What we learned today, Saturday 4 September
Before we wrap up the live blog, let’s recap the main events of today.
It’s been another grim day. The NSW and ACT reported record case numbers. Victoria has warned of a NSW-style growth in its numbers.
- NSW had another record day for cases, with 1,533 new cases and four deaths. Two people died at home in two days. The government also defended the way it reports hospitalisations, following a piece in the Saturday Paper that found the rate was triple if those involved in the hospital at home program were counted.
- Victorians were warned that their outbreak may grow slowly but steadily, in a similar manner to NSW, after it recorded 190 cases. The number is down on the day prior, but the chief health officer, Brett Sutton, warned the trend was still clearly going up. Victoria also expanded its business support program and has indicated an easing of restrictions for the regions may not be far off.
- In the ACT, authorities reported 32 new cases, the worst day so far in the outbreak. The chief minister, Andrew Barr, is particularly concerned about the number of people who have been infectious in the community in the territory.
- Queensland authorities recorded two cases, one of which was local. But the state has not implemented lockdowns or widespread restrictions. They say the cases are under control. But 1,000 families have been told to isolate because a four-year-old who tested positive last night had been infectious in community for two days.
- Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration has approved Moderna for use in children above 12.
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New Zealand has recorded 20 new locally acquired cases, a fall from the day prior, and one death, a woman in her 90s.
Updated
Civil liberties groups have criticised a lack of safeguards and primary legislation accompanying an app being trialled in South Australia that uses facial recognition and geolocation data to enforce home quarantine.
SA is trialling the app, which the government developed, on a small number of volunteers who have returned from interstate. It requires them to answer a message within 15 minutes, using facial recognition and geolocation to verify their identity and location. If they fail to do so, the app alerts police.
The use of the app has generated news coverage in the US, from outlets on both sides of the political spectrum, including the Atlantic and Fox News.
On Saturday, the NSW Council for Civil Liberties said apps like this should not be launched without primary legislation, which allow it to be properly scrutinised, and proper safeguards. Secretary Michelle Falstein told the Guardian it is currently difficult to assess how privacy concerns are being managed, how long data is being kept, who it’s shared with, and how it is stored.
It’s the usual thing, it’s done in a very half-baked way, and without all the necessary provisions about what you actually do with the information you’re collecting.
The state government has said it deletes the information and that those involved in the trial have volunteered. The aim of the app is to reduce costs associated with hotel quarantine.
Read the full story here:
Updated
In New South Wales, the upper house has decided it will not sit next week due to the current outbreak.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports the NSW finance minister, Damien Tudehope, has confirmed the upper house will not sit to prevent Covid from spreading further through regional areas.
The chief health officer, Kerry Chant, had written to state parliament warning of the risk of upper house members seeding the virus in their electorates when they return home.
Tudehope said “it is unprincipled and dangerous for politicians to reject the health advice to pursue their own political agenda”.
Updated
We mentioned a little earlier today that Victoria has expanded its business support package. About $2.34bn will support more than 175,000 businesses in the next four weeks. AAP has a bit more detail on the program:
A new tiered payments system for the Business Costs Assistance Program would allow for higher payments to businesses with more workers, the minister Martin Pakula said.
Program payments will be automatically made at rates of $2,800, $5,600 and $8,400 a week over September, depending on payroll size.
Eligible cafes, restaurants and bars will continue to receive Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund payments of between $5,000 and $20,000 a week.
The Small Business Covid Hardship Fund will increase the grant amount to $20,000 for about 35,000 businesses and the deadline for applications will be extended.
An Alpine support package will also help sustain resorts through the remainder of the season, with an automatic top-up payment of between $10,000 and $40,000.
Updated
Advice is expected within the next week from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (Atagi) on how the Moderna vaccine for 12- to 17-year-olds should be incorporated in the vaccine program after the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s provisional approval of the vaccine earlier today.
“The approval was based on evidence of strong ability for these vaccines to raise just as good, if not stronger, immunological responses as it does in young adults and older groups,” the TGA’s John Skerritt told reporters on Saturday.
Australia on Friday announced a vaccine swap deal with the UK that would provide 4m doses of the Pfizer vaccine to Australia.
Skerritt said 450,000 of the UK Pfizer doses were due to reach Australia on Sunday on two flights. The need for dry ice transportation means the doses “will come to Australia in rolling waves”.
