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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Lisa Cox (now) and Michael McGowan and Matilda Boseley (earlier)

Scott Morrison says four-step ‘path out’ still on agenda despite Victoria and NSW outbreaks – as it happened

The prime minister Scott Morrison has provided a Covid-19 update after meeting with national cabinet
The prime minister Scott Morrison has provided a Covid-19 update after meeting with national cabinet. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

What happened today, Friday 16 July

We’re going to wrap things up for the evening. Here are the day’s key events:

  • NSW recorded another 97 new Covid-19 cases, 29 of them were in the community throughout their infections period.
  • The Australian Medical Association called for tougher lockdown measures in NSW, including closure of non-essential retail.
  • Victoria recorded 10 new cases, four of which had been announced on Thursday. The government said it plans to ban moving furniture to Victoria from red zones
  • Queensland said it would close its border to travellers from Victoria
  • Scott Morrison said the four step plan for the pandemic was still on the agenda despite the outbreaks in NSW and Victoria.

We’ll see you back here tomorrow.

The Western NSW Local Health District has posted on its Facebook page that it has been notified of cases that travelled to Molong, near Orange in the state’s central west, on 16 July.

No venues of concern are currently identified and contacts of the cases are being tested while in isolation. Urgent investigations are underway and contact tracing is continuing.

As a precautionary measure, a drive-through (testing) clinic will be established in Molong and capacity in Orange and Bathurst will be increased.

The Molong drive-through clinic is at the Dr Ross Memorial Recreation Ground, the Orange clinic is at the Orange Showground and the facility in Bathurst is at Mount Panorama.

Updated

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has released a statement following today’s national cabinet meeting:

National Cabinet discussed the outbreak in Greater Sydney and the additional measures introduced by the New South Wales Government to stop the spread of the virus. National Cabinet has agreed to a suppression strategy for COVID-19 with the goal of no community transmission.

All leaders expressed their full support for NSW to get on top of the current outbreak. National Cabinet noted the Commonwealth’s extension of the COVID-19 Disaster Payment support for Greater Sydney and Victoria, based on Commonwealth hotspot declarations.

Morrison said the chief medical officer Paul Kelly gave an update on current outbreaks and Lieutenant General John Frewen provided a detailed briefing on the vaccination program.

National Cabinet received an update from the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on the four step plan to reopening and the progress of the Covid-19 Risk Analysis and Response Taskforce report and the Doherty modelling for the National Plan to transition Australia’s National Covid Response.

All leaders reiterated the importance of Australians, especially those in vulnerable groups, to get a COVID-19 vaccination.

National Cabinet agreed to meet next on Friday, 23 July 2021.

National Cabinet noted the new arrangement for business support payments in the event of a significant lockdown of greater than 14 days.

Updated

NSW Health has updated its list of exposure sites.

New venues of concern for potential close contacts are in suburbs including Emu Plains, Liverpool and Hurstville.

Other exposure sites are in areas including Fairfield, Bondi Junction, Coogee and Lakemba.

There has been an update to a dispute we reported earlier today, between 200 cleaners at Westmead hospital and NSW Health, where the workers were claiming they were not receiving adequate PPE at the hospital in Sydney’s west.

The cleaners had been refusing to enter the hospital’s Covid ward claiming they were denied booties and hairnets, as well as delays to having their masks fitted properly and being denied the ability to shower before leaving the hospital to avoid spreading Covid to their families and the community.

At the NSW Covid press conference today, health minister Brad Hazzard said he had held meetings with the Health Services Union about the dispute, and instructed NSW Health “to be as generous” as possible.

NSW Health has now agreed to supply the cleaners with the PPE and showering facilities they had been demanding, with the workers agreeing to resume their duties late on Friday afternoon.

Gerard Hayes, NSW secretary of the HSU, welcomed the decision, saying “common sense has prevailed and we thank”.

The dispute followed the Covid diagnosis of a vaccinated nurse on Thursday.

Updated

via AAP

Tasmania has ordered recent arrivals from Victoria to wear a mask in public settings and avoid crowds.

The directive covers people who have been in Victoria since July 8 and comes into force from midnight on Friday.

Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein said the order was made out of an “abundance of caution”.

“What we’re seeing in Victoria at the moment is a very rapid escalation in the number of exposure sites,” he told reporters.

Tasmania had already put up a hard border with Victoria from midnight on Thursday, which means only essential travellers are allowed to enter.

Mr Gutwein said about 15,000 people had arrived in Tasmania from Victoria since 8 July.

Updated

Some breaking environmental news this afternoon.

Santos and Murphy Oil have abandoned their plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight.

BP, Chevron and the Norwegian oil giant Equinor had all already scrapped their drilling plans.

Santos and Murphy Oil’s exit means Bight Petroleum is the only company that still intends to drill in the Bight, however its most recent plans were knocked back by the regulator earlier this year.

Environment groups welcomed news Santos and Murphy Oil had handed back their exploration licence.

“This is an incredible win for all of those who relentlessly campaigned for years to protect the Great Australian Bight from offshore drilling,” said David Ritter, the chief executive of Greenpeace Australia Pacific.

“The only way to protect coastal communities and the Great Australian Bight’s unique marine life is to rule out drilling permanently.”

Santos and Murphy Oil have joined BP, Chevron and Equinor in abandoning plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight in South Australia.
Santos and Murphy Oil have joined BP, Chevron and Equinor in abandoning plans to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight in South Australia. Photograph: Getty Images

Updated

We have also tried to clarify whether rideshare and food delivery drivers will be eligible for the Covid disaster payment. It appears that the answer is yes: rideshare and delivery drivers were eligible for the jobkeeper payment.

The eligibility criteria states that “sole traders may apply for Covid-19 disaster payments if you are unable to operate your business at home”.

We have sought explicit clarity from minister Bridget McKenzie’s office.

A food delivery rider rides past a deserted Southern Cross station in Melbourne.
A food delivery rider in a deserted Southern Cross station in Melbourne. Photograph: Daniel Pockett/AAP

Updated

The Australian Council of Social Services has criticised the federal government for making people who receive some form of welfare payment ineligible for Covid disaster relief, saying the prime minister Scott Morrison lives in “a different world” to that of people who are on income support.

Chief executive Dr Cassandra Goldie said:

“We know many people have accumulated a lot of debt, and many people’s financial circumstances are already seriously dire. Now I’ve heard the prime minister say this will be fine because people have built up a lot of savings on their balance sheet. I think this reflects the world that the prime minister lives in and the difference between that world and the world of people on low incomes in Australia.

“It’s certainly true that people with significant wealth, and who haven’t lost their jobs — secure jobs — have, in many cases, got savings. Many of them have used low interest loans to snap up properties, and their wealth is increasing, but that’s one world. The other world is the world we say that this government has completely ignored now, which is people on the very lowest incomes.”

Goldie said many people who receive income support payments rely on some form of casual work to pay the bills.

“They rely on that work to feed themselves, and to cover their bills because the social security payment or the Youth Allowance or job seeker is a poverty payment.”

Updated

The UN’s science and culture agency has issued another strong rebuke of the Australian government’s claims it should have held a visit to the Great Barrier Reef before recommending it be listed next week as a world heritage site in danger.

Dr Fanny Douvere, a senior Paris-based Unesco official and head of its marine program, has told the ABC the Australian government’s intense lobbying over procedure was distracting the world from a reality that one of the world’s most emblematic natural wonders was in danger.

The 21-country world heritage committee will start a scheduled 15 days of deliberations tonight on reports from 258 sites around the world and proposals for 44 new entrants as world heritage places.

