day I’ve had personally because we don’t take these decisions lightly,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“They are decisions that affect the lives and livelihoods,they are decisions that affect millions of people,but my job and the job of our government is to keep people safe,to reduce transmission,reduce the risk ... please know that we rely on the best health advice available,we have the best teams.”
Ms Berejiklian has repeatedly said that Sydney cannot come out of its scheduled lockdown on July 30 until the number of infectious cases in the community is zero,or close to that number.
“We don’t expect those numbers to shift massively for the next three days but we want the community to be more vigilant than ever before,because I am convinced that working together we will start to see those numbers nudge,” Ms Berejiklian said.
NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said the state’s testing capabilities were being stretched with essential workers from the three hot spot areas now needing to be swabbed every three days.
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She said this meant the government had to “balance who we are testing” and there was some “slippage in turn around times” for tests of people who are not from hot spots or deemed close contacts.
“Our pathology testing is capacity is exceedingly good and it’s improved throughout the pandemic but it is limited and we can reach a cap in terms of that capacity,” Dr Chant said.
Dr Chant also urged Sydney’s Muslim communities to stay home during Eid,which starts on Tuesday.
“I know this is a very special time for many in our community,but we asking that prayers only be performed in your house and please,again,do not have visitors to your home,including family members and do not visit others,” Dr Chant said.
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