Good evening!
It's Thursday, September 30. Here's what's been happening today.
One thing you need to know — EVERYONE will be eligible for Pfizer and Moderna shots from tomorrow
Previously, those COVID-19 vaccines were only available to people age under 60.
People aged 60 and up were told to get AstraZeneca shots.
Some states and territories had already changed the eligibility criteria for Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, but today the federal Health Minister Greg Hunt made it an Australia-wide rule.
He reckons about 300,000 Australians in the over-60 age group were waiting to be vaccinated due to hesitancy about AstraZeneca.
One thing you might hear about today: the COVIDSafe app identified just 81 close contacts for the ENTIRE pandemic
- Remember back when we were all being told to download the federal government's COVID-19 tracking app?
- The app, which relies on Bluetooth handshakes between devices, was billed as our ticket to freedom — but it hasn't been doing all the much lately
- More than 7 million people registered to use the app since it was launched but only a fraction of them are still actively using it
- The federal Health Department said the app had identified just 81 close contacts nationwide since the start of the pandemic — and only 17 of those were not otherwise known to state officials
- Earlier today, the Senate heard the COVIDSafe app has cost taxpayers more than $9 million to date
The news the broke while you were going about your day
Righto, let's get you up to speed:
- Victoria recorded five deaths and another 1,438 new local COVID-19 cases. The state's COVID-19 Commander said a bunch of AFL grand final parties held over the weekend drove the surge in new cases
- NSW recorded six deaths and another 941 new local cases. About 63 per cent of the state's population aged more than 16 years has been fully vaccinated. The NSW Treasurer said people would still be able to access JobSaver payments until November 30
- The ACT recorded another 31 new local cases. At least 17 of them were infectious in the community
- Queensland recorded another six new local cases, plunging Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Moreton Bay and Townsville back into level two restrictions. That means the crowd capacity for NRL grand final — which is being held in Brisbane on Sunday — will be cut to 75 per cent
- That made things awkward for the NRL, which had already sold out the game. It'll automatically refund the last 25 per cent of people who bought tickets.
- Later today South Australia recorded one new local COVID-19 case. He's a truck driver who had travelled to and from Melbourne and tested positive in Tailem Bend
What Australia's searching for right now
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A German court says a 96-year-old former secretary at a Nazi death camp has gone "on the run" just as her trial was due to start. Identified as Irmgard F, she was a secretary at the Stutthof concentration camp when she was 19. She's being charged with complicity to murder in more than 11,000 cases
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A UK court has heard the off-duty policeman who admitted to the rape and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard staged a fake arrest to kidnap her. He put her in handcuffs and accused her of breaching COVID-19 restrictions
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And Lena Dunham, who you might remember as the main girl from the series Girls, spoke to Vogue about her wedding to musician Luis Felber. She did three outfit changes, with a different headpiece for each look. Oh, and Taylor Swift was a bridesmaid:
One last thing — a tornado hit in NSW's Central West this afternoon
Have you seen this footage?
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) confirmed a tornado tore through an almost 30-kilometre stretch north-east of Bathurst about 2:00pm today.
Authorities said three people were injured and there was extensive damage to properties in the area.
BoM forecaster Gabrielle Woodhouse said while tornadoes were rare, they're "not completely out of the question".
"Tornadoes are really quite … very localised phenomena, so it's quite difficult to be able to predict those well in advance of time," she said.
Ms Woodhouse said the storm season was "really kicking off" and urged residents to check the BOM's website for the latest weather warnings.
That's it for the night
We'll be right back here in the morning with more.
