What we learned today, Wednesday 30 December
Thanks for following along today. We’ll leave it there. But first, here are the day’s headlines:
- New South Wales recorded 18 new cases, including a new cluster in Sydney’s inner west and cases in Wollongong, and authorities further tightened New Year’s Eve restrictions in response.
- Victoria broke a two-month run without community cases, after three were recorded late on Wednesday. The source of transmission was still being identified.
- Back in Sydney, the spike in cases has put the spotlight on the third cricket Test, which the government says will still go ahead with spectators. Some critics, including the state opposition, say it should now be held without fans in the stands. At the same time, Queensland is yet to outline what impact a Sydney Test match might have on requirements for the fourth Test in Brisbane.
- One new Covid case was detected on a live animal export ship in the Northern Territory.
With that, we’ll see you on New Year’s Eve.
Updated
South Australian authorities are warning people to avoid travelling to New South Wales.
A police statement issued this evening said “continued spread of cases in New South Wales is of particular concern” and described the situation as “volatile and changing rapidly”.
The SA State Coordinator Grant Stevens urged South Australians who were contemplating or intending to travel to New South Wales today or in the coming days, to “very seriously consider whether that travel is essential”.
Further, those people who are holidaying or travelling in New South Wales should consider returning to South Australia as soon as possible.
The situation will be closely monitored overnight and reviewed again tomorrow morning.
South Australia Police continue to have a presence on the New South Wales border to ensure all people entering the state from New South Wales have submitted a cross border travel application. This will ensure a record is maintained of those people entering the state, so if there is another outbreak, they can be contacted.
I mentioned just now that Victoria had tightened its borders to NSW.
A statement from the Department of Health and Human Services states:
Anyone who has been in or visited the Blue Mountains or Wollongong regions from 27 December will have until 11.59pm on the 31 December to enter Victoria.
Anyone intending to return to Victoria from these areas between midnight tonight and 11.59pm on 31 December must apply for a new travel permit through Service Victoria, must get tested within 24 hours of returning to Victoria, and must self-quarantine at home for 14 days from when they last left the region.
Nobody who has visited these areas will be able to enter Victoria after 31 December.
The department also said now people in Victoria who had been in Wollongong or the Blue Mountains since 27 December were urged to get tested and stay at home until a negative test result was received.
Updated
Victoria records three new cases
Victoria’s two-month streak without community-acquired cases of Covid-19 has ended after three people were diagnosed with the virus on Wednesday.
The Andrews government confirmed the cases were among a resident of the bayside suburb of Mentone, a person from Hallam in the outer south-east, while another case was detected in Mitcham, in Melbourne’s east.
Authorities have directed the cases to isolate at home and contact tracing was under way on Wednesday, with identified close contacts also told to isolate.
The source of transmission is still being investigated.
A list of exposure sites will be released later tonight.
The Victorian government had just moved to tightened border restrictions with NSW, which recorded 18 new cases on Wednesday.
Until today, Victoria had gone 61 days without a community-acquired case. There were eight active active cases reported earlier this morning, but all were in hotel quarantine.
Updated
Covid cases reportedly detected in Victoria
BREAKING: authorities are investigating after three new coronavirus cases were detected in Victoria today, NOT in returned travellers. Understood all close contacts have been notified and are isolating. More to come soon @theheraldsun #springst
— Shannon Deery (@s_deery) December 30, 2020
We’ll bring you more information when it comes to hand.
Updated
Some non-Covid news from AAP.
Critical rescue equipment worth $20,000 has been stolen from a Victoria State Emergency Service site, hindering its ability to respond to road accidents in a crucial period.
An SES spokesman says several chainsaws and a set of road rescue hydraulics were stolen from the group’s Upper Yarra unit in Wesburn, about one hour east of Melbourne, on Wednesday.
He says the unit only had two sets of hydraulics, meaning if multiple people are trapped in a road accident, it can now only respond to one at a time.
Severe thunderstorms are expected in the coming days, with the festive period generally seeing a spike in road accidents.
“We’re really devastated,” the Upper Yarra deputy unit controller, Cam McDonald, said on Wednesday.
“Ultimately it’s the community that suffers; road safety is just so important this time of year. So right now we’ll have less equipment to respond with if something happens.
“Hopefully someone realises this is pretty specialist equipment and doesn’t have much broader use and they just return it.”
Updated
While I’m sharing some interesting work by others at the Guardian just now, my Melbourne colleague Nino Bucci was in Wyndham recently to see how the area dealt with the city’s second wave.
It is a multicultural place, mostly blue collar, and had the most Covid cases of any LGA in Australia.
Read Nino’s piece below.
Jenny Valentish has taken a look at the new-look, post-Covid Mona.
Mandatory face coverings slowed transmission in Melbourne’s second wave of coronavirus. They can work in Sydney too, writes Catherine Bennett, the chair in epidemiology at Deakin University:
Updated
More hotspots added in NSW
NSW Health has just released the following information.
The Croydon cluster was first identified in a person who resides in the Croydon area. The cluster involves three household groups across greater Sydney, including in south-west Sydney and the inner west.
There are a number of venues where cases have been present while infectious, and therefore where other patrons might have been exposed to the virus. These include venues in Bankstown and Bass Hill.