Unesco has also recommended the committee scrub two sites off their world heritage status - Tanzania’s Selous game reserve and Liverpool’s maritime city front in the UK - and seven sites, including the Great Barrier Reef, be placed on the “in danger” list.

As part of Australia’s lobbying effort, the environment minister Sussan Ley has been in Europe since Monday while reef envoy Warren Entsch took ambassadors from 14 countries on to the reef yesterday.

Ley, Entsch and Australia’s permanent ambassador to Unesco, Mega Anderson, have all accused Unesco of breaking rules by not carrying out a site visit before making their recommendation.

Douvere repeated her defence, first made to the Guardian more than two weeks ago, that all proper processes had been followed and a site visit was neither necessary nor part of the world heritage rules.

“This is a reef system that’s extremely well documented and we are talking about climate change and water quality and they are issues that are very well researched and documented.

“The constant concentration on procedure also extracts us from the reality of what we are dealing with here, with one of the most emblematic coral reef systems in the world that is in danger, with very clear evidence that’s reported in official scientific documents provided by the government of Australia.”

A green sea turtle swims at the Great Barrier Reef
A green sea turtle swims at the Great Barrier Reef. Photograph: Jonas Gratzer/LightRocket/Getty Images

Updated

With that I’ll hand you over to my colleague Lisa Cox.

And that’s it! Not much to that.

We’re really bouncing around here. Morrison is asked about the World Health Organization’s latest push for more transparency from China in regards to the origins of the Covid-19 outbreak.

He says Australia and other governments are “asking in good faith and seeking the good faith of working with everyone we have two to get those answers”.

Now, we don’t know about the lab and whether that was the initiation of this or not. It may well have been, it may not have been. I don’t have a view either way and I’m not in a position to make that judgement but what Australia has always sought to have achieved is that we get to a point where we do understand those things, so we can do better to protect the world against a pandemic that has destroyed the lives of millions, and destroyed the livelihoods of even more, and has devastated the world.

Updated

Morrison is asked about Anthony Albanese’s comments on the need to produce mRNA vaccines domestically.

He mocks the idea Australia shouldn’t open up before that happens (I don’t know if Labor has suggested this).

Anthony Albanese’s plan to open Australia up in 2023, I don’t think is something Australians would welcome.

Updated

On additional support for states in lockdown, Morrison says the commonwealth payments are trigged by medical advice from the chief medical officer. That basically means it’s commonwealth-defined hotspots that will receive support. Currently in Victoria for example the state government is providing the support for regional parts of the state which are in lockdown but not declared a hotspot.

Updated

Morrison says four-step plan still on the agenda despite NSW and Victoria outbreaks

Morrison says there was an update on the Doherty Institute advice on the vaccination rates for that “four-step plan” he announced about a month ago. He said the advice will inform each of those four steps. He did not provide details of the advice.

The path out of this and the four-step plan that national cabinet agreed some weeks ago is very much on our agenda, despite the challenges we’re currently facing in NSW and Victoria. The work continues to chart that way out and the vaccination rates we will need to achieve over the course of the rest of this year and next year.

Updated

The prime minister Scott Morrison is speaking from Kirribilli now.

Updated

Liz Cambage withdraws from the Tokyo Olympics.

Australian basketball star Liz Cambage has withdrawn from the Tokyo Olympics.

Campage says she has been suffering from panic attacks at the thought of entering the Olympics bubble.

A huge blow for the Opals.

Updated

Scott Morrison to speak after national cabinet meeting

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, will give his post-national cabinet press conference in Sydney at 3.30pm

Updated

The AMA president Dr Omar Khorshid is now talking from Perth.

He wants New South Wales to introduce a “more Victorian-style” lockdown by closing retail “that is not essential”, limiting contact at work and between families.

He says the definition of what is essential retail “should not be up to common sense, not up to people doing the right thing but an edict from government to close non-essential retail”.

Important to point out that NSW chief medical officer Dr Kerry Chant has consistently said retail has not been a major source of infection during this outbreak. Since the lockdown began, NSW Health says the only transmission in retail settings have been a Commonwealth bank in Roselands.

AMA president Omar Khorshid wants to see a stricter lockdown in NSW
AMA president Omar Khorshid wants to see a stricter lockdown in NSW. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

The shadow health minister Mark Butler has been out swinging at the Morrison government, saying the federal government has failed at its two responsibilities of rolling out vaccines and instituting a safe quarantine program.

He’s failed on both of these and five months into the vaccine rollout the real-world consequences of Scott Morrison’s failures are clear [for] everyone to see. Half of Australia right now is in lockdown. The other half are living under various other restrictions. Livelihoods have been smashed, lives disrupted. My children are not going to school. Workers are not going to work. There is huge economic loss.

Updated

Data time! And thanks to Casey Briggs from the ABC and Juliette O’Brien for sharing these online.

Western Australia to close border to Victoria

Western Australia will reintroduce a hard border to Victoria, effectively blocking residents of the entire east coast from travelling west.

From midnight on Friday, WA will reclassify Victoria as a “medium risk” jurisdiction under its controlled border regime.

The change denies entry to non-exempt travellers and applies to anyone who has been in Victoria since the start of its coronavirus exposure period on July 8.

People who have recently travelled to Victoria are urged to return home immediately and will be required to undergo 14 days quarantine upon arrival.

WA already has hard borders in place for NSW and Queensland.

Updated

AMA calls for tighter lockdown restrictions in NSW

The Australian Medical Association has issued a statement calling on the New South Wales government to “take further steps” to bring the greater Sydney Covid-19 cluster under control.

The AMA wants the government to close “all non-essential retail outlets, non-essential services” and to review limits on how far people can travel from their home.

AMA President Dr Omar Khorshid said:

The prospect of a significant escalation of case numbers remains real, with regional areas at risk.

The latest Covid-19 infection numbers in Greater Sydney show while the virus is not escalating out of control, current restrictions are not strong enough to bring overall infection numbers down any time soon. Rising unlinked cases and people infectious in the community show we are not ahead of this outbreak. This means there is no end to the lockdown in sight and more needs to be done.

Allowing non-essential retail stores to remain open not only sends the wrong message to the public, but it also increases the risk of transmission. This is despite the reality that people can access many of the products online. Telling the community not to browse the shops is not enough.

A range of non-essential workplaces also remain open, which we know from the Victorian experience last year needed to be closed or operated under strict limits in order for its outbreak to be brought under control.

There is confusion about what is considered essential and non-essential, and the AMA believes it is time for NSW to follow the Victorian approach which gives a clear definition for the public and the business community.

While we appreciate just how hard things are for people living in Greater Sydney, more delay will simply make things much worse and impose a much bigger toll on the community - with the announcement of additional support for workers and businesses, there is no excuse for further hesitation or delay.

A luxury store is seen open in Sydney’s CBD this week
A luxury store is seen open in Sydney’s CBD this week. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Updated

A helpful breakdown of the Maribyrnong cluster.

Federal government suspends mutual obligation requirements in Victoria

The federal government has suspended mutual obligation requirements in Victoria on the back of the lockdown.

The suspension of mutual obligation requirements will be in place from today until Thursday 22 July.

The arrangements apply to job seekers in jobactive, Online Employment Services, Disability Employment Services and participants in ParentsNext who live or are serviced in Victoria.

Job seekers and participants in these areas will not face payment suspensions or financial penalties for failing to meet their mutual obligation requirements that are due, or are arranged to occur, during the suspension period.

