What happened today, Saturday 28 August
It’s time to wrap things up for another day. Here are today’s main events:
- NSW had another record day with 1,035 Covid-19 cases and two deaths. Friday was also a record day for vaccinations at state vaccination hubs.
- The Berejiklian government announced a small easing of restrictions from Friday 3 September to allow couples to marry with five guests in attendance.
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Health authorities apologised to parents of 12 to 15-year-olds who had booked Pfizer vaccinations only to now have them cancelled. On Friday, the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, had said those bookings would be honoured.
- The NSW ambulance service said it was being overwhelmed by calls and had its second-ever status three alert on Friday night, which means it cannot keep up with demand.
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Victoria recorded 64 new Covid-19 cases, 36 of which had been in quarantine through their infectious period.
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The ACT recorded 26 new cases, 15 of which had been in quarantine. The chief minister, Andrew Barr, said his government had not decided yet if the territory’s lockdown would end on Thursday as planned.
- The home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, said Australia’s operations in Afghanistan had concluded, with 4,100 people evacuated by Australian forces. She said the government was now focusing on resettlement of people who have fled to Dubai and those who have arrived in Australia.
- The Queensland government has taken the first step toward decriminalising sex work by asking the law reform commission to investigate the regulation of a new framework for the industry.
- Indigenous rangers in remote Western Australia have taken a rare photograph of the elusive and endangered night parrot.
Thank you again for joining us and we will see back here tomorrow.
Updated
It has shipped more than a billion doses, saved countless lives – and faced controversy over its safety and supply.
In this piece by Oliver Franklin-Wallis, some of the people involved in the creation of the AstraZenca vaccine tell their story of the race against Covid-19.
Updated
In case you missed it earlier today, Guardian Australia’s science reporter, Donna Lu, has taken a look at why Australia is still at least 18 months away from manufacturing its own mRNA vaccines.
It was only in May that the federal government announced an approach to market, calling on bids from biotech firms interested in manufacturing mRNA vaccines onshore. The government received proposals last month from a number of local players, including frontrunner CSL, which is currently Australia’s only onshore vaccine manufacturer.
You can read the full story here:
Updated
Western Australian authorities say no new Covid cases have been linked to the two infected truck drivers.
AAP reports:
Western Australia has recorded no further Covid-19 cases linked to two truck drivers who tested positive after travelling through three states.
The two drivers were tested as part of routine surveillance in NSW on Wednesday, but being essential workers were allowed to embark on their journey through Victoria and South Australia to WA, where they arrived on Thursday night. They received their test results on Friday and their employer informed WA Health.
The drivers, aged 23 and 29, wore face masks and slept in their truck cabin after arriving in the Perth suburb of Kewdale.
Premier Mark McGowan says contact tracers have identified 20 close or casual contacts, two in Perth and the rest in regional WA. All are in isolation.
“Our health advisers have indicated that the risk from these two truck drivers is very low and everything is being done to manage the situation in accordance with the health protocols,” he told reporters in Broome.
The premier reiterated that the pair had done nothing wrong.
“They have done a hard job in which they drive across Australia, doing long hours and delivering supplies to the communities of this country,” he said.
“When they learned that they were Covid-positive, they notified the relevant people immediately.”
On Saturday, SA Health listed two petrol stations in Port Augusta and another two in Ceduna, where the drivers are believed to have stopped on their journey through the state.
Anyone who was at the locations at the specified times must quarantine for 14 days and undergo several Covid tests during that time.
Public health alerts have already been issued in WA for a BP truckstop in Norseman, the IOR Petroleum fuel station in Widgiemooltha, the Shell fuel station in Southern Cross, and the Mobil roadhouse in Yellowdine.
Anyone who visited the venues during the listed times must get tested and isolate for 14 days, but broader restrictions have not been introduced in the state.
Updated
Dubbo residents can get a jab from the comfort and safety of their car at NSW’s first drive-through vaccination clinic, AAP reports:
In NSW, the state’s first drive-through vaccination clinic has opened in Dubbo, as an outbreak in the regional city nears 400 cases.
In a bid to get infections under control, residents of the regional hub are now able to get a jab from the comfort and safety of their cars.
“It’s a real coup for the Dubbo region and will make a huge difference for people who may have previously struggled to access a jab,” the local MP, Dugald Saunders, said in a Facebook post.
Several other outbreaks across the region also continue to grow, with six more cases detected in Bourke, two in Wellington, and one each in Mudgee and Bathurst.
Four new cases were diagnosed in the predominantly Indigenous town of Wilcannia in far western NSW, taking the cluster to 58 cases.
Australia’s deputy chief medical officer, Michael Kidd, on Saturday said federal health authorities were “very concerned” about the outbreak in the town.
“The commonwealth has been very active in working with Indigenous leaders and with the local Aboriginal community controlled health organisations to boost the vaccination programs, to boost testing capacity,” he told reporters.
“We have a ... team which is helping and going door-to-door offering vaccinations.
“We also have the Royal Flying Doctor Service offering vaccinations through clinics to very small and very remote communities, and of course also being available to provide retrieval if we have people who become seriously unwell.”
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Western Australia has released its daily Covid-19 update.
The state recorded two new cases in hotel quarantine.
These cases are in addition to the two NSW truck drivers reported late yesterday who are in hotel quarantine – who will be counted in the NSW totals, as that is where they were tested.
The state’s total now stands at 1,086. To date, 1,051 people have recovered from the virus in WA.
WA Health is monitoring 28 active Covid-19 cases, comprising eight in hotel quarantine (six cases diagnosed in WA and two cases diagnosed in NSW); and 20 cases are crew members on the MV Ken Hou. The vessel will remain berthed at Fremantle port with all positive crew members remaining on board and their health status monitored daily.
A list of exposure sites related to the NSW truck drivers has been published on the HealthyWA website.
Anyone who visited these sites at the specified times and dates must:
- Quarantine immediately for 14 days and get tested on days two and 12.
- Contact 13 COVID.
Updated
And some more on the border dispute between the Queensland and NSW governments, via AAP:
NSW leaders have hit back at Queensland’s “frustrating” approach.
“Let me make this clear, despite noise from the Queensland government yesterday, the NSW government vehemently opposes moving the border check point south to the Tweed River,” NSW deputy premier John Barilaro said in a statement on Saturday.
“What we want is a genuine border bubble so that workers can get to work and people can access vital health care.”
Barilaro again wrote to Queensland health minister Yvette D’Ath in the past week to advocate for that solution instead.
A border bubble would still require travel permits, while moving the border south would not, but would create a challenge for Queensland to police an area outside its own jurisdiction.
There is no neat geographical feature which can be used to support enforcement and compliance operations, NSW authorities say, and the region’s access to health care would be diminished if the Tweed Hospital was temporarily absorbed into Queensland.
NSW officials were trying to develop a workable solution for border community, but their attempts have “fallen on deaf ears” Barilaro said.
“NSW correspondence goes unanswered, even my own letter to the Queensland health minister has gone unanswered.”
“It is becoming clear Queensland is not serious about finding a solution for our border communities.”
NSW health minister Brad Hazzard also piled on.
“It’s very frustrating for residents in the northern part of NSW to be effectively locked out by Queensland, and it’s presenting some real challenges,” he told reporters on Saturday.
“There are medical staff who are on the side of the border who work at the Gold Coast hospital and vice-versa.
“It’s certainly problematic.”
Moving checkpoints had been looked at and deemed unviable, but discussions continue, he said.