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I’ve said it many times, and I will say it again: Katharine Murphy does not miss, and her latest column is, once again, worth a read:
So at the NSW Covid press conference earlier today, the chairman of Lifeline, John Brogden, was speaking about the importance of maintaining our mental health while in lockdown, and he gave some practical tips that I thought are worth highlighting:
There are a number of things people can do to look after themselves.
It is really important to keep the routine. Don’t stay in bed all day. That won’t help you at all.
Get up, get changed. It is really critical also that you take advantage of the opportunity to exercise.
I sometimes think when we hear the word exercise, people think they have to do 100 push-ups. I don’t think that is what we mean.
What we mean is they have to go out and have a walk – a walk around the block, go to the park and come back, get some sun on your face, some wind on your face, maybe even some rain on your face, but please get out.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to get out of home and use the opportunity for exercise, to get out and get some fresh air.
That is really important as well. I know this is hard, but try not to catastrophise things, because we are getting through this. Gladys Berejiklian has made it very clear, as has Brad Hazzard, things will get worse before they get better, but they will get better.
We are coming through the other side of this. We need to hang on to the opportunity to see a way through this and we need to hang on to the hope that we will get there.
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The Doherty Institute is mentioned very often in Australian politics recently, being the architects behind the nation’s reopening plan.
But how much do you know of the man the institute is named after?
The veterinary surgeon and immunologist Peter Doherty won the Nobel in physiology or medicine in 1996 and was named Australian of the Year in 1997, and is the subject of this great profile from Paul Daley:
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So earlier today it was announced that NSW government MPs will not be attending the upper house next week, in an apparent bid to minimise spread.
The minister for finance and small business, Damien Tudehope, said in a statement that the chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, wrote to the president of the legislative council to outline the risk of transmission in Parliament House.
“NSW government ministers and parliamentary secretaries are giving priority to the possible risk of transmission across the state and have indicated sittings of the legislative council should be deferred,” Tudehope said.
“At a time when we’re asking everyone in NSW to make sacrifices to keep us all safe, it is unprincipled and dangerous for politicians to reject the health advice to pursue their own political agenda.
“It is important for all community leaders to set an example, therefore ministers and parliamentary secretaries will not resume sitting until the health advice provides that it is safe to do so.
Updated
This daily infographic provides the total number of vaccine doses administered in Australia 🇦🇺 as of 3 September 2021 📅
— Australian Government Department of Health (@healthgovau) September 4, 2021
💻Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccine information here: https://t.co/lsM33j9wMW pic.twitter.com/XUbETKaQoS
Good afternoon again, and a thanks to the ever-reliable Christopher Knaus for carrying the blog through the afternoon. There’s still much going on, so let’s dive in.
Updated
I’m going to hand you back to my excellent colleague, Mostafa Rachwani, who will guide you through developments over the next few hours.
Back in Victoria for a moment. One of those new cases was in aged care, at a facility named the Japara Bayview Aged Care Home at Carrum Downs.
Victorian authorities say about 62% of the staff there have been fully vaccinated. About 82% have had a first dose.
Keep in mind that aged care staff were supposed to be vaccinated as part of the highest priority cohort and were at one stage expected to be vaccinated by Easter. Sounds ridiculous to even say it now.
Brett Sutton, the chief health officer, wants to see a higher vaccination rate in the sector. He said:
I would like to see it at a much higher rate. The commonwealth has responsibility for our private sector aged care staff vaccination [and we] will support it in whatever way we can. We’ve obviously opened up our hubs at different times for all aged care staff and we’ve really pushed for them to get vaccinated.
Updated
Western Australia has also stayed free of any local transmission.
It has again reported no new cases overnight. The state says it is still monitoring two cases in hotel quarantine and seven crew members from the MV Ken Hou vessel.
Another two truck drivers who were reported as positive cases last Friday remain in hotel quarantine. Twenty-five contacts of the truck drivers have tested negative.
Updated
South Australia has released a list of new exposure sites in Adelaide.
The exposure sites are listed as tier one sites, meaning anyone who attended them must get tested immediately and quarantine for 14 days with their households.
The new sites are at the Cavan Hotel at Dry Creek in Adelaide on Monday from 6pm to 7pm, and the Cross Keys Hotel at Cavan from Monday 6.15pm to Tuesday 2am.
