A young man has been ordered to pay $10,000 after allegedly skipping self-isolation then going clubbing in Newcastle before testing positive to COVID-19.
NSW Police say the 20-year-old was directed to self-isolate at a Newcastle property from last Wednesday because he was a close contact of a positive case.
Instead, they say, he attended a licensed premises on Wharf Road that night.
He later went to another person’s house on Saturday.
A Wednesday night party at The Argyle House nightclub on Wharf Road has now seen more than 200 people acquire the virus.
Newcastle is the epicentre of the Omicron-fuelled outbreak in NSW, with the Hunter responsible for 633 of the record-high 1,742 new cases in NSW in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday.
That is 209 more cases in Newcastle than the previous day, with NSW Health saying the majority are the highly-transmissible Omicron variant.
The cluster has been driven by super-spreading events at pubs and clubs.
Health authorities want the Newcastle community to seriously consider postponing social events until after Christmas to keep family gatherings safe.
An alert was issued on Wednesday night for another Newcastle pub.
Anyone who was at the Cambridge Hotel on Hunter Street between 6.30pm on Friday 10 December and 2.30am on Saturday 11 December must get tested and isolate for seven days.
All household contacts of close contacts should also be tested and self-isolate until a negative result is received.
The government on Thursday extended the vaccine mandate for health care workers, bringing it into line with Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia.
All health practitioners – including doctors, nurses, speech pathologists and naturopaths, and support staff – working in public and private settings must be double-dosed by 31 January.
The mandate previously applied only in public and private hospitals.
It comes after NSW Minister for Health Brad Hazzard on Wednesday revealed modelling on the Omicron strain predicted cases could soar to 25,000 a day by the end of next month.
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