Updated
AAP reports:
Hopes of ending weeks of heartache for communities on the Queensland-NSW border have been dashed once more, with the states’ leaders again ramping up a war of words over a proposal to move the hard border checkpoints south.
Queensland in late July reintroduced a hard border with its southern neighbours in response to the spiralling outbreak in NSW, progressively tightening exemptions for cross border travel.
Currently only a small class of essential workers from NSW can enter Queensland, creating chaos for the southern Gold Coast and Tweed regions.
But the Queensland government announced NSW had finally come to the table on moving the hard border.
An earlier offer to move checkpoints south to temporarily include the border town of Tweed Heads within Queensland was declined by NSW.
“We are very pleased that finally, after so many months, NSW has now said they are open to talking with us on moving checkpoints,” Queensland attorney general Shannon Fentiman told reporters on Saturday.
“As someone that grew up on the Gold Coast, that border community really is one community and trying to make things easier for people to take their kids to school, to get medical appointments absolutely makes sense.”
“We’re just really pleased that NSW has finally realised how tough it is for that border community,” she said.
She said it’s very early days, with issues like policing of the border to be worked out.
Updated
Andrews says Australia’s operations in Afghanistan “have now concluded”.
She says Australia was now focusing on the resettlement of people who have fled to Dubai, and resettling those who have arrived in Australia.
Our operations in Afghanistan have ceased...our focus is very much on settlement, resettlement options.
Andrews was asked what she would say to Australians who are concerned for loved ones who have not been able to leave.
This is an incredibly difficult time for all Australians but particularly those people who have family and friends that are still in Afghanistan...we are very concerned about their safety primarily but also their health in Afghanistan.
As I’ve indicated previously what we need to do is make sure that everyone who needs to be is registered through Dfat or through our humanitarian program and then we will do everything we can to ensure they can come to Australia.
Andrews said that humanitarian intake of 3,000 people was “a floor, not a ceiling” and may increase at a later date.
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Andrews says that people who want to come to Australia can apply online through the department of foreign affairs website, and said that those who do not have internet access can have a family member or someone else apply in their stead.
Andrews said:
We do need to have an orderly process for these people to come to Australia. Now I’m on the record in the past as saying we won’t compromise the security of our nation. So we do have to do security checks on everyone.
Andrews said Australia was “shifting heaven and earth to make sure we are doing everything we possibly can” to get Australian citizens and residents out of Afghanistan.
She said the evacuation of 4,100 people so far was due to the work of Australian armed forces, who worked in difficult conditions.
The temperature on the tarmac was approaching 60C...It was horrendous conditions just with the weather there, let alone the fact that there were imminent terror attacks and we know that terror attacks have now taken.
Updated
Home affairs minister Karen Andrews gives update on Afghanistan evacuation
The Australian home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, is giving a press conference in Canberra about efforts to evacuate people from Afghanistan.
She says 4,100 people have been evacuated from Kabul by Australian forces.
Andrews says there are 1,035 arrivals from Afghanistan in hotel quarantine in Australia today, and the government is looking at “moving them into settlement options in the community as soon as possible”.
Some of those people are permanent residents and citizens who “have not been in Australia for some time”.
Australia has said it will take 3,000 refugees from Afghanistan. More than 3,000 are expected to apply, she says.
We’re specifically looking at people who have links to Australia, they may have family here. We are also looking at minorities so women and children as well.
The Western Australian science minister, Roger Cook, is giving a press conference at 3pm Perth time to “comment on the launch of WA’s first space satellite”, according to the alert.
As he’s also the health minister, he is likely to give an update on the Covid situation as well.
Updated
NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, mentioned earlier that the NSW Health building was undergoing a deep clean because it had been identified as an exposure site after a Covid-positive person entered the building.
It is one of the reasons the press conference was held outside today, Hazzard said. That, and the fact that being outdoors significantly lowers the risk of transmission.
Cleaners were working in the building this morning.
Updated
A vegan activist who reportedly staged a protest at a Louis Vuitton store in Perth wearing underwear and smeared in what she said was her own blood has been charged with disorderly behaviour.
The 27-year-old woman from Bicton allegedly entered the store in Raine Square about 2pm last Saturday, “partially clothed and covered in a dried red substance which she purported was her own blood”, a statement from WA police said.
During this time the woman was in close proximity to adults and young children.
It is further alleged two men accompanied the woman and filmed her protest, uploading the vision online.
The woman and two men, a 22-year-old from Kewdale and 27-year-old from west Perth, were all charged with disorderly behaviour in a public place and are due to appear before the Perth magistrates court next month.
Updated
Reporter Caitlin Cassidy is based in Shepparton, and says this lockdown, with up to a quarter of the population in isolation, has left the town quieter than ever before.
She writes:
The Goulburn Valley highway, which stretches north-south through Shepparton, is usually busy with an endless rumble of trucks a constant passing through the city centre en route from Brisbane to Melbourne.
In previous lockdowns, the drop in traffic and closure of shops and schools had been noticeable, but not acute. People still lined up for takeaways on Saturday mornings, children still raced their bikes down by the Goulburn river, where – under lacing gum trees and yellow wattle – Covid-19 felt 200km away, a city problem, not something that touched the regions.
Now, Shepparton’s outbreak has swelled above 75 cases, seeding into nearby Kyabram, Echuca and Merrigum, and the Goulburn valley has unwittingly found itself at the centre of the most significant Delta outbreak in regional Victoria. A third of Shepparton’s roughly 60,000 people are locked in their homes in isolation and the roads, as well as the supermarkets and cafes, are empty and quiet.
You can read the full story here:
Josh Frydenberg has acknowledged that managing carbon risk is now a major preoccupation in global capital markets as the Morrison government mulls what commitments it will take to the Cop26 in Glasgow later this year.
While Nationals have incorrectly characterised managing carbon risk as virtue signalling on multiple occasions, the treasurer told Guardian Australia’s politics podcast that climate change, and the assessment of carbon risk, was now “influencing global capital markets in a significant way”. He acknowledged it was a “factor behind financial stability”.
“We are going to see more and more climate-related disclosure and regulatory agencies are across that, both here and overseas,” Frydenberg said. The treasurer acknowledged with the world moving to constrain carbon emissions in line with the Paris agreement goals, there were now “material risks” to Australian businesses.
Read more in Katharine Murphy’s story here:
Here is a little more on the Covid situation in New Zealand via AAP:
New Zealand’s Covid-19 outbreak has worsened once more, with 82 new cases taking the total infected to 429. All of Saturday’s cases are in Auckland, with the Pacific community again overrepresented with 62 cases.
The 82 cases – constituting the country’s fifth-worst day of the entire pandemic – were reported on the 11th day of lockdown.
“We are definitely seeing the effects of alert level four. That’s kicking in,” Shaun Hendy, a University of Auckland physics professor and Covid-19 modeller, said.
“But we want to see numbers start coming down. Any increase is disconcerting.”
Officials say recent spread of the virus is largely contained to households, which would suggest an eventual tailing off of cases.
Still, mounting cases are a problem.
NZ sends all positive cases to quarantine facilities, but faced with a shortfall of beds, it has this week announced a new facility to house cases. A proportion of new cases also require hospital-level care, putting strain on the health system.
As of Saturday, 25 cases require hospital-level care, and two are stable in intensive care.
The University of Otago epidemiologist Michael Baker said NZ’s course remained the right one.
“Famously New Zealand goes hard and early. And it’s worked very well so far,” he said.
“The New Zealand plan is different to the Scott Morrison plan.
“We’re going to continue to eliminate until we have very good vaccination coverage, and that keeps our options open and we stay in control of the virus.”
