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The Guardian - AU
National
Nino Bucci and Matilda Boseley

Two Sydney Covid patients on ventilators as NSW records 18 new cases and Qld one – as it happened

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian
The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, at a press conference to provide a COVID-19 update in Sydney, Tuesday, July 6, 2021. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas) NO ARCHIVING Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

That's it for today – thanks for reading

Here are the main stories on Tuesday, 6 July:

Updated

The NSW health department says it was an error for Pfizer vaccinations to be given to private school students in Sydney who were not yet eligible under the rollout.

Unsurprisingly there are already reports doing the rounds that the NSW lockdown will be extended for at least another week, but nothing I’ve seen is even remotely attributed to anyone.

The Guardian Australia sport team have pulled this together to explain the latest developments regarding the party held by NRL players (who else?) which breached Covid-19 restrictions:

Here is an AAP update on the Covid-19 situation in Victoria, which has recorded six straight days without a case.

Victorian authorities are threatening to shut the border to red zone returnees if they continue to go walkabout, as two international motorsport events were again cancelled.
Compliance checks on Monday showed three Victorians who returned on travel permits from NSW and Queensland were not isolating as required.
The state’s COVID-19 commander Jeroen Weimar said it was “hugely frustrating” and warned the state might have to suspend its red zone permit system.
“We need you to isolate for those 14 days and to work with us to keep the rest of the community safe,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
“Because otherwise we won’t have any choice but to not allow people to come back home, and that’s the last thing we want to do.”
Acting Chief Health Officer Daniel O’Brien said the health department would investigate and may refer the breaches to authorities.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman told AAP they were not aware of the referrals to date.
It comes as the Victorian government confirmed the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne and Australian MotoGP at Phillip Island will not go ahead later this year.

Andrews speaks to the media during a press conference in Geelong on Tuesday.
Andrews speaks to the media during a press conference in Geelong on Tuesday. Photograph: Luis Ascui/AAP

The 2021 Formula One event had already been pushed back from its regular early season timeslot to November in the hope restrictions on international arrivals would ease by then.
But Sports Minister Martin Pakula said last week’s national cabinet decision to halve international returned travellers and lagging community vaccination rates made it unfeasible to host the events.
“We’re simply not in a position to give F1 management or MotoGP the sorts of guarantees and assurances and comfort that they need this week,” he said.
Pakula said discussions were already underway with F1 organisers to host the 2022 grand prix in April.
“It’s unlikely to be the first race next year but, frankly, that probably suits us,” he said.
Pakula is confident the 2022 Australian Open will be unimpeded as it vies to return to its traditional January timeslot.
Premier Daniel Andrews earlier said once 70 to 80 per cent of Victorians were vaccinated, the state would have the “protection, freedom, choices and options” to run big international events.
Victoria racked up its sixth straight day without a local coronavirus case on Tuesday, bringing the total number of active infections in the state to 25.
Two new cases were also detected in hotel quarantine.

Updated

AAP reports that a women’s prison boss has been charged with assaulting an inmate in Sydney:

The prison governor in charge of Silverwater women’s jail has been charged with assault after allegedly choking an inmate in her care.
Detectives began investigating after a referral from the Silverwater Correctional Complex about the alleged assault of the female prisoner.
Tracey Mannix, 55, was arrested at her home in Mascot on Tuesday and charged with common assault and choking a person without consent.
She was granted conditional bail to appear at the Downing Centre Local Court on July 26.
The 55-year-old, who has run the Silverwater women’s prison since March, has been suspended from work.

Updated

An interesting piece on augmented reality art in Melbourne as a possible balm to Covid ills:

Artworks as part of the Flinders Quarter Art Walk in Melbourne.
Art fans use their phones on the Flinders Quarter Art Walk in Melbourne. Photograph: Flinders Quarter Augmented Art Walk

Updated

Matilda Boseley, your blog pal, Hazzards a guess at whether the NSW health minister has actually read Hunger Games (I haven’t and won’t):

I found this story from Daniel Hurst equal parts troubling, bizarre and entertaining.

The Australian government has denied undermining China’s plan to roll out Covid vaccines to Pacific countries after Beijing lashed Canberra’s purported “callous” and “irresponsible behaviour”.

The allegation, first aired in Chinese state-controlled media and then amplified by the foreign ministry in Beijing, was “absolutely not” true, the Australian government said on Tuesday.

Here’s a full story on that news from earlier about the cancellation of two major motor sport events in Australia.

But not everybody is going to miss them. Here’s state Greens MP Sam Hibbins:

Updated

Annastacia Palaszczuk is going to the Olympics, and not even a petition can stop her (OK, a lockdown that she authorises in Queensland could also stop her).

Updated

Great piece on Ash Barty at Wimbledon (and the fact Australia is guaranteed a semi-finalist!) from Emma Kemp:

The RBA governor Phil Lowe is also feeling very hopeful that we will all be vaccinated in the next six months, and the new normal will begin – which would take away some of the potential risks to the economy (meaning lockdowns).

“I think the sooner we can all get vaccinated and open up the better the economic recovery is going to be, that’s stating the obvious,” Lowe said, stating the obvious.

“So I understand people’s frustration with the closure of the borders and the slow rollout of the vaccine. It’s affecting people at a very personal level.

“It’s also affecting businesses I talked about before, but I do think we also need to remember that we will get through this.

“And we need to be patient in the foreseeable future, let’s say by the end of the year within six months. Most of us will be vaccinated. Our lives will start to return to normal – we’ll be able to travel again and enjoy one another’s company and business’s ability to do the things they need to do to employ people and invest.

“We all want that to happen today and it’s understandable, we want that to happen today.

“I think we’ve got to be patient and within six months time, most of us will have at least had one shot of the vaccine. And life will start returning to normal.”

Updated

Here’s the AAP wrap on the Covid-19 situation in Queensland, which reported one new case of Covid-19 earlier:

Queensland has recorded just one new locally-acquired case of COVID-19 in the community as confidence grows that the state is eliminating the spread of the virus.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the case was identified as a close contact of an Alpha variant case in the Portuguese club cluster after more than 22,218 tests state-wide.
“Great news today, thank you Queensland for the wonderful work that you’re doing and, as I said, if we’re all doing the right thing we will get through this together,” she said on Tuesday.
Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young said the new case is a close contact of a 29-year-old man from Sinnamon Park who travelled to the Noosa area last week.
The Kangaroo Point woman is asymptomatic and is a student nurse at Griffith University but has not been on campus.
Dr Young said she hasn’t worked a shift and only once visited her clinical placement venue at Logan Hospital since June 15.
“I’m not particularly concerned but we will go and double check, if she develops any symptoms going forward that will help us determine the actual infectious period,” she said.
The chief health officer said 6664 people had been identified as being contacts of active virus cases with 5177 people in home isolation and 3000 in hotel quarantine.
“So we’ve got a lot of people doing a lot of hard work in terms of all of those contacts, and thank you to all of the people who are adhering to those requirements to be in home quarantine and to continue to get tested when they’re asked to,” Dr Young said.
Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said a Sydney woman had been caught after escaping from hotel quarantine in Cairns.
Dalassa Rittia Diane Pau, 22, pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a public health direction, unregulated high risk activities and wilful damage, and was fined $2500 in Cairns Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
She escaped from the hotel’s fourth floor on Sunday by scaling two balconies before using an outdoor stairwell and kicking down a door, police said.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Yvette D’Ath confirmed that Queensland would be getting an additional 200,000 vaccines in July, or 64,350 Pfizer vaccines per week, which is a rise of 10,000 per week from June.
She said that would allow state clinics and GPs to start clearing a backlog of 230,000 people waiting to get vaccinated and 140,000 people who have registered.
“Yes, people can start looking at where there is a GP to book for Pfizer or an AstraZeneca vaccine throughout July, or they can continue to look at booking in with a state-run clinic into the future,” she said.
“We encourage people to do that, and we will contact everyone who has already registered to let them know when bookings are available.”
Queensland recorded five COVID-19 cases in hotel quarantine on Tuesday.

