OK, last but not least, what has been happening on a national level today?
- The main thing is that we heard from Australia’s acting chief medical officer, Prof Michael Kidd about the way our vaccine rollout is going.
- Kidd said that yesterday Australia broke a record and saw 110,000 vaccine doses administered in just one day. That takes us to over 12.3 million doses administered.
- According to Kidd, 40.8% of people aged 16 and above have now received a first dose of a vaccine and 19% of people have received both doses. Just under 80% of people in Australia aged over 70 have received a first doze and 41.8% are fully protected with two dozes.
- And, to illustrate how important and effective the vaccine is at keeping us all safe and healthy, Kidd said that less than 1% of people who have tested positive to Covid-19 in the Sydney outbreak were fully vaccinated.
That’s all from me today, folks. Thank you for joining us on the Guardian live blog today. This is Justine Landis-Hanley signing off.
Updated
Ahh, Victoria - we’ve come so far since the days of 600+ cases! Today, we have relatively good news coming from the little state that could:
- Victoria recorded just four new Covid-19 cases, all of whom were linked back to current outbreaks and were in isolation for the duration of their infectious period.
- In saying that, about 20 residents of a Richmond apartment building in Melbourne have been told to isolate for 14 days after they were potentially exposed to a Covid-19 case.
- The state has passed a milestone with one million residents fully vaccinated. Woo!
- Speaking of vaccines, health authorities announced that, from Monday, they will be pushing back the wait time for a second Pfizer dose from three weeks to six weeks to enable more people to go and get their first jab.
OK, back to summarising today’s headlines.
Let’s turn to Queensland. Here’s what happened today:
- The state recorded nine new cases of community transmission.
- Parts of south-east Queensland are currently in day one of a snap three-day lockdown, in an attempt to curb an outbreak of the Delta strain in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.
- A Brisbane high school student with Covid-19 has been found to have the same strain as two hotel quarantine cases on the Sunshine Coast but authorities are still trying to find out how the student got infected.
- Queensland authorities are appealing to the public to go and get tested, after the state recorded just 12,000 tests yesterday. Authorities want to see more than 40,000 tests per day.
- Tasmania closed its border with south-east Queensland late on Saturday and forced some 11,000 recent arrivals from the mainland state into isolation.
Updated
Woman who flew Brisbane to Rockhampton tests positive to Covid
A contractor working on the Rookwood Weir west of Rockhampton has tested positive for Covid-19.
The case means the Queensland outbreak has spread well beyond the state’s south-east, where a three-day lockdown is under way.
The woman is believed to have been infectious when she took a Qantas flight from Brisbane to Rockhampton on 28 July and a return flight on 30 July.
Health authorities are urgently testing workers at the weir work camp, who are in their rooms for 14 days’ quarantine.
Other workers who have been at the site have been contacted and told to isolate.
The woman was an external contractor at the site and tested positive on 31 July.
Authorities are also contacting people who were on QF2362 at 8.30am on 28 July and QF2365 at 6.40pm on 30 July.
Queensland reported nine new local COVID-19 cases on Sunday, the highest number in almost a year.
There are more than 80 exposure sites linked to the outbreak, with about 20 new sites of concern listed on Sunday.
Updated
The day is drawing to a close and there have been a lot of announcements from across the country. So rather than do one big post summarising it all, I’m going to go state-by-state.
First up: NSW.
- NSW recorded 239 new cases overnight, the equal-highest daily figure in the current Delta outbreak. Only 80 were known to have been in isolation during their infectious period.
- Thirty-five were isolated for part of their infectious period, 26 were infectious in the community and the remaining 98 are under investigation.
- NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian said higher vaccination rates were the “only way to live with Delta or any other horrific strain that comes along” and urged people in NSW to make August their month to come out and get vaccinated.
- There are currently 222 people with Covid-19 in hospital in NSW, including 54 in intensive care and 25 on ventilators. Of those in ICU, seven are aged in their 20s.
- Nine residents at a Summer Hill nursing home have been diagnosed with Covid-19. Most were vaccinated and they have all been transferred to hospital.
- More than 250 people have been fined for travelling beyond their local government area and five were charged with resisting arrest during a massive COVID compliance operation on Saturday.
- NSW police also reported that the occupants of five vehicles have been issued infringement notices for breaching public health orders today, while attempting to enter the Sydney CBD to participate in an unauthorised convoy protest.
- NSW Health have also released a list of new and updated exposure sites spanning Campsie to Bondi.
Updated
Another recently announced NSW exposure site that I wanted to mention is Myhealth Medical Centre at Rhodes Waterside Shopping Centre.
If you were there on Tuesday 27 July between 9am and 11am, or Friday 30 July between 10am and 11.30am, you are considered a close contact and must get tested immediately and isolate for 14 days.
Updated
List of new Covid exposure sites in Sydney span Campsie to Bondi
Speaking of new exposure sites (wow, I hate that that is a segue these days), NSW Health have also released a list of new and updated exposure sites.
Among the biggest exposures sites is Katsuya Japanese Restaurant in Clemton Park Shopping Village in Campsie. It appears as though an infected staff member worked there for 10 days straight. So if you visited the restaurant between 6am and 10pm between 19 July and 28 July, you are considered a close contact of a positive case. That means you have to immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days, even if you get a negative result.
Another exposure site includes Ali Group Supermarket in Campsie. Similarly, it seems as though a staff member was infectious with Covid-19. If you were there between 8.30am and 3.30pm from 25 July to 27 July, you need to get tested and isolate for 14 days.
NSW Health has also advised of additional dates and times for a previously announced exposure site: Bondi Junction Post Shop. If you were there from 9.10am to 9.20am on Friday 16 July, you have to go and get tested and isolate until you get a negative result.
Updated
Queensland Health has announced a number of new exposure sites this afternoon, as the state tries to curb the Delta-variant outbreak in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.
The new locations include places and public transport routes in Spring Hill, Moggill and South Brisbane.
Click here for the full list of sites.
⚠️ Public Health Alert ⚠️
— Queensland Health (@qldhealthnews) August 1, 2021
New contact tracing locations:📍 Pullenvale 📍 Moggill 📍 Bellbowrie 📍 Wilston 📍 St Lucia📍 public transport sites
Full details can be found at: https://t.co/rujm8F3qL4 pic.twitter.com/pjrGgMtFUG
Updated
Infringement notices issued to cars attempting to enter Sydney CBD for convoy protest
NSW police has reported that the occupants of five vehicles have been issued infringement notices for breaching public health orders today, while attempting to enter the Sydney CBD to participate in an unauthorised convoy protest.
Police launched a high-visibility policing operation earlier today to ensure compliance with public health orders.
The move came after last weekend, when thousands of people breached public health orders in Sydney to attend an anti-lockdown protest.
Police have been pretty effective in quashing further protests planned for this weekend.
Taxi and rideshare companies were banned from taking passengers into Sydney’s central business district between 9am and 3pm yesterday, with fines of up to $500,000 for businesses and $100,000 for individuals who failed to comply.
Police and defence force personnel also set up roadblocks on key roads yesterday and stopped cars at the Princes Highway and Sydney Park Road trying to enter the city via Newtown.
Police issue infringements following unauthorised vehicle protest – Sydney CBDhttps://t.co/FAICEYbQuT
— NSW Police Force (@nswpolice) August 1, 2021
Updated
ACT residents worried about Covid outbreaks as parliament resumes
Authorities are working hard to “absolutely minimise the risk of any transmission” of Covid-19 when parliament sits in Canberra from Tuesday this week, Australia’s acting health chief officer, Prof Michael Kidd, has said.
Federal parliament is scheduled to sit for four of the next five weeks, prompting concern among residents of the Australian Capital Territory which has so far managed to avoid any local transmission events from the recent Covid-19 outbreaks in Australia.
Kidd was asked to characterise the risk associated with the forthcoming parliamentary sittings, and his view on the likelihood of a super-spreader event.
