Australia news LIVE Victoria records 1438 new local COVID-19 cases five deaths NSW records 941 new cases six deaths Queensland records five new cases

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Good afternoon. Megan Gorrey here, I’m taking over the blog from Broede Carmody to bring you live updates throughout the afternoon.

Here’s a quick recap of this morning’s developments:

NSW has reported 941 new COVID-19 cases and six deaths as the state inches closer to 90 per cent first dose vaccination rate. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says the government is considering bringing some minor freedoms due to come into effect on December 1 forward. The government will maintain its contribution to the JobSaver program until the end of November. High vaccination rates mean Sydney students will return to school a week earlier than originally expected. Those in kindergarten, years 1 and 12 can now return to school on October 18. A week later, years 2, 6 and 11 will return. Then, on November 1, all remaining grades will head back to the classroom. Yesterday, NSW recorded 863 new cases of COVID-19 and 15 deaths â€" the deadliest 24-hour reporting period for the state so far. Meanwhile, people in NSW aged 60 and over will now have access to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Victoria has recorded 1438 new, locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and five deaths. The number of cases is a record for Victoria and a big jump from yesterday’s record tally of 950 cases. The government blamed the surge in infections on illegal social gatherings and parties over the AFL grand final weekend, saying they contributed to about one-third of cases. The state has officially passed the milestone of 80 per cent of its population vaccinated with at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Premier Daniel Andrews said the interval between Pfizer vaccine doses at state-run clinics will be reduced from six weeks to three weeks from October 4. Victorian healthcare workers are being told to brace for a surge in hospitalisations once Melbourne emerges from lockdown off the back of high vaccination rates. Meanwhile, the Victorian Health Department is facing $95 million in fines over alleged infection control breaches in state-run hotel quarantine. And the construction union’s Melbourne office has been labelled a tier-1 exposure site due to last week’s violent scuffle involving people unhappy about the building industry’s vaccine mandate. Victoria recorded a record 950 coronavirus cases yesterday and seven deaths.

Restrictions will tighten in Brisbane as Queensland recorded six new local cases of coronavirus on Thursday, bringing the latest outbreak to four separate clusters. Four of the cases were linked to a man in his 30s who worked at an aviation training facility, with the people likely infected at an event on September 20. Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Moreton Bay, Logan, Townsville and Palm Island will go back to stage two restrictions from 4pm on Thursday for two weeks. This means the capacity at this Sunday’s NRL grand final at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, will decrease to 75 per cent. Hundreds of people have been ordered into home quarantine, but neither Brisbane nor the Gold Coast will go into lockdown.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk denied the decision to avoid a lockdown had anything to do with the NRL grand final.Credit:Matt Dennien

The ACT recorded 31 new cases of COVID-19, up from 22 on Wednesday. Of the new cases, 17 are linked to known outbreaks or infections. Six were in quarantine throughout their infectious period and 17 were infectious in the community. There are 10 coronavirus patients in Canberra hospitals. Chief Minister Andrew Barr wants the territory out of lockdown by the middle of next month.

In Western Australia, the men who snuck into the state from Victoria to watch the AFL grand final have been locked-up until their next court appearance. One of the men has tested negative to coronavirus. However, authorities are continuing their investigations after the other man returned an inconclusive test (though it is likely to be a false positive). Both face time in jail. WA’s vaccine commander says the men “knowingly put others at risk”.

Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein has warned the state will not reopen its borders to the rest of the country until it reaches a 90 per cent vaccination rate against COVID-19.

A worker has died after an incident at Fortescue’s Solomon Hub in the Pilbara on Thursday morning.

And in overseas news, YouTube says it will block all anti-vaccine content. A US court has suspended the singer Britney Spear’s father from the conservatorship that has controlled her life and money for 13 years.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has refused to comment on WorkSafe charging the Department of Health over alleged infection control breaches in hotel quarantine that drove last year’s deadly second wave of COVID-19.

WorkSafe yesterday announced it had charged the Department of Health with 58 breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, alleging the department failed to provide a safe workplace for its employees and failed to ensure people were not exposed to risks to their health and safety.

Mr Andrews was pressed on the matter during today’s coronavirus update, but refused to comment, saying “there’s a court process afoot, so I’m not going to be commenting on that”.

He said the government would deal with the outcomes of the matter when they arose, including if the government was fined at taxpayers’ expense.

“The government doesn’t get to say, ‘Well, actually, we don’t like that judgment so we’re not going to do it,’” Mr Andrews said.

“We can’t say, ‘We’re not going to [pay] these penalties that have been duly issued.’ That’s not how it works.”

The Premier also refused to comment on Victoria’s anti-corruption commission calling former Andrews government minister and Labor factional strongman Adem Somyurek to public hearings in the next fortnight to probe allegations he misused public money to build his power in the party.

Victoria’s public health team is reviewing a ban on golfers being able to access club toilets in locked-down parts of the state.

Rules were eased slightly in Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire on Tuesday at 11.59pm, so that golfers could return to the greens. But as Golf Australia said in a letter to clubs on Wednesday, “toilets must remain closed at your facility”.

The same rule applies in the Latrobe Valley, which was recently placed back into a seven-day lockdown.

“This is different from previous advice received on this topic, and [Golf Australia] will make urgent representations to government on this point as we understand full well that this is a significant impost,” general manager David Gallichio said.