The exposures are believed to be linked to Covid-positive truck drivers who came from NSW.
The state has recorded no positive cases.
Updated
Mary-Louise McLaws, a professor of epidemiology with the University of NSW, has welcomed the use of rapid antigen testing in Western Australia. The state is planning to use rapid testing to screen drivers entering WA from high or extreme-risk Covid-19 states.
Congratulations, this is a safe way to open up. Rapid antigen tests (RATs) have been available to us for months. Should be used to screen & safeguard our boundaries/borders, venues, schools & institutions. Best RATs match PCR, take 10-15mins & cheaper. https://t.co/OPhxFiLtVf
— Mary-Louise McLaws (@MarylouiseMcla1) September 4, 2021
Updated
Outbreak worsens in NSW and ACT
OK, time to summarise what we’ve learned so far today.
It’s been a busy morning. Here’s what we know:
- NSW has recorded 1,533 cases and four deaths. That is a new case record for NSW. There are now close to 11,000 people infected with Covid-19 in NSW.
- The ACT also had a record day. It recorded 32 new cases. Authorities are concerned about the number of people who have been infectious in the community in the territory.
- Victoria recorded 190 cases, a slight dip on Friday’s numbers. Authorities say the the trend is still very clearly going up. Health authorities have urged Victorians to “hold the line” and comply with the rules until vaccine coverage is higher.
- Queensland recorded two cases and has asked more than 1,000 families to isolate after their children attended the same daycare centre as a four-year-old who tested positive last night and had been infectious in community for two days.
- In positive news, vaccination numbers are improving significantly. Victoria recorded its second biggest day for vaccinations and the ACT is set to pass the 70% first dose threshold this weekend.
- Also on vaccines, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has provisionally approved the Moderna vaccine in people over the age of 12, with the dose and dose interval the same as that for the adult population.
- New Zealand has recorded 20 new locally acquired cases, a fall from the day prior, and one death, a woman in her 90s.
Updated
Brett Sutton says the “hardcore anti-vaxxers” are in tiny numbers and he’s not worried about them.
Those who have unresolved questions or concerns are his focus, he says:
I am worried about people who have questions who aren’t seeking to have them resolved. They might say ‘this is a relatively new vaccine, so is safety assured?’. The answer is: ‘yes’.
They might say ‘I’ve got these chronic conditions, maybe I shouldn’t be getting vaccinated?’. The answers to those are relatively simple: ‘You are so much more of a risk at getting Covid-19’.
Updated
Brett Sutton is confident in the state’s health system and its ability to cope with the growing outbreak.
He says the state has 429 ICU beds available right now.
We’ve accelerated new projects, there are recommissioned former sites. There’s been billions of dollars invested in PPE to keep healthcare workers safe. There is a new pandemic ward opening this week at the Northern hospital, that’s a ward with 28 beds, all with negative pressure control, so it can manage each and every Covid-positive patient.
Updated
Brett Sutton urges Victorians to “hold the line” for the next weeks and months until the state has higher vaccination coverage.
There is really only one way to protect yourself, and that’s following the rules. There’s no question that it’s hard. The alternative is too awful to contemplate. Tens of thousands of cases could be our reality if we don’t maintain those really tricky constraints on our lives. That’s just the really tricky dilemma that we’ve faced right throughout.
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Brett Sutton says he understands the frustration people feel about the lockdown. He says any move to open up will be done gradually.
We know that people are more than fed up, they are absolutely challenged by the lockdown that has gone for weeks and weeks.
He says Victoria’s experience has shown that getting back to zero is “profoundly challenging”.
I think we’ve seen that here. I think that’s the challenge that New Zealand and the ACT will face. We threw absolutely everything at it.
Updated
Brett Sutton says the slight dip in case numbers on Saturday is not evidence of a trend. The numbers will fluctuate, he says, but the overall trend is not good for Victoria.
The overall trend is a slow and steady increase, that’s why vaccination is so critical, as is following the rules.
He says he has seen evidence of ready transmission, including people moving between a supermarket checkout within minutes of each other.
Updated
Brett Sutton says news of additional Pfizer allocations is “absolutely welcome”. The federal government announced on Friday it had secured an additional 4m doses through a swap deal with the UK.
But he says people should be coming forward now for AstraZeneca.
People should really bear that in mind, come forward for AstraZeneca, particularly for those over 60.