Updated
And continuing with the environmental theme for a moment, here is a story you may have missed by my colleague Royce Kurmelovs.
Residents of tiny King Island, in Bass Strait, are objecting to seismic testing off its coast by a US oil and gas company, saying concerns it will affect local fisheries have not been properly addressed.
The energy giant ConocoPhillips was given final approval earlier this month to look for gas in a 4,089sq km area, a little more than 20km off the island’s west coast. Work began this week.
Fishers joined surfers, environmental activists and other local residents of the 1,600-strong island population in a protest against the testing on Thursday. Two commercial fishing vessels, four dinghies and 20 people met on the water, while 100 residents gathered on the wharf.
Read more here:
Updated
Rare sighting of night parrot in Western Australia
For a little change of scenery, there is a nice story today from my regular environment round.
Indigenous rangers in remote Western Australia have taken a rare photograph of the elusive (and endangered) night parrot.
The night parrot is one of only two nocturnal parrot species in the world, its populations are in very small numbers and sightings do not happen often.
Martu rangers captured a picture while working on a federal government regional land partnership program.
“From 1912 to 2013, there was no record of a night parrot sighting and even since then, there have only been a handful seen,” the environment minister, Sussan Ley, says.
“Aboriginal ranger groups from the southern Kimberley to the Western Desert are using their skills and traditional knowledge to assess and survey known and potential habitat for a ground-dwelling bird that lives in only a handful of very isolated regions of the WA northern inland and in south-west Queensland.
“A fundamental challenge for protecting and recovering the night parrot is simply locating those existing populations, and that is why this fleeting glimpse captured by Martu rangers is so exciting.”
Updated
Good afternoon everyone.
The Australian Medical Association has welcomed the finalisation of a no-fault indemnity scheme for Covid-19 vaccinations and says it will be a boost for the vaccination rollout.
The AMA president, Omar Khorshid, says:
The AMA has led the push for the introduction of this scheme, and worked closely with the government, medical defence organisations and the business sector including the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
This scheme is a vote of confidence in the safety of the vaccines being used in Australia and sends a strong message to patients that, in the extremely rare case of serious side-effects, you can access compensation without having to resort to expensive and complex litigation.
The new scheme will apply regardless of where you received your vaccine – whether it is at your local GP, state/territory-run health service, workplace, or other approved health provider.
Khorshid says under the scheme, injured patients can apply to Services Australia for commonwealth-funded compensation. An expert panel will assess the veracity of claims and determine common law-equivalent compensation settlements funded by the commonwealth.
Updated
On that note I will hand over to Lisa Cox, who will take you through the rest of the day.
Thanks for your company this morning. Keep well, and if you’re one of the millions of us in a locked down jurisdiction, stay at home.
Updated
Queensland moves to decriminalise sex work
The Queensland government has taken the first step toward decriminalising sex work, asking the law reform commission to review and investigate the regulation of a new framework for the industry.
It comes a week after legislation to decriminalise sex work was tabled in the Victorian parliament.
The Queensland attorney general, Shannon Fentiman, told AAP on Saturday:
Feedback from the sector has been that current laws criminalise safety strategies used by sex workers.
A key focus of this review is the safety of workers and putting in place proper regulation so the industry doesn’t operate in the shadows.
Sex workers shouldn’t have to choose between working legally and being safe at work.
The Queensland Law Reform Commission will consult with workers and licensees, their representative bodies and other stakeholders as part of the process.
There are currently two legal forms of regulated sex work in Queensland: services provided in a licensed brothel, not including outcalls from the premises; and those provided by sole operators in-house or as outcalls.
Any other form of sex work is illegal including services provided by escort agencies, unlicensed brothels, massage parlours, street workers and two or more sex workers operating from a single premises.
The commission will provide its report, including any draft legislation required by 27 November 2022.
Updated
On a lighter note, Naaman Zhou has compiled an oral history of the well-known Sydney restaurant Golden Century, which is facing an uncertain future.
He writes:
As long as you are in Sydney, you are never very far from Golden Century. Depending on your age, your background and the time of day, what the multi-storey Cantonese restaurant in Chinatown means to you might differ. But through its endless opening hours, its influence on the food around it, and more than three decades of memories, it’s always there.
My mother told me it was the first restaurant she ever took me to in Chinatown, for what was my first Chinese New Year. On another visit, she ran into a friend. He was surprised to see a family eating there on a weeknight – he thought it was only for political schmoozing and big nights out.
In the 1999 cult classic film Two Hands, starring a young Heath Ledger and Rose Byrne, it’s there in the background as the two characters have their first date. Chefs eat there when their own venues close, touring rockstars are taken in pilgrimage and for those in politics, New South Wales Labor particularly, it is the place where deals are done and dreams come true.
With the venue in administration, its future in the same location is uncertain. Guardian Australia compiled some memories of the restaurant from the diners who knew it best.
You can read the rest of Naaman’s piece here:
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A reminder that you can follow our rolling coverage of the rapidly developing situation in Afghanistan here:
Updated
Back in Victoria, a reporter has asked if it is difficult to keep Victorians under hard lockdown when in NSW there are “signs of hope” in the form of picnics and weddings being allowed.
The health minister, Martin Foley, says:
I’m not sure 1,000 cases a day is a sign of hope. I’m not sure hundreds and hundreds of people in hospital is a sign of hope, in a health system that is under strain – despite the protestations of federal ministers who would not frankly know what the situation of delivering a single service in a healthcare system is.
He adds:
We are not going to put our health system in that level of stress and strain.
Asked if he thinks it is difficult for Victorians to understand that the Victorian government has taken a different approach than NSW, Foley says he is pretty sure Victorians understand the difference. And that:
I’m pretty sure if they had their time again they may have gone harder earlier at the start of their outbreak ... none of us can revisit history.
He says the Victorian lockdown strategy “is based on hope”:
That is based on the aspirations that Victorians know that following the rules, the public health measures, is the quickest way to get our case numbers down, and vaccination is the quickest way to get our protection up.
And with that, the Victorian press conference is over.
Updated
Back to the ACT press conference.
The ACT’s chief minister, Andrew Barr, has been asked if the territory will be in a position to come out of its lockdown on Tuesday given cases have still been infectious in the community.
He says:
This is a question everyone wants answer to. I don’t have an answer today. We need to find more out about the six cases today. We need to see what tomorrow’s figures look like and what Monday’s figures look like.
We are most focused not on the headline case number but on infectious in the community.
What we are seeing ... is household infection and close workplace infection being the major sources of new numbers and new cases ... which is why we need caution and good Covid safe plans around restarting industries and around ensuring workplaces can remain safe.
He says they don’t want to be in the same position as Sydney, where workplace transmission has been a driver of continued growth in cases.
I know that’s a difficult message for some businesses to hear at the moment.
But we’re not putting in place these measures because we feel like it.
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Victoria’s health minister, Martin Foley, says that if additional vaccine supplies are made available – similar to the Pfizer doses bartered from Poland – “Victoria would want our fair share”.
He says:
We don’t begrudge NSW its vaccines that they have been allocated. I think they have yet another thousand cases today.
I see that in recent days they have skyrocketed past Victoria’s total number of cases over the course of the pandemic. The levels of hospitalisation and ICU is very challenging, and we want to make sure that the commitment that has been made to all Australians to get vaccines into anybody that wants them is done as soon as possible.
And if there is extra vaccines to be hard, Victoria would want our fair share.
