Australia news LIVE Victoria records 1220 new COVID-19 cases while NSW reports 667 local infections NRL grand final to go ahead with no new cases in Queensland

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Both NSW and Victoria are giving COVID-19 updates at 11am.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard and Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant will give NSW’s update:

In Victoria, Premier Daniel Andrews and COVID commander Jeroen Weimar will provide the update after the state reported three deaths and 1220 new cases:

Victoria’s stretched healthcare workforce could be assisted by nurses being flown in from interstate, according to a leading Melbourne ICU nurse.

Michelle Spence, the ICU Nurse Unit manager at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, said there was a “staged plan” to open more intensive care beds as they were needed.

She said discussions were under way with health providers in Queensland to potentially bring additional nurses to Victoria.

Allied health workers at Royal Melbourne Hospital are now helping to ‘prone’ COVID-19 patients in order to take pressure off nurses, while more experienced nurses are being taken off vaccination clinics and placed into virus wards, Ms Spence said.

“There’s things that are coming out of the woodwork that we would never have done before, but there is a need to do it,” he said. “This is hopefully a once in a lifetime pandemic.”

Ms Spence said she believed the time between opening up at the end of October and Christmas was going to be the “toughest time” for Victorian nurses.

COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar told the press conference on Sunday that there were 497 COVID-19 cases discovered in Melbourne’s northern suburbs across Saturday.

There were 361 virus cases recorded in the city’s west, with 236 cases found in Melbourne’s south-east. There are now 12 teenagers and 22 patients in their 20s in hospital with COVID-19.

Mr Weimar also noted that the vaccination centre at the Melbourne Museum would be moving next door back to the Royal Exhibition Building from Monday.

“Restoration works in the exhibition building have been completed and from tomorrow, you’ll be able to get your vaccines again under the famous dome,” he said.

Brad Hazzard said Gladys Berejiklian’s leadership has been “absolutely critical” to the state’s COVID-19 response, but following her shock resignation on Friday the government remains “very much focused on making sure the community stays safe”.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard gives a COVID-19 update on Sunday. Credit:Jessica Hromas

Mr Hazzard said he works “extremely well” with both Rob Stokes and Dominic Perrottet and either one would do a “great job”.

Chief health officer Kerry Chant said it would not be appropriate for her to comment other than to acknowledge the hard work and commitment of the outgoing Premier in managing the pandemic.

Dr Chant said Ms Berejiklian “has worked tirelessly since the pandemic commenced through this most difficult time” and her commitment on the issue was evident.

A senior intensive care nurse at a major Melbourne hospital said seeing patients die from COVID-19 alone made she and her colleagues “emotional” as she implored Victorians to get vaccinated.

Michelle Spence, an ICU nurse unit manager from the Royal Melbourne Hospital, told a COVID-19 press conference on Sunday that the virus “does not discriminate”, describing how she had watched a man in his 30s with no underlying conditions be placed in ICU last week because he had not been vaccinated.

She became visibly emotional as she described the lonely deaths in ICU for COVID-19 patients, saying it was the nurses who “hold their hands while their families have to be at home”.

“One of the saddest things I’ve seen over the last few weeks is people wanting the vaccination just before we put them on a life support machine,” she said. “That is the absolute truth, I’ve seen it myself, they’re begging for the vaccination, they are very young, and once we get to that point where we are about to put them on life support, it really is too late”.

Ms Spence said the average age of patients in ICU with the virus was 60, but she had seen patients in their 20s and 30s.

The Royal Melbourne Hospital has 135 COVID-19 patients under its care, with 19 in ICU. There are 49 people in hospital at home care, and eight people with COVID-19 waiting in the emergency department for a bed in the hospital.

Ms Spence said she was “absolutely begging” Victorians to help nurses who are already under enormous pressure by getting vaccinated.

“The one thing you can do for you, for your family and your loved ones, and the one thing you can do for your health care system is to get vaccinated,” she said.

“Please do not wait. I know you’re frustrated. I know you’re scared. I know you’re over it, we’re all over it. But it’s time to absolutely make a difference.“

Jacqui Harper, a nurse unit manager at the Northern Hospital, said “COVID is real, it’s affecting younger and younger age groups, and it’s scary”.

“COVID-19 is a terrible illness, the patients we see coming into our hospitals are seriously, seriously ill,” she said. “The clinical deterioration is so sad. One minute sitting in a chair, an hour later, they could be saying their goodbyes.”

Queensland has some excellent news this morning with zero new locally-acquired cases of COVID-19.

The state’s chief health officer Jeanette Young said it is “astounding that we haven’t seen community seeding” from the latest outbreak.