He replied:
So we’ve been working very closely with the presiding officers and the people responsible for the Australian Parliament House for the upcoming sitting weeks to absolutely minimise the risk of any transmission of Covid-19 occurring during our parliamentary sittings. There are very strict Covid-safe requirements in place in Parliament House.
Of course, anyone who is coming to parliament from the affected areas in the greater Sydney area have been required to be in Canberra in quarantine for the past two weeks and to be tested prior to going out into the community.
People who have come down from Queensland are required to follow the advice and restrictions put in place by ACT Health, so everything is being done to ensure that this sitting parliament is carried out in as safe a manner as possible.
Asked if he knew how many people had been granted exemptions, Kidd said:
So that’s a question for ACT Health, which manages the exemptions of people wishing to enter the ACT, whether parliamentarians, staff, or other people who wish to come into the territory.
Updated
Sunday afternoon recap
Hello everyone, Justine Landis-Hanley here bringing you the late-afternoon/ evening news.
First things first, let’s catch up with what’s happened today so far:
- NSW recorded 239 new cases of community transmission, only 80 of which are confirmed to have been in isolation for their entire infectious period.
- Acting chief medical officer Prof Michael Kidd says less than 1% of people who tested positive to Covid-19 in the NSW outbreak so far were vaccinated.
- NSW is also dealing with a Covid-19 outbreak at a nursing home in Summer Hill. Nine residents have been diagnosed with the virus – most of whom have been vaccinated – and have been transferred to hospital.
- Queensland has recorded nine new cases. The news comes as the state’s south-east regions complete the first day of a snap three-day lockdown in response to an outbreak of the Delta variant in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.
- Victoria has recorded just four new cases of community transmission in the last 24 hours. All of the cases are linked to known outbreaks and were all in isolation during their entire infectious period.
- Victoria is also delaying people’s second doses of Pfizer from three weeks to six weeks to ensure that more people can get their first shot. Chief health officer Brett Sutton said Victoria was well placed to hit 70% and 80% Covid-19 vaccination coverage, which would trigger escalating levels of freedom from restrictions nationwide.
- Speaking of vaccinations, Australia administered 4.5m vaccine doses in July, up from 3.4m in June and 2.1m in May
- Meanwhile, over in Western Australia, health authorities are still monitoring nine active cases of Covid-19 on the cargo ship MV Darya Krishna, which docked in Fremantle this week.
As always, if you have any yarns, tweets, or opinions you want to send my way, you can message me on twitter @justinel_h
Updated
With that I’ll hand over to the wonderful Justine Landis-Hanley, who will take you through the evening.
Thank you for your company. If you’re in Sydney or south-east Queensland – stay home, stay indoors, you’ve got this.
Updated
Guardian Australia’s Daniel Hurst asked what the role of those anti-viral drugs could be alongside the vaccine rollout and other measures.
Kidd said:
At the moment most of the treatments which are being looked at are treatments to assist in the management of people who have been diagnosed with Covid-19 and who have become seriously unwell and have been hospitalised. At the moment, of course, we’re using drugs like dexamethasone (an anti-inflammatory) and antiviral treatments but trials are taking place around the world looking at other treatments which maybe effective in assisting in the recovery of people who are seriously unwell.
And on vaccinations - how many doses would have to be administered each week to reach the target of having 70% of Australians fully vaccinated by the end of the year?
Kidd said he’d let reporters do the maths, but said:
We’ve had 4.5 million doses administered in July, as I said, and we’re continuing to see the number of doses administered ramp up on a daily basis. So, I’ll let you do the maths as to how quickly that will take us to get to 70%.
Updated
Kidd was asked if the Therapeutic Goods Administration was close to approving anti-viral pills which would be able to be used to treat Covid-19 at home.
He said to date the only approved anti-viral for Covid-19 was Remdesivir, which is an injection and only used in hospitals on people who are “seriously unwell”.
Updated
Less than 1% of people who tested positive to Covid-19 in the Sydney outbreak were fully vaccinated
Kidd says that of the 2,700 locally-acquired cases of Covid-19 associated with the NSW outbreak and reported to the national notifiable disease surveillance system between 16 June and 28 July, “there have only been 15 people who were fully vaccinated who have become infected”.
That’s just 0.55% of all cases.
Kidd says:
By contrast, 93% of those 2,700 people have not yet been vaccinated and 6% have been vaccinated with one dose.
There have been no notified cases of people who are fully vaccinated who have required admission to hospital apart from the small number of residents of residential aged-care facilities moved out of their facility and into hospital as a precaution to optimise their care and to prevent the risk of further spread to other residents. No fully vaccinated people have been admitted to intensive care units. No people who are fully vaccinated have died from Covid19 during this current outbreak.
Four per cent of people admitted to ICU with Covid-19 have received one dose of a vaccine, 96% of those admitted to ICU are currently unvaccinated.
Updated
Australia administered 4.5m vaccine doses in July
Kidd said 4.5 million doses of Covid vaccines were administered in Australia in July, up from 3.4m in June and 2.1m in May.
Yesterday, 110,000 vaccines were administered across Australia. This is a record for a Saturday.
And that takes us to over 12.3 million doses administered – 40.8% of people aged 16 and above have now received a first dose of a vaccine and 19% of people have received both doses.
Just under 80% of people in Australia aged over 70 have received a first doze and 41.8% are fully protected with two dozes.
Again, I reinforce the plea that every older Australian be vaccinated against Covid-19. If you are aged 60 or over, or if your parents or your grandparents are, please arrange for them to be vaccinated with theAstraZeneca vaccine this week.
A reminder that the advice from Atagi is that all individuals aged 18 years and above in Greater Sydney, including adults under 60 years of age, should strongly consider getting vaccinated with any available vaccine including the AstraZeneca vaccine. This is on the basis of the increasing risk of Covid-19 in Greater Sydney and the ongoing constraints of Pfizer supplies.
In addition, people in areas where the outbreaks are occurring, can receive the second dose of their AstraZeneca vaccine four to eight weeks after the first dose rather than the usual 12 weeks.
Updated
Sydney nursing home residents transferred to hospital
Australia’s acting chief medical officer, Prof Michael Kidd, says all of the residents of a Summer Hill nursing home in Sydney who have tested positive to Covid-19 have been transferred to hospital.
As reported earlier, nine residents at the nursing home have been diagnosed with Covid-19. “Fortunately many have been vaccinated,” says Kidd.
Kidd is in Canberra and giving an update now on the national situation. Australia recorded 252 new locally-acquired cases overnight — 239 in NSW, nine in Queensland and four in Victoria.
Updated
Plastic found inside most baby turtles
In more depressing news, more than 80% of young turtles found off the coast of Queensland have ingested plastics.
From AAP:
Around 83% of green turtles and 86% of loggerhead turtles found off the coast of Queensland were found to have plastics within them, a study from Deakin, James Cook and Murdoch Universities found.
James Cook University professor Mark Hamann said plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing threats to marine wildlife.
“Plastics now make up 80% of all marine debris and can be found everywhere, from surface waters to deep-sea sediments,” Hamann said. “Plastic ingestion and entanglement, which can cause suffocation, has now been documented for every species of marine turtle.”
Researchers examined the contents of the stomach, intestines, cloaca and bladder of stranded or bycaught turtles from the Indian Ocean off Western Australia and the Pacific Ocean off Eastern Australia.
Hamann said one turtle found in the Indian Ocean contained 343 pieces of plastic while another in the Pacific Ocean contained 144.
The proportion of turtles that had ingested plastic was much higher in the Pacific Ocean than in the Indian Ocean.
The research, which also involved the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, was published in the peer-reviewed Frontiers in Marine Science journal on Monday.
Researchers suggested small juvenile turtles are most at risk, as this life stage is most prone to entanglement and ingestion due to their feeding preferences, while the oceanic zones they inhabit overlap with areas of high plastic pollution.
Updated
Let’s go to Melbourne for a second, where Labor have announced their new candidate for the inner-city seat of Higgins, Dr Michelle Ananda-Rajah.