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Asked if lifting lockdown in Victoria next week on 2 September is out of the question, Jeroen Weimar says that will depend on what the numbers show over the next few days, particularly in terms of mystery cases and cases not in isolation.
He says the hard lockdown has made a difference:
What I will say we have accomplished in three weeks is that the place hasn’t exploded.
We have seen strong, robust control over these outbreaks ... we have got literally thousands of people, 20,000 people, in isolation at the moment as primary close contacts. Another 15,000 secondary close contacts on top of that. And you’ve got thousands of healthcare workers doing everything they can to get this thing under control, to keep it on the deck. It is on the deck at the moment, but not fully under control, and that is the work we have to do in the days ahead.
Updated
Jeroen Weimar says there are now 41 cases under investigation, of the 701 active cases in the outbreak. That’s down 20 from yesterday and then up 15 overnight, so they are continuing to clear them and link them back, he says.
In the western suburbs, Weimar says, there have been unlinked cases “grumbling along at a fairly consistent level, so we haven’t seen a big spike, not a big amplification event, not seeing any big spreading events – that’s really good, a good sign”.
Then there’s the Sunshine West industrial estate, which continues to ping on the wastewater detection despite high levels of tests being done and no confirmed cases.
Weimar says:
It is an absolute Agatha Christie story at the moment. We’ve done repeated wastewater testing on a daily cycle over the last two weeks, pinging for the last 10 days ...
We’ve done literally thousands of tests of people working on that site. It is a very large site. We’ve had good cooperation from Australia Post and other businesses on that site. We continue to work with other smaller businesses to track down what is going on there.
Updated
The ongoing appearance of mystery cases in the Victorian case numbers is the main thing standing in the way of lockdown being lifted. So let’s try to break those figures down a bit.
The Victorian Covid response commander, Jeroen Weimar, has been going through this in his characteristic speed. So I’ll try to catch you up.
There are 15 mystery cases today. They are four in Port Melbourne, and more in the western suburbs.
Weimar says those cases appear to be geographically clustered:
We are saying it is very likely that this is a common source of transmission with other cases who have a very similar pattern. So if I take the four cases in Port Melbourne as an example, those are all four cases who have been to the same facilities at roughly the same time. We don’t yet have an epidemiological link that says we can see that Percy and Sarah and Bill all directly contacted with each other and overlapped with each other at that time, but we all know that they went to the same site. We’ve regarded that as a linked cluster and will work through that epidemiological connection.
The problem with geographically linked clusters, rather than those with direct person-to-person links, is it is much harder to shut them down because you don’t have the same clarity of close contacts.
The Shepparton outbreak, in contrast, is a very clear picture. “It’s like a ball that is pinging around and you can see exactly where it’s been,” Weimar says.
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'Concerning' case numbers in NSW have implications for the ACT, says Andrew Barr
In Canberra, the ACT chief minister, Andrew Barr, has been asked about NSW’s record case numbers and what effect that might have on the local lockdown of the ACT.
He says:
Numbers of that magnitude are concerning for NSW and have implications for the ACT.
NSW have extended their regional lockdown well into September ... so decisions in relation to our situation are mostly based on the epidemiology of the Canberra outbreak but influenced somewhat by the epidemiology of the surrounding region.
Hence we’ve taken a very cautious approach and I’ve been clear that the balancing act that we have to perform between now and getting 80% and beyond of our population vaccinated is going to be a very difficult one.
Barr says the coming months will require “a challenging balance of public health directions” and acknowledges there is a need for some level of economic activity in the city.
He says there is clear feedback from businesses that they prefer jobkeeper to the current disaster payment arrangements:
The clear feedback from business is they prefer the jobkeeper arrangements. I think the evidence would support that.
But clearly jobkeeper came at a much greater cost to the commonwealth government, which is why they’ve been not so keen to have it in place in this wave of the pandemic.
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Victoria’s Covid response commander, Jeroen Weimar, has been talking about the stories he heard at a community meeting of MyCentre childcare in Broadmeadows last night.
He heard from the parents of very young children who have tested positive to Delta, and in some cases been very ill.
He says:
I heard again last night – a young mother who described how her child had picked up Covid from the childcare centre through no fault of their own and how rapidly it had spread through her household and the implications and the discomfort and the real distress the child went through, but also the other members of the familiar went through.
She expressed very clearly her fear as a mother for not only for the child who was ill, but the rest of her family, and you’re sitting there knowing that the likelihood is that Covid will run through your entire household. It was a very moving and very powerful story, and there are hundreds of stories like that.
We have 701 active cases of Covid in our community at the moment. There are 701 stories of what this feels like and the concern and fear and worry that people go through.
He continues:
The minister and I come up here every day and talk about the numbers and data and stats, but these are all human stories, and I have friends who are living with Covid right now, and that is a difficult and challenging prospect for them as they see their children – waiting for their children whether they will turn positive in the next week.
Those are real human stories and real human concerns. I appreciate for fortunately the vast majority of us, Covid hasn’t hit us personally, our household or our families, and that increasing and that’s something that nobody wants to get.
Updated
Let’s go back to Victoria for a moment, and specifically to what is happening in Shepparton.
This was mentioned by the health minister, Martin Foley, earlier.
Foley says Emergency Management Victoria is on the ground supporting the thousands of people who are sill isolating in Shepparton:
Goulburn Valley Health and the local public health unit are leading the charge there with their great work in contact tracing and testing, and we’ve seen the community respond to those testing calls in really solid numbers, with more than 20,000 tests being done in Shepparton this week.
Rumbalara Aboriginal Co-operative, the local Aboriginal health service, is working closely in partnership with Goulburn Valley Health and they are working around the clock to keep their strong Indigenous community in the Goulburn Valley both engaged and safe.
The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, Regional Development Victoria, the Greater Shepparton council, the Red Cross and a range of other civic partners are doing a great job in supporting that local community in the way they are to keep themselves isolated and safe as they get through these challenges. I want to particularly thank the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria, Uniting Primary Care Connect and the Salvos, all of whom are part of the civic organisations groups from right across the state and right across the Goulburn Valley who are getting together to get the Shepparton and wider community through these challenges ...
Emergency relief packages are being got out in record numbers and are available for people to continue to be supported through their self-isolation – food, essential support, medicines – all the kinds of things that people need are there and the system has cranked up to record levels to make sure that the Goulburn Valley community get through these issues.
Requests for any of these packages can be made by calling the coronavirus hotline on 1800 675 398, and pressing the option 4 to get you through to the right number. The Red Cross alone has been distributing hundreds of packages to support the community over recent days and will distribute hundreds more over the weekend as they respond to more demand.
Updated
The ACT has reported 26 new cases of Covid-19, 15 of which were in isolation
The ACT’s chief minister, Andrew Barr, is giving an update now.
He has reported 26 new cases, 20 of which have been linked and six under investigation.
Fifteen of the cases were in isolation throughout, seven were infectious in the community, and four are still being investigated.
There were 2,937 tests done.
ACT COVID update 28 Aug
— Anna Vidot (@AnnaVidot) August 28, 2021
26 new cases
20 linked
6 under investigation
15 in quarantine throughout
7 infectious in community
4 being assessed
10 in hospital (1 released since yest)
1 still remains in ICU
2937 tests conducted
Barr: "We'd like to see that get a little higher"
Updated
New Zealand has recorded 82 new cases of Covid-19
From Reuters:
New Zealand reported 82 local Covid-19 cases on Saturday, all in the epicentre Auckland, as the nation remains under a strict lockdown to quell an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant.