Palaszczuk and Young at a media conference on Sunday.
Palaszczuk and Young at a media conference on Sunday. Photograph: Darren England/AAP

The Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe has given one of his (fairly) rare press conferences.

There aren’t any major changes to be announced – the stimulus (bond buying) will continue, although how much may change depending on how the economy is going.

But it’s the cash rate that everyone is focussed on – is the RBA getting any closer to raising interest rates from their historic low of 0.1%?

The answer is sort of, but not anytime soon. The Bank has previously said it would keep rates low until at least 2024. Now, Lowe says the bank is looking at data, not dates – meaning wage growth and inflation – but both are so low, you wouldn’t expect it to get to the levels the RBA wants until at least 2024 anyway.

So at this point, it is a case of maybe interest rates will rise a little earlier in 2024 than first thought – but until the labour market tightens and we all see some actual wage growth, don’t expect the cautious RBA to make any major changes.

The RBA governor Philip Lowe
The RBA governor Philip Lowe has left the cash rate unchanged. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Investment managers with $9tn of assets on their books have signed on to a growing global initiative to work with clients to reach a target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC), an Australia-based group and partner in the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative, said 41 new firms had joined the drive, which now had 128 investors managing $57tn of assets.

Major new firms joining include Amundi, HSBC Asset Management and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management.

Rod Bristow, the chief executive of Australia-based Investible, and a new signatory, said:

Taking positive action on climate change and achieving net zero is the only option. As responsible stewards of capital we see our responsibility as investing wisely, mitigating risks and delivering strong investor returns. These are essential principles to building a resilient, renewable economy.


Firms have to commit to a series of steps, including setting interim targets and ensuring their investments are in line with reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

Signatories also have to report on progress through the international Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures.

IGCC said the initiative had seen rapid growth since it was launched in December last year, with the latest signatories taking it close to half of the world’s entire asset management sector.

Updated

Ah, Canberra. Parliament isn’t sitting, but odd things are happening nonetheless.

We have some new NSW Health “venues of concern” (sounds like a term that could be used for repeated breaches of food hygiene laws) and additional times for previously released areas.

The new venues are in Marrickville, Bondi Junction and Granville and the new times relate to venues at Olympic Park and Bossley Park:

Updated

Anne Davies reports students from a second private school in Sydney received access to Pfizer vaccinations.

The bodies of two Australians have been found in the wreckage of an apartment building that collapsed in Florida last month, AAP reports:

The bodies of an Australian man and his wife are among the latest to be pulled from the rubble of a collapsed Florida apartment building, taking the official death toll to 28.

Miami-Dade police on Tuesday formally identified Ingrid and Tzvi Ainsworth as victims of the Champlain Towers South building collapse in Surfside, Florida.

The former Sydney residents, aged 66 and 68, were found in the wreckage on Monday.

Ingrid, known as Itty, was vibrant, honest, open and had a gift for treating people like they were “the one”, close friend Tzippy Kastel said.

“She was an extremely connecting person, extremely warm and compassionate,” Kastel told AAP.

“From joyous to sad or to whatever it was, she was the one I would turn to.”

Kastel, who lives in the Ainsworths’ former home in Sydney, said it was beautiful to see how Tzvi treated his wife “like a queen”.

After spending nearly 20 years living in Australia, the couple moved back to the US four years ago to be closer to some of their seven children and extended family.

“It’s a huge family and because of the type of people they are, it’s a community-wide tragedy,” Kastel said.

The couple’s niece, Devorah Leah Phillips, described her aunt as very loving.

“She fills up everyone’s buckets with an abundance of love and compliments that there is no space for negativity,” Ms Phillips said in an Instagram post last week.

Another 117 people remain missing 11 days after the 12-storey residential building collapsed.

A search-and-rescue effort has continued almost around the clock, pausing only for bad weather, dangerous shifting of the rubble, and the demolition.

Roughly half of the condominium building came tumbling down early in the morning on June 24 and rescue workers were kept away from the unstable half that remained standing for their own safety.

Rescuers have now begun searching through fresh rubble after the last of the building was demolished, allowing crews to scour previously inaccessible places.

Four more victims – including the Ainsworths – have since been discovered, Miami-Dade police say, raising the death toll to 28 people.

No one has been found alive since the first hours after the collapse.

Updated

RBA leaves cash rate unchanged

The Reserve Bank of Australia will leave the official cash rate unchanged at 0.1 per cent.

The Sydney Morning Herald has broken a fairly extraordinary story about 160 students at St Joseph’s College, a prestigious private school in Sydney, receiving Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine doses. The school says this was because it approached NSW health in May asking about the possibility, given it had boarding students who were from rural, regional and indigenous communities.

Updated

And the Victorian minister for major events, Martin Pakula, has his say about the cancellation of the GPs. Not enough jabs yet, he reckons:

It’s very disappointing that these much-loved events can’t proceed but this is the reality of the pandemic – until we get much higher vaccination rates we cannot return to more normal settings.

We are getting to work on plans for 2022 immediately and can’t wait to welcome the world’s best drivers and riders and all motorsport fans back to Albert Park and Phillip Island.

Grand Prix 2018
The Australian F1 Grand Prix has been cancelled, again. Photograph: Dave Acree/AAP

Updated

More on the cancellation of GPs x 2:

Australian F1 Grand Prix cancelled

We have confirmation that the 2021 Australian Formula One Grand Prix and Australian MotoGP have been cancelled for a second straight year.

“We’re deeply disappointed that for a second consecutive year, both MotoGP and Formula 1 fans won’t be able to see the world’s best riders and drivers compete at the wonderful Phillip Island and Albert Park Grand Prix Circuits,” Australian Grand Prix Corporation Chairman, Paul Little, said.

“We appreciate the challenge Australia faces with current international travel restrictions and the importance of vaccinations.”

The lucrative race in Melbourne, one of the highlights of the Australian sporting calendar, was called off at the last minute in March 2020, just as the Covid-19 pandemic was taking hold.

This year’s race had already been pushed back from its usual early season slot to November, by which time it was hoped restrictions would have eased. But strict quarantine requirements, which are still in place for overseas arrivals, have proved an insurmountable obstacle for the travelling F1 cohort.

Race organisers had reportedly asked the Victorian government for a fly-in, fly-out arrangement with a biosecure hub set up for drivers, team officials and staff, to avoid the mandatory 14-day quarantine period. Given the quick turnaround between races on the F1 calendar, any quarantine period in Melbourne would force drivers to miss other races - the preceding Brazilian Grand Prix takes place on 7 November, with the race weekend at Albert Park to start on 19 November and the grand prix itself on 21 November.

The Australian Grand Prix Corporation’s Covid-safe plan came under scrutiny last week when the federal government announced a 50% reduction in the cap for returning overseas travellers, even though the sizeable grand prix cohort would likely fall outside that cap.

It comes as Victoria recorded a sixth straight day of zero locally transmitted cases, while NSW reported 18 and Queensland one on Tuesday.

Daniel Andrews, the premier of Victoria, had said earlier today that holding major sporting events like the grand prix was “very challenging” given Australia’s slow vaccine roll out. But Andrews indicated he expected a sufficient proportion of the population to be vaccinated by the end of the year to allow the Australian Open tennis tournament to go ahead in early 2022.

Updated

Something going down at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra:

The federal government has given an update on Scott Morrison’s pledge at the G7 summit last month to share at least 20 million Covid-19 vaccine doses with countries in the Indo-Pacific region.

The government now says up to 15 million of those doses will be heading to “our closest partners in the Pacific and Timor-Leste”.