Do not wait for other vaccines.
Updated
Brett Sutton says Victoria is continuing to see delays for people coming to get tested for Covid-19. He says there are financial payments available for people who need help to get tested and take time off work.
We are continuing to see reluctance to come and seek testing until it is too late. That’s not to cast blame, that’s to recognise that there are challenges for individuals, there are concerns to come forward to get tested. Testing doesn’t make you positive, getting infected is what makes you positive. Getting tested is what allows you to protect your family and get early treatment as required, and ensure this doesn’t spread any further than it needs to.
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Martin Pakula, Victoria’s jobs minister, announces new measures to support local businesses. He says up to $2.34bn will be available over a four-week period to the end of September, helping 175,000 businesses. The commonwealth is providing half the money.
Pakula says:
The treasurer spoke with treasurer Frydenberg last night and this morning and we are grateful for that ongoing support. Victorian government business support programs have delivered more than $3bn into the bank accounts of businesses since the May-June lockdown and our support overall through the duration of this pandemic is now in excess of $10bn.
Brett Sutton, the chief health officer, says the state’s vaccination figures yesterday were the second strongest they’ve ever been:
Yesterday was our second biggest day ever in state community services. There were an additional 47,000 bookings made yesterday, 25,000 AstraZeneca bookings are still available over the next seven days, so please get in now and take those up.
Updated
Victorian authorities are speaking now.
The state has recorded 190 cases, all locally acquired, with 103 linked to known outbreaks. Another 87 are under investigation.
The state now has 1,301 active cases.
205 of the cases are aged between zero and nine, 213 aged between 10 and 19, 316 are in their 20s and 224 are in their 30s.
There are 76 people in the hospital, 23 in ICU and 14 on a ventilator.
Updated
Thanks Mostafa. Just sticking with the ACT for a moment, chief minister Andrew Barr says the ACT’s outbreak can still be contained.
The overall number of active cases has come down, he says, despite the territory recording 32 new cases overnight.
But, even if the outbreak is contained, Barr says the ACT still remains at significant risk from incursions of the virus from elsewhere in the country. Getting vaccination numbers up is key for easing restrictions, he says:
I appreciate everyone wants to know exact dates. Unfortunately the pandemic does not respond to the community’s or my desire to give an exact date for everything. It’s a constant moving feast of challenges.
As soon as we are in position to provide some more certainty on the short term, we will. Medium and longer term, still need to work through some longer processes associated with national cabinet.
Updated
And with that, I will hand over the blog to Christopher Knaus, thanks for reading.
Andrew Barr is asked when the ACT outbreak may peak. He says it is too early to say.
But he says the territory’s effective reproduction rate – the number of people infected by each positive case – is below one:
The difference for us is that our effective reproduction rate ... is less than one. So our outbreak is being controlled and slowly reducing. NSW and Victoria both have effective reproduction rates of above one.
The territory’s health minister, Rachel Stephen-Smith, is talking about the ACT’s care at home program, which looks after Covid-19 positive patients in their homes.
The NSW government has faced questions about its own home care program this morning, after revelations that the number of people requiring care, both at hospital and through the home care program, was triple that being reported by the state.
Stephen-Smith says the majority of cases in the ACT’s hospital system have been brought in from the care at home program, after their condition worsened.
This program is really important in reducing anxiety among Covid-19 patientse.
Updated
Prof John Skerritt, the head of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), has confirmed that the Moderna vaccine has been approved for children over 12, saying that their advice was partly based on its use in other countries such as the UK, Canada and Switzerland:
Our advice not only utilised the reflections of several of those countries, but also the external advice to the advisory committee on vaccines, and they are an independent committee of community and clinical medical experts. There is full data on the considerations available on our website, so further information there.
The approval was based on evidence of strong ability for these vaccines to raise just as good if not stronger immunological responses as it does in young adults and older groups.
Skerritt also added that the TGA looked at the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis:
Committee also looked at evidence on a very rare set of conditions called myocarditis and pericarditis, associated with the messenger mRNA vaccines, and the Moderna vaccine is an mRNA vaccine like the Pfizer one, and based on experience of hundreds of thousands, hundreds of millions I should say, of doses given overseas, it appears that while this condition is rare and tends to occur more often in younger men, it’s generally transient, most of it resolves through rest, in some patients does require observation and treatment in hospital.