This brings the number of cases of the community outbreak to 429. There are 415 active cases in Auckland and the remaining 14 in the capital city Wellington. Twenty-five of the patients are in hospital, two in intensive care, the health ministry said in a statement.
Updated
Back in Victoria now.
The health minister, Martin Foley, has faced questions about whether the state government is paying GPs to staff their vaccination clinics on the weekend.
He objects to this question, saying that administering the medical benefits scheme – which allows GPs to claim Medicare for administering vaccines – is a federal responsibility.
Foley says:
We know the medical benefits scheme is a commonwealth responsibility, and both the distribution of vaccines to GPs and the payment of GPs has always been a commonwealth responsibility. I know that the GPs have had some issues as to whether they believe that is adequate. In the hotspots, especially Altona North, where we have seen some real fantastic leadership by GPs, we are working with a couple of them to look at how we can demonstrate to the commonwealth that there are better ways of supporting GPs to ramp up their efforts.
Is the state government paying them though, a reporter asks?
Foley replies:
Well, at what point does the commonwealth stop outsourcing its responsibilities to the state? That is my question.
There is no question that the GPs’ payment system is the responsibility of the commonwealth. In terms of a couple of model arrangements, where we have provided extra vaccines, with that comes extra costs. We are not paying GPs’ medical benefit schemes arrangements, but we are supporting those GPs both in the extra vaccines, both Pfizer and AstraZeneca, and meeting some of the extra establishment costs that go with that.
But we are not meeting medical benefits arrangements, because at what point does the Victorian government say to the commonwealth government, you know, quarantining is outsourced to us, responsibility and support for residential aged care, disability aged care, all of which were going to be done by Easter under the commonwealth’s plan, we are still supporting, because that is the right thing to do.
Supporting GPs to demonstrate that they can do more is the right thing to do. And it all gets back to supply. The state supply will deliver more as soon as we get it, GPs will deliver more as soon as they can get it. We are demonstrating to the commonwealth, but the one thing that holds us back them up at north and the west, where there is a very strong demand, is supply.
If the state is giving them more supply, a reporter asks, shouldn’t they then support them to stay open longer?
Foley says:
We are demonstrating, because someone has to, that the GPs can do more if they have their systems back up and supplied to extra levels.
The distribution of the primary healthcare network is a commonwealth responsibility. If we can demonstrate to the commonwealth through a couple of model examples that they can do more, then I think that is a wise investment, but clearly in those areas of the north and western suburbs where there is disproportionate cases of Covid, and if we can respond to that with more vaccine, we think that is a wise investment.
Updated
There’s another question in NSW about the plan to allow weddings with up to five guests from this Friday.
Can couples be married indoors and are hair and makeup services allowed?
Brad Hazzard says:
That’s an interesting question. The purpose is to allow people to get married. But sensibly. I’m sorry that we cannot allow receptions.
I think the short answer is we cannot allow it at the present time because we have had circumstances where weddings have actually been massive superspreader events but, more importantly, bringing large groups of people, your friends, together right now is dangerous. It is just dangerous.
So we have found a balance and the balance is obviously the couple can get married with five people present and those who are necessary for the service and I think that’s a reasonable balance. As to makeup and hair, I think you know, like all of us know, while we all are pretty desperate actually to get a haircut – I think I have taken some large lumps out of my head trying to do it to myself.
But the reality is it is not safe to do it, but if you are living in a household and getting married, I’m sure there is someone there who could help you with your makeup.
The NSW press conference has now concluded.
Updated
Back to the NSW press conference:
Brad Hazzard has been asked if Camden and the rest of Penrith could be classified as LGAs of concern with rising case numbers.
He says:
Obviously the public health team are still reviewing the circumstances and watching the numbers closely in Camden and Penrith but the basic message to the community in those areas is lookout for any symptoms and definitely get tested, please. That is the only way we can manage. And go and get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Hazzard is also asked about the plan to get teachers fully vaccinated.
Journalist:
In terms of vaccination for teachers, we are hearing some independent Christian schools are saying they have 10% of their teaching staff who are not considering getting vaccinated. What will the government do? Will they be unable to teach or what’s the process? What discussions have you had with some of those independent sectors?
Hazzard:
I have seen those reports and what I would just say to teachers ... it really is essential that you go and get vaccinated. I know there are some challenges in particular communities who have particular views but at the end of the day, vaccination is the way out of this and we all went to our broader community, to our family, to our nation to get vaccinated.
Updated
The aged care worker in Echuca who tested positive to Covid-19 yesterday has now tested negative.
This case is associated with the Shepparton cluster.
Jeroen Weimar says that both tests – the positive result and the negative result – are accurate results:
I can confirm there was a staff member who tested positive at that aged-care facility and that is a confirmed positive test result. She has since tested negative. The positive test stands and the negative test stands. We also have linkages to her household with the Shepparton cluster. We believe that that household is coming to the end of its infectious period. We are doing serology work to establish the nature of the cases and what the timeline has been.
The person works at a Wharparilla Lodge aged care home in Echuca, which has 88 residents. Some 92% of residents have had their first dose and 52% of staff have had their first dose. Weimar says a vaccination team is on the way to Echuca to offer more vaccines to other staff members.
Updated
Victoria’s Covid response commander, Jeroen Weimar, has broken down the new cases in Victoria today.
They are:
- Seven new cases linked to the Shepparton outbreak, bringing it to 85 with more than 9,000 primary close contacts, of which 83% have returned a negative result
- Ten linked to the Broadmeadows cluster
- Seven in the Carlton and Brunswick area
- One associated with Al Taqwa
- One in the city of Dandenong
- Nine in known close contacts
- Twenty-one in the western suburbs of Melbourne, including nine in Wyndham, eight in Newport/Altona North and three in the city of Hume
- Seven in Port Melbourne and St Kilda
Updated
Victorian health minister Martin Foley speaks in Melbourne
Victoria’s health minister, Martin Foley, has begun speaking in Melbourne.
As reported earlier, there were 64 positive cases today, taking the total active cases to 701.
Foley says there are currently 42 people in hospital with Covid in Victoria, 13 in intensive care, and eight on a ventilator.
Foley also says the wastewater surveillance team continues to register Covid-positive samples in the Sunshine West industrial estate, despite no case being detected. The testing teams have been working with businesses in the area but anyone who has worked in the area is urged to get tested.
There have also been positive wastewater detections in Manningham and Monash in the city’s east.
Updated
Parents who booked children aged 12 to 15 in for a vaccine appointment after a glitch in the system allowed them to book early have had their bookings cancelled.
You may recall the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said yesterday that “any bookings made successfully are honoured”.
Brad Hazzard said today:
I was advised last night, there had been some sort of computer glitz, which allowed people in the age bracket 12 to 15 to be able to book in circumstances that were not actually intended at this point.
As the prime minister announced yesterday, for the broader group of 12 to 15-year-olds, that will occur mid-September, but of course, for quite some time there has been a capacity through the system to book 12 to 15-year-olds who are Aboriginal and children with underlying severe health issues ... suffice to say, is not desirable obviously that people have been able to use the system and effectively to be able to book in when it is not ready for those young people yet.
The NSW Health deputy secretary, Susan Pearce, apologises for the inconvenience, but says there have been cases of parents being able to book in error, or using a link that was shared around social media.
Pearce says the health team has tried not to cancel the bookings of eligible children.
Updated
The head of the NSW Ambulance service, Dr Dominic Morgan, says that ambulances are being overwhelmed with calls related to Covid-19 – including some which are unnecessary that include being asked to ferry people to vaccination clinics.