(That means the remaining 5 million doses could go to south-east Asia and other parts of the Indo-Pacific.)

In line with Morrison’s pledge last month, the deadline for these vaccine doses to be delivered is distant: “by mid-2022”.

The foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, and the minister for international development and the Pacific, Zed Seselja, said in a statement:

This allocation of up to 15 million doses to the Pacific and Timor-Leste will enable Australia to deliver on our commitment to ensure the countries of the Pacific and Timor-Leste can achieve comprehensive vaccine coverage. Australia has already shared more than half a million vaccine doses with our Pacific and Timor-Leste partners since March. This partnership builds upon our support to the COVAX facility and goes beyond the provision of vaccines.

When Morrison announced the 20 million dose pledge last month, he said they would be “a mix of vaccines that have been already contracted by the Australian Government, including AstraZenca, Pfizer and Moderna”.

Seselja met with Papua New Guinea’s prime minister, James Marape, in Port Moresby on Monday, but the rare in-person trip during the pandemic was somewhat overshadowed by a renewed diplomatic dispute between China and Australia over vaccines for the region. Seselja has denied undermining China’s plan to roll out Covid vaccines to Pacific countries after Beijing lashed Canberra’s purported “callous” and “irresponsible behaviour”. We’ll have a story on that shortly.

Updated

There was a bit of an issue with my transcript when the good Lieutenant General Frewen was asked the meaning of life why he was here earlier.

But here’s how Katharine Murphy heard it:

Updated

A few short, sharp bits to wrap up that media conference with Lieutenant General John Frewen, the head of the Covid-19 vaccination taskforce, who met with states and territories today. He says:

  • A new phase of the communications campaign (um, campaign?) is starting soon;
  • They are considering incentives for vaccination, but not in the immediate future;
  • Drive-through hubs and pop-up mass hubs in regional areas are being considered; and
  • The position of some states regarding AstraZeneca for under 40s, the rate of aged care workers vaccinated, and when Pfizer could be available for under 40s was not discussed today.
Lieutenant General John Frewen speaks to the media in Canberra on Tuesday
Lieutenant General John Frewen speaks to the media in Canberra on Tuesday. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

Frewen is meeting with the treasurer Josh Frydenberg tomorrow as part of an industry forum that will discuss how they can be involved in the vaccination program, including via workplace inoculations.

Many of these industries already do annual flu vaccinations. So I think there’s a couple of attractions to their ability to do workplace vaccinations when it comes to Covid as well. They’re used to vaccinating their workforce, it’s another efficiency in the program, potentially. It also take burden off the both the primary healthcare system and some of the state mechanisms if necessary. It’s just another way to help accelerate the program and using another workforce that’s out there, that may be training up of the workforce that currently does flu vaccinations.

Updated

Frewen is asked a somewhat existential question: why are you here (basically)?

I was brought on by the prime minister to take operational control and the messaging around the rollout. I think the view is there’s a ... military planning, and the way that the military conduct operations, perhaps a more broader sense of coordination, to the plan (was needed). And the way that my position has been set up also gives me greater flexibility to reach across the full range of government agencies and departments and some of the other stakeholder groups that hasn’t been the case up until now.

The follow-up question was: “Your expertise, it was needed at this point in time?”

Frewen: “You can ask the PM that. It’s certainly a part of it.”

Updated

A little more clarity here regarding those discussions between Frewen and the states/territories:

The capacity to deliver those ever-increasing amounts of vaccine towards the end of the year is one challenge. Some of the states and territories are already foreseeing they may have, you know, workforce challenges, particularly some of the smaller jurisdictions.

We talked about ... how we best manage that, whether there may be the ability to share capability across jurisdictions and the like. There was nothing in there that was really critical at this stage. We then stress tested it through some of those other scenarios and I think we’ve got a good agreed position on how to manage the challenges ahead.

Updated

Ah, and here is Lieutenant General John Frewen with an update on the vaccine rollout.

He has had a meeting with states and territories today, and is upbeat, but hard to know what the following actually means:

One of the outcomes of today is a commitment we’ll need an enhanced way to assess progress of the rollout as we go, and then to be able to decide which of the pathways is working best and how we might be able to dynamically redistribute allocation of vaccines as we go. We also did some scenario based planning.

Sounds sort of like they have worked out how to quickly send vaccines other places. Or something.

A keen reader has pointed out that while there has been discussion today (and most days) about when Pfizer will be made available to under 40s, some WA residents in that age group were able to book during a brief window last month. The WA government has since closed off that option, but honoured any bookings made.

Updated

Here is a lovely picture gallery of Sydney in lockdown (don’t get nostalgic or anything, it could still be extended tomorrow!).

Updated

Queensland has been copping a bit about the virus escaping from hotel quarantine. Now actual humans are getting out too.

Updated

As I mentioned yesterday, the St George Illawarra “gathering” would have wanted to be one of the great parties to justify all this hassle, money, etc.

Updated

Here’s an interesting thread about new research on the links between the AstraZeneca vaccine and the rare blood clotting disorders it has been associated with in a minuscule number of cases. In short, it finds that “safe intramuscular injection with aspiration prior to injection, could be a potential preventive measure”.

Updated

And while we’re on vaccines, here’s the AAP wrap of the situation with Pfizer for under 40s (and associated matters):

Australians aged under 40 could receive access to Pfizer coronavirus vaccines as early as September when the rollout is slated to ramp up.

Most people in that age bracket are not currently eligible for Pfizer but can talk to their GP about receiving the AstraZeneca jab.

Almost 8000 younger people have received their first AstraZeneca dose since the prime minister Scott Morrison highlighted it as an option last week.

AstraZeneca, which is only recommended for people over 60 because of extremely rare but serious blood clots, has a 12-week gap between doses, while Pfizer has a three-week space.

COVID-19 vaccine task force head John Frewen was quizzed about September or October being realistic markers for Pfizer to be expanded to under-40s.

“On the current supply forecasts that we have then I think that’s when we’re getting closer to having greater choice,” he told reporters in Canberra.

“But I won’t tie myself to specific dates at this stage.”

Lieutenant General Frewen said ample supplies of locally made AstraZeneca vaccines and limited imports of Pfizer meant age group priorities would stay in place.

But he said as soon as supplies of Pfizer and the yet-to-be approved Moderna jab were available other options would be on the table.

State and federal health officials met on Tuesday to discuss potential problems with the rollout, including possible staff shortages.

Some officials are concerned there may not be enough workers available to roll out vaccines quickly and easily when tens of millions of Pfizer and Moderna doses arrive later this year.

They are considering options including drafting in trainee paramedics or final year medical students.

“We’re looking for every opportunity we can to accelerate the rollout,” Lt Gen Frewen said.

Mobile mass vaccination hubs will also be considered.

Jane Halton, who chairs the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, said Australia needed to be prepared for glitches in vaccine delivery.

“This is not something that you can just stick on general practice across the country and then get that huge number of people through,” she told ABC radio.

“The federal government is starting to sit in a really co-operative way, not just with the states, but working with industry, who are really desperate to help their workforces get vaccinated as well.”

State governments are jostling to get their hands on the doses, with the NSW health minister Brad Hazzard likening the rollout to the Hunger Games.

Hazzard concedes a global contest for vaccine supplies is providing to be a major problem.

“This is a war and the federal government is doing their best to try and get vaccines,” he told ABC radio.

A nurse prepares a Pfizer vaccine
People under 40 could receive the Pfizer vaccine as early as September. Photograph: Luis Ascui/AAP

Updated

A few of you might be wondering about the spare 1m Pfizer doses that Israel were trying to get rid of last week, given they were almost expired. Could have been handy here, given the vaccine Hunger Games. Alas, they are reportedly off to South Korea.

