A man in his 60s who drove international flight crews to their Sydney quarantine hotels has been confirmed as a new local COVID-19 case, sparking a scramble to prevent any community spread.
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NSW Health was also notified late on Wednesday night that a household contact of the new case reported has also tested positive for COVID-19, and further venues of concern have been identified.
NSW Health has released a list of venues visited by the man including a cinema, cafes and department stores at Bondi Junction plus venues in Vaucluse and North Ryde.
Authorities say the man had not travelled overseas in recent times but worked as a driver, including for international flight crews, and returned a positive test on Wednesday.
The source of the infection is unknown.
"Urgent investigations into the source of the infection and contact tracing are underway, as is genome sequencing," NSW Health said in a statement.
"Close contacts are being urgently contacted, and asked to get tested and isolate."
The man was potentially infectious when he attended the screening of the film Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard at Cinema 1 at Events Cinema at Bondi Junction on Sunday between 1.30pm and 4pm.
The cinema has been identified as a close contact venue and anyone who attended that film screening must immediately contact NSW Health and get tested and isolate for 14 days.
Other potential exposure sites include Myer and David Jones in Bondi Junction, Harry's Coffee and Kitchen in Bondi Junction and cafes in Vaucluse and North Ryde. The list of venues can be found on the NSW Health website.
The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee will convene on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the Bondi case.
It comes as NSW Health also investigates a potential hotel quarantine breach, after two cases in adjacent rooms returned identical viral sequencing results.
It's unclear how and where transmission occurred from a couple to another returned traveller who were all staying on the fourth floor of Sydney's Radisson Blu quarantine hotel.
Genomic sequencing has shown all three cases have identical viral sequences of the Alpha strain (B.1.1.7), NSW Health said.
"At this stage we still don't know if it happened on the plane, transporting from the plane to the accommodation, at the accommodation or whether it was just a coincidence," Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters on Wednesday.
The couple, who were asymptomatic, tested positive to COVID-19 on a routine day two test on June 3, NSW Health said in a statement.
The other returned traveller returned a negative day two test on June 3, before subsequently developing symptoms and testing positive for COVID-19 following a test on June 5.
The three cases were transferred from the Radisson Blu to the Special Health Accommodation, where they remain.
All three arrived in Sydney on the same flight from Doha on June 1 and stayed in adjacent rooms in the quarantine hotel.
NSW Health said there was no evidence of further transmission.
All guests and staff who were on the fourth floor of the hotel between June 1 and June 5 have been asked to get tested and isolate pending further advice.
Meanwhile, NSW Health says it administered a record 17,223 COVID-19 vaccines in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday, including 6048 at the vaccination centre at Sydney Olympic Park.
The total number of COVID-19 vaccines administered in NSW is now 1,737,557.
Australian Associated Press