Morgan says last night NSW Ambulance had its second ever status three alert, which means the ambulance service was unable to keep up with demand.
He says:
When we receive calls that do not require an ambulance immediately, it can have dire consequences. I have been advised this week that we had a 25-minute response to an 18-year-old cardiac arrest. This is devastating. Wherever possible we need to be avoiding this.
Morgan says NSW Ambulance came into contact with its 2,500th Covid patient for this lockdown alone last night. There were 450 calls yesterday alone.
Over the last three days, NSW Ambulance has experienced call demand equivalent to our busiest New Year’s Eve. These are extraordinary times and it places great pressure on our staff when we receive some calls that may not be medical emergencies, so I want to be really clear about this.
Our triple-0 call operators have received calls to help take food to people’s houses, triple-0 cannot help you with this. We have received calls for people to be driven to vaccination centres, triple-0 cannot help you with this.
If you have a medical emergency, dial triple-0 and we will be there, but with the sorts of demand that we are experiencing at the moment, all of the plans we have put into place for the last 18 months are now coming to fruition.
It would be really difficult for me to convey to you just what it’s like to be a paramedic on the road at the moment. Our workforce is going from job to job to job without a break. They are virtually wrapped in plastic, they are doing their job without expecting anything in return ... If you ever want to say thank you to a paramedic, the best thing you can do is get vaccinated.
Updated
Vaccinated healthcare worker among 125 people in ICU in NSW
There are currently 778 people in hospital with Covid-19 in NSW, of which 125 are in intensive care.
Of those in intensive care, Dr Jeremy McAnulty says, 110 are not vaccinated, 14 have had one dose, and one person is fully vaccinated.
McAnulty says:
There is a health worker in Westmead intensive care who has been vaccinated, and it stresses the importance of the vaccine is very effective against this severe disease, but is not 100%.
We all need to protect the health workers who are on the frontline caring for us all in the community, to protect them, and we need not only healthcare workers to be vaccinated but all of us to be vaccinated as soon as we can. By getting vaccinated, you are reducing the chance that you will get the disease but also pass it on to other people as well as having severe like hospitalisation and even death, so please, please help protect our frontline workers.
McAnulty says the death toll since the outbreak began, on 16 June, has now risen to 83 people. Some 139 people have died with Covid in NSW since the pandemic began.
Updated
Brad Hazzard has urged women who are thinking of having children to get a coronavirus vaccine, saying there are no risks to fertility.
I just want to confirm that the most senior health advisory service in Australia has confirmed absolutely that there is no evidence whatsoever that a woman’s fertility or a man’s fertility would be in any way affected by having the vaccine.
A strong point though that was made to me when I was inquiring about the evidence is that particularly young women and girls who are contemplating having a child should understand that if they don’t have the vaccine, and they do get the virus, they may suffer from long Covid or from symptoms that would actually make it more difficult to be able to have children, and to have as many children as they would like.
So I think the strong message here is don’t believe what you are seeing in the social media, don’t believe what is on some of these sites that indicate that the vaccines will cause any difficulty in you getting pregnant. It certainly won’t. In fact, it’s the opposite.
Hazzard also criticised people for reportedly calling ambulances for non-emergencies.
It’s very frustrating at a time when we are getting obviously very substantial numbers of people who need NSW Health assistance, they need to come to hospital, that there are quite a number of people who are effectively using ambulances as taxis. Ambulances are not taxis. They are meant for emergencies.
Updated
Four new cases in Wilcannia
There are four new cases in the far western community of Wilcannia, bringing the total outbreak there to 58 cases.
There are also six cases previously reported in Broken Hill and one in a person who has since gone to Queensland, so the total number in the far west local health district is 69.
There were also 42 cases overnight reported in the Western NSW health district, bringing that outbreak to 495. Of the cases reported this morning, 34 were in Dubbo, six were at Bourke, one was in Bathurst, and one was in Mudgee.
Brad Hazzard says the first drive-through vaccination clinic will open in Dubbo at the Showgrounds today.
Updated
NSW lifts the ban on weddings, allowing up to five guests
Brad Hazzard says that as of 12.01am this coming Friday, weddings will be back on in NSW, provided that they are kept to no more than five guests.
Hazzard says:
Obviously, the circumstances in NSW are such that while we are seeing massive vaccination numbers, we are also seeing substantial cases, and for a number of weeks now, we have had no capacity for people to get married.
A decision has been taken that in a balanced sense, we have to be able to allow people who want to get married to get married, so as from 12.01am Friday this coming week, couples who wish to marry will be able to marry, but with minimal guests in attendance. So there will be five guests allowed in addition to those who obviously will be necessary for the actual service, so those officiating and perhaps a photographer to record the event, we will work through that during the course of the week.
But I want people to know that if you do wish to get married, you certainly can as of Friday of this week.
Updated
The NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, said yesterday was the biggest ever day for delivering vaccines in state vaccination hubs.
Some 61,778 people received a shot in state hubs on Friday, as well as 94,387 people who were vaccinated at a GP clinic or a pharmacist.
So we had a total yesterday in New South Wales alone of 156,165 people receiving a jab. Thank you to all of our residents who have come forward for a vaccination. As we have said many times, vaccination is a critical path out of our current situation.
Two more people die with Covid-19 in NSW
Two more people have died with Covid-19 in NSW.
They are a woman in her 70s, from the Nepean Blue Mountains local health district, who died at the Nepean Hospital after acquiring her infection there earlier this month.
She is the fourth person to die linked to an outbreak at the hospital.
The other person was a woman in her 80s who died at Westmead Hospital.
NSW records 1,035 cases
The NSW health minister Brad Hazzard is giving the update now.
There are 1,035 cases.
There are rumours flying around that the positive case in a fully-vaccinated aged care worker in Echuca, Victoria, was a false positive.
That is not true. If you were at an exposure site in Echuca, you still need to get tested and isolate for the required period.
Here’s Bendigo Health:
Echuca case is NOT a false positive. People still need to be tested.
— Bendigo Health (@Bendigo_health) August 27, 2021
Updated
And because the states like to keep things interesting, the Victorian health minister Martin Foley will give that state’s update, alongside Covid response commander Jeroen Weimar, at 11.15am.
NSW to give Covid update at 11am
We are standing by to hear from the NSW government, which will hold its daily press conference on the coronavirus outbreak at 11am.
Updated
Some sad news. A 50-year-old woman has died in custody at a Ballarat police station.
Her death will be investigated by the coroner. Our thoughts are with her loved ones.
I’m not sure exactly when the word “safe” was added to the word “plan” in prime ministerial sentences, but it crept there sometime during this parliamentary sitting week. I noticed this particularly on Thursday. “Our national plan is a safe plan,” Scott Morrison told reporters in his courtyard at Parliament House. “It’s the safe plan to ensure that Australia can open up again with confidence”.
In case you’ve missed it, the “safe” plan is the four-phase strategy to reduce public health restrictions once vaccination rates in the population aged over 16 reaches 70%. Epidemiological modelling from the Doherty Institute informs the strategy. If you’ve tuned in this week, you’ll know the Doherty modelling is being buffeted by two headwinds – rolling disputes within the federation, and the more polite zone of expert disagreement. These cross-currents are all pretty interesting, but this weekend, safety is what I want to consider.
“Safe” is a courageous word for a prime minister to lob in a pandemic, because pandemics aren’t safe events. It’s certainly true that Australia has endured less tragedy than places like the United States. But we aren’t safe from this virus, and most people know that.