When you look at the overall benefits versus the risks, the benefits significantly exceed, so yet another step in Australia’s campaign to vaccinate the nation.
Updated
The federal Covid update has just begun with Prof Michael Kidd and the head of the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Prof John Skerritt.
Updated
That number out of the ACT (32 cases) is the worst recorded so far in this outbreak. Nineteen were infectious in the community.
But in positive news, the ACT’s vaccination numbers remain strong. Andrew Barr, the chief minister, is confident that more than 80% of its residents will be double dosed in several months.
We will hit the 70% first dose milestone over this weekend, and we are at 46% of the 16-plus population who are now fully vaccinated, noting the two to three-week lag for the vaccines to become fully effective. The trend that we are seeing is that we will get above 80% of our population aged 12 years and over vaccinated.
Updated
The ACT has recorded 32 new cases of Covid-19 overnight, 24 of which were linked to current exposure sites or identified close contacts. But only eight were in quarantine while infectious.
Ten people have been hospitalised in the ACT, two of whom are in ICU and one ventilated.
The chief minister, Andrew Barr, is speaking now:
These headline numbers are not what we wanted today, however half of the cases are close household contacts. And that is the experience of this virus, that if someone catches it, they are highly likely to infect all of their household close contacts who are not fully vaccinated.
Updated
ACT records 32 new cases
The ACT has recorded 32 new locally acquired cases, 24 of them linked to other cases, but only eight were in isolation for their full infectious period, and 19 were infectious while in the community.
Updated
Brad Hazzard has been asked if Randwick will be added to the LGAs of concern as case numbers continue to rise there, and does not rule it out.
But he is also asked why Burwood is still on the list of LGAs when it has only had 36 cases in the past month, whereas the inner west has had 222.
Hazzard’s response:
Can I stress again that the government does not make decisions in a vacuum. Dr Chant was on the call, we were all on the call, for an hour and three quarters as the Burwood mayor had it explained to him by Dr Chant and her team [who] make those recommendations, and her concerns remain at the present time, in over a number of days, averaged out over a couple of weeks, she doesn’t believe Burwood should come out of that LGA of concern status. And I think we have to accept that Dr Chant and her public health team are doing an extremely good job and they will make those decisions, not politicians.
Updated
We are still discussing hospital capacity in NSW, with Brad Hazzard asked if other hospital wards could be used if intensive care units reach capacity (a distinct possibility):
That was mentioned yesterday by the premier, and again the government listens to clinicians, and the clinicians are the ones who establish these arrangements and plans, they understand what is happening, and the premier has indicated we will talk in more detail on Monday about that ... but the point I think she was making yesterday was that, for example, if there is one particular hospital that had all of the ICU beds being used and personnel, there would be arrangements where the patients would be transferred or could be transferred, the clinician’s decision, transferred to another hospital, with a network system.
So that is not a huge issue, but also there is capacity to, for example, as patients step down from the more intensive nature of their presentation to the ICU, there might be in a high dependency unit right next door, still being managed by the intensive care specialist, but as part of a slight physical move within the hospital. So it’s not unusual and I think you are off waiting for the experts on Monday, that is the intensive care specialist who will share with us all, and the community, as the premier said, these issues we want the community to understand over the next few weeks, various stresses and pressures our health staff are working under, and understand that they have good plans and will be kept safe, but that will happen on Monday.
Updated
New Zealand records 20 new cases
New Zealand has recorded 20 new locally-acquired cases, quite a drop, and one death, a woman in her 90s.
Updated
Building on that, Jeremy McAnulty is asked about the hospitalisation rate, with a journalist asking if the rate is closer to 12 or 15%, as is being reported, and not 5%, as mentioned earlier this week by the premier:
Hospitalisation rates can be calculated on different rates, but it is people admitted to hospital. Those numbers are very important and we have been tracking both the number of notifications of Covid throughout the pandemic, but importantly, it is also important to track the number of people admitted to hospital and into intensive care or ventilation, because that provides us with information about just how serious this disease can be for a range of people.
As we have seen in the figures on a daily basis, a range of people across the community are being infected in terms of age, gender, so it is important that people realise, particularly young people who may think they are invulnerable to Covid, they are not.
We are seeing people in their 20s and 30s in intensive care, requiring ventilation from time to time. It is a serious disease and that is why immunisation is just so important, that we prevent this through all the spectrums of the community. Immunisation not only protects yourself from getting [infection] requiring hospitalisation, and even death, but also protects the people around you.
