[UPDATED] The Sydney lockdown has been extended to 14 days and now covers a significantly larger geographic area. From 6pm today, Saturday 26 June 2021, Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Wollongong will all be under stay-at-home orders until 11:59pm on 9 July 2021.

You are permitted to leave the house for four reasons only: essential services, educations, to provide care and for outdoor exercise.

Beauty businesses will be required to close as they are not considered essential services. Professional Beauty has contacted the office of the Premier seeking answers on financial support that will be extended to small businesses and the beauty sector for this extended lockdown and beyond.

The modest COVID-19 Disaster Payment of $350-$500 dollars will be available to eligible applicants after the first seven days of lockdown, so from Thursday 1 July 2021.

Watch this space, NSW Health and the ABC for more updates.

[UPDATED] From midnight tonight there will be a stay-at-home order in place for those who live and work in the Local Council Areas of Waverly, Randwick, Woollahra, and the City of Sydney. The order will begin on Friday, 25th of June at midnight, until 11:59pm on Friday, July 2.

Gladys Berejiklian specified in this morning’s press conference: “If you live or work in those four local government areas you should not leave your home unless you have to. What this does is make sure that we haven’t missed any chains of community transmission.”

If you live or work in the four LGAs impact you are allowed to leave your home:

If you are live or work in one of the four impacted areas, you are allowed to leave your home for the following reason: to travel for necessary work or education, outdoor exercise, to provide care or compassion to a relative, and buying essential goods or services.

Business NSW CEO Daniel Hunter says “The new restrictions are a concerning development, however this is a sensible decision that Business NSW supports… If we get on top of this quickly by doing the right thing it is hoped we can avoid extended lockdowns and the devastating knock-on impacts to business.”

In an article on the ABC, Australian Medical Association (AMA) advcoated for stay-at-home orders to be extended across the entire Sydney basin and that current orders are confusing at best. AMA president Omar Khorshid is quoted saying “‘If you work in the CBD but live outside of it, we know if you contract the disease you are going to give it to your family. That is happening with the Delta virus in Sydney right now,’ he said. ‘But the rules don’t apply, as far as we can see, to family. And there’s also confusion about who’s in and who’s out.’”

The restrictions for wider Sydney are still in place and can be found below:

From 4 pm today restrictions on gatherings and mask-wearing will be extended until the 30th of June. The latest restrictions require staff and customers attending to wear masks in the following locations:

• Beauty salons
• Hair salons
• Nail salons
• Tattoo parlours
• Spas
• Tanning salons
• Waxing salons

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said “We don’t take these steps lightly and we never want to impose restrictions unless we absolutely have to. We know the effect this will have on residents and venues but we must take this action now to ensure we keep on top of this outbreak. Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant, and Health Minister Brad Hazzard have urged higher rates of community testing, and continued use of QR Codes.

NSW Health issued a statement to Professional Beauty regarding mask wearing during beauty treatments, saying “Masks must be worn by public facing staff in beauty, wellness and spa businesses. Masks must also been worn by customers, but may be removed if necessary to receive a service and then must be worn again after that service is complete.” This advice is now valid only outside of LGAs City of Sydney, Woollahra, Waverley and Randwick, which are now under stay-at-home orders for 7 days from 11:59pm on Friday, 25 June 2021.

The restrictions occur as Melbourne eases its lockdown measures, however masks remain mandatory indoors.

Clients and customers attending beauty businesses are still required to check-in using the NSW Services Covid Safe App and businesses are still required to follow the pertinent square-meter rule. More information can be found at the NSW Government page for Covid rules and restrictions.

Breaking information is available on the ABC’s Coronavirus coverage and the NSW Government site. See the rest of our Covid coverage here.

We will be updating the this story as more information becomes available.

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