Ananda-Rajah is an infectious diseases doctor at Alfred Health, who has been branded an AstraZeneca critic after she described the vaccine on Q+A in February as a “population-level experiment” and cautioned young people seeking access to the vaccine. She has also written opinion pieces in favour of the vaccine and addressing issues of vaccine hesitancy.
On Friday she released a statement via twitter saying all her comments have been in line with the Australian health advice, and that people should follow the health advice and get vaccinated.
Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles used the press conference confirming her nomination — which was held at Prahran town hall, the site of a vaccine clinic, which feels a bit on the nose — to criticise the Morrison government’s handling of the vaccine rollout.
He said:
Michelle has decided to stand up and be counted in this election, because of her increasing deep concern about the handling of the Morrison Government of this pandemic.
It is remarkable that given all the advantages Australia had in 2020, living on an island with an effective border with a small number of entry points into the country with a low level of the disease here in Australia that we should now find ourselves on this day, at the very bottom of the OECD table, in terms of vaccine rollout.
In the midst of Scott Morrison’s self-congratulation, all that he has exhibited is complacency and incompetence. And that is why he and his government have been getting the pandemic wrong at every turn.
Last year, they failed to place Australia in the appropriate number of queues in the various vaccine projects around the world, so that we don’t have the supply on this day that we need to in order to get the country properly vaccinated in the timely manner that we should. He was slow to come to what was obviously the way in which we should logistically get people vaccinated through mass vaccination centres, such as the one we’re at today. And he was very late in coming to that.
For her part, Ananda-Rajah said that in areas with high community transmission — like Greater Sydney — people should take the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The most recent advice is unequivocal, that if you are living, particularly in an area with uncontrolled community transmission of delta, such as Greater Sydney, you must accept any vaccination that is available to you, whether that be AstraZeneca or Pfizer. It will save your life, it will keep you out of hospital, it will keep you out of intensive care, and it will keep you off a ventilator.
Sky News Australia banned from YouTube for seven days over Covid misinformation
Sky News Australia has been banned from uploading content to YouTube for seven days after violating its medical misinformation policies by posting numerous videos which denied the existence of Covid-19 or encouraged people to use hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin.
The ban was imposed by the digital giant on Thursday afternoon, the day after the Daily Telegraph ended Alan Jones’s regular column amid controversy about his Covid-19 commentary which included calling the New South Wales chief health officer Kerry Chant a village idiot on his Sky News program.
YouTube has not disclosed which Sky News program the videos were from but said there were “numerous” offending videos which have now been removed.
The Sky News Australia YouTube channel, which has 1.85m subscribers, has been issued a strike and is temporarily suspended from uploading new videos or livestreams for one week.
Read more:
The NSW opposition leader, Chris Minns, told reporters in Sydney earlier that Labor will support “any measure the government needs to take” in order to meet the target of ending the Sydney lockdown on 28 August.
Minns said:
The impact on the economy, on people’s lives, on people’s mental health, on the education of our kids, is very high at the moment.
So any measure that the government needs to take, in addition to the restrictions that are already in place, the NSW opposition will support, so we can meet that target of the 28th of August.
He also called on the NSW government to release the health advice.
Let the people of Sydney understand what the government is grappling with. Let them see for themselves the data on which these decisions are being made. So we can strengthen community acceptance and compliance with what everybody agrees are very difficult health orders, at the moment.
It’s a very supportive, very conciliatory message — quite different to the course taken by the Liberal state opposition in Victoria.
Updated
Guardian Australia’s data editor, Nick Evershed, has been crunching the numbers on the Sydney outbreak and says things are “well and truly worse than the first wave”.
Here are today's charts (a bit late cause I've been down the creek) - starting with a zoomed out view of the whole pandemic to put NSW's current outbreak in context - things are well and truly worse than the first wave pic.twitter.com/x2YeCNczUf
— Nick Evershed (@NickEvershed) August 1, 2021
And here’s a state by state comparison.
Firstly, NSW cases by isolation status.
Here's today's NSW update to cases by isolation status pic.twitter.com/WMAuVGG8IX
— Nick Evershed (@NickEvershed) August 1, 2021
And then Victoria by isolation status.
And here's Victoria's - another day with no cases active in the community despite 4 new local cases pic.twitter.com/OWGhd82e8x
— Nick Evershed (@NickEvershed) August 1, 2021
Revenue from speed cameras in regional NSW and Sydney’s western suburbs has jumped since the NSW government decided to remove warning signs from mobile speed cameras last year, figures from Revenue NSW show.
More from AAP:
The number of fines for low-range speeding offences in the western Sydney electorate of Auburn jumped from 889 in the second half of 2020 to 4,588 in the first half of 2021.
Revenue in that electorate vaulted from $120,135 to $685,294 — an increase of more than half a million dollars.
Wagga Wagga in the state’s Riverina region came second, with the number of fines for speeding less than 10km/h over the limit jumping from 988 to 4,922.
Wollongong, The Entrance, Blue Mountains, Holsworthy, Goulburn, Wallsend, Strathfield and South Coast round out the 10 electorates to see the biggest jump in fines.
Myall Lakes, North Shore, Vaucluse, Cabramatta and Heathcote have seen the smallest increases.
NSW transport minister Andrew Constance said at the time his decision to scrap the signs alerting drivers was about changing behaviour.
“No warning signs mean you can be caught anywhere, anytime and we want that same culture around mobile speed cameras,” he said.
The breakdown by electorate comes after it was revealed last week that speed cameras brought in an extra $4 million from 25,000 more fines in May 2021, compared with the same month last year.
The NSW opposition wants a return to high-visibility policing of the state’s roads.
“If we are serious about road safety, then the government needs to bring back warning signs,” opposition leader Chris Minns said.
“They are the proven tool to slow drivers down and make our roads safer.”
But Constance hit back, accusing Minns of “blatantly (ignoring) expert advice” and “playing politics with people’s lives”.
He said the changes to the mobile speed camera program had been independently assessed by experts and found to save lives when fully implemented.
“We have already seen a change in driver behaviour,” Constance said in a statement to AAP.
Fewer drivers were caught by mobile speed cameras in June than in February, Constance said.
Opposition roads spokesman John Graham said it was “exactly the wrong time” for speed camera fine revenue to jump higher.
“Many of these electorates are ones which are in the middle of the current COVID-19 crisis,” he said.
Updated
An important correction to an earlier post: this is Andrew Hoy’s eighth olympic games. He is has competed in more Olympic games than any other Australian athlete.
Three members of Australia’s Bali Nine, who have served 16 years behind bars, should be forgiven and allowed to walk free one day, prison and justice ministry officials say.
The three, who are jailed in Bali, are serving life sentences for their role in an ill-fated heroin-smuggling plot and unless they can win a reprieve from Indonesia’s president, will never be freed.
As Indonesia’s 17 August Independence Day approaches, when remissions are traditionally announced, the trio’s jail governors and justice officials have sent glowing reports to Jakarta, recommending they be given a chance at life outside prison.
The final decision rests with president Joko Widodo, who, in 2015, ordered that 34-year-old Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, 31, be executed by firing squad.
Matthew James Norman, 34, and Si Yi Chen, 36, are held in Bali’s Kerobokan prison while Scott Rush, 35, is in the Bangli Narcotics jail in Bali’s north.
Read more:
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and her mask: a photo essay.
Victoria delays second Pfizer dose from three to six weeks
Victoria has tweaked its vaccine rollout to ensure more people are able to get their first shot of the Pfizer vaccine.
From AAP:
As of Monday, all people who receive a first dose of Pfizer will wait six weeks – not three – for their second dose.
GP clinics run by the commonwealth will continue to administer second Pfizer doses three weeks after the first dose.
Chief health officer Brett Sutton said Victoria was well placed to hit 70% and 80% Covid-19 vaccination coverage, which would trigger escalating levels of freedom from restrictions nationwide.