Anyone who visited any of the following venues at the listed times is considered a close contact and must get tested immediately and isolate for 14 days, regardless of the result:
- Bankstown: Monkey Mania – Bankstown Sports Club, 8 Greenfield Parade, Monday 28 December, 10am-12pm
- Bankstown: La Piazza – Bankstown Sports Club, 8 Greenfield Parade, Monday 28 December, 12pm- 2pm
- Bass Hill: #Hair Management, Shop 50, Bass Hill Plaza, 753 Hume Highway, Thursday 24 December, 11.15am-12.30pm
- Bass Hill: Venus Nail Salon, Shop 51, Bass Hill Plaza, 753 Hume Highway, Thursday 24 December, 12.30pm-1pm
Anyone who visited any of the following venues at the listed times is considered a casual contact and must get tested immediately and isolate until a negative result is received:
- Bankstown: Priceline Pharmacy, Shop M1, 221-222 Moore Level, Centro Bankstown Square, Cnr North Terrace & Lady Cutler Avenue, Thursday 24 December, 1pm-5pm
- Katoomba: Greenwell and Thomas Pharmacy, 145 Katoomba Street, Saturday 26 December, All day, Sunday 27 December, All day
- Liverpool, Priceline Pharmacy, Shop 1014, Westfield Liverpool, Macquarie Street, Wednesday 23 December, 10am-5pm
Anyone who visited any of the following venues at the listed times should monitor for symptoms, and get tested immediately and isolate if they appear:
- Bankstown: Bankstown Sports Club, 8 Greenfield Parade, Monday 28 December, 10am-2pm
- Bass Hill: Bass Hill Plaza, 753 Hume Highway, Thursday 24 December
Photograph: picturelibrary/Alamy Stock Photo
Updated
Shares on the Australian market have closed 0.3% lower despite paring back some losses in the last hour of trade.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed 17.9 points, or 0.27% lower, at 6,682.40 on Wednesday.
The index fell as low as 6,630 early in the session as traders took cues from overnight declines on Wall Street and booked profits in a holiday-shortened trading week.
The All Ordinaries closed down 19.2 points, or 0.28%, to 6,942.90.
Shares across Asian markets regained some momentum as investors bet on continuing stimulus next year to deal with the global impact of the pandemic.
The Aussie dollar was buying 76.61 US cents at 4.15pm (AEDT), after spiking from 75.95 US cents at Tuesday’s close.
Updated
The emergence of more Covid-19 cases in Sydney is a concerning development and justifies Western Australia’s renewed hard border restrictions with NSW, WA’s acting premier and health minister, Roger Cook, says.
NSW has been declared a medium-risk state, meaning travellers can only enter WA with an exemption and then they must quarantine for 14 days.
All other states and territories are considered very low risk with no quarantine requirements.
Cook said just how long the measures remain in place depends on how quickly NSW authorities get on top of the current coronavirus clusters, AAP reports.
“They look like they are getting on top of the Avalon cluster quite well,” he said.
“We’ve now seen an outbreak in the Croydon area and there’s still some mystery cases, which is very concerning.
“But the NSW government has done a great job doing mass testing ... that’s the best way to make sure they can get on top of these outbreaks as soon as possible.”
Cook said the state government would continue to monitor the situation in Sydney and would take advice on its restrictions from the chief public health officer.
He declined to comment directly on whether or not the NSW government should impose a statewide lockdown but said the WA would take “decisive and concerted” action if it had a worrying outbreak of coronavirus cases.
Updated
Too risky to have spectators at Sydney cricket Test, expert says
Prof Raina MacIntyre, an epidemiologist with the University of NSW and head of the biosecurity research program at the Kirby Institute, says the risk is too great to have spectators at the third Test match between Australia and India starting on 7 January. The match will go ahead with around 24,000 spectators, and masks will be encouraged, but not mandated.
At the “very least”, masks should be mandated for spectators, MacIntyre says.
“I won’t be resting easy until after the second week of January.”
We’ve got the Test match being played on the seventh of January, which will be right at that period when we would expect a surge of cases following New Year’s Eve, which is very bad timing.
I think it’s just too much of a risk. I think they can still play the Test match. But I think the spectators should be watching it on television from home. The fact they’re going ahead without a mask mandate in place is really risky.
She said she feared it could turn into a “super spreading” event, and was particularly concerned about asymptomatic spread being missed.
Updated
Manison also has a warning for Territorians who are travelling interstate:
This is also another reminder to Territorians that if you travel interstate and if things change that we will be acting swiftly. And that you could very well find yourself, when you return to the Northern Territory, having to quarantine at a cost of $2,500.
This is just the Covid-19 world that we live in now. But we’ve always said this is about keeping people safe and that, as a government, we’re going to act swiftly and fast if we need to declare hotspots in order to keep Territorians safe.
Updated
Northern Territory declares new Sydney hotspots
The acting NT chief minister, Nicole Manison, has stepped up for a press conference.
Based on advice from the NT chief health officer and the AHPPC, the Northern Territory has declared the following suburbs as hotspots: Croydon, Croydon Park, Lilli Pilli, Strathfield, Strathfield North, Strathfield South and Sutherland.
If you have travelled from those hotspot-declared suburbs since Christmas Day, you must self-isolate and get tested.
These suburbs are in addition to the northern beaches, which was already declared a hotspot.
Updated
Two further Sydney venues confirm they are hotspots
We can confirm for you two new locations that have say they have been identified as hotspots – and will likely be added to the NSW Health list in due course.
Rhodes Waterside, a shopping centre at Rhodes in Sydney’s inner west, says in a statement on Facebook:
Rhodes Waterside has this morning been notified that a customer, who has later tested positive to Covid-19, visited the centre on Thursday 24 December. The only store confirmed to have been visited by the customer is Priceline Pharmacy for a short period of time at approximately midday.
Rhodes Waterside has not yet appeared on the official list from NSW Health at this stage, however, we have chosen to share this information with our community as soon as the information was received. We expect to be added to the official list in the coming hours and will provide any further information should it become available.
The shopping centre said that the confirmed case had attended the site over a “short period of time around midday on Christmas Eve”.