Updated

A handy recap of the Covid situation in NSW has just landed, courtesy of AAP:

Residents of Sydney and surrounds should learn on Wednesday whether their lockdown will be extended beyond Friday, the NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian says.

NSW recorded 18 new COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday, with seven in the community for at least some of their infectious period.

“The lockdown is having its desired effect to date, no doubt about that,” Berejiklian said on Tuesday. “But it’s still concerning that a number of cases are remaining infectious in the community for that period of time.”

The premier said she would be talking with health experts throughout the day and evening, and hopes to tell the community on Wednesday “what next week looks like”.

The stay-at-home orders for more than five million people in Greater Sydney, Wollongong, Shellharbour, the Central Coast and the Blue Mountains regions are due to end at midnight on July 9.

Berejiklian said the length of the lockdown will be informed by the fact that the NSW government wants this to be the state’s last lockdown.

“We intend for this lockdown to be the only lockdown we go through,” she said.

She warned that due to the virulence of the Delta strain, restrictions may persist after the lockdown ends until a good majority of the population is vaccinated.

“I anticipate that when we do come out of the lockdown it won’t be what life looked like necessarily before we went into lockdown,” Berejiklian said.

Sixteen of the new cases were linked to a known case or cluster, including nine household contacts of previous cases. Two cases are still under investigation.

A third worker at the SummitCare aged care facility at Baulkham Hills in Sydney’s northwest is among Tuesday’s new cases, sending more staffers at the home into isolation.

The staffer worked while infectious but had received their first dose of AstraZeneca and did not expose any more residents.

Five SummitCare residents have tested positive, including one who was not vaccinated. All five have been sent to Westmead Hospital for observation.

Another of the new cases is linked with the Meriton Suites Waterloo cluster.

Eight to ten people attended a party there on June 26, the first night of lockdown. Seven attendees have now tested positive, as have five household contacts.

The NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant on Tuesday thanked the revellers for cooperating with contact tracers.

Updated

Some conspiracy theorists have shared the content of their Telegram chats in graffiti form:

Aged care workers a priority, vaccine boss says

This is reassuring from the lieutenant general (via AAP via ABC): aged care workers remain a priority for vaccination.

The military commander in charge of Australia’s coronavirus vaccine rollout insists aged care workers remain a priority.

Only one in three aged care staff have been vaccinated despite becoming eligible in the first phase of the program, which started in late February.

The entire workforce was meant to be vaccinated by April.

Lieutenant General John Frewen acknowledged aged care staff were a critical workforce and said they were being treated as an absolute priority.

“We are accelerating efforts to get those aged care workers vaccinated,” he told the ABC on Tuesday.

“They are at about 36% now, which is actually above the broader national average, so progress is being made.”

Early in the vaccine rollout, the federal government decided to prioritise aged care residents over nursing home staff, considering them the most vulnerable.

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing,” Frewen said.

The strategy was supposedly designed to guard against workforce shortages, should staff develop vaccine side effects and call in sick.

But NSW health minister Brad Hazzard cannot comprehend the earlier approach to vaccines.

“We couldn’t quite understand why the federal government sent teams into the aged care facilities to vaccinate residents and not staff,” he told ABC radio.

Five residents of a Sydney nursing home have tested positive to coronavirus after two staff members were diagnosed.

Vaccines will be mandatory for residential aged care staff from mid-September.

The government has introduced an $11m grant scheme to help aged care workers take time off to get vaccinated and stay home if they feel side effects.

Unions are urging the government to immediately provide in-workplace jabs for aged care workers as well as paid vaccination leave.

Frewen at a press conference in Canberra earlier this month.
Lieutenant General John Frewen at a press conference in Canberra earlier this month. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

As Victoria recorded its sixth straight day of no new locally acquired Covid cases, the press conference was again pretty short. Here’s the summary of what was said from the head of contact tracing, Jeroen Weimar:

  • Any changes in restrictions will be announced before Thursday night. It will just depend on the advice at the time.
  • There are now just five active community-acquired cases in Victoria.
  • 70% of the 200 close contacts from the Sandringham cleaner have now been cleared after their 14 days.
  • The contacts associated with the Virgin air crew will be cleared later this week.
  • Three out of 321 people who were visited yesterday who were supposed to be isolating from either red or orange zones were not isolating.
  • 13,000 of the 15,000 vaccines delivered yesterday were Pfizer, with two-thirds of those second doses.
  • There are 30,000 more first doses and 45,000 more second doses of Pfizer booked for the rest of this week.
  • More bookings will become available for first dose Pfizer bookings in August by the end of this week
  • 38% of Indigenous Australians in Victoria over 60 have had their first dose of the vaccine.
  • QR code check-in compliance remains strong, with 117m check-ins in the past four weeks. For comparison, week one was 23m, and week four was 34m.

Updated

With that, I shall pass you over the amazing Nino Bucci who will be on the blog for the afternoon.

See you tomorrow everyone!

Another Covid-19 free day for the ACT!

Teachers are asking the federal and state governments to vaccinate them as frontline workers, concerned thousands of students could return to school during continuing Covid outbreaks.

Schools are set to go back next Monday in New South Wales, even as Sydney remains in the middle of a Covid-19 outbreak and lockdown, and in Queensland, which is battling a smaller outbreak, with four new locally acquired cases on Monday. Western Australia and South Australia are set to return to school later in July.

In NSW the chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said on Monday that authorities had not yet decided whether students would return as normal, and the government was consulting with schools.

Chant said some restrictions such as minimising the number of parents at school gates, cancelling parent functions on school grounds and preventing mixing between school grades could be brought in, similar to measures in place during last year’s lockdown.

You can read the full report below:

What started out as a safety measure by locking down four of Sydney’s local government areas, soon grew to encompass more than five million people living in greater Sydney, the Central Coast, Blue Mountains and Wollongong. With just four days remaining of the two-week stay-at-home order given by the NSW government, residents wait to find out whether the restrictions will be relaxed or if the government order will be extended.

Check out this fascinating gallery of Syndey’s lockdown:

A bit more on the news this morning that the 2021 Grand Prix in Victoria will likely not go ahead.

We are expecting the official press conference on this at 3pm today.

West Australian police believe the death of a woman whose body was found in a charity bin south of Perth is not suspicious, reports AAP.

Emergency services were called to the Baldivis shopping centre around 5am on Tuesday after a member of the public advised someone appeared to be inside the bin.

A WA police spokesman said officers were still in the process of removing the body and believed she may have gotten stuck.

The spokesman said:

They’ve established the circumstances are not suspicious.

A report is expected to be prepared for the coroner.

Updated

Andrews also flagged a potential change to mask mandates when restrictions in Victoria are reassessed at the end of the week.

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has expressed his support for the idea of vaccinating aged care workers on site.

Updated

And, in case you missed it, the NSW leadership really doesn’t mind people going and having a walk on Bondi beach during lockdown.

Chant:

What we have seen [throughout] this pandemic is that Covid does not spread easily outside, particularly if you can maintain social distancing.

I think it is really important with the community, we have given them that information throughout and we know that if you need to get out of that house it is much better to go and walk around, to enjoy the outdoor environments, to enjoy our winter, which for many parts of the world would be their summer.

Enjoy that environment rather than being tempted to have visitors over to your home or do other risky activities.

Updated

OK, it’s time to talk about the now-infamous BBQ involving players from the St Georges Illawarra Dragons NRL team. (This is totally different to the Waterloo hotel party by the way.)

The deputy police commissioner, Gary Worboys, was asked if officers were investigating if wives and girlfriends were also in attendance.

NSW police, on the information they have, finished their investigation. If there is information provided to us by any source we will make further inquiries into that. Clearly, police have shown that they will take swift action and of course that would be the case. If we get fresh information we will reinvestigate and take whatever action is necessary.