Updated

Vaccination clinic at Sydney's Westmead Hospital becomes exposure site

Hospitals and health care workers in Sydney who are forced into isolation due to exposure to Covid cases are placing increasing pressure on an already strained workforce in the midst of an outbreak.

Guardian Australia can reveal that the Covid-19 vaccination clinic at Westmead Hospital has become an exposure site.

Overnight, people who visited the clinic to get their vaccine on 13 July (Tuesday this week) received a text message informing them they have been deemed close contacts and must self-isolate until 27 July.

Guardian Australia has confirmed the exposure site with NSW Health, however it remains unclear whether the infection was in a worker at the site or a vaccine recipient.

The impact on the vaccination hub’s operation, and the already dwindling healthcare workforce in the city, remains unclear. The vaccination hub is yet to be listed as an exposure site on NSW Health’s website.

Meanwhile, a row has also erupted between NSW Health and 200 cleaners at Westmead hospital – where a vaccinated nurse was diagnosed with Covid on Thursday. The cleaners claim they are not receiving adequate PPE.

Elsewhere, a healthcare worker at Liverpool and Campbelltown hospitals tested positive on Thursday night, while three ambulance workers in south west Sydney have now tested positive for the virus, which has forced at least 70 paramedics identified as close contacts into isolation.

Updated

So, there was a bit of confusion on where exactly the six new cases in Victoria were from. For clarity, they are:

  • One from the MCG
  • One additional household contact of the Barwon man who previously tested positive
  • Two additional staff at Bacchus Marsh Grammar
  • Two people from the Young and Jackson pub

Anthony Albanese has given a press conference in Canberra to hammer home his usual message that the federal government had two jobs – quarantine and vaccines – and has failed at both.

Albanese was asked if national cabinet should set a standard set of rules for lockdown to settle the differences between New South Wales, which has opted for a model in which retail is open and there is no list of essential jobs, and Victoria, which limits retail to essentials only and defines essential work.

Albanese said Australians need “certainty” and the “failure to define essential workers” is creating confusion. He also criticised the Berejiklian government for its resistance to entering lockdown, and Scott Morrison for congratulating them for not going in sooner.

Albanese said he would follow health advice, but medical experts say to lock down heavily to reduce the time it takes to get the virus spread under control.

The press conference got a bit bolshie, with many journalists asking what standard the Labor leader would use to decide when to ease restrictions, if he were prime minister.

When more progress has been made on vaccination and hotel quarantine, he replied, and health advice gives confidence it is possible. He declined to weigh in on statements from Morrison and Daniel Andrews that Australia should unlock when people have been offered vaccines.

Albanese is playing it safe at the moment, keeping the focus on the government and expressing sympathy for the 10 million Australians in lockdown.

Anthony Albanese speaks during a press conference in Canberra on Friday
Anthony Albanese speaks to reporters at a press conference in Canberra on Friday. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Updated

And that’s all from Victoria!

Six new cases, bringing the total number of cases from this new outbreak to 24. I’ll bring you a wrap up as soon as possible.

Updated

Some good news from Weimar about a possible exposure at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

For a brief background, so an individual who turned out to be a positive close contact of a positive case was treated at RMH yesterday, I think, for a scheduled appointment. That in turn has led to the RMH activating its own Covid response plan, so around 200 staff furloughed. I’m pleased to confirm that the individual, the patient, has now tested twice negative for Covid – once yesterday and again overnight. So that gives us some reassurance around exposure at RMH. RMH will work through the normal exit process from that process.

He calls it “a close call”.

Updated

Indeed.

Andrews is asked whether there would be a gradual release from lockdown on Tuesday:

We will try and get back to normal as quickly as we can. It’s too early to foreshadow what will happen on Tuesday night for the reasons I mentioned before. But we want the most, we want the greatest freedom as soon as we possibly can.

Updated

I share my colleague’s confusion – will try to get some clarity on this as soon as possible.

Updated

Andrews is asked about the possibility of introducing rules which mean people must be vaccinated before attending major events such as the Melbourne Cup or the AFL grand final.

Interesting answer:

Look ... I think it’s important just to take a step backwards and just say, ‘OK, right, here’s a set of rules in the UK. Have they got sufficient vaccine supply so that everybody who wants to get vaccinated has had their two shots?’ I think they’ve certainly got more supply than us.

So the notion that we would start mandating things well before we could actually vaccinate people, that might not necessarily be fair.

At the moment we have many more people who want to get vaccinated than we have vaccines for them. I don’t know that that’s the case in other parts of the world, where they’ve slapped these rules on to say, if you haven’t had your two jabs, you can’t come in. We’ll get to that point maybe, where your vaccine is a kind of passport to do things. That wouldn’t be a Victorian thing. We would try and get a national framework there. That’s some of the modelling being done by the Burnet [Institute], the Doherty, something the national cabinet will consider in the weeks and months ahead as part of that four-step plan, once we reach the peak vaccine number, whatever that number might be.

Updated

Andrews is asked about the AFL making the decision to relocate matches before the lockdown was announced. Were they tipped off?

No. No. No. Any suggestion of that is wrong. Simply wrong.

Updated

Still on the removalists. Andrews is asked about South Australian authorities saying they found the removalists to be very cooperative (not the experience in Victoria, we’ve been told).

He says it was a “complex matter”, then says he doesn’t want to be “ drawing conclusions about a group within our community”, for example, “a language group”. As far as I heard, no one had raised that.

I don’t think that the two issues were linked. Look, when you are speaking to people, there are often many areas. And I don’t wan to be making any observations culturally or ... anything like that. Everyone is an individual person.

This was a complex matter, it was not easy. Our contact tracers did the best they could. I am delighted that some people who were not as cooperative with us as we would have liked being more cooperative with other states, I think that is terrific.

Without leading people to drawing conclusions about a group within our community, a language group, for instance, I’m not gonna speculate. It was not a function of that. But sometimes it’s easier to communicate with people than it is with others. But I wouldn’t read anything more into that. I’m not going to fuel that, singling out a particular group. Everyone is different. Everyone has different circumstances. And some people are easier to get information out of than others. I won’t go any further than that for fear people draw conclusions about a group within our entire community.

Updated

A few very niche questions.

One about people from NSW trying to move to Victoria over the next five days, another about why Andrews won’t name the removalist company on the basis that, as the journalist put it, Victorians deserve “an informed decision” about which company they use in the future.

Updated

On Victorians now caught in NSW, Andrews says:

My advice to people from Victoria who are in New South Wales is for three plus weeks now we have been respectfully advising you to come home. Or run the risk that the rules change. I am not admonishing them, I am not doing anything other than being clear. We have said please come home because the rules can change. The rules have now changed. As we foreshadowed was likely. Even if you do come, you need a permit and you need to comply with each and every term.

Daniel Andrews says Victorians have been advised to come home from NSW for weeks
Daniel Andrews says Victorians have been advised to come home from NSW for weeks. Photograph: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Updated

Andrews is asked whether workers should be required to be tested for Covid-19 before entering the state, something the reporter suggests might have caught the removalists. He doesn’t seem interested in the idea:

If they had worn masks when they were supposed to maybe people would not have gotten infected. There are always maybes, always. I could pretends that we are our own nation and ... build a wall. There are all sorts of things you could do.

Updated

Victoria to ban moving furniture from red zones, Andrews says

Tough time for the removalist industry. After this Melbourne outbreak began from a group of removalists from Sydney, Andrews says they will now ban people moving furniture from interstate red zones.