Separately, the Earlwood Bardwell Park RSL Club, in Bardwell, says in a statement on Facebook:
We have been informed by NSW Health that a patron of the EBP RSL Club who has since tested positive for Covid-19 entered the club upstairs area at 8.52pm on Monday 28 December and left the club at 11.15pm. EBP RSL Club is now shut for a deep clean. We envisage that we will reopen tomorrow.
Anyone who was in the upstairs area of the EBP RSL Club during that time should get tested immediately. The Sports Club will remain open. Thank you for your understanding.
Updated
In non-Covid news:
#TrinityBeach, #PalmCove, #Clifton and #Kewarra are CLOSED due to marine stingers. #9News pic.twitter.com/lkm9PvZxUS
— 9News Queensland (@9NewsQueensland) December 30, 2020
No spectators at Sydney Test, NSW opposition urges
The NSW opposition leader has weighed in on the debate around the Sydney Test.
You can go to the cricket but not congregate to view the fireworks. Both are outdoor events, yet different rules apply.
— Jodi McKay (@JodiMcKayMP) December 30, 2020
The cricket should be in NSW but with no spectators. Let’s watch both the fireworks and cricket on TV.
Updated
NSW Health names new hotspots
NSW Health has released a lit of new venues that have been visited by confirmed cases of Covid-19. This includes a Santa Claus Photo Booth at Westfield Burwood Shopping Centre.
Their statement is below.
Advice for people who attended two Greek Orthodox churches in Wollongong has been updated. This replaces previous advice that anyone who attended either church should get tested immediately and self-isolate until they receive further advice from NSW Health.
New advice for St Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church, 39 Atchison Street, Wollongong, is that anyone who attended on Sunday, 27 December between 9am and 10.15am is a close contact and must get tested and isolate for 14 days regardless of the result.
New advice for the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church, 18 Stewart Street, Wollongong, is that anyone who attended on Sunday, 27 December between 10.30am and 11am is a casual contact who must get tested and isolate until a negative result is received.
Anyone who visited any of the following venues at the listed times is considered a casual contact who must get tested immediately and isolate until a negative result is received:
- Burwood: Santa Claus Photo Booth, Westfield Burwood Shopping Centre, 100 Burwood Road, Tuesday 22 December, 11:15am-11:45am
- Punchbowl: Officeworks, 1618 Canterbury Road, Monday 21 December, 8.30pm-9pm
- Shellharbour: Coffee Club – Stockland Shellharbour, 211 Lake Entrance Road, Sunday 27 December, 11am-12pm
Anyone who visited any of the following venues at the listed times should monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately and isolate if they appear:
- Figtree: Coles – Figtree Grove Shopping Centre, 19 Princes Highway, Monday 28 December, 4.45pm-5.20pm
- Greenacre: Bunnings Greenacre, Corner of Roberts Road and Amarina Avenue, Saturday 26 December, 12.30pm-1pm
- Shellharbour: Myer – Stockland Shellharbour, 211 Lake Entrance Road, Sunday 27 December, 12pm-12.40pm
Updated
The ABC’s Dr Norman Swan, who hosts the popular coronacast podcast, says Sydney should lock down now for two weeks, mandate masks, and hold the third Test without spectators.
Speaking on the ABC, he says:
If you take the cumulative case numbers, there are around about 150 to date, and we know from research done at the Kirby Institute in Sydney that we under-diagnose by at least a factor of three. If you go by the Australian National University figures we under-diagnose by a factor of seven. Kirby Institute’s probably more accurate, so there are 450 to 500 cases out there in New South Wales not 150.
Swan says that greater Sydney should mandate mask-use and go into a two-week lockdown, and limit movement between greater Sydney and the regions.
Effectively doing what Victoria did but doing it probably a bit earlier than Victoria did to prevent a serious second wave. And the worst that can happen here is that nothing happens, but the risk here is that it’s spreading through greater metropolitan Sydney, greater Sydney, and you don’t know where it is and there are clusters you may not have identified.
On the Sydney Test, he says:
In the current environment it really is not good public health to continue with the Sydney Test. Yes, it’s outdoors but there are choke points. People are travelling by train and bus to get there. You’ve got to go through narrow turnstiles and we’re not mandating masks in that situation. So I think that the Sydney Test should go ahead but without spectators.
Updated
New case reported in the Blue Mountains
JUST IN: A worker at the Greenwell and Thomas Pharmacy at Katoomba in the Blue Mountains has recorded a positive COVID-19 test, according to management. They staff member worked the 26th and 27th December. The new case was not mentioned by the Premier earlier today. @newscomauHQ pic.twitter.com/SQAKfSNyJD
— Rohan Smith (@Ro_Smith) December 30, 2020
New Sydney cases 'concerning': Qld authorities
Queensland Health says the new cases in Sydney are “concerning” and “we will be monitoring the situation over coming days”.
But the fourth Test, scheduled to start in Brisbane on 15 January, is still set to go ahead – only a week after the Sydney Test starts on 7 January.
Earlier, we reported that a spokesman for the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk also said the Test would start, as long as all players stuck to their Covid bubbles.
Queensland Health just told Guardian Australia:
Queensland Health is continuing to work closely with Cricket Australia on plans to hold the fourth Test in Brisbane.
Both teams and their officials would need to follow the same arrangements Queensland has put in place for other sporting codes like the NRL and AFL.
When teams travel from declared hotspots, they would immediately go into quarantine hotels and leave only to train or play matches.
Broadcasting staff essential to televising the match must follow similar rules.
Upon completion of the Test, players must either depart immediately or, if they wished to remain in Queensland, serve the remainder of their 14 days in hotel quarantine if an international player or in home quarantine if they normally reside in Brisbane.
Requirements for crowds will be managed in accordance with the stadium’s Covid Safe Site Specific Plan. Any changes will be determined closer to the Test, when the Covid-19 risk is clearer.