Updated

Reporters have asked Berejiklian if those who attended the Waterloo hotel party, which has since turned into a cluster, should be fined, even though many have now done the right thing and turned themselves in to contact tracers.

The NSW premier took the opportunity to talk about the emotional trauma that can come with accidentally spreading the virus.

First and foremost, health has a responsibility to extract – extract is probably too strong a word, but to get the truth – and to make sure that people feel comfortable in telling us everything they have been up to, because if people don’t tell us everything they have been up to, it risks spreading the virus.

We see people go through various stages, they might be cagey and then they realise they have to tell us everything and then they realise the guilt they feel, that they may have exposed people closest to them.

I said that yesterday – do not underestimate the personal emotion and stress you go through when you intentionally do something wrong and the impact it has. And let that be a deterrent. It is a horrible experience to go through to know that your actions have caused others to be in enormous grief and stress.

We have seen very younger people hospitalised, Doctor Chant did go through all the numbers but there are younger and younger people needing to be hospitalised, it is very random. So just because you are young, don’t think your friend or yourself are immune from having to be hospitalised.

Updated

We’ve just heard NSW confirm that a third staff member at the Baulkham Hills SummitCare aged care home has tested positive.

That will only intensify calls for aged care workers to be vaccinated with more urgency. I spoke with the main nursing union on Monday about the failures of the aged care worker rollout.

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) federal secretary Annie Butler is furious that blame is being placed on workers for the government’s failed vaccine rollout.

I’m angry today that it looks again like the government’s response, and I mean the politicians’ response, is to put the blame on the worker,” she said. “Understandably, the relatives in New South Wales, of course they’re upset, but once again it just really risks masking the failure of the vaccination rollout in aged care and putting the blame on the worker.

Butler wants the federal government to fund all state governments to conduct targeted blitzes of aged care staff, vaccinating them in their workplaces as initially intended.

It makes sense to us to fund the states and let them manage an on-site vaccination program for aged care, and then we can get it done.

Former health department secretary Jane Halton also wants an in-reach program to vaccinate workers, telling the ABC:

Our preference would be that this is made as easy as possible for workers. We’ve done this for the aged care residents themselves, our preference would be that this made is made as easy as possible.

SummitCare aged care home at Baulkham Hills in Sydney.
SummitCare aged care home at Baulkham Hills in Sydney. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/EPA

Updated

Chant has given us a little sneak-peek into what “life after lockdown” might look like with the Delta variant.

Although the Delta virus is more transmissible, the way it is transmitting is still the settings that we have known. So, for instance, it transmits well in hospitality settings, in your home, it transmits in workplaces, particularly where you have a large number of people, certain workplaces, so I think although this is a more transmissible virus.

I think the settings that are transmitted and before our mirrored but they are just amplified, and what is additional as we have seen some settings where we would not have traditionally seen as risks, so for instance retail, or other settings, have now become a bit more our focus and we will be collating all of the information that we have acquired to really hone in our own assessment of the settings and provide that advice to government.

Updated

You might remember from yesterday that one of the five infected residents at the SummitCare aged care home was unvaccinated, seemingly because she moved into the home after the federal vaccine teams had already visited the facility and gave residents their jabs.

A reporter has asked what the NSW government is doing to make sure these late arrivals across the state are protected (Although technically that is a federal job).

Chant:

New South Wales Health has reached out to a number of aged care facilities in relation to aged care workers and clearly we want to see high coverage and aged care workers as well. As you are aware, the Commonwealth had a vaccination program.

What is useful now is that with the AstraZeneca vaccine becoming not in short supply and most aged care residents would be over 60, then their access to the vaccine should be routinised and I know that the Commonwealth is working very closely with GPs to ensure that they are incorporating a check when they are going into aged care facilities and all the residents are vaccinated with a broader group of GPs having access to the AstraZeneca vaccine, they can organise for that to be brought in to the facility and so hopefully this issue which will need to continually address in terms of maintaining that high vaccination coverage in the elderly, those systems can be put in place.

NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant.
NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

NSW has adopted a somewhat more resigned tone in regards to the limited vaccines supplies than in previous days.

It doesn’t like Berejiklian is holding out much hope for extra doses before the September/October ramp up.

We’ve been asking for more jabs for a long time and we know that each state is given the allocation and the matter how much I argue the case otherwise it is not going to happen

Stricter Covid-19 restrictions likely to remain in NSW until vaccines widely available

The premier has been asked, given that the more infectious Delta strain is now a part of lives, if people in NSW will be living with stricter baseline restrictions than before until widespread vaccination has been reached.

I’d say her answer was a firm maybe.

That is an option and that will depend on the health advice we receive and I anticipate that when we do come out of the lockdown it won’t be what life looked like necessarily before we went into lockdown.

But what New South Wales has a track record of is not burdening our citizens unless we absolutely have to, and that is certainly our attitude moving forward.

So we are looking at a scenario where we don’t burden our citizens more than we have to but we also have to accept the new world we’re living in.

This Delta strain is likely to be dominant strain of the virus until we have further information and we also appreciate that we need to vaccinate more of our population before we can live as freely as we would like. So in between now and vaccinating a greater proportion of our population, we need to think about what life looks like.

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian.
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Berejiklian is sounding more and more optimistic about the ability of NSW school students to return to the classroom when the new school term starts next week.

Of course the New South Wales government appreciates the importance of restoring face-to-face teaching and we look forward to looking at that issue. We appreciate the stresses that parents go through in particular with having students at home, and we consider that in our decision-making and it will behave based on the health advice.

I don’t want to preempt that advice or what the New South Wales government response to that advice will be. But I understand more than anything what our community want is certainty. People want to know what life will look like beyond Friday midnight. And I am keen to provide that certainty to people tomorrow.

The hotel party cluster has also grown today but, rather than admonish those in attendance, Chant has thanked those who have fessed up and come forward for testing despite breaching Covid-19 restrictions.

In relation to the Merriton suites, Waterloo, and the party event described yesterday, can I thank, genuinely think the young people who attended that party who have cooperated without contact traces and given us the information, who have got the message out to their family and friends and have associated with that gathering, there have been seven people who attended the gathering who have tested positive and five household contacts of these people who have tested positive.

There is clearly a lot of testing around the Merriton suites, Waterloo, and I thank everyone for their patients as we work through that information of those testing results and some retesting that occurred. There will be a meeting around midday to consider all those results and it is likely that additional updated advice will be given in related to the Merriton suites.

Updated

Chant has also confirmed that a third staff member tested positive to Covid-19 at the aged care home outbreak.

In relation to summit care, there has been one further case in a worker at the summit care at Baulkham Hills. The person tested positive, but as you know we go back to assess whether they could have been exposures to anyone else in the facility, pleasingly, there were no further resident exposures but there were a small number of additional staff contacts identified an action has been taken to put those staff members into isolation.

Two people on ventilators with Covid-19 in NSW

Now for the Covid-19 specifics with chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant.

New South Wales recorded 18 locally acquired cases of Covid-19 in the 24 hours is to 8pm last night.

Sixteen of the locally acquired cases are linked to a known case or cluster and, of these, nine are household contacts of previously confirmed cases. Eleven were in isolation for the entire infectious period, however, there were five in for part of their infectious period being one day, and two in the community for greater than one day.

The source of two cases remains under investigation. We had no new cases acquired overseas in the 24 hours.

In terms of the severity of Covid, it is important to note that we have had, currently have 26 Covid patients that are admitted to hospital.

Of these patients, six are in ICU, two are ventilated. The ages of those in ICU is one in their early 50s, one in the early 60s, three in their 70s and one in their 80s.

This is a salient reminder that Covid can have an impact on you and your loved ones.

NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant (left) and NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian at Tuesday’s press conference.
NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant (left) and NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian at Tuesday’s press conference. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

Berejiklian says she wants this lockdown to be the last, and that will factor into decision making over if it will lift on Friday.

New South Wales wants this to be the last lockdown until we get the majority of our citizens vaccinated.

The difference now to what occurred in the last year or so since we had the only other lockdown is the Delta strain. This strain is different to what we have experience at if you look at other jurisdictions around the world, we can see that you can’t afford to let this get away from you.

While we have the best contact tracers in the world, and I believe the right settings at the right time for our population, we have to be mindful that what we are experiencing with this strain is something new during the pandemic. It is not something we have seen before, and that is why it requires a different type of response.

Updated

NSW lockdown decision expected tomorrow

Greater Syndey will learn tomorrow if they will come out of lockdown at the end of the week.

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian:

I hope to be able to communicate to the community tomorrow on what next week looks like. So I hope to be able to provide some information tomorrow. But every minute we have, every last bit of advice we have supported us in being able to make those important decisions.

The New South Wales government priority is always keeping the community safety first and foremost, but also ... opening up the economy as well. It is that balance approach we will take into our decision-making.

Updated

NSW records 18 new local Covid cases

Berejiklian:

Overnight, New South Wales recorded 18 new cases of community transmission. Eleven of those cases were people that were completely in isolation, five of those cases were people that were partially in isolation and two people, unfortunately, were infectious in the community.

The lockdown is having its desired effect to date, no doubt about that.

Updated

We are about to hear from the NSW premier for the daily Covid-19 numbers.

Australian Grand Prix set to be cancelled again

The Australian Formula One grand prix is set to be cancelled for a second straight year due to concerns from the teams regarding the quarantine hub.

The 2021 race had been provisionally pushed back from its regular early-season timeslot to November in the hope that Covid-19 restrictions would have eased by then.

You can read more below:

Just a reminder to hold on for 11am (AEST), when we are expecting to hear from the NSW leaders and get the state’s Covid-19 numbers for the day.

Aboriginal traditional owners have told mining giant Rio Tinto they will no longer do “welcome to country” for Rio related events, and are refusing to meet with the company until it demonstrates it is “serious” about modernising its agreements with them.

The Eastern Guruma people have canned any meetings with Rio Tinto for at least three months, after discovering priceless cultural materials salvaged from their sacred sites were thrown in a rubbish dump in the 1990s, and that Rio did not tell them of the mistake.

The Wintawari Guruma Aboriginal corporation (WGAC), which represents the traditional owners, has told Rio Tinto that elders will not do a welcome to country for any Rio events, or any events that Rio sponsors in the region, in protest.

You can read the full report below:

Oh, I should also mention an online petition has been launched urging the Australian border force to “deny Annastacia Palaszczuk an exemption to leave Australia to attend the Tokyo Olympics”.

It now has more that 27,000 signatures.

The Queensland premier was asked about this just before:

As I said the other day clearly, if we are in a situation with a lock down, I won’t be able to attend.

But the delegation is the federal sports minister, the premier and the lord mayor - it has been made very clear by John Coates that it would be a disaster if the head of Queensland did not go and it is basically to go there, to make the pitch and to come back and then spend 14 days in hotel quarantine.

I think it is very important that we have that really strong representation of federal, state and local because even Thomas Bach, the head of the Olympic committee, has said the strongest thing going for our bid is the enormous cooperation of all three levels of Government*.

Just over two weeks time, we are going to learn whether or not Queensland, Brisbane, will be awarded the 2032 Olympics.

*An interesting point, given Palaszczuk has spent the last week waging war on the federal government.

No financial support for small business affect by Queensland lockdown

Dick is standing firm in the state government’s conviction that they will only provide financial support for small businesses if lockdowns extend for seven days or longer.

We adopted what everyone else has done. We adopted the seven-day rule for supporting businesses and short, sharp lockdowns work. We demonstrated that previously.

We are seeing strong economic activity in Queensland and we have seen a strong rebound after short, sharp lockdowns. That is the most effective way we can support business to get them open and operating again, to get them doing what they do well and best, trading, and that is what we have targeted and focused on as a state.

We have made it clear, seven-day rule. National cabinet agreed that and we have adopted that in Queensland.

Updated

One of the biggest thorns on the side of the Queensland government at the moment is this whole issue with the Olympics.

Basically, Palaszczuk had been standing up day after day demanding that people are only allowed to leave and re-enter Australia for absolutely essential reasons, and urging people under 40 not to risk taking the AstraZeneca vaccine, but all the while she is planning on travelling to Tokyo in just a couple of weeks for the Olympics and has been safely vaccinated with Pfizer in order to do so.

Safe to say it’s not a brilliant look.

So the Queensland treasurer Cameron Dick has stood up to set the reckon straight ... or at least attempt to.

The greatest boost to our confidence is just within our grasp. We can’t look to the short and medium term only, we need to look over the horizon to the longer term as well.

That opportunity to continue Queensland’s acceleration out of and through Covid is the 2032 Paralympic and Olympic Games. This is an unprecedented opportunity for Queensland. The boost to infrastructure, the opportunity to showcase our state to the world as a destination for a holiday and also as a destination for investment. Those sorts of things cannot be underestimated.

We can see the finish line but we’re not there yet and we just can’t afford to stumble at the last hurdle which is exactly why Queensland needs to be represented at the meeting of the international Olympic committee in Tokyo in July.

The president of the Australian Olympic Committee, John Coates, has made it clear it is imperative that our state be represented and those people who don’t want us represented simply don’t understand what is at risk for our state.

This pathway to future investment, this growing confidence in our state that can continue to accelerate and the jobs and the opportunities that will come from hosting the biggest event in the world right here in our home state.

Updated

Now obviously we don’t know anything about this woman’s situation, but it’s worth remembering that previous hotel quarantine escapes have very often been connected with mental health challenges and care.

Gollschewski:

This is the first person who has got out from that hotel but a number of people have tried in the past.

Reporter:

How did she damage the door?

Gollschewski:

She has kicked it in. So fairly motivated.

Woman scales two balconies and kicks in door to escape hotel quarantine

Now let’s talk about that hotel quarantine escapee.

Depuaty police commisoner Steve Gollschewski:

We are currently investigating and are taking action in relation to a breach of hotel quarantine in Cairns. A female who had come from Sydney on 1st of July.

Was placed in hotel quarantine in Cairns, was found to be missing yesterday. Our reconstruction of that, and that includes examining CCTV.

But it appears this person scaled two balconies, gone down an outside staircase and has damaged a door to escape. Upon being discovered, police have conducted inquiries and that 32-year-old was located last night in Cairns.

She was cooperative with police but has been returned into custody and is currently in custody at the Cairns city watch-house and is facing a number of charges, including criminal charges. That matter is not yet concluded.

It’s understood she was out of quarantine for a number of days and was found at her mother’s house in Cairns.

Updated

OK, it’s time to talk about the supply of Pfizer doses for Queensland.

Yesterday health minister Yvette D’Ath confirmed anyone making a Pfizer booking this week would have to wait until September or October for their jab.

The federal health minister, Greg Hunt, then announced the state would be getting an extra 200,000, but D’Ath is speaking this morning about why that won’t actually make much of a difference.

We will be getting 64,350 Pfizer vaccines per week each week of July, that is the state allocation for our clinics.

This is 10,000 extra compared to what we were getting each week in June. For July, the state-run clinics will be getting an extra 40,000.

The GPs will be getting 168,480, so it is correct that for the whole of Queensland, there will be over 200,000 extra Pfizer vaccines coming into the state, 40,000 for the state-run clinics and that 40,000 includes that we are required to do the vaccinations for aged care and disability workers and the remainder is for GPs.

