NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirms one new local coronavirus case

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has confirmed New South Wales has recorded one new locally acquired case of coronavirus.

The new case is the wife of a man in his 50s from Sydney’s eastern suburbs, who tested positive yesterday — bringing the number of locally acquired cases to two.

More than 11,500 people were tested for COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8:00pm last night, with the man’s other close contacts so far testing negative.

NSW Health officials have also confirmed they now know how the Sydney man became infected with coronavirus after his wife tested positive to the virus as well.

Ms Berejiklian said “health detectives” had managed to trace the source of the man’s infection.

Genome analysis revealed the likely source of the man’s infection was a person who arrived from the US and attended special health accommodation after testing positive upon arrival in Australia.

But it’s still not clear how the virus managed to spread from that person to the eastern suburbs man who was confirmed positive on Wednesday.

“We can’t find any direct link between our (cases),” NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said.

“So what we’re concerned about is that there is another person that is yet to be identified that infected our case.”

Ms Berejiklian also announced a host of new restrictions for the Greater Sydney region, including Wollongong, Central Coast and Blue Mountains, on Thursday.

The new restrictions will come into effect at midday on Thursday and will stay in place for the course of the weekend.

More to come.