2LT Local News

SYDNEY, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) — The Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) recorded three locally acquired COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, ending the state’s 12-day streak of no community transmissions.

NSW reported no locally transmitted cases till 8 p.m. on Tuesday. However, three cases of community transmission were confirmed overnight, including two in South Western Sydney and one in Western Sydney.

The sources of these infections are under urgent investigation. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said early indications suggest the new cases were not linked and were three separate cases.

The new cases may push back the reopening date of the Queensland-NSW border.

The Queensland government has previously stated it would open the border with NSW on November 1 if there were no locally transmitted “mystery” cases of COVID-19 for 28 consecutive days in the state, which Berejiklian warned was unlikely to happen.

“I always said at the outset that the Queensland government’s definition of what would make it safe for them to open their border was always very high and something unrealistic, and I think the cases overnight have proven that,” she said.

“We’re always going to have cases pop up because we’re in a pandemic but we’re also in an economy that is open.”

Queensland Health Minister Stephen Miles told reporters it was too early to say if the 28-day countdown for border reopening would have to be reset.

“There’s certainly enough reason to be concerned, but we will monitor very closely whether NSW can link those cases to existing clusters,” he said.

“We hope they can … the public health units will provide the contact-tracers with 48 hours to identify that link, and so there’ll be obviously more information as we go.”