‘Unprecedented’ Police Operation Underway in Sydney to Enforce COVID Restrictions

New South Wales (NSW) Police have issued nearly 600 infringement notices, or fines, on individuals found breaching public health orders on the first day of a three-week crackdown on COVID-19 non-compliance.

Deputy Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said it was “disappointing” that there were issues with compliance even after Australia’s most populous state recorded 452 new COVID infections on Aug. 16.

“Yesterday, we issued 579 infringement notices which is disappointing. It shows that people are still not complying; 34 people received court attendant notices,” he told the Nine Network.

According to Lanyon, police conducted 3,800 “welfare checks” to see if residents were following stay-at-home orders.

One COVID positive man in Sydney’s Fairfield was found to have breached his health order after police arrived at his home and found he wasn’t there. The man was unable to provide a reason for vacating his home.

The entire state of NSW is now under lockdown to contain an outbreak of the Delta variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

Under current restrictions, residents are kept within a 5km radius of their homes. They can only leave their homes for essential reasons, including work, shopping, exercise, and to get the vaccine or tested.

To ensure compliance, authorities have amped up fines from $1,000 to $5,000 for breaches of “self-isolation” rules. Perceived loopholes in public health orders have also been closed, including removing the phrase “recreation” from the few essential reasons that allow residents to leave home. – READ MORE