Yes, people can start looking at where there is a GP to book for Pfizer or an AstraZeneca vaccine throughout July, or they can continue to look at booking in with a state-run clinic into the future and we encourage people to do that and we will contact everyone who has already registered to let them know when bookings are available.

Updated

Young says the new community-acquired case is “low risk”, but as she is a student nurse health authorities are taking extra precautions.

She does her training through Griffith University. They have been on holidays since 15 June and we are confirming but we believe she hadn’t been on campus since that time.

She does her clinical placement at Logan hospital. She hasn’t been there doing a clinical placement since 15 June but she did visit for one hour to talk to a patient on 28 June.

At that stage, there was already a mask requirement in for all hospitals in those 11 LGAs and they have checked and everyone was wearing masks and they have already tested that person that she spent one hour with and they have tested negative seven days on. I am quite comfortable there.

We are just working through whether there is any other venues of concern but remember, we were in lockdown for four days for most of that time frame. I am not particularly concerned but we will go and double-check.

If she develops any symptoms going forward, that will help us determine the actual infectious period.

Updated

Here is the chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young with the details of this new case.

One new community-acquired case yesterday, so this is a close contact of the gentleman I announced yesterday who lives in Cinnamon Park who is a close contact of the gentleman who went up to Eumundi.

She was picked up and went into quarantine yesterday and then was tested and was found to be positive. She is perfectly well. Asymptomatic which means that we can’t identify the start of her infectious period, so we have gone back to when she first had contact with the man who lives in Cinnamon Park. That is 26 June.

I think it is unlikely that she was infectious back then but, to be absolutely sure, we have gone back that far.

Looks like some exciting news is coming up in the press conference.

Palaszczuk:

The deputy commissioner will talk today about an update on another hotel quarantine escapee, the person went to extraordinary lengths to scale balconies to get out. I will let the deputy commissioner update everyone about that.

Updated

Queensland records one local case of Covid-19

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is speaking now.

She says the state has recorded one locally acquired case overnight, connected to the less contagious Alpha cluster.

Can I start by saying that we have some good news today. We have six new cases, five are from overseas and detected in hotel quarantine and we have one community case and this person is connected to the Alpha cluster.

She is a close contact of the man that we reported yesterday from Cinnamon Park and she lives at Kangaroo Point and she is in home quarantine at the moment.

Updated

We are just standing by now for the 10am AEST Queensland Covid-19 update, where we should get word on the state’s overnight numbers.

I’ll work on getting this firmed up for you, but 10 News is reporting that the 2021 Melbourne Grand Prix will be cancelled.

I mentioned before that the prime minister’s approval ratings have dipped six percentage points as the vaccine rollout faulters.

To get the full lowdown on the latest Guardian Essential poll, you can check out the full report from political editor Katharine Murphy below.

Updated

Australia’s export credit agency provided more than $1.5bn in finance to fossil fuel projects between 2009 and 2020, about 80 times the amount it spent on renewables, according to a new report.

The research, by Jubilee Australia, examined transactions by Export Finance Australia (EFA) – previously known as the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation – finding it had provided between $1.57bn and $1.69bn in financing to coal, oil and gas projects, including refinancing.

Over the same 11-year period, covering the hottest years on record globally, it provided $20m in support to renewables projects.

You can read the full report below:

Covid-19 infected ship docks north of Perth

Western Australia is edging closer towards a return to pre-lockdown life despite concerns over the arrival of another coronavirus-infected ship, reports Michael Ramsey from AAP.

Face masks are no longer required outdoors where physical distancing is possible and hospitality venues have returned to a two-square metre capacity and a limit of 150 patrons after restrictions were further eased for Perth and the Peel region overnight.

Remaining restrictions are due to expire next Monday, when Perth and Peel are slated to return to pre-lockdown life with no limits on gatherings.

But the arrival of a bulk vessel carrying an infected crew member off the state’s mid-west coast has caused fresh headaches for authorities.

The MV Emerald Indah was forced to dock in Geraldton, 420km north of Perth, after the man became ill and “deteriorated quickly”, with bad weather preventing a helicopter evacuation.

He was taken to Geraldton Hospital and tested positive for coronavirus on Monday before being airlifted to a hospital in Perth.

Premier Mark McGowan told reporters:

While this is less than ideal, we want to reinforce there is no current health risk to the Geraldton community.

We are currently working with federal authorities to try to ensure the ship sails away immediately.

Staff who treated the man in Geraldton had been fully vaccinated and wore protective equipment.

The MV Emerald Indah set sail on Monday for Kwinana, south of Perth, but McGowan said he wanted the empty bulk carrier gone.

The vessel is registered as flying under a Singaporean flag and had most recently been in Indonesia. None of the other 21 crew members are reported as being unwell.

Updated

The federal government says they are confident that everyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one by the end of the year, which honestly we shouldn’t be impressed about, but given how the first half of this year has gone, seems pretty bloody exciting to me.

Here is Frewen on the topic:

I’m very confident every Australian who wants to access a vaccine this year will be able to do so. At the moment my sense is that Australians are very willing to get vaccinated and, you know, and I’m sensing real demand.

And I think that Australians realise that vaccination is essential to keeping our most vulnerable safe, our communities safe, and getting us back to the freedoms we want to enjoy.

Updated

The Victorian Nationals will push for a bolder position on climate change at the party’s next federal council, while exploring the “ramifications” of cutting ties with the federal party in protest at the return of Barnaby Joyce as leader.

The party’s state leader, Peter Walsh, who moved a motion at a party board meeting last Thursday to disaffiliate the state branch from the federal Nationals, has also criticised Victorian senator Bridget McKenzie for being at odds with her state division’s formal support of a net zero carbon emissions target.

“Our federal division has a different stance to what two Victorian Nationals conferences have in the way of climate,” Walsh told Guardian Australia.

“The Victorian senator [McKenzie] has probably been espousing the northern Australia position more so than the position of the state conferences of her home state.”

You can read the full report below:

Pfizer could open for under 40s in 'September or October'

This morning Lieutenant General John Frewen told ABC News Breakfast that under 40s can expect some movement on vaccine eligibility around September or October.

As a military planner, we’re always considering the setbacks that can be achieved.

The forecast we’ve got at the moment, you know, start to see real upticks in mRNA vaccines from September, October. You know, at the moment, we have confidence that could be the case. But in our war game today we’ll be looking at all sort of setbacks, major disruption to supply, potential additional complications coming up around some of the vaccines like we’ve seen before, things that can very, you know, significantly affect public motivation to get vaccinated. We’ll build all those potential setbacks into the plan.

He was then asked directly what month under 40s are going to be eligible for a Pfizer vaccine.

We’ll look at that in the war game and we’ll form a view and it will be a matter for government for when we open up those cohorts. September, October, I’m confident that we’ll have a greater range of choice around the vaccines.

Updated

Coalition paid $115,000 a space for car park in Melbourne

The Coalition’s commuter car park fund paid $115,000 a space for a project in the Melbourne suburb of Berwick, which the auditor general found was almost double the benchmark price.

Stuart Norman, the chief executive of peak body Parking Australia, has queried the price tag, telling Guardian Australia he can’t see “any logical reason” the project should cost so much.

But the urban infrastructure minister, Paul Fletcher, has defended the 500-car-space project to be built by the Victorian government, citing the state’s assessment it will return $3 for every $1 invested.

On 28 June, the auditor general released a scathing report into the $660m commuter car park program, finding not one of the 47 projects was chosen by the infrastructure department.

You can read the full report below:

Third aged care worker reportedly tests positive to Covid-19

ABC is reporting a third worker at the SummitCare Baulkham Hills aged care facility has tested positive for Covid-19.

This has yet to be confirmed by Guardian Australia, but if correct would bring the total number of cases associated with the home to eight, including five elderly residents.

I’ll try and get some more information for you on this now.

Updated

OK, new morning coffee game rule.

