False rumour about COVID spread reaches acting royalty Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward

A baseless and false rumour that legendary acting stars Bryan Brown and his wife Rachel Ward somehow unwittingly sparked the Northern Beaches coronavirus outbreak in Sydney has been shut down.

7NEWS has confirmed the rumour – which gained traction online on Monday – is completely false.

But the bizarre claim forced Anytime Fitness Avalon to take to social media to address it with a strongly-worded statement.

“It has been bought to our attention that there is a rumour circulating that one of our personal trainers had visited Bryan Brown and Rachel Ward at their home, leading to a spread of infection,” the gym posted to Facebook.

“This is not in anyway correct.

“We and the rest of sensible community would urge the media and ill informed to stop playing the blame game victimising innocent individuals and businesses”.

Earlier on Monday, NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant appeared to let slip that the person who brought the virus strain to the Northern Beaches was a “her”.

But further details about how the virus initially made its way into the community have so far eluded authorities.

Monday night saw COVID alerts for more than 100 venues city-wide – with confirmation the virus was passed on to others at a CBD office, an Erskineville hotel and a Turramurra hair salon where at least five others were infected.