Updated
And here is a handy guide to the New Year’s Eve rules in Victoria, also courtesy of AAP:
- Up to 30 visitors to your home a day with no limit on the number of households they’re from.
- Up to 200 people meeting outdoors in public.
- Practice physical distancing, and wear a mask if you can’t maintain 1.5 metres from people you don’t live with.
- Masks are mandatory on public transport and ride share services.
- Only share happy new year hugs and kisses with immediate family and those you live with.
Updated
Victoria-NSW border a 'long way' from reopening
Victoria is still a “long way” from reopening its border with NSW after the state’s northern neighbour recorded 18 cases of community transmission.
Half of the new cases belong to the Sydney northern beaches cluster, while a second cluster has emerged in the city’s inner west, along with cases in Wollongong, south of Sydney.
According to AAP, Victoria’s police minister, Lisa Neville, said decisions about the border were being made on a daily basis, but based on health advice no one is ready to contemplate changes.
We’re still a long way from that border being open.
Neville wouldn’t rule out extending the red zone, with concern for cases outside the northern beaches.
“I know we were concerned about the Wollongong spread and the case there, and that occurred I think through churches, so we’ll continue to monitor this and if we need we’ll extend that red zone,” she said.
Victoria on Wednesday marked 61 days without a local transmission of coronavirus and just one case of a returned traveller in her 20s, who is in hotel quarantine.
There are only eight active cases, all in hotel quarantine or self-isolation, including seven international travellers and a teenager girl at home after contracting the virus in NSW.
Neville acknowledged the effect the border restrictions had on local communities, but said people were largely supportive.
“We all do want to say goodbye to this year, we all do hope that 2021 is a better year that we’ve got ahead, but we don’t have a vaccine,” she said.
“It has been a very hard year and we have done an incredible thing as Victorians – let’s not risk it as we celebrate the end of 2020.”
Updated
South African variant 'very concerning': Qld health officer
Queensland authorities are closely monitoring the quarantined passengers who flew into Brisbane with Australia’s first known case of the South African coronavirus variant.
The woman arrived carrying the strain, which is thought to be a more contagious form of Covid-19, on 22 December, AAP reports.
The state’s chief health officer, Jeannette Young, described the variant as “very concerning” and said the patient was immediately placed into hotel quarantine.
“Genome sequencing has come back to show she has this new variant that has been picked up in South Africa that is thought to be more contagious,” Young said.
The woman was transferred via ambulance to the Sunshine Coast University hospital.
The Queensland health minister, Yvette D’Ath, said while other jurisdictions had detected a UK variant of the virus, this was the first time the South African strain had been confirmed in Australia.
“We are absolutely confident all proper measures were taken at the hotel and in the transfer, and of course at the hospital in relation to this positive case,” she said.
Young said the case posed “very low risk” to the community.
Even so, all other passengers onboard the woman’s flight were in quarantine and being carefully monitored.
Updated
Question: Why is the TGA delaying approval?
Kelly:
Firstly, the TGA is not delaying anything. Emergency approvals have been put forward by other regulators. Just to be clear, emergency approval is very different from a regular standard full approval. All of those emergency approvals that have happened overseas come with very strict guidelines about who can be given it, what sort of wrap-around in terms of safety and so forth and monitoring will happen. So it is a very different process. We don’t have that process in Australia.
In terms of when that approval will come forward, once we have all the information that we need to make that approval from the companies that are making these vaccines available, that will be very quickly but thoroughly looked at, and these are many, many pages of tens of thousands of pages of documents. So we have our team on standby right now, as soon as that arrives, we will be looking at it. And that will be an independent regulator’s approval process, as is the case with every vaccine and every new medicine in Australia. As soon as that is done, that’s not quite the end of the story. There needs to be batch testing and so forth for quality, and then the final distribution will happen very rapidly after that. So the rate-limiting step, really, is getting the information from the companies themselves.
And that’s the end of the press conference.
Updated
Kelly is asked about the Sydney Cricket Ground hosting the third Test between Australia and India.
Kelly, who admits he is a cricket tragic, says that NSW authorities stressed that outdoor entertainment in a seated venue is much safer than indoor gatherings.
I agree with that. I must say that – and I know that there are very good Covid-safe plans that have been reinforced with NSW Health and the SCG, as well, I’m sure Cricket Australia ... that will be able to be looked at in coming days. There are crowd restrictions, for example, masks will be made available etc.
However, Kelly adds that he wouldn’t be taking his elderly family members to the cricket.
The other thing I would say is that the start date is 7 January and nine days is very long in Covid time. So let’s see what happens in Sydney in the next week.
Pressed on whether he is OK with the cricket going ahead, he says it’s a decision for the NSW government.
Updated
Kelly says that while authorities are looking closely at the idea of an immunity passport, it’s not on the cards for now.
The concept is that people who have been vaccinated could avoid hotel quarantine when coming to Australia.
He says:
There is no change. If people have been vaccinated or not, they will be having 14 days quarantine for the time being. And we should remember that although a vaccine has been rolled out in a number of countries, I think tomorrow will be the first person in the UK will be getting their second dose of vaccine, and we know that the Pfizer vaccine, even though it is very effective, that maximum effectiveness doesn’t kick in until a week after the second vaccine, which is essentially a month after the first vaccine.
So we have some time to consider these matters, but for the moment, vaccination will not be an alternative to 14-day quarantine, and those decision also have to be thought through carefully over the coming months as to how that will be handled.
Updated
Kelly is asked about antigen, or rapid, tests. He notes that there was a massive ramp-up of testing numbers in NSW in the lead-up to Christmas and that turnaround times had still held up.
So we’re relying on that gold standard for now. The antigen tests will have a role, definitely, but at the moment it is the PCR testing.
Updated
Kelly is further addressing the new variant that has been picked up overseas in the UK. He notes there are, in fact, “many variants” of the virus.
