Covid 19 coronavirus: Sydney declared a new virus hotspot

Security guards on watch outside Sydney Girls High School in Moore Park which was closed after a student tested positive for Covid 19. Photo / Brook Mitchell, Getty Images

NSW Health has declared the City of Sydney a Covid-19 hotspot as cases continue to grow in the area's east.

The local government area covers from Circular Quay all the way to East Lakes in the eastern suburbs and includes more than 240,000 residents.

Anyone who lives in the City of Sydney or has visited there in the past two weeks has been urged to get tested, even if they only have mild symptoms such as a runny nose or scratchy throat.

City of Sydney now joins a number of other LGAs in greater Sydney currently declared Covid-19 hotspots, including Campbelltown, Canterbury Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Liverpool and Parramatta.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced new cases while issuing an apology for allowing the Ruby Princess to disembark infected passengers. Photo / Getty Images

The announcement follows a Covid-19 outbreak in the inner-city suburb of Potts Point, with 37 cases linked to the Thai Rock Restaurant in the area.

A top selective high school in Surry Hills was also forced to close after one of the students contracted coronavirus.

The student attended Sydney Girls High School on August 6, 7, 10 and 11 while infectious.

The school said staff and students have been advised to self-isolate while health authorities carry out contact tracing.

A trial Higher School Certificate planned to be held at the school on Tuesday will be rescheduled.

The Thai Rock restaurant in Potts Point, where an infected staff member is believed to have initiated a fast-spreading cluster. Photo / Getty Images

The NSW Government has announced sweeping changes for schools in the state as the number of Covid-19 cases linked to Sydney Girls High School and Our Lady of Mercy College in Parramatta continues to grow.

School-related "social activities", including inter-school sport, will not be allowed for at least the next six weeks to prevent or minimise "any mixing of students from schools in different regions".

"We're having a particular focus on stopping singing or chanting activities or the use of wind instruments in groups and that is because we have increasingly become aware around the way that droplets and aerosols can be generated by those activities," NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said on Monday.

7 new cases of #COVID19 have been diagnosed in NSW between 8pm on 15 August and 8pm on 16 August.

Of the 7 new cases reported:
•Six were locally acquired
•One is a traveller in hotel quarantine pic.twitter.com/BNCerLbJMu

— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) August 17, 2020

"Also school-related social activities, school formals, dinners and dances and graduation ceremonies or parent engagement functions should cease and also school-related overnight events such as retreats, camps, excursions as there is obviously an increased risk of transmission in these residential-type exposures that are a consequence of those activities."

NSW recorded seven new cases of Covid-19 cases on Monday, with six identified as locally acquired. The other case is a traveller in hotel quarantine.