Coronavirus Australia live news: Victoria reports three new Covid cases while masks now mandatory in greater Sydney

US President-elect Joe Biden has clearly heard of this morning’s new mask rules in Greater Sydney and has sent out a message.

People in Greater Sydney have to wear masks in most places indoors from today.

There’s a $200 fine if people don’t follow those rules, but the government has said the fines won’t come into force until tomorrow.

Kids under 12 aren’t included in the rule, but health authorities are encouraging those smaller people to still wear masks where they can.

Victorians know a bit about face masks. For more than three months last year Victoria had a mandatory face mask rule.

In Greater Sydney, here’s the situations where people will have to wear masks:

• shopping (retail, supermarkets and shopping centres)
• public/shared transport, indoor entertainment (including cinemas and theatres)
• places of worship
• hair and beauty premises
• Staff in hospitality venues and casinos and patrons using gaming services.

Here’s a bit of a “how to” guide for mask wearing.

Australian health advice on face masks shifted back in July 2020.

Essentially, they slow the spread of the virus by reducing the amount of respiratory droplets getting out of our nose and mouths and into the air and landing on surfaces.

They also reduce the risk of the wearer breathing those droplets in.

Here’s some more detail on that western Sydney bottle shop in Berala.

Last night NSW Health said anyone who had been to the BWS store on Woodburn Road between certain times on nine different days from 22 December to 31 December was considered a close contact.

That means a lot of people will now have to get tested and then self-isolate for 14 days. Authorities say they’ve increased capacity at testing clinics in the area to cope with demand.

You have to hope those testing clinics will be busy today.

Happy Sunday morning. Graham Readfearn here, taking you through the first chunk of our live coverage for the day.

Today delivers some changes for people in greater Sydney. People now have to wear a mask indoors in most places, with $200 fines coming in from tomorrow if they don’t.

Masks are shown to slow the virus spread by reducing respiratory droplets from spreading and being breathed in – protecting the wearer and the people around them.

Folk in the southern part of Sydney’s northern beaches are out of their home lockdowns and going to nice places, including cafes (where they’ll need to wear a mask).

Later this morning we’ll be getting updates from health authorities in New South Wales and Victoria about any new coronavirus cases and those growing lists of exposure sites.

Last night NSW Health added a list of times to the Berala BWS bottle shop when people with the virus visited between 22 December and 31 December.

Here are the main developments from yesterday:

• NSW recorded seven new Covid-19 cases and Victoria recorded 12.
• Genomic analysis linked the Victoria outbreak to the NSW outbreak.
  
• Queensland confirmed one new case but didn’t change any of its border restrictions.
• Tasmania closed its borders to people who had visited a list of nine hotspots in Victoria.

We’ve summarised border restrictions and keep a list of hotspots that we update as things change.

Let’s go.