“That is due to the work done by Queenslanders every single day. You clearly know how to respond in a pandemic and you are keeping yourselves, your families and your communities safe,” she said.

Dr Young also thanked all who turned out for testing. “I know it is a nuisance, but it is so important. And because of that enormous amount of testing, nearly 100,000 tests have been done related to this cluster, I can be confident that we don’t have community seeding.”

The good news is also the final confirmation that the NRL grand final will be able to go ahead this afternoon.

Brad Hazzard has issued a plea for NSW residents watching the NRL grand final this afternoon: “Please don’t let the side down”.

Mr Hazzard said it was “incredible” to have two city teams in the grand final this year, which is being played in Brisbane. But he’s pleading with households not to overdo the celebrations.

“Can I also say to their supporters, please be careful. There are limits on the numbers of people who can currently gather together, you shouldn’t be having people at home.

“Your home remains one of the most dangerous places to be in terms of transmission of the virus. And we need to make sure that we all enjoy the game but we don’t have a super-spreader event.

“All the hard work that we have done, to have gone from 1599 cases just three weeks ago to 667 cases today has taken a lot of hard work. Please don’t ruin that, please don’t let the side down. This is a game that we all must win.”

Mr Hazzard said the numbers could easily rise again “if we ignore the rules and ignore the guidelines that our public health team have given us to keep us safe”.

A man in his 50s, a woman in her 70s and a man in his 80s have died from COVID-19 in Victoria.

Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters that of the 476 people currently in hospital with the virus, 98 are on ventilators and 57 are on a ventilator. He said just 5 per cent of those in hospital with COVID-19 were fully vaccinated.

Mr Andrews said the 71,275 tests returned on Saturday was a record for the state “by a few dozen”.

“It’s critical towards knowing where this virus is and where it isn’t, for contact tracing trying to look through those chains of transmission,” he said. ”

So keeping those testing numbers as high as possible - people acting on their symptoms and getting tested as soon as they register those symptoms - has never been more important.”

He noted that from Monday, the dose interval for Pfizer would be revised down from six weeks between jabs to three weeks.

Around 51.9 per cent of the eligible population in the state have now received two doses of the vaccine.

NSW has recorded another 667 new COVID-19 infections, while another 10 people died yesterday, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has confirmed.

He said the case numbers have shown “quite a dramatic drop in the last three weeks”, comparing today to 1599 cases three weeks ago.

In other numbers: there were 88,210 COVID tests to 8pm last night. There are now 981 infected patients in hospital, with 195 of those in intensive care units. Of that 195, 140 were not vaccinated while 41 had received one dose, and 14 had both doses. There are 93 people on ventilators.

The 10 new deaths bring the total number from the current outbreak to 372, and the toll in NSW since the start of the pandemic is now 428.

Of those who died, two people were in their 50s, four people in their 60s, two people in their 70s and two people in their 80s. Four of the people were not vaccinated, four had received one dose and two had received the two doses of the COVID vaccine. The two people who were fully vaccinated both acquired their infections in aged care facilities.

NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance is set to resign from state politics and nominate for preselection for the federal seat of Gilmore.

The veteran Bega MP had been considering a tilt to replace Gladys Berejiklian after she resigned as NSW premier on Friday, but will instead attempt to move to federal politics ahead of the 2022 election.

NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance.Credit:Louise Kennerley

Read the full story here. 

By some counts Melbourne will have been locked down for 245 days on Monday, and claim from Buenos Aires the dubious title of the world’s most sequestered city. So: has it all been worth it?

The Age opened its “tip jar” to readers asked for a one-word reaction. In the next hour, 1000 passionate responses painted a picture: angry, safe, relentless, depressing (lots of that), numb, burnout, agony, necessary (plenty of those), exhausting, sensible, frustrating, resilient, harrowing, meh, lonely, angry, accepting, amphibolous (yeah, clever clogs).

Jaded, exhausted, grateful. Lots more frustration, loneliness, depression. More safe, some proud. And quite a few “f---ed”.

Readers of The Age submitted their one-word reactions to news Melbourne is about to hold the world record for most locked down city. Credit:The Age / wordclouds.com

In fact, the longest-lockdown title is up for debate.

Take Santiago: this Friday, Chile finally lifted an 18-month curfew, and stay-at-home orders on weekends and public holidays in parts of the country including the capital. Still, a “mobility pass” proof of vaccination will be required to enter public spaces, public transport, restaurants, bars and events.

But there’s a weary consensus that Melbourne soon beats Buenos Aires, Dublin, London and Prague, fellow members of the “200 Club” for days under stay-at-home rules.

Read the full story on Melbourne’s lengthy lockdown â€" and whether it was worth the slog â€"  here. 

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