Premier Daniel Andrews was asked about the rule during Thursday’s coronavirus update, and said the public health team were looking at the issue very closely.

“The good news is there’s a query [that’s] been raised, being followed up, and hopefully there can be a positive response to that quite soon.”

NSW health authorities are finalising changes to the close and casual contact rules that will apply when the state leaves lockdown on October 11.

“When you have 70 or 80 per cent of your adult population vaccinated it does mean you deal with contact tracing differently,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian addressing the media at today’s health update. Credit:Kate Geraghty

“You don’t have to be as cautious with close contacts, you don’t have to be as cautious with a whole range of things you deal with.”

The Premier said businesses and the public would be given a week’s notice before changes to isolation rules are made.

Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said a person’s vaccination status would be “a key factor in ... whether you meet the definition of a close contact or what happens after that”.

Some 88,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine will be redistributed to Victorian state-run clinics on Sunday.

Premier Daniel Andrews said the doses would be put into arms “as fast as we possibly can”.

“We’ve had some conversations with the Commonwealth today, and, again, … [it’s not a] criticism, but as we had, I think, predicted at the time, it’s very difficult for pharmacists and others to go from zero to hundreds of thousands of doses administered,” the Premier said at today’s press conference.

Mr Andrews said while authorities were pleased to redistribute the Moderna doses, he would have preferred to be able to do so earlier because of the four-week gap between Moderna jabs.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she wishes Victoria the best after case numbers increased significantly today, saying the state has an advantage over NSW.

“I say to them be optimistic about the future,” she said.

“Yes, it is a difficult time, but you’ll get through this as we did.”

She said Victoria had the advantage of having adequate vaccine supplies, something NSW “had to fight for” when it was experiencing similar case numbers.

The NSW Premier also noted the state is facing the worst part of the outbreak with comparatively high vaccination rates.

The surge in Victoria’s COVID-19 case numbers is down to a significant number of social gatherings, including AFL grand final parties, over Friday and Saturday, according to the state government.

The state’s COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said authorities believed about a third of today’s new cases â€" 1438 â€" were down to illegal gatherings.

Victorian COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar. Credit:Scott McNaughton

“People have dropped their guard and decided it’s now a grand final weekend, it’s a long weekend, we deserve a bit of a payback, we deserve a nicer time,” Mr Weimar said.

“And that has now translated into at least 500 additional cases from what we would have expected to see.”

Mr Weimar said 55 per cent of Victoria’s new cases were men. The location of cases was spread further than usual, with 29 per cent of the new cases in the east and south east.

“Today is a significant setback in how we manage this outbreak,” he said.

“If this trend is continued … we will jump to the worst case of all of those projections. This outbreak still remains in our hands.”

Earlier, Premier Dan Andrews said today’s case numbers were higher than they needed to be.

“Let’s all of us make the best decisions and not contribute to more virus, not infect the people that we love, not make the work of our nurses harder. Let’s just see this through â€" it’s only a matter of weeks now, and the lockdown will be off.”

Half of all Victorians aged 16 and up are expected to be fully vaccinated by tomorrow, after reaching the 80 per cent first dose mark for that age group today.

An early preview of today’s numbers shows more than 308,000 doses were administered across the country yesterday, while the ACT has reached the 90 per cent mark for first doses.

NSW is also close to reaching the 90 per cent first dose mark, with 87 per cent of the eligible population aged 16 and over have had at least one dose. More than 64 per cent of that group is fully vaccinated.

More than 35 per cent of 12- to 15-year-olds have had at least one dose.

Half of those were vaccinated in the ACT and NSW, where more than 50 per cent of adolescents in that age group have had a first dose.

In Victoria, 43 per cent of 12- to 15-year-olds have had one dose.

NSW’s private hospitals will be able to recommence day surgeries from Tuesday, October 5.

Elective surgeries were suspended at private hospitals in August, with categories three and four elective surgeries such as knee replacements and cataract extractions, cancelled to free up health staff and resources.

“This is a win for patients who have been anxiously waiting for much-needed non-COVID care,” president of the Australian Medical Association’s NSW branch Danielle McMullen said.

“It also means medical professionals can get back to the business of reducing the backlog of elective procedures.

“Day surgeries are a relatively easy ‘tap’ to turn on and off. If we need to utilise private facilities and healthcare workers for the COVID response, then we can shut those services down. But at the moment, there is no reason to keep these facilities empty and health professionals idle while patients sit at home suffering in pain.

“If you’re booked for an operation at a public hospital, we’re working with NSW Health to make it easy for your team to care for you at any facility where surgery is currently available.”

Private hospital staff have been recruited into the pandemic effort by NSW Health during the state’s outbreak.

Ramsay Health Care have provided at least 450 staff to assist the public health system with the COVID-19 response.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has just announced that the interval between Pfizer vaccine doses at state-run clinics will be reduced from six weeks to three weeks from October 4.

The state has officially passed the milestone of 80 per cent of its population vaccinated with at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews. Credit:Chris Hopkins

“So if you booked in from then, you will be able to book your second appointment at a three-week interval if you choose to, as opposed to the six-week interval,” Mr Andrews said.

“What that means is over the next few weeks, we will be able to have more and more people get not just one dose, but in fact, [complete] a vaccination process with two doses.”

The Premier said while Victoria was still set to hit its milestone of 70 per cent of the population fully vaccinated on or about October 26, the reduced interval could help to bring that forward.

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