Take a big sip every time a politician overuses emojis in a tweet.

Updated

Just jumping back to Lieutenant General John Frewen, who heads the national Covid-19 vaccine taskforce.

He flagged on ABC this morning that medical students and paramedics could be enlisted to administer vaccines as the rollout ramps up in the second half of the year.

There are more GPs, there are more pharmacists, there are qualified nurses.

But then there are also workforces that might be able to be upskilled. There are classes of medical students, there’s a whole range of options.

Frewen noted that workforces could also be dispatched from one state or territory to another.

All of these sorts of options are on the table. We’re looking for every opportunity we can to accelerate the rollout.

Updated

Catholic doctors are being urged to support George Christensen’s “nonsensical” abortion bill, leading to concerns medical professionals could impose their religious beliefs on patients.

The Catholic Medical Association has sent out an email to members asking them to put their name to a letter supporting Christensen’s Children Born Alive Protection bill which seeks to enforce providing “life-sustaining treatment” to all foetuses “born alive”.

Doctors and other medical professionals have been offered anonymity if they choose to support the bill, although Christensen’s office will have access to the names and places of work of signatories.

A draft letter of support, seen by the Guardian, “affirms [the ACM’s medical professionals’] total support for the bill] and “agree that a duty of care is owed to every human baby born with signs of life, irrespective of how mother and baby have been separated”.

You can read the full report below:

Updated

Victoria records its sixth day with no local Covid-19

Hazzah! Would you look at that, a sixth consecutive doughnut day for Victoria.

Updated

OK, we know the vaccine rollout is The Hunger Games but has anyone asked if Brad Hazzard is Team Peeta or Team Gale?

Updated

Here is somewhat of a telling exchange with NSW health minister Brad Hazzard, who has just spoken on ABC radio.

Host Fran Kelly:

Are you confident that vaccination rates are really about to lift off? Are you confident we will see the exponential growth that you’ve been calling for?

Hazzard:

If those numbers come through, then obviously we’ll see the increase.

Kelly:

But are you confident?

Hazzard:

As I said, when those things come through, and the vaccinations come through, then I’ll be confident.

This is a war, and the federal government’s doing their best to try and get vaccines.

We know that the troops never win at the frontline unless the supply lines are open, and that’s a challenge for the federal government and a challenge for us.

Updated

I can hear Sydney blog readers asking “so what will it take for us to come out of lockdown?”

Well, Hazzard was just asked that and he says it’s less about the actual number of cases and more about if they are linked to other outbreaks, and if they have been infectious while in the community.

We’re certainly on high alert, but we’re also hopeful that he might be able to bring back some normalcy.

We’ll see how we go in the next couple of days, let’s just wait for a couple of days, watch what’s happening.

Today it will be very challenging but I think, hopefully, we had to make some changes anyway.

Host Fran Kelly:

But we’re not waiting for single digits, you’re not saying that’s the benchmark, single digits.

Hazzard:

Not necessarily.

Updated

Social media has been all aflutter over photos of packed beaches, parks and walking tracks in Syndey, where people are meant to be in lockdown, and exercising only when essential.

But health minister Brad Hazzard seems to be much more concerned with people meeting indoors.

Unfortunately, our homes become perhaps the most challenging because putting outside, no positive cases at all outside if you’re out walking or exercising, generally, but inside families visiting and friends visiting and of course the occasional frustrating party even after we’ve been locked down.

I’ve got to a say, from a senior health officials’ point of view, and for all the frontline staff who have to put their lives at risk, it’s very frustrating to see that some young people ... think it’s OK just to ignore what’s been asked of them.

Updated

NSW health minister 'hopeful' today's case numbers will improve

NSW is at a critical point of lockdown health officials say, with case numbers fluctuating day to day.

There were 35 cases yesterday, but the state’s health minister, Brad Hazzard, has flagged some positive news on the horizon.

I’m hopeful that there’ll be some improvements.

Updated

Speaking of vaccines, Jane Halton, former head of the federal Department of Health, says the government needs to be doing more to ensure it’s easy for aged care workers to vaccinated.

She says this could include sending in teams to homes, rather than just relying on workers to get the jab in their own time.

That would be our preference.

Our preference would be that this is made as easy as possible for workers. We’ve done this for the aged care residents themselves, our preference would be that this made is made as easy as possible.

Now the good news is some providers are actually arranging this as we speak. Some providers are making sure either they bus their workers to centres to have them vaccinated, or they bring that capability on site.

So we believe this is an immediate priority waiting until the first of September, for the first dose, our strong preference would be to have that achieved well before that date.

Updated

Now, ramping up the rollout is all well and good, but several experts have pointed out that Australia doesn’t have a limitless supply of doctors, nurses or healthcare workers trained to administer vaccines.

So where are we going to get the workforce from? Frewen says this will be one of the chief topics of conversation at today’s “war game” meeting.

I’ve done a review of the national program, and I’ve formed my opinions on where I think we have opportunities to accelerate the rollout and where I think we’ve got some areas we need to focus on.

As we go around the country today with the states and territories we’ll get to understand exactly what the pressure points are for each of the states and territories. Where they think their rollout will go particularly quickly, and where some of those areas are where we may need to work together to potentially tailor solutions to help make sure the rates of vaccination do, you know, increase across the country in the most uniform way we can achieve.

And supply is one of the variables, workforce is clearly another. And then it’s the motivation of the Australian people to turn up. I know some of the jurisdictions are concerned about workforce, I am too, we’ll be working with them.

Updated

Speaking of Lieutenant General John Frewen, he has just appeared on ABC News Breakfast, where he was asked why nearly two-thirds of aged care staff are still not vaccinated, despite being in the No 1 priority group.

This has been a rolling program and decisions have been made along the way based on the best information at the time.

My understanding is that early in the program there was a decision made to prioritise the most vulnerable who are the aged people themselves.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. We’re dealing with limited supplies and having to prioritise. But right now this is an absolute priority for us. It will be mandatory for all aged care workers to have their first dose by September.

They’re at 36% now, above the broader national average.

Updated

Hello and a very good morning to you all.

It is only Tuesday? That doesn’t seem right. In any case, it’s Matilda Boseley here ready to sail the rough seas of the morning’s news with you.

First up, state and federal officials are meeting today to “war game” the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

(Note to self: Vaccine rollout is not a race. Is a war.)

This comes after the Queensland premier told her state that anyone booking in for a Pfizer vaccine would have to wait until at least October due to supply limits and the NSW health minister likened the state’s quest to get doses to The Hunger Games.

So now, the head of the Vaccine Taskforce, Lieutenant General John Frewen, will sit down with health officials from around the country this morning to discuss what vaccines we have coming in, which role state-run vaccines hubs will play in the months to come and where on earth we are going to get all the vaccine staff from when the rollout ramps up.

In other news, the latest Guardian Essential poll shows Scott Morrison’s approval rating dropping six points in a month, as support for the federal government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic dipped.

The latest survey of 1,099 voters indicates that voters have lost confidence in the prime minister during this outbreak.

Approval for Morrison slipped from 57% to 51% and disapproval also climbed by four points from 36% to 40%.

This survey came as a number of Australian cities were entering lockdown and premiers and health ministers publicly expressed their frustration about the pace of the vaccination rollout, Queensland’s leaders even going as far as telling their citizen’s not to listen to the prime minister’s health advice and urged people under 40 not to get the AstraZeneca vaccine.

However, Morrison’s six-point drop has not translated to a six-point rise for opposition leader Anthony Albanese. He climbed by only two points, rising from 39% to 41%, which is within the survey’s margin of error.

Well with that, why don’t we jump into the day.

If there is something you think I’ve missed or think should be in the blog but isn’t, shoot me a message on Twitter @MatildaBoseley or email me at matilda.boseley@theguardian.com

Updated

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