The unvaccinated limo driver and his wife at the centre of Sydney's latest Covid outbreak have emerged from isolation feeling 'on top of the world', as the rest of the city suffers through a gruelling two-week lockdown.
Contact tracers believe the 60-year-old Bondi man caught the Indian Delta variant of the virus while transporting Fed Ex air staff to hotel quarantine on June 11 - four days before it spread.
Police launched a probe after it was revealed the driver had refused the AstraZeneca vaccine because of a family history of blood clots and had not been tested daily, but found that he had not breached any health orders.
On Wednesday, the man and his wife left their eastern suburbs home for the first time since testing positive on June 16 to visit the grocery store and Bondi Post Office.
The Sydney Airport driver (pictured) and his wife have left home isolation for the first time in two weeks
The outbreak sparked a two-week lockdown in Sydney. Pictured: Cars line at a Covid-19 testing facility at Bondi Beach on June 26
When the Daily Telegraph asked the wife whether she had any side-effects from the highly-infectious strain of Covid-19, she said she was fully recovered.
'I'm feeling on top of the world,' the woman said.
'It's my first day out of the house and I'm enjoying myself.'
The driver denied claims by NSW Health that he was patient zero of Sydney's outbreak - insisting he caught it at Belle Cafe in Vaucluse instead - but his wife would not give their side of the story when asked by the publication.
'What is there to talk about?' she said. 'If people want to talk, let them talk. It's none of their business.'
His claim was dismissed on Saturday by NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant, who said their investigations had found no evidence to support his story.
On Saturday evening, Sydney was plunged into a two-week lockdown. The Bondi cluster grew to 171 on Wednesday.
The infected limo driver believed to be 'patient zero' claims vividly remembered another customer in his 30s sat near to him at the Belle Cafe in Vaucluse (pictured) who was violently coughing and sneezing
Sydney was plunged into a two-week lockdown on Saturday evening. The number of positive cases grew to 171 on Wednesday. Pictured: A woman in Sydney amid lockdown
The driver previously said was wearing a mask at all times while working as a driver transporting air crew from the airport to hotels.
Health orders require those working around the hotel quarantine system to be tested for the virus daily, and the driver admitted he had not been tested on his days off.
The infection was caught when testing resumed when he returned to work - but he had already been out in the community for several days before getting the positive test result.
During that time, he had fleeting contact with a man in his 50s in Myer at Westfield Bondi Junction who latest tested positive.
Later that week, a woman in her 70s returned a positive test while sitting outside Belle Cafe after the driver walked past her to get inside.