“We’re as well placed as any of the big states,” he said. “The best vaccine is the one that’s available for you now if you’re eligible ... clearly the risk has changed from Atagi’s point of view.
“What the situation is now in Victoria can change ... people can get protection now by getting a vaccine that’s available for them.”
Updated
The message is to go out and get vaccinated as soon as you are able to do so in Australia. But what do you do if you are talking to a friend or family member who is hesitant to get a vaccine. How can you reassure them?
We asked Guardian Readers how they have been speaking to their loved ones about vaccine hesitancy. The most common response was: you just need to show them the data, absent any spin. The science will sway them.
You can read all their responses here.
Western Australia monitoring Covid cases on cargo ship
Western Australian health authorities are still monitoring nine active cases of Covid-19 on the cargo ship MV Darya Krishna, which docked in Fremantle this week.
Two are in hospital, including one in ICU; one is in hotel quarantine and six are still on board the vessel. There’s also another positive case on another ship, the MV BBC California, who is also isolating on board their ship.
WA authorities are also still monitoring a situation in which a Queensland man travelled to Perth from Brisbane via plane on 18 July without a permit. The man was turned around and flew back on 20 July and tested positive to Covid on 27 July.
In a statement, WA health said:
Though considered extremely low risk, WA Health asks everyone at Perth terminal 4 between 4am and 7am on 20 July to monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately if they develop.
Just 867 people were tested for Covid in WA yesterday, and 6,301 people received a vaccine dose.
Updated
Sydney police target masks and check-ins
Let’s go back to Sydney now, to an incident that was referenced by deputy NSW police commissioner Mick Willing at this morning’s press conference.
Here are the details from AAP:
Five men have been charged with assaulting police and resisting arrest during a Covid compliance check in Sydney’s west.
The incident comes as the force launches a city-wide crackdown on lockdown restrictions with a contingent of 300 Australian defence force personnel joining them as they enforce rules in eight western and southwestern Sydney council areas.
The men were arrested after officers attended a home in Oakhurst, following reports of a party on Saturday afternoon.
A group of males were found drinking inside a garage and were asked to produce identification but allegedly refused.
When told they were in possible breach of Covid restrictions a 44-year-old man pushed an officer in the chest and four others aged in their 30s became violent and attempted to hinder his arrest, police said.
OC spray was used to subdue the men who have been charged with a range of offences including non-compliance, resisting arrest and assaulting police.
The group will appear in Mt Druitt local court later this month.
Updated
Time for another quick Olympics interlude.
While all that was happening, six-time Australian Olympian Andrew Hoy and his beautiful horse Vassily de Lassos have completed the cross country. Clear and incredibly fast – 7:35, 10 seconds inside the time and the fastest on course so far.
That puts Australia in the running for a team medal if they jump clear in showjumping.
Updated
Victoria has analysed the vaccination status of people in its recent outbreak
Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, says that only 10 of the 204 people who tested positive to Covid-19 in Victoria between 12 and 28 July were fully vaccinated, and a further 15 had received at least one dose.
It’s a small sample size not a full analysis, Sutton says, but it provides a moment in time snapshot “and does tell us something”.
Of those 10 positive cases who were fully vaccinated, none of them were hospitalised. All were either completely without symptoms or have mild symptoms. Of the locally acquired cases in this analysis who were hospitalised, one was in the 90s, had had one vaccine dose, one in their 80s unvaccinated, one in their 60s unventilated, three in the 50s, and a one unvaccinated. One in their 40s unvaccinated, one in their 30s unvaccinated and two in their 20s who were unvaccinated.
Of the 204 cases analysed, 29 had been eligible to be vaccinated but hadn’t yet received a single dose of the vaccine.
We know this vaccine works. We know not everyone is yet eligible but to emphasise, for those currently eligible, and the 29 of the 204 who had that status in our most recent outbreak, it really is an additional protection to go out and get one vaccine and certainly to complete that vaccine schedule. We know it reduces your risk of getting Covid-19 especially of getting very sick from Covid-19. It is increasingly compelling evidence from around the world where hundreds of millions, indeed, billions of vaccines have been given globally.
For example in the US, 163.9 million individuals are fully vaccinated. There had been 1,263 breakthrough deaths, so deaths occurring in people fully vaccinated. That is around one per 130,000 individuals so if you are fully vaccinated individual, your risk of dying from Covid-19 becomes exceedingly rare.
Updated
Victorian coronavirus update
To Victoria now, where the acting Covid-19 commander, Naomi Bromley, has been speaking.
Victoria recorded four locally-acquired cases yesterday. All of them are linked to known outbreaks and have been quarantining.
Two of the new cases are household contacts of patrons of Ms Frankies restaurant, one is a social contact of a case linked back to the Young and Jackson’s cluster, and one is a hosuehold contact of someone who attended the Wallabies game at AAMI park.
There are eight people in hospital in Victoria, including three in ICU and one on a ventilator.
Bromley says public health teams are still investigating the “upstream and downstream risks” associated with the case of the person who worked at Covid testing centre at Moonee Valley Racecourse, to determine where they may have acquired the virus. All of their contacts from potential acquisition sites have been tested, all negative to date.
For the outbreak as a whole, about 1,200 people were cleared as primary close contacts and left isolation yesterday, about 5,000 remain in isolation.
Berejiklian says she will not go in and out of lockdowns to manage the Delta variant
If Queensland’s 72-hour snap lockdown works to control the Delta outbreak there, just as the two-week lockdown in Victoria appears to have controlled the Delta outbreak in Melbourne, will Berejiklian concede that she should have called a lockdown earlier?
Berejiklian:
I think what is important to know is that there is no roadmap for the Delta variant. The benefit of hindsight is a great thing to have but other states might be facing regular lockdowns in and out all the time, what I am saying for New South Wales is we want this to be – yes it is painful – but we want this to be the last lockdown we have and we can make that happen if we get vaccinated.
Because others states have shown, yes they are going in and out of lockdown but that is no way to live. While our vaccination rates are down, we’re going in and out of lockdown all the time. I know we’re not in a good situation and lockdown, it is very hard. Our strategy for New South Wales is to get vaccination rates to 60, 70, 80%. That means we can live with the Delta variant and we won’t have to go in and out of lockdown... no place earth can live with the Delta variant without having some kind of restriction, without having some kind of in and out of lockdown state.
A reporter asks if Berejiklian underestimated the Delta variant.
Again, there is no roadmap. We knew early on this was a scary variant. We also never know, this is a challenge with Delta, the undetected strains of transmission which may have been in the community which we didn’t know about. And that is really critical to assess.
There is no roadmap for Delta are, there is no perfect way to deal with it. Of course with the benefit of hindsight you always think, various options could have existed. But the reality is if you look at other states in Australia, if you look at the restrictions that are in place, life with Delta means lockdowns one way or the other and that is not a way to live, which is why we have been saying in New South Wales.
We would like this to be our last lockdown, so long as people get vaccinated ... when you get 50% of the population vaccinated, it gives you the ability to have more freedom. Sixty percent and 70% gives you a whole lot more options at 80% is great. 80% of both doses for the adult population gives us a whole range of opportunities to live with a variant without coming in and out of lockdown.
Updated
Berejiklian says Service NSW is working with the commonwealth to ensure vaccine data is correct.
There have been reports of vaccine reports not uploading to Medicare, or accidentally marking someone as vaccinated who is not.
Berejiklian:
People should not worry about this, our data is good at this stage. We get daily updates as to how many people in New South Wales have been vaccinated and the records. And please know of course that is protected and confidential. We are looking at ways in which we can provide credentials to people moving forward. So the down the track people can get demonstrate that they are vaccinated.
Updated
Berejiklian: 'We are not seeing a huge spread of the virus' outside the eight LGAs
Berejiklian is asked about reports that some year 12 students are nervous about returning to the classroom, given the outbreak.
She says that she doesn’t want anyone to “get complacent or drop their guard,” but that:
Outside of those eight LGA is, we are not seeing a huge spread of the virus. I want to make that very clear. However, in those eight LGA is, obviously the virus is still a major challenge.