If you are coming from a red zone moving furniture, well, no you aren’t. We think that is the appropriate thing to do ... It is just a change we can make particularly as things become more unstable and more challenging in terms of more case numbers coming out of Sydney.

Updated

Andrews is asked about regional parts of Victoria, and when he will make a call on whether they can be released from the five-day lockdown earlier.

I can’t predict now. It may not be possible. If I do not get advised that it is safe then I won’t do it. But, as more and more negative tests come through, as we run down through more of the leads, as it were, if transmission chains came to an abrupt end, then it may well be that some of the far-flung parts of the state that don’t have a case, and under those circumstances don’t have a link to the case, it may be OK to open it up.

Updated

Andrews is asked whether this announcement by the commonwealth today about the payments for lockdowns shorter than seven days is an admission Scott Morrison was wrong to initially restrict payments to lockdowns longer than seven days.

The answer begins with a classic Daniel Andrews line:

I am not here to have a quarrel with anybody but this virus.

Then, he says he didn’t think it was “appropriate to have this arbitrary seven-day” restriction on support. He points out that it “almost incentivised longer lockdowns”.

But to be fair, the prime minister wasn’t to know when he made this announcement yesterday, or the day before, that our public health advice would recommend a five-day lockdown. You just work through issues, you do it in a spirit of, you know, that common challenge. That is what occurred last night.

Updated

Andrews is back, and is being asked about the treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s comments earlier in the week that the Victorian government had been “whingeing”. The journalist asks whether the “so-called whingeing worked, since you got what you wanted” regarding Covid support.

“I’m very glad you said so-called,” Andrews begins. Then says:

My job is to stand up for my state, each and every day.

It is important sometimes to make sure everybody understands where you are coming from. That is what we did. I had several productive discussions last night with the prime minister, and we could confirm those arrangements.

Updated

'We're back in the world of fleeting transmission,' Weimar says

Weimar is being asked about the cluster of cases at the MCG. The new infections did not know the original case, and did not sit together.

He says Victoria Health belief “circulation transmissions” have occurred during movement throughout the stadium.

“We are back in the world of fleeting transmission occurring,” he says.

Victoria’s Covid-19 commander Jeroen Weimar speaks to the media on Friday
Victoria’s Covid-19 commander Jeroen Weimar speaks to the media on Friday. Photograph: Daniel Pockett/AAP

Updated

So the six cases we didn’t know about yesterday:

  • A close contact of an Ariele apartment resident.
  • An additional household contact of a Barwon Heads man
  • Two additional staff at Bacchus Marsh Grammar
  • One new case from the MCG
  • Two new case from Young and Jacksons

More cases have emerged from the exposure at Young & Jackson’s pub in central Melbourne including two men. One, in his 30s, who works at Cerberus naval base. Another is an office worker in Richmond.

They were there at the same time as the man in his 60s who caught it from the Sydney removalists.

Updated

Victoria’s Covid response commander Jeroen Weimar says there are now 126 exposure sites in Victoria.

He is breaking down the new cases.

One is a close contact of a resident at the Ariel apartments in Maribyrnong.

There are two additional cases from the Bacchus Marsh Grammar school.

One is an additional case from the Barwon Heads cluster, an additional household contact of a man who attended the MCG. There are now six cases linked to this cluster.

I’ll try to get you some more detail on the other new cases ASAP.

A number of cases are connected to the MCG
A number of cases are connected to the MCG. Photograph: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Updated

The Victoria treasurer Martin Pakulas is speaking now. He says any events affected by this lockdown will also receive financial relief. He also refers to those businesses from the last lockdown who have not yet received relief payments.

I should make a point there are some 22,000 businesses whose applications are still being processed because more details are being sought. Not every application is as simple and straight forward as every other. In regards to those, we would expect all of those to be resolved early next week.

Updated

Victoria announces business support package

The state government will spend $200m on business supports. It will be “automatic”, Andrews says. So if businesses received relief during previous lockdowns they will not need to reapply.

I’ve received emails from some businesses who say they are still waiting for financial relief from the last lockdown, but Andrews say the money will arrive “certainly before the end of this lockdown”.

You will receive that money. we will pay them almost certainly before the end of this lockdown, certainly at early next week. It will be a matter for your bank and financial institution as to whether that money flows to you overnight or over a longer period.

Southern Cross Station in Melbourne was very quiet on Friday as Victoria’s lockdown began
Southern Cross Station in Melbourne was very quiet on Friday as Victoria’s lockdown began. Photograph: Daniel Pockett/EPA

Updated

Those arrangements, he says, relate to commonwealth declared hotspots which, include greater Melbourne, Geelong, Queenscliff, and Moorabool Shire. Andrews says Victoria will “pick up the tab” for other regional workers affected by the lockdown.

Updated

Andrews is talking about commonwealth financial support for people in lockdowns.

There were “unresolved matters” last night, he says, but is happy with the announcement today that payments will apply “regardless of the five-day lockdown” if workers lose wages.

Daniel Andrews arrives at Friday’s press conference
Daniel Andrews arrives at Friday’s press conference. Photograph: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Updated

Six new Covid-19 cases in Victoria

Good afternoon. Daniel Andrews is speaking now.

Victoria has recorded six additional cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 24.

It confirms the decision, as difficult as it was to take, to lock the state down. These additional cases, if they had not been in a situation where we are limiting movement, we know what that means.

Updated

With that, I shall hand you over to the fantastic Michael McGowan who will take you through Andrew’s impending Covid-19 update.

See you all next Monday!

According to the ABC, Victoria is poised to bring in new rules concerning truck drivers and removalists crossing the NSW border into the state.

Assume this will be brought up at the press conference, which is set to start in about five minutes.

Updated

No cases in the ACT by the way.

Okay, that’s about it from the NSW press conference today.

But don’t worry, the Victorian premier is set to hold his own in about 20 minutes.

Reporter:

There is a [34-year-old] man who [claims he has had] had two doses of vaccine, are you are aware of that case? He had two doses of both vaccines?

Chant:

I think everyone would be clear that for both vaccines, you only need one of the vaccines and two doses.

... One of the questions is that you have to have a break between other vaccines like influenza. There are standard questions asked. It may not have picked up this.

Could I encourage everyone to be very clear. You only need two doses of one form of vaccine. There will be exceptional circumstances where you have had a reaction to one of the vaccines and an alternate vaccine would be offered. That would be under special circumstances. I would encourage people to be aware of what vaccines they have had and make sure that they don’t access those when they don’t need to.

Updated

Berejiklian has been asked if restrictions might lift sooner in the regions if they continue to record no local Covid-19 cases.

I don’t want to foreshadow what specific decisions government will take until we have actually had that specific advice given to us. And that is really important.

The NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian arrives at Friday’s press conference
The NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian arrives at Friday’s press conference. Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

Updated

Berejiklian keeps saying that NSW needs, more than anything, to get mobility down, especially in Sydney’s south-west and the Fairfield LGA. But she also says the state does not currently need to tighten lockdown restrictions. Questions have now turned to how these two ideas can coexist.

It is important for us to rely on health data which is telling us where the greatest rate of transmission are. And ensure that any further restrictions really, really have the desired effect of getting down those numbers, especially number of people presenting with the virus still in the community. That is the challenge.

If we have concrete proposals with Dr Chant and her team, we will take action and I want to make that clear. Dr Chant has been saying for a number of days, as have I, that we want mobility to go down.

We need less movement ... we need people to stay at home, not leaving unless they absolutely must. Of course, if there is other things you need to do, we will act on those.

Updated

OK, on to those health care workers in NSW who are now in isolation, after potentially coming into contact with a Covid-19 case.