Updated
Our first questions today are following up on the discussion on the quality of at-home care, considering the rising numbers of deaths at home.
Brad Hazzard has largely dismissed concerns, saying it is a “clinical” decision to treat people at home, not a reflection on shrinking health capacity:
I did see a report in the media today about that, but that is not correct. These are clinical decisions managed by the clinicians. The government doesn’t have an input to determining who is in hospital and who isn’t, so the clinicians determine who should be at home and who should be in hospital.
Jeremy McAnulty adds that the two cases who died at home in the past two days were down to the fact they had tested positive after they had died.
But he backs at-home care, saying it reflects the adaptability of the system:
Clinicians are very keen to make sure that the best level of care is provided to individual patients, and often that will be being at home in a familiar environment, outside hospitals, where a bunch of other stuff is going on, and it is not in your best interest to be in hospital if you don’t need to be in hospital. It is always a decision based on the clinicians and what is best for the patient.
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John Brogden, the chairman of Lifeline, has given a mental health update, saying there is a “shadow pandemic” in mental health.
Brogden says Lifeline has seen an 11% increase in calls year on year, and a 28% increase compared to two years ago, but says there was a 5% reduction in suicide last year:
We are coming, we all hope, towards the end of the lockdown. One of the best things we can do for people’s mental health is get out of lockdown as quickly as possible ...
Gladys Berejiklian has made it very clear, as has Brad Hazzard, things will get worse before they get better, but they will get better. We are coming through the other side of this. We need to hang on to the opportunity to see a way through this and we need to hang on to the hope that we will get there. I know it is hard. It is incredibly difficult.
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NSW Health’s Dr Jeremy McAnulty says authorities have detected virus fragments in sewage in places that do not have any positive cases, and urges people there to come forward for testing.
Those areas include Tamworth, Glen Innes and Port Stephens, Cooma and Kempsey.
We have had a number of areas of concern identified through both where highest numbers of cases are occurring and also through positive sewage detections based on our ongoing sewage surveillance system of virus fragments.
So we have seen fragments of the virus that causes Covid in several communities where we don’t have known cases, so we are really stressing that it is so important for people living in those communities to come forward for testing with even the mildest of symptoms.
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Brad Hazzard has just outlined details around the four deaths, saying none of them were vaccinated.
- A man in his 60s died at his home in western Sydney.
- A woman in her 80s died at Fairfield hospital.
- A man in his 50s died at Westmead hospital.
- A man in his 70s died at Liverpool hospital.
Updated
NSW records 1,533 cases and four deaths
Another record tumbles, as NSW records 1,533 new cases to 8pm last night.
The state also recorded four deaths yesterday.
There are now close to 11,000 people infected with Covid-19 in NSW.
Updated
The NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, has just stepped up to provide the daily Covid update.
Updated
On the topic of press conferences, we are also due to hear from the country’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Professor Michael Kidd and Head of the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Professor John Skerritt at 12pm.
NSW to give Covid update at 11am
We are on standby to hear from NSW health minister Brad Hazzard, who will give the state’s Covid update at 11am.
Updated
So the press conference in Queensland has wrapped up relatively quickly, but it felt like there was a sense the government is worried about these two cases who were infectious in the community.
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath pointed out that the next couple of days will be critical, but said there would be no changes to restrictions:
So far there is no restrictions on any stadium, any events. We are not changing the level of restrictions in Queensland other than in the Logan LGA area we are restricting visitors around hospitals, aged care and disability facilities.
That’s a normal process when we are concerned that there may be community cases.”
That’s the only restrictions we have put in place. The next 48 hours is critical here.
And Dr Young had taken the chance to urge people to get vaccinated as a means of “being prepared”:
So we need to be prepared. And the best way to be prepared is to be vaccinated.
So, please, anyone 60 years of age or older could you please immediately, if you haven’t had your first dose, immediately go and see your GP or go to a pharmacy and get vaccinated with AstraZeneca. We have plenty of supplies. There is no shortage. So could you do that immediately.
TGA approves Moderna vaccine for those ages 12-17
The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has provisionally approved the Moderna vaccine in people over the age of 12, with the dose and dose interval the same as that for the adult population.
