Australia news LIVE Victoria records 1377 new local COVID-19 cases four deaths NSW records 623 new cases six deaths John Barilaro resigns as NSW Deputy Premier
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Victorian Deputy Premier James Merlino and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton are due to provide a COVID-19 update from 11.30am AEDT.
Watch live below.
Meanwhile, Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles and Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young are providing a coronavirus update at the same time.
Watch that press conference below.
Victorian authorities say the staged return of students to classrooms will be as safe as possibly can be, with measures like air purifiers and mandatory vaccination for teachers in place.
Deputy Premier James Merlino said authorities were rolling out about 51,000 air purifiers to schools across the state.
Victorian Deputy Premier James Merlino.Credit:Simon Schluter
The first few thousand have already been delivered by airfreight, and they would be rolled out into schools this week with a focus on hotspot local government areas.
There would also be a more targeted and risk-based approach to students and staff isolating when COVID-19 exposure sites arise.
“The class [exposed] will be the most at-risk contacts, obviously, but other classes won’t necessarily need to quarantine at home â€" we certainly won’t have the entire school quarantining for a full 14-day period,†the Deputy Premier said.
“There’ll be assessments based on vaccination status, noting that kids 12 and above may be partially or fully vaccinated â€" whether they’re wearing masks â€" and whether they’ve been in very short term or longer term face-to-face contact with a positive case.
“So all of those elements will inform a matrix in terms of advice on quarantine. But that will minimise the disruption for kids and it will be a really positive development.â€
Mr Merlino said authorities had been conducting a small trial to look at the feasibility of having rapid antigen testing as part of the process of students returning to school.
NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes will address a “lack of diversity†by promoting more women to cabinet if he is successful in a leadership ballot to become the next NSW Premier on Tuesday.
Mr Stokes today said he was staying the course in his bid to become the next NSW premier, insisting he was “still in the runningâ€.
“I’m continuing to speak to my supporters and I’m still in the running. Dom is a great friend of mine and we are giving the party choice,†he said.
“The departure of Gladys has underlined the lack of diversity in our team. If I’m chosen to be leader, I’m committed to ensuring a more even representation of women in cabinet.â€
Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has just provided a breakdown of the state’s 1377 new, locally acquired coronavirus cases.
Here’s what we know so far:
Professor Sutton said there were now 483 confirmed cases in regional Victoria.
He reiterated that authorities were concerned about Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs, which has become a “growth area in terms of cases in the last few daysâ€.
He said case numbers had stabilised in Hume and Wyndham.
The Victorian government will pour $230 million into the state’s Tutor Learning Initiative.
The program is designed to support students whose learning was disrupted by COVID-19.
Victorian Deputy Premier James Merlino said the new funding would carry the schools program through to 2022.
“This year we’ve had more than 6400 tutors employed in government and low fee non-government schools right across Victoria,†Mr Merlino said.
The head of the program, Sue Anderson, said teachers in the program worked with students three days a week, as well as any additional times students needed.
She said many who took part in the program were now thriving.
“The biggest impact has been in the building and self-esteem of these young kids who didn’t see themselves as learners and had become disengaged, and now [they are] thriving, so the announcement that you made ... is incredible.â€
Dedicated COVID-19 vaccination vans are being sent out to some of Victoria’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Deputy Premier James Merlino announced that three of Victoria’s Smile Squad dental vans were repurposed as vaccination vans, and would first head to Shepparton, in regional Victoria, from today.
“Shepparton has the largest Aboriginal population in Victoria outside of Melbourne and is currently in lockdown,†Mr Merlino said at Monday’s COVID-19 update.
“We do know that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are at a higher risk of COVID-19 due to a number of factors including pre-existing medical conditions and large households.
“So this is a really important initiative, which will bring the vaccine directly to some of our most at-risk communities.â€
As we reported earlier, four people have died with COVID-19 in Victoria.