There have been reports that up to 70 people have been deemed close contacts, but Chant could not confirm the exact number at the press conference.

There has been a number of healthcare workers impacted by Covid-19. Pleasingly, many were vaccinated and that would afford them good protection against the disease. Healthcare workers can get exposed in the community life as well as in hospitals.

To be open and transparent, I’m aware there have been exposures in healthcare settings that have led to transmission ... but our staff wear PPE and we look at each of those cases very intensively to see if there is any lessons learned about how we can better support our healthcare workers to stay safe.

Updated

Family member of senior NSW cabinet minister fined for Covid-19 breach

Hmmm, this is interesting the deputy police commissioner, Gary Worboys, has been asked if a family member of a “senior member of the New South Wales cabinet” has been fined for breaching travel restrictions?

Worboys:

What I can say is a young lady from down at Queanbeyan was spoken to by police from Queanbeyan police station.

That young lady was considerate of the investigation, was polite and forthcoming* and that infringement notice was issued her.

*I hope he talks about how “polite and forthcoming” all the 163 people that were fined overnight were.

Updated

Berejiklian:

I cannot stress that enough. I am really proud of the way community has come together to work on this. It has been a difficult situation and I shudder to think what would have happens had we not gone into lockdown when we did given the cases and how transmissible the viruses.

Again, I want to stress, we will not hesitate to go harder. But any decisions we take have to be targeted, because if you don’t take the right decisions you can actually make things worse.

What you need to do is make sure that any further restrictions take the numbers down and make sure that we keep the community strong together.

People are seen walking under the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Friday.
People are seen walking under the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Friday. Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

Updated

Speaking of that TikTok guy who keeps accurately “guessing” the daily case numbers, a reporter has just asked if the premier is concerned about information leaking within the department.

She doesn’t really answer though, unfortunately.

Reporter:

There is a gentleman on TikTok who for the past three days has released [the number of] cases before you have. Are you concerned about a compromise in NSW Health?

Berejiklian:

All we can do is focus on the job at hand, and I know at the moment a lot of people have or alleged to have various bits of information and advice, but what is important for us as a team, team New South Wales, is to focus on what is necessary and that is to lead our state during the most challenging of times.

Updated

The NSW premier has indicated that if restrictions do tighten, they won’t include mandatory outdoor mask-wearing.

What New South Wales has done is base our settings on the advice we have been given. To date, we don’t know of anybody who has transmitted or received the virus while they are exercising, for example ... but we know transmission has occurred in workplaces. We know that the greatest number of transmissions at the moment are in households. Households and workplaces are where the transmission is occurring.

Updated

NSW will tighten lockdown restrictions "if we need to".

Berejiklian has been asked once again why she is not tightening restrictions despite numbers staying in the high double digits.

There is no doubt that the numbers are not where we would like them. I am assuming because we had, in the last 24 hours, at least 29 of those 97 cases were infectious in the community, the numbers tomorrow will be greater than what we saw today. Please know that every day on an hourly basis we receive ongoing reviews and we make sure we review all the time the settings we have in place.

If we need to go harder, of course, we will. But we need to make sure that any measures that are put in place are going to hit the mark and I going to do the job we need them to do.

Please know we review that every day, we have never ever been afraid of taking the difficult conditions to make our community say. We will not hesitate to do that even further. This is again, it will be based on the health advice.

NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham seems to have been out and about saying Brad Hazzard should take some leave (presumably because Latham believes Hazzard’s health response has not been up to scratch).

The health minister has been asked about this during the press conference, but he said he wasn’t paying much heed to the comments. Hazzard says:

I have not taken a lot of notice of Mr Latham as he has swapped between political parties.

I think everyone in New South Wales is tired after 18 months of this horrible virus. I particularly want to acknowledge our health staff ... I don’t get drawn on Mr Latham or Queensland or anything else. I just keep working.

Reporter:

Would you take a break, take a month off?

Hazzard:

We are all working to do what we need to do and we will continue to do that. We know what our capacities are and we are keen to keep working to keep looking after the community. I think the community know that too. Thank you.

Updated

Over the past week or so, we have seen NSW health minister Brad Hazzard employs a range of tactics to try and send a message to the city’s south-west – from disapproving to attempting to instil fear and many more.

Today he has gone for sentimental and understanding.

They are very family orientated. Very family orientated. I ask them to think about the fact that this Delta variant is just so problematic. Please exercise an enormous amount of caution and get tested as often as you think you should and then do it some more.

The reality is that if you have any family, any friends, anywhere in the Fairfield local government area that have got this Delta variant, it would be helpful if you went and got tested.

Updated

Police say they busted an alleged pop-up party in Manly overnight.

NSW police deputy commissioner Gary Worboys:

Another focus we will have is along the beaches and Parklands around the city beaches. Last night, we saw a young man with a van, some use equipment, pull up near the CBD of Manly down the South stayed and post what we would [allegedly] term as a pop-up party.

When spoken to, the young man tried to convince [the officers] it was some sort of marketing strategy or exercise strategy when clearly, clearly, it wasn’t.

The people who contacted police described it as a party in the street. That man was issued with an infringement notice despite that excuse that he used and was asked not to continue with that behaviour over the weekend.

Only one of the 17 people currently in the ICU for Covid-19 related illness in NSW had received the first of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Chant:

In terms of Covid cases in hospital, we have 75 cases admitted to hospital with 18 people in intensive care. Five of whom require ventilation.

Thirty people admitted to hospital the moment with Covid are under the age of 55.

Of those, 11 are under the age of 35.

We have 19 people in ICU, one in their 20s, one in their 30s, due in their 40s, five in that it is, five in their 60s and three in the 70s and one in the 80s.

Of the 17 people in intensive care, only one has received one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Updated

Chant:

My [message] for this weekend is very much a stay at home. Do not leave the house unless it is absolutely critical to do so. The other areas of concern for increased testing are Bayside, Campbelltown, Camden, Lakemba, Fairfield, Liverpool, Cumberland, Mt Druitt, Rooty Hill, Bayside, Sutherland shire, the Georges River area.

And I ask everyone to come out for testing if you got the most minimal of symptoms. We are seeing that people are sometimes delay in getting a test. Again, my message, please do not delay. This virus spread so quickly.

By the time you get tested, if you are leaving it for two days or three days into the symptom onset, you’ve already impacted those most near and dear to you. Please get tested as soon as possible.

This means that this guy on Tiktok was right once again, by the way.

Here is NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant with more details on those 97 cases.

We recorded 97 locally acquired cases of Covid, the majority were household contacts of previously confirmed cases and other close contacts.

We have a number of cases under investigation and seeing the emergence of unlinked cases which is a matter of concern. Clearly, the fact 29 cases were infectious for two or more days in the community is incredibly concerning.

I can’t stress to the community my absolute concern that we need to work harder at reducing mobility and reduce our interactions with others if we will bring the situation under control and to see a decline in cases infectious in the community.

The NSW premier says around three-quarters of the state’s cases are coming from the Fairfield local government area.

Berejiklian:

Good morning. New South Wales had a 97 cases of community transmission. Unfortunately, 29 of those we understand were infectious for all of the time they were infectious in the community. This is the number concerning. That number of people being infectious in the community keeps going up.

We really want to stress to everybody, please stay at home, follow the orders in particular. Unfortunately the Fairfield local government area is still seeing more than, or around three-quarters of cases in the Fairfield local government area, but we are also seeing an extension of cases in adjoining suburbs and local government areas.