We will have more to say about what year 12 looks like on 16 August. We will also put public health and safety first including the students. From 9 August we do want to vaccinate all year 12 students in those eight LGA’s, in the week of 9 August we will vaccinate all those students.
Please know that health and education are working very closely. We don’t want many students on campus at the same time, especially in those eight LGAs. We will proceed on a very conservative and cautious approach. But our goal and our mission is to make sure that our year 12s receive the HSC, that they receive the credentials they have worked so hard to achieve, and obviously health and education are working closely together.
She also urged all teachers to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Updated
Berejiklian was asked if she would consider introducing a payment to test and isolate, like Victoria introduced last year.
In Victoria, if you get a test and do not have sick leave, you’re entitled to a $450 payment to allow you to stay home and isolate until you get your test result.
Berejiklian says the issue of people not testing is “broader” than people not testing because they are worried about losing work.
For a variety of reasons, a variety of reasons and age groups, unfortunately, people aren’t coming forward to get tested and they are in denial, thinking they don’t have the virus.
This message we need to get everybody is you can deteriorate very quickly. You might start off with a mild symptoms in the morning and by the end of the day have very severe symptoms and succumb. It is very sad that people don’t even get any medical help and are dying at home. We will see more of that unless people come forward and get tested.
Updated
What about reports that people in their 20s and 30s who have tried to get the AstraZeneca but been told by their GP to wait for Pfizer?
Berejiklian says that the federal health advice states that if you’re over 18, it is safe to get either vaccine.
I’d be concerned if that was the case but that is the advice provided to New South Wales and Greater Sydney.
Greater Sydney is going through an outbreak and that is the best health advice. If people have concerns, speak to your GP. I’ll stress that we have plenty of AstraZeneca. It is a safe vaccine and people should come forward and get it. There are people in various age brackets who haven’t had any dose of the vaccine. Let August be the month we break records and vaccinations because that is how [we get] freedom and I don’t say that lightly.
There is no place in the world that has been able to live with the Delta virus and not have higher rates of vaccination. We have to be very clear about that. We want to ease restrictions as much as possible but the extra weapon we have to ease it is higher rates of vaccination.
Updated
Berejiklian is asked to comment on reports that nurses working in emergency departments have been asked to come to work when they should be isolating.
She says:
I’ve never heard of anyone forced to work when they should be isolating. I haven’t seen evidence of that. If that was the case, I would dispute because we [have] many staff members on the beat of New South Wales, over 140,000 people working in the health system.
So it is really important to note that when you are in the middle of the pandemic and having cases every day, it stretches things. Of course, you need to put in greater safety measures than ever before because even though people are vaccinated, you can still get the disease and pass it to others. So health settings are critical and we have seen the virus is spreading in particular health settings, especially if non-vaccinated people come in with the disease and they might not know they have it, coming to emergency departments that puts extra pressure on the system.
But please know that the system is meeting the challenge and we have reallocated resources we have needed here.
Updated
Asked if she supported the 70 to 80% threshold for vaccination rates set by national cabinet, Gladys Berejiklian says she has been talking about an 80% vaccination threshold for NSW “for some time”.
It is incremental, once you get milestones of 50%, 60%, 70%, it triggers more freedoms.
As we’ve seen countrywide, whether prolonged lockdowns or short and sharp ... you can’t live with Delta until the vast majority of our population is vaccinated and I can’t say that more strongly and clearly.
The challenge for us is getting as many people vaccinated in August as possible so by the time 28 August comes around, we have options as to how we can ease restrictions. I want to make that very clear.
That suggests the decision about whether or not to extend Sydney’s lockdown will be influenced by the vaccine rates.
Berejiklian says:
I am heartened by the fact that the date I haven’t been advised of anybody in ICU who has had both doses of the vaccine and that is really positive.
It is so important for people to come forward and get the vaccine.
New South Wales’s position has been clear. It isn’t lockdowns and restrictions alone that will us through Delta but also higher vaccine rates. We have been clear about that and I’m very pleased that evidence provided to national cabinet that it isn’t just lockdowns and restrictions that will allow us to have a sense of normality moving forward with Delta and other strains of Covid-19 – it is higher rates of vaccination.
The NSW health minister Brad Hazzard said it would take about four months for NSW to reach a point of having 70% of the population fully vaccinated.
Berejiklian says that depends on how many people get vaccinated this month. Well, of course.
We have the ability in New South Wales to do more. Pharmacists have been amazing and we need to ensure more vaccine goes to them. GPs have been fantastic and we need to ensure more vaccine goes them.
Through our NSW health hubs we have mass vaccination centres opening and places in the regions opening so it is really becoming easier to access the vaccine, especially given the change of health advice around AstraZeneca.
Updated
McAnulty said four people in NSW with Covid have died at their homes.
That message about don’t wait if you have any even mild symptoms, if you are someone in the family, come forward for testing right away. Don’t wait. Do it on the day you get symptoms. If you have a diagnosis of Covid-19 and are deteriorating, don’t hesitate to call 000 if you to hospital or make contact with a health provider.
Identify people early because we know how quickly this can spread within households and therefore if you have an elderly relative there, they could easily die.
Updated
Nine residents of Summer Hill aged care home test positive to Covid-19
McAnulty confirmed that there are nine residents of an aged care facility in Summer Hill who have tested positive to Covid-19.
Asked why he didn’t lead the update with that information, McAnulty says a number of aged care facilities, hospitals, and disability cases have seen infections.
There are a number of aged care facilities across the city that have been affected. With staff and residents infected. On a regular basis we are seeing cases in hospital settings or aged care settings and we have even had some disability settings as well.
So there is an outbreak in a Summer Hill aged care facility with I understand nine residents affected. Fortunately, many of those have been vaccinated. As I understand it, the ones with vaccination are doing relatively well.
NSW police deployed 1,300 officers and checked 70,000 vehicles in crackdown
On the police crackdown, NSW police says that 1,300 officers were deployed around Sydney on Saturday and checked more than 70,000 vehicles.
Police gave 250 people infringement notices for being in the city without a “reasonable excuse” and eight were arrested as officers sought to prevent an anti-lockdown protest.
The force says the compliance operation will continue across greater Sydney on Sunday and in the coming days police will be enforcing compliance around QR codes and face masks at shopping centres and large retail stores.
Some 516 infringement notices have been issued as part of that retail crackdown, and 38 people were arrested.
Police were called to 1,800 Covid-related jobs, 1,100 of which were from reports to Crime Stoppers.
Updated
There are 222 people in hospital with Covid in NSW
There are currently 222 people with Covid in hospital, 54 of whom are in intensive care and 25 who are on ventilators.
Of those in ICU, seven are in their 20s, five are in their 30s, two are in their 40s, six are in their 50s, 14 are in their 60s and 10 are in their 70s.
McAnulty says:
It shows that the disease can be very serious in younger people as well is older people.
Of the 54 in ICU, 49 were not vaccinated. One person had the first dose of Pfizer and four people had the first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine.
By local health district, 110 of the 239 cases were in Southwestern Sydney, 51 in western Sydney, 69 in Sydney, three in southeast Sydney, four in northern Sydney and two in the Blue Mountains.
There was also Covid-19 detected in the sewage in Molong and in the Hunter/New England/Armadale area.
Updated
Dr Jeremy McAnulty is going through the NSW case numbers.
He says there were 241 cases of Covid-19 recorded in NSW in the 24-hours to 8pm last night — that’s two in hotel quarantine and 239 in the community.
Of the 239, 139 have been linked to known clusters and 124 are under investigation.
Eighty of the cases were in isolation throughout their entire infectious period, 35 were in isolation for part of their infectious period, and 26 were infectious in the community.
You may notice that that doesn’t add up to 239, and it also doesn’t quite match what Berejiklian said earlier. We’ll get to the bottom of it.
The NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian is speaking in Sydney now. She has urged everyone who can to come forward and get vaccinated, including younger people getting AstraZeneca.
Today is 1 August and I am calling upon the people of greater Sydney, greater New South Wales to come forward and get vaccinated. To get to the 70% target we need 9.2million jabs. To get the 80% target we need 10 million jabs. We have been talking about this in New South Wales for some time.
Pleasingly, in the last 24 hours we had over 82,000 people get vaccinated in one day alone in New South Wales. At that rate we are vaccinating 500 hours of people per week. We want to do more and go fast doubles please go forward and get the vaccine.
The AstraZeneca is safe. Health authorities have said under the current circumstances any adult, anyone over 18 should come forward to get the vaccine. It doesn’t matter which one you are offered.
One dose itself reduces your chance of spreading the virus but it also keeps you out of hospital. And we know that vaccination is working against this terrible delta strain, we know it is effective, we know it is giving people out of hospital. It is also reducing the chance of people spreading it to every member of their household. Can I please urge everybody to come forward and get vaccinated.
The consistent message from New South Wales has proven to be the right way forward. Come forward to get vaccinated. Whether there is a target of 70% or 80%, once we hit that target life will be very different.
Updated
NSW has recorded 239 new cases of Covid, with 35 infectious in the community
NSW has recorded 239 new cases of Covid-19, with 35 infectious in the community
There were 87,000 tests in the 24-hours to 8pm.
NSW recorded 239 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night. pic.twitter.com/q19fmK7JQf
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) August 1, 2021
Updated
Victoria is holding its daily coronavirus press conference at 11.10am.
I may be slightly losing it but this time made me laugh out loud. No clash at all with NSW!
Giving the update will be chief health officer Brett Sutton and acting Covid-19 commander, Naomi Bromley.
We are expecting the NSW covid update at 11am.
In the mean time, the Australian eventing team is tackling the cross country course in Tokyo this morning. Shane Rose and Virgil have jumped clear with no time penalties — one of only three riders to jump clear inside the time so far.
Jonelle Price riding Grovine de Reve and Kevin McNab and Scuderia 1918 Don Quidam also jumped clear but outside the course time of 7 minutes and 45 seconds, at 7:50 and 7:51 respectively. Very low penalties. It puts Australia in a good position.
Updated
One possible link from the overseas cases to the 17-year-old Indooroopilly State High School is a medical student who tutored them.
Young says she is not sure that the medical student is the index case for this outbreak, but it is being investigated. The medical student had an appointment to be vaccinated but had not received the shot yet. Medical students being part of the 1B cohort, meaning they have been eligible since April.
But I will be honest with you, my priority was actually healthcare workers, it was more important to get healthcare workers vaccinated and students came second. So, she did have an appointment for a vaccine in the next week, she had that appointment made and had done her best to try and get vaccinated. But she couldn’t access a vaccine. As a result of that, I have said that when we go into restrictions arrangements as we had most recently, that healthcare workers and students who weren’t vaccinated could not do clinical placements in vulnerable setting such as hospital and aged care my disability care.
They know they should be vaccinated but they are struggling to get the vaccine.
The Ekka, the Royal Brisbane Show, is due to run from 7 to 15 August. It’s not yet clear whether that will go ahead.
The organisers have delayed setting up in response to the lockdown. Young says the show organisers are working very closely with her public health team.
Updated
Young says that people must wear a mask when outdoors, even when exercising, unless they are doing “strenuous exercise”.
Strenuous exercise is where you are huffing and puffing and genuinely if you are to have a mask on, it could harm your health. Walking around for the vast majority of people is not strenuous exercise. If you are in your 90s and you are struggling, then that would probably be strenuous exercise but for most people, my age, it is not strenuous exercise.
Young says she thinks the virus has spread in schools during this outbreak because masks are not worn in schools.
I think it is masks. I genuinely think that masks have made a big impact.
I am worried that this is spreading in schools because of them not using masks so we have introduced, when schools are back on Monday and Tuesday for that very small number of children, children who are children of essential workers or vulnerable children, that all children in secondary school from years seven onwards, no matter their age... they must wear masks. And all teachers for primary school and for high school, unless they are teaching children who are deaf... must wear masks.
Updated
Young said the threshold for lifting the lockdown will be when she is “confident that all the cases that potentially have been exposed are safely in quarantine and are unlikely to end up having been infectious out in the community”.
The purpose of the lockdown is to stop the virus spreading so it is to have everyone in their homes, as we find people, we find them in their homes, and they will have minimal exposure out in the community. They might have gone to buy some food, might have gone for a walk with a mask on, around their immediate community. But they haven’t been to restaurants, karate classes, the gym, etc.
Updated
Young says Queensland should aim for 40,000 tests per day. That would be a record number of tests for that state.
Updated
Indooroopilly outbreak linked to two overseas arrivals, but link unknown
The Indooroopilly outbreak has been linked to the strain carried by two people who arrived from overseas, but Young says she does not know how the virus went from the quarantine system to the 17-year-old high school student.
I have the whole genome sequence. It shows that that a 17-year-old who attends Indooroopilly State High School has the same whole genome sequence as to people who arrived into Brisbane from overseas. One from Indonesia who I suspect gave it to the person who came from the UK, either at Singapore airport, on the plane travelling from Singapore to Brisbane or in hotel quarantine. I don’t know which of those three places was the transmission events.
But I don’t have the intermediaries between those two cases and that 17-year-old student. I think it is most likely that it has gone from the person who was managed up at Sunshine Coast, discharged from the Sunshine Coast University Hospital on 17 July.
All of the protocols put in place by the communicable diseases network of Australia were thoroughly followed but we know with Delta that it can be more infectious so we are looking whether that has led to transmission.
This is why I asking that anybody in the Sunshine Coast who is unwell with any symptoms at all to immediately come forward. We have tested all of the people who live in the same household as that gentleman who came from the UK who has the same (strain) and they are all negative and we are now doing serology to see if any of them were infected and have recovered to see if that might be the link.
Updated
The Queensland health minister Yvette D’Ath warns that the delta strain “spreads in hours not days”.
She has highlighted how deadly the virus has proved in Sydney.
New South Wales has recorded on average one death every three days. We cannot be complacent, we want more people coming out and testing.
D’Ath says she will be writing to the clerk of the Queensland legislative assembly to push back the estimate hearings, in order to comply with the lockdown rules.
Updated
Young said there had been some confusion about the difference between being in lockdown and being in quarantine.
The lockdown rules require you to stay at home unless you have one of the five authorised reasons to leave — exercise, essential shopping, essential work that can’t be done from home, medical and carers needs, and getting tested or vaccinated.
But if you’re in quarantine, because you were at an exposure site or are a close contact, you cannot leave home for any reason. If you need groceries, you can’t go out and shop — you need to call Queensland health for assistance.
Queensland chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young has urged everyone on the Sunshine Coast to get tested if they have any symptoms or have been at an exposure site, “because I suspect that is where this outbreak started”.
It is vital, anyone with any symptoms at all, it doesn’t matter where you are, because I don’t know where this virus is at the moment.
Please come forward (and get tested) because then we will be able to find those other chains of transmission which I expect are out there. And in the Sunshine Coast, please, it is particularly important that you come forward because I suspect that is where this outbreak started and then has reached a critical level where it has started to escalate and we had picked up at the escalation point. But I still think there will be cases there in the Sunshine Coast that we don’t know about. And if we don’t find them, they will continue to spread. So that is really critical.
I do not have any link between these cases that have happened in Indooroopilly and where it originally started from those two people who came into Queensland overseas with the same genome sequence.
So everyone, stay-at-home. If you can, stay home the next three days.
Updated
Miles says there are now five schools which are considered exposure sites.
They are Indooroopilly state high school, Ironside state school, St Peters, Brisbane Grammar School and Brisbane Girls Grammar School. That includes people who attended an open day at Brisbane Girls Grammar School.
