At least 21 recent NSW coronavirus cases have been traced back to the outbreak at the Crossroads Hotel in Casula, according to the state's chief medical officer, Dr Kerry Chant. That includes ten who were likely infected at the pub, plus 11 close contacts. A handful of “third-generation” community transmission cases – where the virus has been passed on by someone who acquired their infection locally – are among the most recently identified patients.
Chant identified half a dozen additional venues as places infected people had visited in the last week. Close to and within greater Sydney, these include the Picton Hotel southwest of the city, the Planet Fitness Gym in Casula, Zone Bowling in Villawood, Cook @ Kurnell near Bonna Point, and the most centrally located of the venues, the Star City Casino in Pyrmont, which an infected person visited on July 4. There were also venues of concern identified in Merimbula in NSW’s far south.
Chant said that anyone who had attended any of these venues between July 4-7 did not yet need to self-isolate, but they should be on the lookout for any symptoms and be tested immediately if they started to present even the mildest signs of Covid-19.
As the footprint of the Casula outbreak begins to grow, Chant told reporters that putting a local lockdown in place in Casula had not been ruled out, but that current efforts were focused on widespread testing. “The fact that I’m announcing that we have had 21 cases linked in one way or another to the Crossroads Hotel cluster, to some extent represents a success, because every one of those cases we can find, we can stop that going into transmission,” she said, adding that currently, no confirmed case had yet been linked to any public location other than the Crossroads Hotel.