Central Coast residents who attended an anti-lockdown protest in Sydney over the weekend have been blamed for keeping the region under stay-at-home orders
Thousands of protesters marched through the CBD on Saturday, calling for the lockdown on Greater Sydney and its surrounds to end.
About 150 Central Coast residents travelled down to Sydney to attend the protest, according to local MP Adam Crouch.
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The member for Terrigal announced on Tuesday morning the region’s lockdown would not end as hoped.
“I am disappointed to report this morning that the Central Coast’s lockdown cannot be ended,” he said on Facebook.
“This is due to the unbelievable selfishness of approximately 150 local residents that attended the ‘anti lockdown’ protest in Sydney on Saturday.
“This is also due to the five new local cases announced last weekend.
“Unfortunately, the health risk is just too high.”
Of the 145 new COVID cases announced in NSW on Monday, one is from the Central Coast.
Crouch said if the region was to come out of lockdown, it would “only speed up transmission of the Delta strain”.
On Monday evening, more than a dozen new locations across the Central Coast were added to NSW Health’s growing exposure site list.
“It will take a few days to see if any community transmission occurred at one of the 18 exposure sites on the Central Coast,” Crouch said.
“Hundreds of people were unknowingly exposed to COVID-19 and are now being tested.
“It will also take approximately 14 days to see what impact the ‘anti lockdown’ protest has on local case numbers.”
Crouch added NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian will end lockdown for the Central Coast “as soon as it is safe to do so”.
“It is regrettable that a minority of people have wrecked our chances of ending the lockdown,” he said.
Berejiklian is expected to announce what the future will look like for locked-down regions this week.