The UK variant is more transmissible, but not does not cause more severe illness.
The particular variant out of the UK – we are getting more information about that. Public Health England provided interim results of their examination of that issue in the UK overnight. It confirms what we have said here before is that this variant is not more severe, doesn’t cause more severe illness. There is no increase in hospitalisation or increase in 28-day mortality. So they are positive signs. It does appear that it is more transmissible, but not majorly so.
Updated
Noting the variant strains coming from the UK and South Africa and pre-flight testing, Kelly says the AHPPC currently has no change to its advice.
But authorities are “looking at those issues carefully going forward”.
I would say that Qantas some time ago had already introduced their own testing regime in relation to free flight testing and so Qantas are mostly the ones associated with our assisted flights, assisted by the commonwealth to bring Australians home, particularly from the UK and from India at this time. And so Qantas is testing everyone before they get on the flight. Anyone that is positive is not allowed to fly.
For example, in the most recent flight that came into Howard Springs, there were 12 people who were either positive or indeterminate result from pre-flight testing and they were refused boarding, so that is actually happening with Qantas. We understand that Singapore Airlines is also doing that and minister Hunt has requested that I write to the other airlines that are coming into Australia to make sure that we know what they are doing in relation to pre-flight testing.
Updated
Kelly notes there has been some discussion about vaccine preparations in Australia.
He says they are “on target”:
We are going ahead with those, all of those preparatory phases, which includes the procurement of vaccines, making sure that those deliveries are coming when they need to be here, that our regulators are continuing to work through this period and are eagerly awaiting further information from both AstraZeneca and Pfizer in the coming days.
There are no approvals yet, no full approvals yet anywhere in the world for any Covid vaccine. The emergency-use authorisation or similar mechanisms that are happening in some parts of the world are exactly that. They are for an emergency use.
Updated
Kelly says the nine cases outside the northern beaches are “a concern”, particularly what has been called the Croydon cluster in Sydney’s inner west.
Nationally, there are 19 people in hospital with Covid-19, but no one in an intensive care unit.
Kelly compares the situation in Australia to overseas. He notes ICUs in California are now completely full and overwhelmed, while in the UK there were 53,000 new cases yesterday.
Updated
Australia’s chief health officer, Paul Kelly, has started speaking in Canberra.
He notes there have been 31 newly confirmed cases in the past 24 hours. He notes 25 cases were in NSW, but seven of those were acquired in hotel quarantine.
Updated
One new Covid case recorded in the Northern Territory
One new coronavirus case has been recorded in the Northern Territory over the past 24 hours.
The NT government said on Wednesday the case was a 35-year-old man who was a crew member on the Diamantina livestock export ship.
Another crew member, a 36-year-old man, also required further testing, which will occur today.
The two men are being taken to Royal Darwin hospital and will be in isolation until they both return two negative tests.
It comes after a 25-year-old crew member had tested positive yesterday.
Updated
The Australian share market is a sea of red in early trade, AAP reports.
The S&P/ASX200 benchmark index was lower by 56.6 points, or 0.84%, to 6,643.7 at 12pm (AEDT) on Wednesday. The index fell as low as 6,630 earlier in the session.
The All Ordinaries was down 59.1 points, or 0.85%, to 6,903.0.
The local market trend was dictated by the overnight fall on Wall Street where all three major US indices ended lower amid doubts over the expansion of the pandemic support by the government.
Investors preferred to cash in on profits amid light trading volumes in a holiday-shortened trading week.
Other Asian markets also paused their upward climb, reversing direction.
Local sentiment was hit further by a rebound in coronavirus cases in New South Wales.
Updated
Good afternoon, everyone. Luke Henriques-Gomes here. Thanks to Elias Vistontay for his work on the blog.
As we’ve been doing all morning, we’ll be keeping a close eye on the situation in New South Wales.
If you want to get in touch, luke.henriques-gomes@theguardian.com is my email.
That’s it from me, Elias Visontay. I’m handing over the blog to my colleague Luke Henriques-Gomes, who will take you through the next part of the afternoon.
Sydney festival and theatre update
New Covid cases and tightened restrictions for Sydney come at a nerve-racking time for the organisers of the Sydney festival, due to open on 6 January.
The festival’s outdoor Headland Stage at Barangaroo hopes to host up to 1,500 socially distanced guests for every performance.
The Sydney festival artistic director, Wesley Enoch, is eyeing the rise in cases, saying “it’s useful not to panic”.
Enoch told Guardian Australia:
We’ve been training for this all year ... every time something shifts or changes, we’ve got something ready to go.
We have exemptions from the health orders because it’s a restricted outdoor venue with seats ... It’s very different from having a large group of people mingling at a barbecue.
I have faith that contact tracing is good and when things break out the state gets onto it.
The stage – which is set to host performances including The [Uncertain] Four Seasons, Bangarra Dance Theatre’s landmark retrospective Spirit and Paul Mac’s The Rise and Fall of Saint George – plans to operate under social distancing guidelines.
Also watching the NSW Covid figures closely is the Sydney Opera House, whose production of Rent is due to open on Saturday 2 January to around 400 people – or 75% of the drama theatre capacity.
Unlike other major theatre venues in Sydney, masks are still not mandatory at the Sydney Opera House but are strongly recommended.
Opera Australia’s production of The Merry Widow opens at the Sydney Opera House on 5 January. The production is also proceeding under Sydney Opera House guidelines, with “checkerboard”-style seating.
Opera Australia’s artistic director, Lyndon Terracini, told Guardian Australia:
Opera Australia will be the only opera company in the world performing to a live audience.
What’s happening in the rest of the world, particularly in Europe, is shocking. But we have to be confident. We’ve been out of the Opera House for 10 months, that’s a long time.