At the risk of stating the obvious, pandemics bring anxiety, illness, and sometimes death. People either get sick, or they worry about getting sick. Australian governments have imposed lockdowns to keep people safe, but that physical safety carries a cost. Mental wellbeing suffers.
What Morrison wants to do over the coming weeks is nudge Australians past his previous shibboleth of saving “lives and livelihoods”. “Lives and livelihoods” was the bullet-proof political mantra that allowed the prime minister to take actions during the crisis that centre-right governments wouldn’t normally countenance. His new mantra will be “living with Covid”.
But “living with Covid” is a different experience for Australia. Morrison’s “safe plan” involves gradually turning off the commonwealth money machine. As vaccination rates rise, it also involves decoupling from a public health strategy that has been labelled suppression but is more like elimination.
Given where we’ve been for the last year and a half, floating, isolated from the world in a bubble of government-built expectations that Australia’s primary objective is saving lives and livelihoods, what’s coming is less “safe plan” than huge (and politically risky) dismount.
A third of Australians have taken up grocery shopping online since Covid lockdowns began in 2020, AAP reports.
A national survey by leading comparison site Finder reveals a substantial number of Australians have changed their shopping habits over the past year.
It found 33% of 1,015 respondents or the equivalent of 6.4 million people have turned to buying groceries online, 43% of them from NSW where Sydney has been locked down for nine weeks.
Some 31% of Victorians are doing likewise.
The research indicates almost two in 10 Australians now make some purchases using a keyboard or tablet. Fourteen per cent make most of them that way and seven per cent are thinking of doing so.
“Online shopping has skyrocketed since the pandemic began and supermarkets have made significant changes to their in-store experience,” according to personal finance expert Kate Browne.
“Many Australians now have a huge range of meal options at their fingertips, made even easier by food boxes, meal-kits and food delivery services.”
Supermarket giant Woolworths has told AAP its weekly volume of online orders has doubled in NSW areas hit hardest by lockdowns and it is seeing a broader “significant uplift” across home delivery and click-and-collect services.
The chain has doubled its online order capacity in parts of Sydney, with many orders filled from dedicated warehouses in Lidcombe, Brookvale and Mascot.
“It’s not often you’ll hear a retailer urge customers to spend less time shopping but that’s exactly what we all need to do right now,” Woolworths Supermarkets managing director Natalie Davis said in a statement.
“If you need to visit a store, please be kind to each other and our team, sign in with the government QR code and, wherever possible, have just one household member do the shopping.”
The supermarket said it is offering the first pick of its online delivery times to seniors, people with a disability or compromised immunity and those in mandatory isolation.
Updated
You can follow our rolling coverage of the unfolding situation in Afghanistan here.
ABC Weekend Breakfast presenter Fauziah Ibrahim asked McKenzie how she proposed to move more families to the regions if regional healthcare systems cannot cope during a pandemic.
McKenzie said:
Well, I would disagree with the fact that our – you seem to be suggesting that our health systems are about to collapse, that is not the case.
Ibrahim:
No, not close to collapse, but close to breaking point. Victoria is flying in medical people from overseas to try to shore up the health system.
McKenzie:
We have deployed the ADF and Ausmat teams to out to Dubbo to help out those health services in western NSW, going door-to-door, testing and vaccination, working with the Royal Flying Doctor Service and local hospital service to ensure that those communities that are impacted get swift results.
That is actually telling you that the system is working, that we are supporting each other, so that those that are having that severe impact can get the support that they need. It is a very different thing to say that we have no, like we’ve seen overseas in India and other countries – we’ve run out of ventilators, we’ve run out of oxygen, etc etc. That is not happening in Australia and I think it would be derelict to suggest that it is.
Updated
The federal emergency management and resilience minister, Bridget McKenzie, has defended her government’s plan to open up once Australia reaches 80% vaccination rates.
McKenzie was asked on ABC24 this morning how she expected the health system to cope with opening up, given that health systems in NSW and Victoria are already under strain with lockdowns still in place.
McKenzie said:
I think you’ve got to clarify the prime minister’s comments. He is not saying throw open the doors today – let’s be very, very clear about that. What he did say and what we’ve committed to as a federal government, and state and territory premiers have also committed to, is a national plan that sees an end to lockdown.
And it is about opening up safely when we can do so, and that means getting our vaccination rates up.
I want to say thank you to everybody around the country. Our vaccination rates now per capita are now the highest of any in the world.
(A fact check here: she is talking about the number of people vaccinated per day expressed as a per capita rate. Which is kind of a case of coming up with different metrics until you find one where Australia is on top.)
McKenzie continued:
Now, does that mean it is an end to cases? No, I think it is an absolute misunderstanding of science and how viruses operate and how pandemics operate to conceptualise a world where there is zero Covid. It is actually not realistic. We are a trading nation. One in five Australians is employed as a result of our international trading profile, and we are a community that loves to travel the world – it is who we are as Australians. We want to get out there and explore. So the thought that we are going to engage with the world over coming decade sand have no Covid here at home just is unrealistic, and that’s why we use the very best science and evidence to develop the Doherty plan and that really charts a way forward.
Updated
Queensland has recorded no new locally acquired coronavirus cases, and four in hotel quarantine.
Saturday 28 August – coronavirus cases in Queensland:
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) August 27, 2021
0 new locally acquired cases.
4 new overseas acquired cases, detected in hotel quarantine.#covid19 pic.twitter.com/5V2hOuNs0d
Updated
Petrol stations visited by truck drivers in South Australia declared tier-one exposure sites
Four petrol stations in South Australia have been listed as tier-one exposure sites after they were visited by the two truck drivers who travelled from NSW to Western Australia before being told their routine screening test had turned positive.
Anyone who attended a tier-one location in SA must isolate for 14 days, as must anyone they live with. You can read the full list here.
The exposure sites are:
- IOR Petroleum Ceduna at 92 McKenzie Street, Ceduna, from 5.30am to 6.30am on 26 August;
- OTR Ceduna at Eyre Highway, Ceduna, from 5.30am to 6.30am on 26 August;
- OTR Port Augusta at the corner of Augusta Highway and Northern Power Station Road, Port Augusta, from 11.30pm on 25 August to 12.30am 26 August;
- IOR Port Augusta (South), on Northern Power Station Road, Port Augusta, from 11.30pm on 25 August to 12.30am on 26 August.
Updated
Have you checked your vaccine record?
Christopher Knaus has been reporting on errors in the online vaccine recording system, which could have significant impacts when states begin offering people who can prove their vaccine status more freedoms.
He writes:
Three weeks ago, the Guardian began reporting problems with the entry of vaccine data on to the Australian immunisation register, a federally administered system which relies on individual vaccine providers uploading accurate information.
The problem was particularly pronounced at major vaccination hubs in Sydney, including Olympic Park.
The problem has persisted.
The cause appears to be simple. State vaccination staff are recording details – names, addresses, Medicare numbers – in a way that does not precisely match federal records. If the two datasets contradict, the register will not automatically update.
The fix, though, is more convoluted. It requires already over-stretched state health teams to correct past mistakes for each individual.
To do that, an individual needs to understand how to access their immunisation record and realise it is incomplete. Then they must navigate a bureaucratic maze – often calling Medicare, Services Australia, Covid hotlines, NSW Health, and individual local health districts – to find the right person to correct it.
The details must be manually validated and corrected retrospectively in the systems of local health districts before the new record is uploaded to the register.
Services Australia, which administers the immunisation register on behalf of the federal government, is largely powerless. It relies on accurate data from vaccination staff. Only vaccination providers can correct records.