We ask everybody in the community to really make sure they stay at home unless they absolutely have to.

Updated

NSW records 97 local Covid-19 cases overnight

Gladys Berejikllian says 97 local Covid-19 cases were recorded overnight, with 29 of them in the community for their entire infectious period.

Updated

We are just standing by now to hear from the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, with the day’s Covid-19 numbers.

Yesterday she flagged that NSW could experience a surge in numbers with 35 of Thursday’s cases in the community for some or all of their infectious period.

Updated

What is even happening this morning. This is the final straw.

Here is a snapshot of what the last minute day of at-home learning is looking like across Victoria.

Some schools have found a way around it completely!

Updated

OK, confirmation of Alex de Minaur’s withdrawal from the Olympics has now come from Australia’s chef de mission* Ian Chesterman.

We have been advised that Alex de Minaur has had a positive test. As a consequence, Alex, sadly, will be unable to join the Australian team.

We are very disappointed for Alex and he is shattered at not being able to come. It has been his dream to represent Australia at the Olympic Games since he was a child, but he sent his best wishes for the team.

*Note from Matilda: God the Olympics take themselves seriously with the title like that.

Updated

Just a reminder we are expecting to hear from NSW leaders for the daily Covid-19 updates at 11am.

Just trying to track down if we have a time for the Victorian presser yet.

I swear, if they are on at the same time again I will throw this laptop across the room. (I will not, I will just work double-time to bring you updates from both!)

A row has erupted between cleaners at Westmead hospital and NSW Health, with workers refusing to enter the hospital’s Covid ward due to claims they were denied access to appropriate PPE.

The dispute follows the diagnosis of a vaccinated nurse who worked at Westmead hospital in a Covid-19 ward on Thursday.

Cleaners are furious at the conditions they have been asked to work under in Westmead’s Covid ward, claiming that NSW Health will not give them booties and hairnets.

They are also claiming there are delays to get their masks properly fitted, and that they have been told they cannot shower at the hospital before going home – something workers are concerned risks spreading Covid to their families and the community.

The Health Services Union has become involved, claiming attempts to resolve the cleaners’ concerns have been rebuffed by the hospital’s management. Gerard Hayes, NSW secretary of the HSU, said:

Our members are asking for basic health and safety provisions. The fact their requests have been denied is incomprehensible.

We are in the middle of an unprecedented outbreak in NSW, the absolute bare minimum we can expect is that our frontline workers are protected.

Elsewhere in Sydney, at least 70 ambulance workers are isolating after a paramedic in the south west of Sydney tested positive to Covid. A NSW Ambulance spokesman said the worker is believed to have caught Covid in the community, not at work.

Separately, NSW Ambulance is investigating further reports of other ambulance workers who have tested positive but have had no contact with the confirmed case.

On Thursday night, Minchinbury Manor – an aged care home in Rooty Hill – confirmed a contract cleaner at the facility had been diagnosed with the virus, prompting the centre to isolate all residents and staff, reports AAP.

Updated

Victorian naval defence base records positive Covid-19 case among personnel

A naval base in Victoria has rolled out measures it says are designed to ensure the safety of the base and the wider community, after an Australian Defence Force member tested positive to Covid-19 yesterday.

The new restrictions affect HMAS Cerberus, a naval base on the Mornington Peninsula.

A Defence spokesperson said:

Defence can confirm that a member at HMAS Cerberus has tested positive for the Delta variant of Covid-19 on 15 July 2021.

The member has been in isolation since yesterday after he was identified as visiting an exposure site identified by the Victorian Department of Health on the weekend.

In response to the positive test, HMAS Cerberus immediately initiated a range of measures to ensure the safety of the base and wider community.

All training and leave have been suspended. Living-in personnel have been confined to their accommodation and take-away meal services are now being provided.

All isolated members are strictly complying with Victorian State Government Health guidelines and are being provided with appropriate welfare support through the Navy Divisional System.

Updated

Parents of Victoria (or very news conscious students I guess), tell me how this spur of the moment day of at-home learning is going?

With less than 16 hours to prepare, I want to know what the ad hoc zoom lessons are on. How stressed at the teachers? How are the kids holding up?

Send me your anecdotes on Twitter @MatildaBoseley.

Updated

Australian Olympic tennis player reportedly tests positive to Covid-19

Australia’s Olympic team has its first positive Covid-19 case. Tennis player Alex de Minaur has reportedly pulled out of the Games in Tokyo, which are due to officially open next Friday, after contracting the virus.

De Minaur, who played at the recent championships at Wimbledon in London where he suffered a first-round defeat, had not yet departed for Tokyo.

We’ll have more on this story as we get it.

Point Cook Covid-19 school claim is false, says administration

Earlier we put in the blog with reports that a student at Emmanuel College in Point Cook Melbourne had tested positive for Covid-19.

A representative for the school has been in touch to say that they have confirmed with Victorian Health that this isn’t the case, and the school campus hasn’t been closed for deep cleaning.

I’ll bring you more updates when I can.

Updated

New polling has shown that a majority of Australians across the political divide want the Morrison government to actively support a push to waive intellectual property rules for Covid-19 vaccines so developing countries can make and sell cheap copies of patented vaccines.

The polling found that 66% of Labor voters, 65% of Greens voters and 64% of Coalition voters support temporarily waiving the World Trade Organization patent rules for Covid-19 vaccines for the duration of the pandemic. Only 10% of voters were opposed.

The polling was conducted by Essential Media, and the groups who commissioned the survey, Amnesty International, the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET), the Australian Council of Trade Unions and Friends of the Earth, believe the waiver could help address global vaccine shortages, and refute claims from the pharmaceutical industry there is no extra vaccine manufacturing capacity, and that a waiver could harm supply.

Dr Patricia Ranald, AFTINET convener, said:

Most Australians support changes to WTO rules to supply vaccines for low-income countries. There is a global vaccine shortage which also affects Australia because supply is controlled by a few companies which have already made billions from vaccines largely developed with public funds. The government should support WTO rule changes to increase global supply for all.

The proposal to waive the standard 20-year medical patents for Covid vaccines was initially raised by South Africa and India at the WTO in October, and has since gained the backing of more than 100 lower and middle-income nations, and in recent months, wealthier countries including the United States have reversed their opposition to the waiver.

Australia remains one of the few holds outs, along with the United Kingdom and the European Union. Australia has faced mounting pressure over its position on the waiver, which has triggered both protests at the Australian consulate in San Francisco and the delivery of a 50,000 signature-strong petition to the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Sydney offices last month.

In March, trade minister Dan Tehan initially explained Australia’s hesitancy towards the waiver as being “to make sure that there are some protections in place for the millions of dollars that has gone into the research to create these vaccines”. While Australian officials have since expressed a willingness to engage in text-based negotiations over the waiver, but are yet to throw the country’s support behind the effort.

The WTO council that considers intellectual property meets again next week.

Updated

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions has refused to pursue criminal charges against AMP over one of the biggest scandals exposed at the banking royal commission in 2018.

AMP had continued to charge financial planning clients a fee for advice they received from an adviser, even though they did not have an adviser.

Instead, the “orphan” clients were put into a pool named “buyer of last resort”, or BOLR, and AMP continued to charge them fees for another three months.

AMP has so far paid back more than $153m in fees wrongly charged to more than 200,000 customers.

In a statement, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said it had investigated AMP over potentially criminal breaches of the law against dishonest conduct and making misleading statements.

No further action will be taken on these matters.

Asic said it presented two briefs of evidence about AMP to the CDPP in the middle of last year.

