There have been some more locations of concern released by NSW Health: Anyone who travelled on the following bus routes is considered a close contact and must get tested and isolate for 14 days regardless of the result: Route B1-1, 14 December, Departing Warriewood BLine, Pittwater Rd 6.55am, arriving Wynyard Station, York Street Stand M, 7.50am Route B1-2, 14 December, Departing Wynyard Station Stand B 5.45pm, arriving Warriewood BLine, Pittwater Rd, 6.40pm Route B1-1, 15 December, Departing Warriewood BLine, Pittwater Rd 6.35am, arriving Wynyard Station Stand M, 7.35am Route B1-2, 15 December, Departing Wynyard Station Stand B 5.25pm, arriving Warriewood BLine, Pittwater Rd, 6.20pm Route B1-1, 16 December 2020, Departing Warriewood BLine, Pittwater Rd, arriving Wynyard Station Stand M, 7.35am Route B1-2, 16 December 2020, Departing Wynyard Station Stand B 4.45pm, arriving Warriewood BLine, Pittwater Rd, 5.30pm Anyone who attended the following venue at the below times, is considered a casual contact and should get tested immediately and isolate until they receive a negative result: Nick Scali at SuperCentre, 4/6 Niangala Cl, Belrose, 16 December, 10am -5.30pm Mainland China recorded 17 new Covid-19 cases on 18 December, up from 12 a day earlier, the country’s health authority said on Saturday. The National Health Commission said in its daily bulletin that 14 of the new cases were imported. Among the three local transmissions, two were in the capital Beijing and one was in the northeastern province of Liaoning. Another 16 asymptomatic cases were also reported on 18 December, up from 11 on the previous day. China does not include asymptomatic patients in its total confirmed case list. Mainland China has now reported an accumulated total of 86,806 coronavirus cases, with 4,634 deaths. NSW MP Rob Stokes has issued a statement supporting the band Nothing Too Serious, one of whose members was one of the early diagnosed Covid-19 cases on the northern beaches. On Thursday, the health minister, Brad Hazzard, had named the band and said they had performed at a range of venues across Sydney. The band itself has shared Stokes’s post, from their official page, in a show of approval. “The band members are not the cause of the Covid-19 outbreak,” Stokes wrote. “They are victims of the virus, just like the rest of us. “So please, let’s recognise that the band has done nothing wrong, and that any suggestions to the contrary are simply untrue.” US FDA approves Moderna Covid-19 vaccine Moderna Inc’s coronavirus vaccine on Friday became the second to receive emergency use authorization (EUA) from the US Food and Drug Administration, Reuters reports. The FDA announced the authorization the day after the agency’s panel of outside experts endorsed its use. The decision marks the first regulatory authorization in the world for Moderna’s vaccine and validation of its messenger RNA technology. It came less than a year after the first COVID-19 case was identified in the United States. The biotech company has worked with the US government to prepare for the distribution of 5.9 million shots as early as this weekend. The FDA decision is based on results from a late-stage study of 30,000 volunteers that found the vaccine was nearly 95% effective at preventing illness from Covid-19 with no serious safety concerns. “With the availability of two vaccines now for the prevention of Covid-19, the FDA has taken another crucial step in the fight against this global pandemic that is causing vast numbers of hospitalizations and deaths in the United States each day,* FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn, MD, said in a statement. Moderna has deals with the U.S. government to provide 20 million doses this year and a total of 200 million doses by the end of June 2021. South Korea reports 1,053 new cases Via Reuters: South Korea reported 1,053 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. The daily numbers were above 1,000 for the fourth straight day for the first time since the start of the pandemic, the KDCA data showed. If the NSW case numbers were confusing, it was because yesterday they provided the most up-to-date data they had, but now they have gone back to once a day reporting, so only 13 of the 23 today we hadn’t heard about before now. From tomorrow, it will just be the one number. NSW health minister Brad Hazzard ends the press conference by pointing out that this outbreak was always a risk when restrictions are eased while we still have people coming into Australia from overseas. Our ports are a risk, we need to have crews coming in, we need to have people coming back from overseas, Aussies, but creates risks and it is managing the risk. If we have large gatherings of people together, and that was where we have got to in terms of, that is what we were trying to ensure the community could have more freedom, but we now have to realise again, yet again, as has occurred in other parts of the world, that this virus is extremely dangerous, and it knows how to get in through the points that we only learn about after it starts. NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian urges her counterparts in other states and territories to be “measured” in their border restrictions. She would have done the same thing in terms of declaring the northern beaches a hotspot, but says they should be measured given the bulk of NSW and greater Sydney is unaffected. “We ask all state leaders to consider that in their decision-making and consider that even the type of Christmas period it is, and we just ask people to be measured in their response,” she says. Gladys Berejiklian asks Sydney residents to "abandon non-essential activity" NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian says any new restrictions imposed on greater Sydney would NOT be as strong as what is being imposed on the northern beaches, but she implores people in Sydney not to go out unless they have to. “Please, please, do not go out tonight or the next few days unless you really have to. Please don’t leave your home unless you have to,” she says. “If we need to, we may very well revert back to what we had previous to the last couple of weeks where restrictions were eased from four square metres to two square metres. “So they are the things we will be considering and looking out and consulting with the relevant people today but it will be based on health advice.” NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian says she expects a similar number of cases tomorrow, if not more, and that is why the restrictions have been brought in. NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant says the two cases where the source has yet to be determined both live in Avalon. They are not yet linked directly with the Avalon Bowlo and RSL. “Both live in Avalon and it may turn out that there are subsequent links to people that have been at the RSL, as you can imagine, we are dealing with large numbers and we need to cross-reference it.” NSW health minister Brad Hazzard says at the moment it is still a very localised outbreak. “Every case seems to have some connection, some more tenuous than others, but some very direct, to the Avalon RSL and the Avalon Bowlo.” But he says it is wise for people in the greater Sydney area to restrict their movements as much as possible for the next few days. He said he knows it is disappointing for people planning for Christmas. “I was going to be heading off on Christmas morning but I am not doing that now. Events have been cancelled. We are going through this together.” NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant says there were 12,374 tests recorded to 8pm last night, and the cases are predominantly linked to the Avalon Bowlo and the RSL. Sewerage surveillance from 16 December shows fragments of the virus, she says, which indicates the virus was only recently introduced into the community because there was none found on 10 December. Restrictions brought in for northern beaches NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian announces that people in the northern beaches from 5pm today will only be able to leave home if it is for essential purposes such as for work, for compassionate grounds, for exercise or to go shopping. The rules will be in place until midnight Wednesday. For the rest of Sydney, the premier asks for people to abandon non-essential activity, but flags more restrictions could be brought in, depending on the advice provided today. Thirteen new locally acquired cases for NSW NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian reports 13 more community cases discovered since the last update, for 23 in total testing positive. A total of 21 are connected to the Avalon cluster and two are under investigation. There were seven new cases in hotel quarantine.