You can read the full story here:
If you were one of the more than 35,000 people who got vaccinated in Victoria, you could win a prize from the City of Melbourne.
The council is offering $50,000 in prizes for people who not only get vaccinated but share their experience on Instagram. The prize is $1,000 to spend at selected shops in the CBD, and the details are here.
Lord mayor Sally Capp said:
Every single one of us has a role to play to slow the spread, reduce the harm and enable our city to reopen, so we’re doing everything we can to encourage Victorians to get the jab if they’re eligible.
With more people eligible than ever before, now is the time for us to race to the finish line which will see us protect the most vulnerable, allow our businesses to confidently reopen, and see the people we love.
This is also a chance to support traders by encouraging people to shop local, and to return to the city when it’s safe to do so.
Foot traffic in the CBD drops by more than half during lockdown.
Updated
Victoria records 64 new cases of Covid-19
Victoria has recorded 64 locally-acquired cases of Covid-19 today, 36 of which were in quarantine throughout their entire infectious period.
As of this morning, 49 of those cases are linked — meaning 15 are currently under investigation
Reported yesterday: 64 new local cases and 0 new cases acquired overseas.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) August 27, 2021
- 35,753 vaccine doses were administered
- 55,333 test results were received
More later: https://t.co/lIUrl1hf3W#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData
[1/2] pic.twitter.com/XIpl72vONu
There were 55,000 tests done yesterday and 35,753 vaccine doses administered in state clinics.
Sticking with Western NSW for a moment, official have warned that a less than strict compliance with lockdown rules in regional centres could lead to a jump in case numbers.
About 49 of the 882 cases reported in NSW yesterday were in western NSW, bringing the total number of cases in that region to more than 500. The majority — 346 — are in Dubbo.
But the CEO of the Western NSW local health district, Scott MacLachlan, told AAP on Friday that Bathurst and Orange could soon see a similar increase in case numbers.
There are currently 33 cases in Orange and 19 in Bathurst. Only 3,700 people in the region got a covid test on Thursday.
McLauchlan said:
That’s the lowest we’ve seen in weeks and so it’s really concerning to see this continual drop.
It was only four days ago we were up above 10,000 tests a day across the whole of the region...
We really want to get in front of this before we do end up in a situation like (that).
Indigenous communities being left behind in NSW vaccine rollout
Guardian Australia’s Indigenous affairs editor Lorena Allam and data editor Nick Evershed have been investigating vaccination rates among Indigenous communities, and found that in some parts of the state, non-Indigenous people are fully vaccinated at twice the rate of Indigenous people.
This is despite Indigenous communities generally having higher vaccination rates for other vaccines.
They write:
Confidential New South Wales government data shows a huge gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Covid vaccination rates in every region of the state, with the mid north coast and western NSW among the worst.
The figures, obtained by Guardian Australia, show for the first time how different Indigenous communities have been left behind in the vaccine rollout, with previous requests for detailed data from the federal government having been refused.
Aboriginal community-controlled health services say the data shows there is an urgent need for governments to work with them to stop the spread of the disease.
At the moment, the township of Wilcannia, which has a majority Aboriginal population, has the state’s highest rate of Covid per capita. On Friday it recorded 58 cases in a population of approximately 750 people – three times higher than the rates in Sydney hotspots.
Far-west NSW has one of the highest gaps between rates of fully vaccinated Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, but one of the lowest gaps in the rate of people who have received one dose of a vaccine. This likely reflects efforts at boosting vaccination rates in the region in the past few weeks.
In four local health district areas – the mid north coast, western NSW, far-west NSW and northern NSW – the vaccination rate for non-Indigenous people is over twice the rate of Indigenous people, despite Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders being designated a priority group in the vaccine rollout plan from March 2021 onwards.
In another five areas, the Indigenous vaccination rate is just under half the non-Indigenous vaccination rate.
Exclusive: leaked government data obtained by @GuardianAus shows a huge gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Covid vaccination rates in every region of NSW https://t.co/8zInDoN415 pic.twitter.com/HswG7rY2i6
— Nick Evershed (@NickEvershed) August 27, 2021
You can read their full report here:
Speaking of exposure sites – dozens more have been added to the Victorian list overnight.
There are now a number of sites listed in Geelong and surrounds, as well as in Shepparton and surrounds and across greater Melbourne, including a particularly good cafe in Brunswick.
You can check the full list here.
Updated
A warning to dog lovers: police in Victoria have arrested a woman who allegedly scammed $30,000 out of people with the false promise of delivering them a French bulldog.
More on this from AAP:
A woman who allegedly scammed people desperate to buy a French bulldog during the pandemic has been hit with a string of charges.
Victoria police said the 42-year-old woman advertised the sought-after puppies in online marketplaces, demanding big deposits as well as transport and veterinary costs, before stopping all contact.
There was no refund and the purebred puppies never arrived.
It is alleged her five victims lost a total of more than $30,000 in the scams, run between January and April 2020, and one victim lost more than $18,000.
“We appreciate that during difficult times, people may look for a furry friend to get them through lockdown and the current environment has allowed opportunistic thieves to take advantage of people and their families,” detective acting sergeant Catherine Weeks said in a statement released Saturday.
“We encourage you where possible to delay any purchases until you can see the dog in person.”
French bulldogs are an affectionate breed that usually cost about $4000, but soaring demand during lockdowns has seen prices surge to more than $10,000.
The National Kennel Council has established an ongoing taskforce to look at corrupt practices in French Bulldog breeding.
Detectives arrested the woman in Blairgowrie on Wednesday.
She has been charged with five counts of fraud and will appear in court in February.
Updated
Western Australia names six exposure sites visited by NSW truck drivers
The Western Australian government has released a list of exposure sites visited by two New South Wales truck drivers who were told they had tested positive to Covid-19 after they arrived in the state.
The drivers were travelling together. They completed a routine screening test on 25 August before they left NSW, then drove through Victoria and South Australia before arriving in WA. Drivers are not required to wait to see the results of a screening test.
WA Health said:
They slept in their truck and had minimal contact with other people. They also wore masks when outside their trucks.
The drivers were told of their positive status by NSW Health (via text message). Theiremployer then informed WA Health.
The drivers are mildly symptomatic and clinically stable.
The drivers are now in hotel quarantine.
The exposure sites are:
- KJI Logistics Truck Yard at 95 Victoria Road in Kenwick from 3am to 11.45am on 27 August;
- Xpress Freight Management Warehouse at 2 Noble Street, Kewdale, from 2am to 3am on 27 August;
- BP Truckstop on the Eyre Highway at Norseman from 5.30pm to 6.15pm on 26 August;
- IOR Petroleum Fuel Station on Kingswood Street in Widgemooltha from 6.45pm to 7.15pm on 26 August;
- Mobil Yellowdine Fuel Station on the Great Eastern Highway at Yellowdine from 9.15pm to 10pm on 26 August;
- Shell Fuel Station on the Great Eastern Highway at Southern Cross from 9.55pm to 10.40pm on 26 August.
The full list of exposure sites is here.
Updated
Good morning and welcome to our ongoing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic in Australia.
New South Wales reported a slight dip in numbers yesterday, with 882 cases down from the record 1,029 on Thursday.
Victoria was also slightly – very slightly – down on Friday, with 79 cases compared to 80 on Thursday. And the ACT recorded 21 cases, of which 14 were in quarantine.
Both the ACT and Victoria are due to come out of lockdown on 2 September. Both governments have said they will not be making a decision on whether to extend lockdown until later next week.
Let’s begin.