The CDPP has now determined, on the basis of the available evidence and weighing the relevant public interest factors, that no charges should be brought for that conduct.

A separate civil case in which Asic is suing AMP for charging fees to dead customers continues.

Updated

NSW case numbers reportedly to be 'close to 100' today

OK guys, you know the drill. The following tweet has not been independently confirmed by Guardian Australia. Nine News is reporting that NSW case numbers today will be close to 100.

We will find out for sure at 11am when the NSW premier stands up for her daily press conference.

Updated

Queensland deputy police commissioner Steve Gollschewski says a limousine full of passengers have been uncooperative after the driver allegedly provided a false declaration at the NSW/Queensland border.

We processed 1,611 vehicles at our borders and even though none were turned around, it was disappointing to find that there were two where we had people coming in on false declarations.

One being a 79-year-old person who is now in hotel quarantine on the Gold Coast and disappointingly, another vehicle, a limousine, where a driver and three passengers have also been placed into quarantine, the three passengers aren’t cooperating at the moment so further investigations are ongoing and the driver has been fined $4,135 for a false declaration.

Queensland to close border to Victoria

The border between Queensland and Victoria will close at 1am tonight.

Palaszczuk:

That means that anyone returning after that time from – Queenslanders will have to do the 14 days mandatory quarantine.

I just think the clear message to Queenslanders is definitely do not go to New South Wales and do not go to Victoria during this period of time.

Deputy premier Steven Miles:

Fortunately, we don’t have a lot of new reports of Covid-19 in Queensland. Unfortunately, Victoria can’t say the same thing.

The Sydney outbreak has spread south into regional Victoria and into Melbourne. They are taking appropriate steps in order to deal with that outbreak and we are today reciprocating those as we do reciprocate the hot spot arrangements.

We do hope they get on top of those and we are also welcoming the prime minister’s decision to extend the Sydney compensation arrangements to the rest of the country.

They will be now available to Queenslanders should we experience another lockdown.

Updated

Young says the two outbreaks in Queensland are new, and unrelated to the previous clusters circulating last month.

Then the second outbreak that we have is that worker at the Brisbane international airport. She is a supervisor at one of the boarding gates. We have already gone through CCTV footage and found 23 close contacts, 22 casual contacts and we expect there will be others.

Whole-genome sequencing has come back on that worker who works at the Brisbane international airport. It is four snips different to the previous worker who works at – remember who worked at the airport and was positive. So that means there hasn’t been direct transmission from that previous worker at the airport to this worker at the airport.

There have been some other transmission that has occurred at the airport. It is also the Delta strain. We will have another look if we can find any other close matches but at this stage, we can’t find any close whole-genome sequence matches.

I’m quite convinced that we have today in Queensland two new outbreaks, they are not related to all of the other outbreaks that we were dealing with.

Updated

Here is chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young with more details on that family. She says there are no 62 close contacts:

Very good news for Queensland. We just have that one positive case, so all three in that family are now positive. I would just like to thank that family. They have been so wonderful. They have done everything you could possibly hope of anyone to do. They were in hotel quarantine in Sydney and then the mother and her son directly travelled from that hotel to Queensland.

We do have the whole genome sequence result from the son and it is confirmed – very tightly confirmed with that outbreak that is going on in the community down in Sydney.

Health staff there will be working through how he acquired the infection while he was in hotel quarantine down there. He has come up here and he had very little exposure out in the community so we are just tracking through any contacts he had while he was in the community. Then his father had minimal exposure in the community and his mother virtually none because she went into hospital with her son when he was admitted.

That’s all good. In total, there are 62 contacts that we have found so far and we are just working with all of those.

Updated

Annastacia Palaszczuk:

This is the mother of the 12-year-old boy that we reported yesterday.

It was detected in home quarantine so there is zero risk to the community, so this is fantastic news.

This is exactly the type of news we wanted to hear today. This was the family that came out of hotel quarantine in Sydney and flew to Queensland and it has been confirmed that it is that Delta strain, that Sydney strain that is circulating in Sydney at the moment.

I just think we need to make sure that we are keeping a close eye on this because what we are seeing is this Delta Sydney strain spreading to Victoria and coming up to Queensland as well. We will be monitoring everything closely. In terms of the situation in Queensland, we are very happy with these results today.

Updated

Queensland records new one local Covid-19 case overnight

The Queensland premier is speaking now. She says the state has recorded one additional local case overnight, a family member of yesterday’s two confirmed cases.

They were in quarantine for the entirety of their infectious period.

Updated

Business owners and staff across Sydney say they remain totally confused by the lack of clarity surrounding who is and isn’t an essential worker during the current five-week lockdown.

Guardian Australia visited numerous shops across the city on Thursday and almost everyone said the same thing: “The advice is confusing.”

The New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has insisted the rules on essential workers were “very clear” but also admitted they were open to interpretation.

Smart Street in the heart of Fairfield was quiet on Thursday as masked shoppers hurriedly purchased supplies and left.

You can read the full report from Mostafa Rachwani and Elias Visontay below:

The Victorian department of health has confirmed all 10 cases are linked to known outbreaks, so that’s something at least!

Updated

Victoria records six new local cases overnight

Victoria has recorded 10 local Covid-19 cases overnight, but four of those were already announced yesterday.

In classic form, Frydenberg is still extremely resistant to criticising NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian in any way, shape or form.

Stefanovic:

We heard Daniel Andrews say yesterday you only get one chance to go hard and to go fast. Do you think that Gladys Berejiklian needs to go harder with her lockdown?

Frydenberg:

Again, Gladys Berejiklian will take the advice of her health experts. And Daniel Andrews will take the advice of his health experts.

Stefanovic:

But you are the ones putting your hand in the pocket to prop up these businesses to get through the lockdown so you need to have an opinion on it.

Frydenberg:

My opinion is they do everything that they can to get on top of the virus as quickly as possible.

We know with the Delta variant it is much more contagious and dangerous the way it moves through the community a lot quicker than previous strains. Obviously, these are difficult days in NSW. The health authorities and Gladys Berejiklian have shown themselves to be very capable in dealing with previous outbreaks. Let’s hope that they can get on top of this one even though it is more contagious.

Updated

Frydenberg really is everywhere this morning! I could fill up the whole blog with his media spots.

But for your sake, and mine, I’ll just bring you some highlights.

Here is Today Show host Karl Stefanovic questioning the treasurer over how it feels to have to play buddy-buddy with the Victorian government after a week of Frydenberg and Andrews being at each other’s throats over support payments.

Stefanovic:

It must really burn you Josh, after really giving it to [Victoria] earlier this week. Now you’re actually going to have to give it to them.

Frydenberg:

Well, our issue is, in order to strengthen the economy, to support people. We need to put our hands in our pockets and that is what we’ve done from day one, Karl, of this crisis, as you know.

We have deployed more than $300bn in direct economic and health support across the country. The consequences of that is that the Australian economy today is bigger than it was going into the pandemic and more Australians are employed today than at the start of the pandemic. No other advanced economy has seen such a strong rebound. This is particularly important for Australia.

Because the economic shock that we have faced has been the biggest since the Great Depression and the best in the last 30 years. That is why yesterday’s numbers were very pleasing but they didn’t take into account what happened recently in NSW.

Stefanovic:

Earlier in the week, you couldn’t have been stronger in your vocals against Daniel Andrews, and pretty much he has jammed you, hasn’t he?

Frydenberg:

Our support today is to the Victorian people. Daniel Andrews, as of yesterday, called another lockdown. As you know coming just a month after the most recent one.