Miles also ads that people in the 11 LGAs under the lockdown will be eligible to apply for the Commonwealth’s Covid disaster payment if they lose more than 20 hours work in a week due to the lockdown.
Updated
More Queenslanders need to get tested, deputy premier says
That brings the number of cases in the Indooroopilly cluster to 18. This cluster is the delta strain.
Miles says four of the new cases are linked to a karate school attended by one of the cases reported yesterday. The karate school is at Ironside State School, but attended by kids from other schools.
One of the new cases from the karate school is a student from Brisbane Boys Grammar. Their father has also tested positive.
There are two cases linked to Indooroopilly State high School and two cases linked to Ironside state school.
Miles said just 11,468 tests were done in the past 24 hours.
That is not enough tests. We need more Queenslanders, particularly in the south-east to get tested. While that is a high bar, a high turnout for a Saturday, in previous outbreaks that were not this serious, we were consistently testing more than twice that number. More than 20,000 in each day.
Updated
Queensland reports nine new cases of Covid-19
Queensland has reported nine new cases of Covid-19.
All were in the community and are linked to yesterday’s cases.
Deputy premier Steven Miles says:
This is the most number of new community cases, new community infections we have reported in the community is almost 12 months. The last time we were at this level is August 22.
Speers asks Hazzard if there is any modelling to suggest that NSW will get the number of people infectious in the community to zero, or close to zero, at the end of this current four-week extension of the lockdown.
Hazzard says the modelling is dependent on the inputs, which is kind of like saying graphs are dependent on numbers.
I mean, in February last year, I sat with modellers who told me we would have 25,000 deaths in New South Wales. We managed to not do that. In New South Wales, at the present time, there’s a lot of modelling going on, but it really does depend in the end — as I said a little earlier — on how the community respond.
What we are seeing and, again, the same as in Victoria, Martin Foley and I were talking about this again this morning — both of our states have had difficult times at various stages.
He puts it back on the vaccine rollout.
The Victorian community were responding extremely well to the, well, rather mixed messages, I’ve gotta say, on vaccines. That’s been a big problem for us. But they have actually gone out and they’ve been prepared to have the AstraZeneca and the Pfizer. In New South Wales, five or six weeks ago we were finding it challenging to get people to have the vaccines. Now we’re finding, asa result of this current circumstance, that a lot more people are now seeking the vaccine.
But back on the modelling. Is there modelling showing NSW will get back to zero infectious in the community in four weeks?
As I just said to you, David, it’s entirely dependent on the response of the community.
Speers: But what does it show at the moment? Have you got any modelling that says, ‘This will be over in four weeks’?
Hazzard:
Obviously, Dr Chant is hopeful that that will occur. But, again, David, it depends. The modelling depends on the input. The input is how many people are going to have the vaccine, how many people are going to stay at home. And that’s the unknown.
Speers: It doesn’t sound like it’s very concrete.
Hazzard:
If you find something concrete in the middle of a Delta pandemic, you send me the guide book.
Back to Brad Hazzard on insiders. David Speers points out that even the prime minister has now acknowledged that the key lesson of the lsat six weeks is it’s better to go hard and early with a lockdown.
Does Hazzard acknowledge that NSW should have gone earlier?
He does not, and again points to the “challenge” posed by the south-western suburbs of Sydney, which he relates to the northern and north-western suburbs of Melbourne in that both are culturally diverse communities.
What I would say is we have done everything that we were advised to do, and we will continue to do that. But we are challenged in the south-western suburbs.... And I know as late as this morning I spoke again to the Victorian minister, Martin Foley, who’s doing an excellent job in Victoria. And they had the same situation in their northern suburbs and north-western suburbs. It’s a very difficult community to gain the confidence of and to have them respond in the way that we need them to respond.
Shouldn’t you have learned from the Victorian experience, asks Speers? And do you offer an apology for locking down earlier?
Hazzard:
What I have said, David, is what I intend to say again. And that is that we have taken the health advice and we will continue to do that. And it’s all very well to be wise after the event by numerous commentators... there are plenty of health experts that the commercial channels and your channel get advice from.
We take our advice from our public health team, who get advice from others, such as the Doherty Institute, and we’ll stick with that, if you don’t mind.
Leaving that interview briefly to go to Queensland: the deputy premier, Steven Miles, will hold a press conference at 10am.
Hazzard: there was 'no delay' in putting Sydney into lockdown
Hazzard has rejected a suggestion the NSW government delayed the start of the lockdown.
Speers points out that the lockdown was announced on 25 June, when the Bondi cluster was already at 65 cases, and asks when Dr Chant made her recommendation.
Hazzard:
Oh, I don’t have the dates, I’m sorry. Every day I meet with Dr Chant, and most days I’m in the health headquarters from about 7am, 8am to 8 or 9. I don’t know the precise date...
I can tell you this — we respond very quickly to any recommendation that is come from Dr Chant and her entire public health team.
Did Chant recommend the lockdown before the government actually announced a lockdown?
Hazzard:
Not that I... I don’t think that’s true.
Speers: You didn’t delay?
Hazzard:
No, there was no delay. On each and every occasion, we respond to our public health team.
But keep in mind, I think what people don’t understand is that there’s the public health team and then there’s the health team, who also look at mental health issues, and then there’s the economic team who also look at trying to keep the state’s economy going, particularly for mental health and just generally for the economy and jobs.
So, like every difficult decision, it’s a balance. But what I would say to the community is we have seen some very positive moves in the last few weeks by the community. It’s not just government. This is about the community actually responding and actually getting involved in getting the vaccines.
Will NSW consider putting limits on how many people can work in freight or distribution businesses at any one time, as Victoria did during its second wave outbreak last year?
Hazzard says they would “consider anything on the basis of the advice that we get from our health team, our public health team and the broader health team”.
But I made the point yesterday that the larger logistics companies, the larger distribution centres — so, the Woolworths, the Coles, the Aldis, the major food providers for the whole state — those distribution centres have Covid-safe plans and they’re complying and they’re doing an extremely good job. It’s the smaller facilities that are challenging...
What we’re seeing is, in some of the smaller facilities, they don’t seem to comply as well as the bigger facilities. So, we’re looking at how we can try and strengthen the surveillance and the messaging to get those companies to understand you must comply with the Covid-safe plans. It’s not there just for you to play around with, it’s for you to comply with.
NSW health minister Brad Hazzard is on Insiders this morning. Host David Speers starts by asking why the NSW government has not applied a consistent set of rules across greater Sydney.
Hazzard says:
Look, I think the difficulty is that everybody has got a view on this. What we do know is that when we locked down the Northern Beaches over Christmas/New Year, there was a high level of compliance and it worked. We found a high level of compliance in the eastern suburbs.
We are finding it more challenging (in the western suburbs) ... I mean, the community there has an incredible multicultural mix, it’s a very vibrant community, but they do come from countries where they don’t — they haven’t built up trust in government.
So, what we need to be doing in our view, is to focus on that specific area. And obviously the president of the [Australian Medical Association], the national AMA, may have different views to most of his other colleagues too. That’s the joys of democracy.
(The northern beaches is a pretty isolated and insular part of Sydney, which may account for the difference. Moving on).
Speers: has NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant suggested the rules be universal across Sydney?
Hazzard:
No... We already have requirements that everybody stay at home, David, in Sydney. You can only leave for essential reasons, and they’re pretty common across the country. But certainly in these eight local government areas, it’s very challenging. So, we’re trying to strike the balance, and I think the balance is appropriate.
What about the requirement to wear masks outdoors, and stay within 5km of your home? That doesn’t apply in the rest of Sydney.
Hazzard says it’s both a nuanced and hard response, “by other standards around the country, both in regard to the broader Sydney area but obviously much more requirements in those areas where we’ve seen the challenges. And we’ll continue to respond that way”.
Frewen described the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine as “a very effective vaccine” and “a national asset”, given it was being produced domestically in Australia. He told Sky News that Australia had access to ample supplies of AstraZeneca.