A statement from the federal government refers to its approval in other country’s as well, and welcomed the approval:
Provisional approval for use in the 12-17 years age group has been made following careful evaluation of the available data supporting safety and efficacy.
The vaccine has also received regulatory approval or authorisation in this age group in several jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, Canada, the European Union and Switzerland.
More than 1,000 families in asked to isolate in Queensland
Queensland’s chief health officer, Jeannette Young, has announced that 100 families whose children attended the same daycare centre as the four-year-old have been forced into 14 days of home quarantine.
Some 960 families of children who attend Windaroo State School must also isolate for 14 days, after the school was attended by 30 students who also went to before and after school hours care at the daycare centre.
I have asked of those 960 families to go into quarantine for 14 days, while we work out what the risk is.
So I’m fairly comfortable that we have the risks from the child probably covered by having the school and that early learning centre go into quarantine. I’m very grateful to all those families for doing that.
Updated
Covid-positive Queensland child, 4, infectious in community for two days
Queensland health minister Yvette D’Ath has stepped up, and has announced that the child who tested positive last night had been infectious in community for two days.
D’Ath has also announced that the truck driver that tested positive earlier in the week visited Beenleigh marketplace on 30 August and went to the Stylish Nails salon inside the Beenleigh marketplace.
She has indicated authorities are now worried about their movements while infectious.
Updated
We have our first press conference time, with Queensland authorities due to give their update at 10am, with NSW to follow at 11am. Victoria have yet to announce the time for their update though.
Labor MP Jason Clare was on ABC News earlier this morning and was asked whether the Queensland government was undermining the national reopening plan:
This shows how desperate the Liberal party is that they have got to go and try to blame the Labor party for the vaccine rollout stuff-ups. The fact is they didn’t buy enough vaccines. That’s the major problem here. The prime minister did more damage to AstraZeneca than anybody else in the country with that late-night press conference that scared the willies out of everyone in the country.
Remember it is the Liberal party that spawned Craig Kelly, who is now going around the country telling people to take horse pills. That have put people in hospital here in Sydney. So that’s just desperation by the Liberal party trying to distract from their own stuff ups.
When pressed to be specific about Labor’s view on the national plan, Clare reiterated the opposition’s support:
We have purposefully and actively said we support the national plan. But I think it is worth making the point that getting to 80% and opening the country up means different things in different parts of the country. So you know, when we get to 80% here in Sydney, and in Melbourne, it means we get our life back.
It means we can step off the driveway after 9pm at night. But it is a fact that when you get to 80%, in Hobart, or Brisbane, or Perth or Adelaide, they get Covid. They have been pretty lucky so far. They are not in lockdown, they can have a beer at the pub, they can do things we can’t.
Now, that’s not an argument for keeping borders closed but what it means is you have to do everything we can to speed up vaccination rates and more vaccine is going to help with that.
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AAP is reporting a Sydney man has been arrested over what authorities say is Australia’s biggest heroin seizure in nearly two decades.
Some 347kg of heroin was seized in December 2020.
Authorities say the heroin was worth $156m.
The 29-year-old man was arrested on Thursday at his home in Mt Colah on Sydney’s upper north shore.
Australian federal police, Australian Border Force and NSW police representatives will address the media on the seizure on Saturday morning.
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There have been endless reports of NSW Health struggling to contact people who have visited high-risk Covid exposure sites and being notified to isolate and test as a close contact.
Its prompted Emma Miller, a professor in epidemiology and infectious disease surveillance at Flinders University, to say that the contact tracing system is “overwhelmed”, which would be “a recipe for disaster”.
That contact tracing process needs to be operating at an optimal level, which the Doherty model specifies.
You can read more on the issue from Rafqa Touma at the link below:
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NSW Health has released a series of new venues of concern overnight, including in Anna Bay, Belmont, Charlestown, Dubbo, Flinders, Heatherbrae, Lambton, Redhead, South Nowra, Tuggerah, Unanderra and Waratah.
⚠️PUBLIC HEALTH ALERT – NEW VENUES OF CONCERN⚠️
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) September 3, 2021
We have been notified of a number of new casual contact venues of concern associated with confirmed cases of COVID 19. pic.twitter.com/0hepk0FCEr
Sky News presenters pull out of media inquiry
Sky News presenters Rowan Dean, Alan Jones and Rita Panahi have pulled out of Monday’s Senate media inquiry, according to committee chair Sarah Hanson-Young.
