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Fresh concerns have arisen around the “loophole” that allows Sydneysiders to leave the city to inspect properties after it was reportedly the reason a COVID-19 positive man travelled to the New South Wales North Coast.
Byron Shire mayor Michael Lyon said that the man “came up from Sydney in late July, ostensibly to look at real estate”.
“We’ve been told that he hasn’t been checking in anywhere,” the mayor said.
“He’s apparently been quite evasive with questions. Nothing in his phone in terms of QR codes, didn’t believe in COVID. So sick that he had to go to hospital and that’s when it’s twigged, he’s got COVID.”
It’s plunged communities across Byron Bay, Richmond Valley, Lismore and Ballina into a seven-day snap lockdown, with residents subject to stay-at-home orders until at least 17 August 2021.
Mr Lyon called it “a massive imposition”.
“We know that things out of our control can occur, but when things are well and truly within your control, through negligence or complacency and stupidity, you put everyone else in a situation of anguish,” the mayor said.
REB understands he was infectious for a number of days before seeking medical treatment at Lismore Base Hospital. His two children, who were travelling with him, have since tested positive, too.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard was tight-lipped at the daily press briefing on Tuesday, 10 August, stating that all he was prepared to say about the Byron traveller was that “the police are looking extremely closely at what he was doing in that area”.
“I trust the police will be able to take appropriate action in due course,” Mr Hazzard said.
But in response to further questioning around the restriction rules that do permit travellers to leave Sydney for the purpose of inspecting real estate, he said he had asked the NSW government’s legal department “to look at what we can do to tighten it up as far as it is possible”.
He conceded it as a difficult exercise, “because there are situations where doctors need to travel to regional areas for work, or families might break down and need to move”.
“Clearly, the rules now are that you shouldn’t just travel from one house to another for the sake of moving to the other house. Choose the property you are living in and stay there,” he said.
REB will continue to follow this story closely.
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