At time of writing, Disney’s Frozen is going ahead with all scheduled performances, as is Pippin at the Lyric Theatre and Magic Mike Live in the Entertainment Quarter.
Belvoir’s My Brilliant Career is also playing as advertised. All are playing with the potential for at least 75% houses.
Patrons of Westpac OpenAir Cinema in Sydney have been advised to get tested; the cinema’s program is currently suspended.
Updated
Continuing a series of defence announcements this week, the federal government says it will buy two more P-8A Poseidon surveillance and response aircraft.
This acquisition will bring the total fleet size to 14.
The defence minister, Linda Reynolds, said the additional Poseidon aircraft would boost the Royal Australian Air Force’s maritime patrol capability and be purchased through an existing program with the US Navy.
She said it was part of the $270bn in defence capability spending over the next decade, as foreshadowed in the defence update earlier this year.
Reynolds said in a statement:
The Poseidon is a proven capability that will conduct tasks including anti-submarine warfare, maritime and overland intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and support to search and rescue missions.
These additional aircraft will enhance Air Force’s flexibility to support multiple operations and will play an important role in ensuring Australia’s maritime region is secure for generations to come.”
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A spokesman for the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has said that the Brisbane cricket Test match will still go ahead at this point, despite Sydney’s latest uptick in cases.
However, that is still dependent on the Queensland chief health officer, and on the players sticking to their Covid bubbles.
The Australian and Indian cricket teams are scheduled to play in Sydney from 7 January, and then travel to Queensland to play at the Gabba from 15 January.
The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, and NSW chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said today it was still safe to host the Sydney Test match, despite the state recording 18 new cases, and a second “Croydon cluster” in the inner west.
That news only emerged an hour ago, at 11am, and the Queensland chief health officer, Dr Jeanette Young, has not yet commented.
Yesterday, Young said that the players, support staff and media could still travel up from Sydney to Brisbane, provided they stuck to Covid bubbles put in place by Cricket Australia. The border to NSW is ordinarily closed.
A spokesman for Palaszczuk told Guardian Australia that until Young said otherwise, “the game’s on”.
Ss long as Cricket Australia comply with the bubble rules, they are free to come up to Brisbane,” he said. “The bubble situation has served us well for the NRL and AFL.”
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The front and end of the testing line is getting closer to meeting at Wollongong Hospital. Stretches right around the huge block. @abcnews pic.twitter.com/1vWQ9gt9c0
— Jonathan Hair (@JonathanHair) December 30, 2020
Here’s a recap of the changes to restrictions announced by New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian.
For New Year’s Eve in Greater Sydney (including Wollongong, Central Coast and Blue Mountains) the following will apply:
-Household gatherings will be limited to 5 visitors (including children).
-The limit for outdoor gatherings will be reduced from 50 to 30.
-All residential aged care facilities must exclude visitors, except those performing essential caring functions.
Restrictions for the northern zone of the Northern Beaches remain the same but for the southern zone of the Northern Beaches the following will now apply:
-Household gatherings will be limited to 5 visitors from within your zone (including children).
These changes come into effect from midnight tonight (Wednesday 30 December) and will be in place until further notice.
Updated
Sydney Cricket Ground cricket Test safe, says premier, with masks to be handed out to spectators
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian believes the Sydney cricket Test can take place safely, with authorities set to hand out free masks to thousands of attendees.
She said this is because the 50% seating capacity, and the fact the event is outdoors, mean the transmission risk is low.
Berejiklian said:
The best health advice tells us, outdoor ticketed seated events are safer than household gatherings, and that’s just a fact.”
Chief health officer Kerry Chant said:
We will be handing out masks on public transport going into the SCG, and advising people to wear masks when they are not physically at their seat.
We also are asking people to ensure that they recognise around screaming and chanting, particularly when they are not in their fixed location. But 50% occupancy ensures spacing and if people are staying in a fixed location.
The things we get concerned about in public health, particularly when lots of different people are coming together, and that’s why it’s important to make sure that the staggered ingress and egress.
Many of our large venues actually have quite sophisticated movements where people are designated to come in particular gates and therefore avoid that crossover.”
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Gladys Berejiklian said residents on the northern beaches would be “completely justified” to be frustrated they are still under lockdown while the rest of greater Sydney, which has seen unlinked community transmission, has more freedoms.
I can appreciate the frustration people feel when there are stay-at-home orders for one part of the city and other parts of the city are made to move more freely.
I just say thank you to people in the northern beaches especially in that northern zone who are really doing a lot of the heavy lifting at this stage to keep everybody safe.
But none of us can deny the high number of cases that are still active in that region and the high number of close contacts that we’re still identifying everyday actually vindicates our position.”
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Gladys Berejiklian said she expected to see a “tail” follow the initial cases in the northern beaches.
When you had a large concentration of cases, you do expect during the process you’re going to have those household contacts in isolation get the virus and obviously that pushes up the numbers.
I’m expecting the numbers to bounce around for several weeks. But what we don’t want to see is new chains of transmission that we don’t know about.”
The chain of transmission behind the Croydon cluster is unknown.
Kerry Chant is asked if it is still safe for the Sydney Cricket Ground to host the upcoming test.
On Tuesday night, Cricket Australia confirmed Sydney would host it.
Chant said:
We have certainly taken some additional steps to make sure that public transport masks are used, we’re looking at some of aspects of the mixing, but seated outdoor poses less risk than people perhaps gathering in households to look at the test.
We have got faith in the transport plan and the work that the Sydney Cricket Ground has done but we are looking over the plans as we speak to ensure that we can strengthen all elements.
We’re urging anyone who is unwell, do not attend. Check before you go to that test.”
Updated
The Premier just said that NSW always acts on the precautionary principle. If so on the bases of the numbers and locations now is the time for a Greater Sydney lockdown.