I think the people of Victoria are doing it pretty tough. And the Morrison government is there to support them.

Updated

Coral and ocean scientists have described statements on coral bleaching from the government’s reef envoy, Warren Entsch, as “far-fetched” and “ill-informed” on the day he accompanied more than a dozen ambassadors on a snorkelling trip to the Great Barrier Reef.

Entsch told the ABC on Thursday warm water originating in the northern hemisphere and flowing across the Pacific to the reef was a chief cause of mass coral bleaching.

He also claimed in the interview with ABC radio presenter Fran Kelly that attempts to clean up the water over the reef meant corals were more exposed to more sunlight, making bleaching worse.

Australia was a “victim of our own success”, he said.

You can read the full report below:

A tough break for federal employment and skills minister Stuart Robert.

There was some very encouraging news yesterday, that unemployment had fallen to 4.9%. Roberts seems to have booked in a heap of media spots, keen the spread the good news, but of course, this has been totally overshadowed by the Melbourne and Sydney lockdowns!

Here is what he had to say on ABC News Breakfast when asked for his views on the idea of stopping lockdowns and learning to “live with Covid-19”.

If you think about the UK as an example, so 86%, give or take, with one dose and sort of 64% with two doses, they are still getting over 30,000 cases a day and six deaths.

Yes, they have opened their full borders, in terms of travel. They have joined in terms of the travel bubble with all of Europe, so they have reached a point where they are saying, “Well, we have reached almost max vaccination and we are going to live with it.” So these are natural steps.

We are not there yet.

Updated

Health authorities are racing to ward off yet another lockdown in south-east Queensland, just two weeks after the last one ended, reports Tracey Ferrier from AAP.

Chief health officer Jeannette Young has warned the state is at serious risk after three new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 were reported on Thursday.

She’s most concerned about a worker at Brisbane international airport, who completed three night shifts on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, while she was infectious and was also very active in the community.

The other two cases are a boy, aged 12, who returned from the United States and completed a stint in hotel quarantine in Sydney with his mother before flying to Brisbane on Qantas flight 544 on last Friday, July 9.

The boy has since tested positive, as has his father, who works on the Sunshine Coast. His mother has returned a negative result so far but is in hospital with her child as a precaution.

Young said she suspects Queensland is dealing with at least one, and possibly two, entirely new outbreaks that are not linked to the cases that sent southeast Queensland and Townsville into a snap three-day lockdown just over a fortnight ago.

She is waiting on genomic sequencing that should reveal the origins of the three latest infections.

Late on Thursday, AAP obtained a letter to parents with children at the Villanova College for boys, at Coorparoo.

It warned a parent of one student had tested positive, but not the student themselves.

That student is being tested and is isolating as a precaution, the letter said, but Queensland Health has not instructed the school to take any further action at this stage.

Updated

Hey David, yes I can!

A Victoria police spokesman told AAP it was helping to establish the three-person NSW removalist crew’s movements as part of a health department investigation.

The team breached their worker permit conditions by not wearing masks while doing a drop-off at the Ariele Apartments in Maribyrnong late last week and subsequently spread the virus.

But it’s still not totally clear, if they are charged, what they would be charged with. Here is what Andrews had to say about it last night:

It would be my expectation that the law enforcement in now three states will look very closely at what these two people have done or not done.

It is not the first time we’ve seen someone do the wrong thing and the consequences of that ... but I tell you what, someone coming forward and telling the truth is the most valuable thing. That’s precious.

So the frustration in many respects is not that they perhaps didn’t wear their mask when they were unloading the truck, it’s that for quite a while they were very difficult and weren’t being necessarily forthcoming.

Now, whether that’s an offence is another matter.

Updated

Frydenberg was asked if he was concerned that the greater Sydney and Victorian lockdowns would affect the national economy.

I think it will affect the economy, it infects investment decisions, the border closures prevent people moving more freely between states, supply chains get disrupted, and people either lose their jobs or are not working the hours they normally would. It’s very difficult for the economy, but again, yesterday’s numbers show [it’s] remarkably resilient.

Updated

Now you could be forgiven for thinking that the commonwealth being so forthcoming with the support payments has something to do with Victorian premier Daniel Andrews spending the week very publicly calling out the perceived favouritism of NSW, and saying that Victoria has to “beg for crumbs” of support from the federal government.

But federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg is denying that his government was pressured into providing economic supports.

He spoke to Sunrise earlier:

This is the commonwealth, we don’t get bullied by anyone.

The reality is, we’ve provided very significant support across the country, more than $300bn in direct health and economic support since the pandemic began, but Victoria is going to its fifth lockdown, and then last lockdown was just over a month ago, so these are very trying days.

Not just for the people of Victoria, but for the more than 5 million people across New South Wales who this morning are also subject to lockdown orders. Our country will get through this will come together and will support each other and importantly, we’ll be stronger at the end of this crisis.

Updated

The efficacy of a drug being promoted by rightwing figures worldwide for treating Covid-19 is in serious doubt after a major study suggesting the treatment is effective against the virus was withdrawn due to “ethical concerns”.

The preprint study on the efficacy and safety of ivermectin – a drug used against parasites such as worms and headlice – in treating Covid-19, led by Dr Ahmed Elgazzar from Benha University in Egypt, was published on the Research Square website in November.

It claimed to be a randomised control trial, a type of study crucial in medicine because it is considered to provide the most reliable evidence on the effectiveness of interventions due to the minimal risk of confounding factors influencing the results. Elgazzar is listed as chief editor of the Benha Medical Journal, and is an editorial board member.

Meyerowitz-Katz told the Guardian that “this is one of the biggest ivermectin studies out there”, and it appeared to him the data was “just totally faked”.

You can read the full report below:

Updated

Good morning everyone, please believe me when I say TGIF.

It’s Matilda Boseley here, writing to you from the first morning of Melbourne’s fifth lockdown. I’m one of the 6 million Victorians now under stay-at-home orders and I’m feeling very sorry for myself right about now.

The total case number for the Victorian outbreak now sits at 18 but, on the upside, the commonwealth has confirmed that it will allow Victorians to start accessing income support immediately, despite the lockdown being slated to last five days not seven.

In a joint statement Scott Morrison and federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg said:

Payments of $600 will be made to individuals that lose 20 hours or more of work during the period of the lockdown.

Payments of $375 will be made to individuals that lose between eight and up to 20 hours of work during the period of the lockdown. No liquid assets test will be applied to the payment at any time.

This is actually slightly better than expected – the Victorian premier had flagged that the commonwealth was leaning towards a pro-rata version of the support – that is five-sevenths of the $600 or $375 payments.

A number of significant exposure sites have been added across the state overnight, including the Wallabies v France match at AAMI Park on Tuesday.

There are now more than 100 sites on the exposure list, and we will learn today’s case number for Victoria sometime between 8am and 9am when the health department tweets them out.

This is all concerning but if you look north the news only gets worse.

NSW is bracing for a surge in Covid-19 cases today as the virus spreads to Sydney’s healthcare system, with at least 70 paramedics isolating and cases linked to two major hospitals and an aged care home.

The state recorded 65 new local Covid-19 cases yesterday but premier Gladys Berejiklian warned there could be a spike today, in part due to the number of people infected in the community remaining high, despite stay-at-home orders.

Of the new cases, at least 35 people were out in the community for part or all of their infectious period. Berejiklian has said repeatedly that this number needs to be close to zero before the lockdown can be lifted.

With that, why don’t we jump into the day? There is certainly enough to get through!

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

Updated

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