Coronavirus live news: NSW premier to provide update on Sydney restrictions as northern beaches locked down, UK tightens Christmas rules

Please send the healthcare workers in your life a very good present.

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian will give a press conference at 11am to give an update on the northern beaches outbreak, with health minister Brad Hazzard and chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant.

The deputy commissioner of NSW police, Gary Worboys, will also be there.

Reading the tea leaves that means there is likely to be an update on restrictions, or on enforcement of public health orders.

Health authorities in New South Wales have released new opening times for testing locations.

It also reminded people to wear a mask when going for a test.

There have been long queues at testing sites in Sydney over the past few days, with many reporting queuing for hours only to be told the clinic had closed for the day. There are more than 300 testing sites in Sydney, NSW health said. The full list of testing locations is here.

If you missed it earlier, the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, introduced strict tier 4 lockdown conditions in London, south-east and eastern England, forcing a third of England’s population to cancel their Christmas plans and stay at home.

It was a sharp U-turn from Johnson who had previously resisted suggestions that people would need to be locked down over Christmas. The strict new measures were introduced in reaction to a new Covid strain believed to be up to 70% more transmissible than previous variants.

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NSW health authorities added to the list of Covid-19 hotspots in Sydney overnight. Worryingly, the alert for Anytime Fitness in Avalon has been pushed back to 23 November. The origin case for the North Sydney outbreak has yet to be identified but it had been linked through genomic testing to a case in hotel quarantine on 1 December.

The latest advice includes:

• Anyone who attended Anytime Fitness on Avalon Pde in Avalon on or after Tuesday 8 December should get tested immediately and self-isolate for 14-days after they were last at the gym.
• Anyone who was at the gym between 23 November and 7 December should get tested and self-isolate until they get a negative result.
• Anyone who dined-in at Oceana Traders Seafood Merchants restaurant in Avalon beach from 14 to 17 December must get tested immediately and self-isolate for 14 days after they were last at the venue, and anyone who got takeaway from the restaurant on those dates should get tested and isolate until they get a negative result.
• Anyone who was at Nomad restaurant in Surry Hills for more than an hour between 12.45pm and 2pm on 16 December; at Cafe Toscano in Forster from 6pm to 7.45pm on 16 December; or at the Strawberry Hills Hotel in Surry Hills between 3.30pm and 6pm on 16 December has been told to get tested immediately and self-isolate until 30 December.
• Anyone who was at the above restaurants on the listed times for less than an hour should monitor themselves for symptoms.
• Anyone who was at the Avalon RSL on 14 December from 6pm to 8pm; at the Sands in Narrabeen on 15 December from 6pm to 8pm; Salon for Hair in Turramurra from 9.30am to 3.30pm on 17 December; the Rose of Australia in Erskineville from 7pm to 8.45pm on 15 December; Sydney Trapeze School in St Peters from 10am to 12pm on 15 December, should get tested and isolate for 14 days regardless of a result.

The full list is here. It is extensive – there are 26 alerts for exposure events that require people to immediately self-isolate and get tested, and 45 exposure sites requiring people to monitor for symptoms. Nineteen public transport routes have also been affected.

Hello and welcome to today’s coverage of coronavirus news from around the world. We’re expecting new restrictions to be announced in Sydney, Australia, today as case numbers rise, while strict new restrictions have been introduced in the UK and in parts of Europe.

Here’s the latest developments via my colleague Nicola Slawson:

• More than 75.06 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 1,679,707 have died, according to a Reuters tally.
• A new coronavirus strain, which has been discovered in South East England, could be up to 70% more transmissible. It doesn’t seem to be more dangerous but does seem to spread more easily and could increase the R by 0.4 or more.
• From midnight tonight, London, the south-east and the east of England will enter tier 4 – the toughest level of restrictions, similar to the last national lockdown in November. The relaxation of rules for Christmas has been scrapped for much of south-east England and cut to just Christmas Day for the rest of England.
• Scotland announced a strict travel ban with the rest of the UK, festive bubbles will only be allowed on Christmas Day and level 4 restrictions from Boxing Day. Meanwhile Wales will be placed under lockdown from midnight tonight with all festive relaxation plans limited to Christmas Day only.
• Distribution of the Moderna vaccine will begin to more than 3,800 sites across the United States this weekend, after it was approved on Friday by the medicines regulator, the Food and Drug Administration.
• Health authorities in Thailand reported 516 new cases of coronavirus on Saturday, by far the biggest one-day jump in a country that had previously brought the epidemic largely under control, according to Reuters.
• People in Italy will only be allowed to leave their homes once a day to visit friends or relatives over the Christmas and new year period, and travel between regions is to be banned, according to AFP.
• In Australia, Sydney’s northern beaches community is in lockdown, with the rest of the city on standby in case infection spread leads to broader restrictions. The NSW premier has flagged a possible return to tighter measures in Sydney.
• Benjamin Netanyahu has become the first person in Israel to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, as the country begins it inoculation rollout on Saturday night.
• Brazil has now registered 37,730 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total to 7,200,708 cases. Deaths in the country have risen by 555 to 186,205.