— Norman Swan (@normanswan) December 30, 2020
Gladys Berejiklian is asked if the growth in cases and emergence of the Croydon cluster (which is not linked to the northern beaches) are a sign her decision to ease restrictions in the northern beaches over Christmas was a mistake.
She said:
What this demonstrates to us is during a pandemic, you have to take decisions based on the science and the data and that’s exactly what we have done at every step of the way, and that’s exactly what we will continue to do.
It’s always a balancing act of the health risk versus what restrictions you impose on the community and every decision we have taken in New South Wales has been based on the health advice.
Whenever the health advice changes and, in fact, Dr Chant can attest, we respond very quickly.
We can put all the restrictions we like in place, but if people choose not to do the right thing or exercise good common sense, that is a huge risk to all of us and that’s unfortunately sometimes what happens.”
Updated
NSW health authorities worried about new 'Croydon cluster'
Kerry Chant said the Croydon cluster – six members of an extended family – live across three households, across south-western Sydney and the inner west.
She said that given social gatherings they attended over the Christmas period, she expects more cases to pop up linked to the Croydon cluster.
I’m expecting that there will be because of the nature of the contact and the fact that we have identified that there were infectious people at a number of these events and some events went for, you know, over an hour at these family gatherings and the household nature of it, so I’m just expecting that we will see cases.
We are concerned that this Croydon cluster at this moment we have not found a link to the Northern Beaches despite, you know, 24 hours of really intensive investigations. It’s not to say we won’t, but at this stage, that is concerning.”
There are 34 close contacts of cases of the six confirmed cases in the cluster so far.
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Kerry Chant says increased testing numbers will give authorities confidence to relax household gathering limits.
I can’t stress enough as the premier has indicated, the higher the rates of testing, the greater assurance we have that we are not missing ongoing chains of transmission.
We may not be able to perfectly map out the transmission chains that have occurred before, we are doing our utmost to determine and detect and link all of those cases, but we may not be able to.
But what is most important at the moment is that we break all current chains of transmission. And that is the basis for the limiting the household visitor numbers.”
Updated
Visitors will be banned from all aged care homes in greater Sydney for at least a week
All residential aged care facilities across greater Sydney must exclude visitors, except those performing essential caring functions, until 11:59pm on 6 January.
Updated
Chief health officer Kerry Chant is providing more information about the cases.
She urges people in Wollongong, and the suburb of Figtree, to turn out for testing, as authorities “are concerned there have been inadvertent transmission” after a confirmed case attended church services in Wollongong.
Chant also reveals that further genome sequencing of the virus of a patient transport worker reported on 22 December shows it is identical to the virus strain from a family of three who had been transported from the airport to hotel quarantine under this worker’s care.
The sequence is also identical to that of another patient transport worker, who did not have contact with the family of three but who was a close contact with the first worker. The virus sequence for these two workers is different to that seen in the Avalon cluster.
This airport transport worker is now considered a linked case.
Updated
There are six new cases of community transmission in Sydney’s inner west.
Berejiklian says “health experts are calling it the Croydon cluster”.
All six are members of the same family.
Updated
Here’s a breakdown of the new cases in NSW:
- Nine locally acquired cases are linked to the Avalon cluster. Eight of these cases were isolating for their full infectious period.
- Six locally acquired cases, three adults and three children, all members of the same extended family, are linked to a cluster in Sydney’s inner west whose source is still under investigation. One of these cases was first reported yesterday morning.
- Three further locally acquired cases are under investigation. Two cases, members of the same household, are from the Wollongong area and one is from northern Sydney. One of the cases from Wollongong and the northern Sydney case were first reported yesterday morning.
Updated
Greater Sydney restrictions tightened for NYE
Gladys Berejiklian has announced a tightening of the coronavirus restrictions across greater Sydney.
Households will be limited to five visitors on New Year’s Eve. This includes the southern section of the northern beaches.
Outdoor gathering limits across greater Sydney have also been decreased, from 50 down to 30 people.
Berejiklian said:
We don’t want New Year’s Eve to be the cause of a super-spreader.
The strongest message to everybody across New South Wales no matter where you are is please limit your activity and your mobility.”
Updated
NSW records 18 new local Covid-19 cases
Premier Gladys Berejiklian announces that nine of the new cases are linked to the Avalon cluster and were already in isolation.
The 18 new cases were detected from 17,267 tests conducted in the 24 hours to Tuesday night.
Updated
New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian is about to provide a coronavirus update.
Queensland reports no new locally acquired Covid cases
Wednesday, 30 December – coronavirus cases in Queensland:
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) December 29, 2020
• 0 new locally acquired cases
• 2 overseas acquired cases
• 11 active cases
• 1,250 total cases
• 1,472,222 tests conducted
Sadly, six Queenslanders with COVID-19 have died. 1,218 patients have recovered.#covid19 pic.twitter.com/1W8U2ai416
Updated
In England, scientists have warned there could be “tens of thousands” of avoidable deaths unless the whole country is immediately put under lockdown.
The calls come in the same week that the number of patients in hospital with Covid in England surpassed the peak in the first wave, with 20,426 people in hospital with the disease on the 28 December, and numbers expected to rise further as cases climb.
On Tuesday, coronavirus cases reached a new record high, with 53,135 cases reported in the UK and 47,164 cases in England. The seven-day average rate for London as a whole to the 24 December was 807.6 per 100,000 population, twice that of the rate for England, while Thurrock, in Essex, had more than 1,300 cases per 100,000 population for the same period.
My colleague Nicola Davis has this report, which features some startling interactive graphics mapping cases around the UK.
Updated
Police fine another nine guests who breached Covid rules to attend Sydney wedding
Police have issued nine further penalty infringement notices related to a wedding that breached Sydney’s coronavirus gathering restrictions.