I think since the PM’s announcement on 28 June, there’s been more than 71,000 Australians under the age of 40 who’ve come forward to get their first dose of Astra Zeneca, so I’m really pleased to see that people are making informed choices and they’re balancing the risk, and they’re getting the AstraZeneca if they haven’t got access to the Pfizer right now.
Asked how many AstraZeneca doses were sitting unused in Australia at the moment, Frewen said:
Look I’ve got in my readily available stocks, more than a million and a half doses of AstraZeneca. So we’re ready, we’re shipping it out as the ordering comes in… and we’re also helping our friends and partners in the Pacific as well.
Frewen said the AstraZeneca doses would “get used one way or another, but I’m committed to shipping as much as I can out to the Pacific as well”. “It’s really important that we’re all in this together. Just as we’re managing outbreaks inside the country here, it’s really important that we help our friends and partners around the Pacific get vaccinated as well.”
On the broader timetable for the vaccination rollout, Frewen said:
We’re saying every Australian who wants access to a first dose [of a Covid-19 vaccine] will have that opportunity this year. I think with the supply that’s coming on, you know, we’ve got a really fantastic chance to get the vast majority of Australians fully vaccinated this year if they choose to do so, but we need to take every opportunity we can and right now people who are eligible for Pfizer should should get out and get Pfizer but for everybody else they should go and make an informed choice now.
And if AstraZeneca is available they should get the AstraZeneca. I mean, one dose is better than none but two doses is the best is the best path out of that this.
Updated
National vaccine rollout should not be disrupted for NSW, says Lt Gen John Frewen
Lt Gen John Frewen, who leads the national Covid vaccine taskforce, has been interviewed on Sky News.
Sky News’ Andrew Clennell asked Frewen about the suggestion he had been firm with Gladys Berejiklian in national cabinet when she had floated cancelling GP appointments in New South Wales and divert the Pfizer to southwestern Sydney.
Frewen did not deny resisting the idea, but stressed his position that the national rollout should not be disrupted:
Look, this is a national vaccine rollout programme, and it’s really important that we, we do vaccinate the whole nation at the same time.
So at the moment there’s plenty of AstraZeneca, we’re still a bit supply-limited on Pfizer so we’re allocating that proportionally across the nation, but it is really important that we do bring up the fully vaccinated rates as equitably as we can across the nation, because these hotspots can happen anywhere.
So you know it’s a very serious concerning situation in Sydney now, but it’s got to be about lockdowns, testing, tracing, isolation, all of those other measures, social distancing — and vaccination underpins their resilience as a nation, but this is a national vaccination programme.
Turning briefly to other disasters: from next year Australians living in bushfire zones determine the risk posed by their homes.
The Bushfire Building Council of Australia CEO Kate Cotter told AAP:
We estimate that at least 90 per cent of buildings in (high risk) areas are not resilient to bushfire, putting lives, homes and livelihoods at unacceptable risk.
We have brought Australia’s leading bushfire scientists, engineers and industry together to give households a personalised, practical solution to adapt their homes.
The project received $3m in funding from the federal government, as well as from Bluescope, insurer IAG, and the National Australia Bank.
National Recovery and Resilience Agency director Michael Crawford said it’s hoped the initiative will help Australians better understand disaster risk and what can be done to reduce vulnerability.
We can’t prevent natural hazards from occurring so reducing our vulnerability to those hazards is central to limiting the impact they can cause.
The star rating self-assessment app will help put knowledge in the hands of all Australians to guide their risk reduction decisions.
Barnaby Joyce: unfair to give PM a 'history lesson' on the vaccine rollout
The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, says it is unfair for critics to give the Morrison government a “history lesson” over the vaccine rollout.
Joyce has also defended Scott Morrison for publicly applauding the NSW government for resisting a full lockdown when case Covid-19 numbers were rising in June. Joyce said leaders were dealing with “a dynamic environment where of course you learn things all the time”.
After a national cabinet meeting on Friday, Morrison conceded invoking short, sharp lockdowns at the very early stages of an outbreak was currently the best health and economic response to the highly infectious Delta variant. But Morrison did not express regret for his previous endorsement of Gladys Berejiklian’s approach by saying: “We all humbly learn from these things and we make the adjustments and get on with it.”
Joyce, when asked about the matter during an interview with Sky News this morning, said he did not think that “anybody had a perfect run sheet on exactly what was supposed to, how this was going to roll out, and how other outbreaks were going to happen”.
We learn from them … If the prime minister says, you know, that he takes into account that he’s learning things as he goes along to do a better job tomorrow, well, that’s what we all expect of him. And I think that’s an admirable trait — good on him.
Pressed on whether the government had been caught flat-footed on the vaccine rollout, and did not spread its best widely enough when it was negotiating supply contracts last year, Joyce said the process was now “rolling out a lot better”.
What I want is a better future, what others want — I’m sure we’ll get it from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle — they’ll give us a history lesson. Nobody lives there — we live today and into the future.
A Sydney man has raised concerns about the Australian Immunisation Register after he was falsely recorded as having been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 — before he had received his first jab.
Christopher Knaus reports:
When Sydney bus driver Ke Hua turned up to Royal Prince Alfred hospital last week for his Covid-19 vaccination, he was given some surprising news.
The nurses told him he was already fully vaccinated.
Relying on the Australian Immunisation Register (the Air), the national database of vaccination records, hospital staff told him he had received his first dose on 26 March and his second on 18 June.
There was just one problem: the record was completely wrong. He hadn’t had any dose.
“I went on the 24th of July and they said ‘oh in March you got one, and in June you got one’,” Hua told the Guardian. “I said ‘I’ve never done it!’.”
While Hua, 58, was able to convince the nurses to ignore the records and give him the jab, he was concerned about the error.
He called NSW Health, Medicare, and even the local police, believing someone may have fraudulently used his details.
He was brushed off.
Hua was trying to alert whoever was responsible that the mistake could be affecting others, too.
Such problems, if widespread, would greatly undermine the vaccine rollout.
You can read the full story here:
Victoria records four new Covid cases
Victoria has recorded four new locally-acquired cases of Covid-19.
All four are linked to current outbreaks and have been in quarantine throughout their entire infectious period, the Victorian health department said.
Reported yesterday: 4 new local cases and 0 new cases acquired overseas.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) July 31, 2021
- 15,841 vaccine doses were administered
- 25,779 test results were received
More later: https://t.co/lIUrl1hf3W#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData [1/2] pic.twitter.com/eg0SEKjuAj
Just one new exposure site was added yesterday — a gym in Altona North.
Body Fit Training on Bennett Drive, Altona North, on 28 July from 5.20am to 7am, is a tier two site.
It’s worth checking back to this list periodically if you are in Victoria, or have been in Victoria in the past two weeks.
Good morning,
Queensland is one-sixth of the way through its snap 72-hour lockdown after recording six cases yesterday. The sunshine state is bracing for more cases with 15 new exposure sites added overnight, bringing the total list to almost 100. The list includes two backpacker hostels and busy department stores in Indooroopilly. You can read the full list of exposure sites here.
In Sydney, police will be out in force again in a crackdown on people breaking the lockdown rules. Police were on the streets yesterday in an effort to foil an anti-lockdown protest, which didn’t eventuate. The organisers of that protest have suggested they’ll regroup later this month.
Even without the protest, police arrested 8 people and more than 250 penalty notices were issued.
The focus today will be on supermarkets and retail stores, and whether people check in using QR codes and wear facemasks. The NSW police commissioner, Mick Fuller, has warned there are fines of $5,000 for businesses failing to use QR codes and up to $1,000 for people not wearing face masks.
In a statement released late yesterday, Fuller said:
Recent heath advice has shown that supermarkets and large retail stores are a known source of concern when it comes to spreading Covid-19.
Meanwhile, Victoria has recorded four new cases of Covid-19 overnight, all of which are linked and were in quarantine.
Let’s crack on. If we miss something, you can let me know on twitter @callapilla or via email at calla.wahlquist@theguardian.com
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