The inquiry is reconvening to consider YouTube’s temporary ban on Sky News Australia for breaching its policy on Covid misinformation, after it was delayed due to Covid restrictions in the ACT.
“They’ve provided no explanation for declining to appear,” Hanson-Young said. “Curiously their responses to the committee’s invitation were almost identical.”
Hanson-Young said she was disappointed Lachlan Murdoch had declined the invitation to attend.
“Frankly, it’s not surprising that Mr Murdoch does not wish to answer questions relating to the influence of News Corp in the Australian media landscape, or speak to standards of journalism and accurate news reporting across the Murdoch family’s news network,” she said.
“There are a lot of questions for Sky boss [Paul] Whittaker on Monday, and I look forward to hearing his explanation for how the original broadcast of dangerous disinformation and Covid lies was even allowed.”
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Overnight, Queensland Health announced that a four-year-old girl had tested positive, a close contact of the 46-year-old Logan truck driver that tested positive on Thursday.
The child had attended the Boulevard Early Learning Centre at Mount Warren Park on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Children and staff are being advised to immediately get tested and quarantine for 14 days regardless of result.
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Victoria has recorded 190 locally acquired Covid cases
Victoria has released its numbers for today, and there is a slight drop, to 190.
Reported yesterday: 190 new local cases and 0 new cases acquired overseas.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) September 3, 2021
- 35,464 vaccine doses were administered
- 49,548 test results were received
More later: https://t.co/lIUrl1hf3W#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData [1/2] pic.twitter.com/XAZCfkJfzB
Of the 190, 103 are linked to known cases, with more information to come from the state’s Covid update later this morning.
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A Catalyst survey in August has shown younger Australians are entering a spiral of pessimism, with nearly three-quarters of Generation Z believing our lockdowns will endure into 2022.
The survey of 1,200 Australians found that 62% of respondents believed lockdowns will continue next year – a figure that rises to 73% among “Gen Z” (those aged between 18 and 24).
The survey was run by research platform Glow, whose founder and CEO, Tim Clover, said mental health will continue to be an issue as lockdowns persist through 2021:
The state and federal governments have led us to believe that once we get to 70% or 80% vaccination coverage, lockdowns will become a thing of the past. Our research shows that Australians just don’t believe them.
For older teenagers and young adults, who have suffered so much while spending what should be the time of their lives stuck at home, their pessimism really is palpable.
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Hospitalisations are the focus today and leading into the next fortnight, after NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian said we’d see a peak in cases over the next two weeks.
There are a couple of reports making the rounds this morning, including one in the Sydney Morning Herald, which says firefighters and paramedic graduates are on standby to join the fight against the Delta strain.
In an email seen by the newspaper, NSW Ambulance chief executive Dominic Morgan said contingency plans developed last year were being reviewed:
Given the potential for continuing increased demand, we are likely to see increased numbers of patients transported to hospital with Covid-19.
The Saturday Paper is also reporting Covid hospitalisations are three times higher than is reported, when accounting for “hospital in the home” arrangements.
The paper is also reporting that the country’s Critical Health Resource Information System (CHRIS) showed that on Thursday, 80% of ICU beds in NSW were full, with a quarter of those being used for Covid patients.
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Good morning everyone, Mostafa Rachwani with you this morning, expecting another busy day today after another very hectic week.
We begin in New South Wales, which recorded 1,431 new cases and 12 deaths on Friday, both being new daily records.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian had indicated that the health and contact tracing system were not under strain and could manage, contrary to reports on hospitals struggling to keep up.
Elsewhere, Victoria yesterday crossed the 200 daily cases mark, recording 208 cases and one death. The premier, Daniel Andrews, yesterday announced the state would trial home quarantine to bring back stranded residents home. Andrews has warned that unvaccinated Victorians may be “locked out” of venues and events when the state reaches its targets for reopening.
The deaths take the national toll to 1,032.
Queensland’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, continues to stand by her questioning of the national reopening plan, with prime minister Scott Morrison indicating that nation would move ahead with reopening international borders at 80% vaccination rates, regardless of what states are doing.
On Friday, a four-year-old girl tested positive for Covid-19 in south-east Queensland.
The girl was a close contact of a truck driver who was infectious in the Logan community in recent days.
There is still much to get through today, so let’s get stuck in.
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