There have now been 21 $1,000 fines issued to attendees at the Pyrmont wedding, after police were called to a venue on Pirrama Road at about 5pm on Sunday.
Police learned about the wedding via a tip-off made to Crime Stoppers.
After speaking with staff and attendees, police recorded contact details for more than a dozen guests, who are northern beaches residents.
Police issued 12 PINs on Monday to attendees who are northern beaches residents.
Following further inquiries, another nine guests were identified as northern beaches residents and were spoken to by police before $1,000 PINs were issued either in person or by post.
These include three men – aged 31, 41 and 75 – and two women – aged 42 and 71 – from Narraweena, a 32-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman from Collaroy Plateau, and a 36-year-old man and a 35-year-old woman from Frenchs Forest.
Inquiries are continuing.
Updated
An interactive website has been launched that maps every venue alert across New South Wales and the associated action authorities are requesting visitors comply with.
Updated
Norman Swan’s Coronacast podcast is taking a holiday at the moment, but the ABC doctor is still tweeting his wisdom.
Every day NSW delays can be an added week to get out of it at the other end. Half hearted measures are not effective if contact tracing isn’t buttoning it down.
— Norman Swan (@normanswan) December 29, 2020
The Parafield cluster was 33. This one from the Northern Beaches which may soon be known as the Greater Sydney outbreak is 129 as of 9am. Not a success story. Can’t say it’s population size because in a vulnerable population it doesn’t matter. Ref Israel. And no vaccine to help.
— Norman Swan (@normanswan) December 29, 2020
Updated
Gladys Berejiklian will provide a coronavirus update at 11am this morning.
The NSW premier will be joined by her chief health officer, Kerry Chant.
I’ll bring you live updates from that press conference here.
For the latest on New South Wales’ coronavirus cases, here’s my colleague Melissa Davey’s story:
The new year’s Test match will go ahead as planned at the SCG after Cricket Australia deemed it safe to play in Sydney.
Updated
The federal government has said it is considering granting “alternate entry” to Australians returning from overseas if they can prove they have already been vaccinated for the virus, AAP reports.
“The Australian government is considering mechanisms for recognising an international immunisation certificate for Covid-19 and potential alternate entry and quarantine arrangements for returning Australians who may have been vaccinated if it is safe to do so,” a health department spokesman told the Sydney Morning Herald in a report published on Wednesday.
Updated
Victoria records zero locally acquired cases
Yesterday there were 0 new local cases & 0 lives lost. 0 new cases were acquired interstate, 1 international. There are 8 active cases in quarantine or self-isolation. 8,731 test results were received. More information available later today: https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco #COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/FfW7Tw63Wn
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) December 29, 2020
Updated
On Tuesday night NSW Health issued alerts for multiple new venues including two churches in Wollongong.
Anyone who visited the St Nektarios Greek Orthodox church on Sunday 27 December between 9am and 10.15am, and the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox church on Sunday 27 December between 10.30am and 11am must get tested immediately and self-isolate until they receive further advice from NSW Health.
Authorities had previously warned places of worship were a high-risk venue for transmission as the virus can spread from singing indoors.
Alerts were also issued for several shops in Figtree, a suburb of Wollongong.
All venue alerts can be found here:
There were reports of long queues at testing centres in Wollongong – the city about 70km south of Sydney – on Tuesday after Gladys Berejiklian revealed authorities were racing to understand how a resident of the city contracted coronavirus without having visited northern beaches, the centre of Sydney’s cluster.
Updated
Australia has experienced the biggest expansion of casual employment in the country’s history, according to new analysis that suggests the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been “starkly unequal”.
My colleague Daniel Hurst has the story here:
Interestingly, the Australia Institute analysis also found that about one in three Australians want to continue minimising how much they travel for work, according to its survey into which Covid-19 related behaviours Australians hope to retain post-pandemic.
Retaining less work travel, which in turn means less traffic and pollution, was the top answer, selected by 35% of the 1,018 respondents.
Retaining increased funding for mental health and family violence services was selected by 33% of respondents, and keeping working from home arrangements, selected by 32% of respondents.
Normalising not going to work when sick was chosen by 28% of respondents, and lower population growth (due to restricted immigration) was selected by 26% of respondents.
The least popular option was to keep the gas led-recovery, selected by only 6%.
Ben Oquist, executive director of the Australia Institute, said:
Tellingly, last on Australians’ wish-list for the new year is the Government’s much-vaunted ‘gas led recovery’ which only 6% of Australians selected as something they’d like to keep from 2020.
Updated
Good morning, and welcome to the Australia news live blog for 30 December. I’m Elias Visontay. Here’s what’s making news this morning.
-The New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has foreshadowed further tweaks to restrictions as “the [coronavirus] threat of greater Sydney is almost becoming as equal to parts of the northern beaches”. Health authorities in her state are urgently trying to understand how a Wollongong resident contracted Covid-19 despite not having visited the northern beaches – the centre of Sydney’s cluster.
-Berejiklian will announce that at least three new locally acquired cases outside of the northern beaches – including the Wollongong case – were detected in the 24-hour period to 8pm on Tuesday, when she provides her Covid-19 daily update, expected at 11am.
-Australia has experienced the biggest expansion of casual employment in the country’s history, according to new analysis that suggests the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been “starkly unequal”.
-The SCG will host the third cricket Test against India after Cricket Australia deemed it safe to play in Sydney.
-Anthony Albanese is putting Labor on an election footing for 2021, with a new push to rally the party’s grassroots members for the forthcoming federal campaign.
-Victorians are being urged not to venture into Melbourne’s CBD to celebrate New Year’s Eve unless they have a booking.
If you want to get in touch, please send me an email to elias.visontay@theguardian.com or get in touch via Twitter @eliasvisontay.
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