They are: a woman in her 70s and a woman in her 60s from Hume (in Melbourne’s north), a man aged in his 60s from Manningham (in the city’s north-east) and a man in his 80s from Moreland (the northern suburbs).
During Monday’s coronavirus update, Victorian Deputy Premier James Merlino said there were 498 people in hospital in the state with COVID-19. Of those, 96 were in an intensive care unit and 59 were on a ventilator.
Mr Merlino said 45 per cent of Monday’s new 1377 local COVID-19 cases were aged between 10 and 29.
He said 33 of the new cases were students who tested positive for the virus as part of the push for students to get tested prior to sitting the General Achievement Test (GAT) on Tuesday.
“We may not have found these cases otherwise, so that goes a long way to help us hold the GAT as safely as possible tomorrow,†Mr Merlino said at Monday’s COVID-19 update.
“The Department of Education is contacting these students and letting them know that they cannot sit the GAT, and we’ll make arrangements for how they can sit their exams at a later stage.â€
Queensland has recorded one new local case of COVID-19, a woman from Fitzgibbon in Brisbane’s north, who was infectious in the community for 10 days.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the woman came forward to get tested, and had not been linked to any of the current clusters in Queensland.
“She went and got tested, and that’s exactly what we need Queenslanders to do if they have any symptoms,†he said.
“That is what will allow us to identify if there are any new cases out there in the Queensland community.â€
There were also two cases detected in hotel quarantine.
There were 9411 tests done on Sunday, which Mr Miles said was good for a long weekend.
Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said she expected genomic testing results later today that might help explain where the woman contracted the virus.
Dr Young said the length of time the woman was in the community while potentially infectious was a concern, but it did not appear that the woman had been to any major recent exposure sites.
“At this stage, there are no close links that we’ve been able to identify. She hasn’t been to any known exposure sites,†she said.
“So all of the exposure sites that she’s been at while infectious are up on our website and we’ll continue to work with her to make sure that we’ve picked all of those up.â€
NSW Health’s Dr Jeremy McAnulty says health authorities remain particularly concerned by the spread of COVID-19 in Liverpool, Doonside, Plumpton, Granville, Blacktown and Fairfield, as well as in Wollongong and the community of Wellington, near Dubbo.
With many of those suburbs in western and north-west Sydney, Dr McAnulty reminded people who may be looking to celebrate the Penrith Panthers’ NRL grand final win on the public holiday today to adhere to restrictions and not have household gatherings.
“This long weekend has been a particularly big for the fans of NRL, and we hope everyone enjoyed the game, but we need to make sure that we’re all protecting our communities,†he said.
Although 272 of today’s 623 cases were recorded across Sydney’s western, south west and Nepean-Blue Mountains local health districts, high numbers of cases are continuing to be detected in the Illawarra and Hunter regions, outside of Sydney.
There were 77 new cases in the Illawarra and 59 in Hunter-New England’s local health district.
Fifty-four of the Illawarra cases were within the Wollongong local government area, Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District said in a statement.
Hunter-New England Health said 21 of its cases were from Cessnock local government area and 19 were from Lake Macquarie.
The number of COVID-19 cases in hospital in NSW has continued to fall: there were 959 hospitalised cases on Monday, including 193 in intensive care of whom 97 are ventilated.
A mental health practitioner will be installed in every Victorian government secondary and specialist school by the end of this year.
The last phase of a $51.2 million program by the Victorian government will see funding deployed to more than 50 schools in Goulburn, Brimbank, Melton and Wimmera South West from the start of term four.
The funding means all schools in the above suburbs will be able to employ a mental health practitioner for up to five days a week. The practitioners can include psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists and mental health nurses.
Victoria’s Minister for Education James Merlino said while students, teachers, families and school communities had been “incredibly resilient†through the pandemic, “we know it’s been incredibly difficult for many of our kids, and we’re making sure they’re supported while studyingâ€.
“We’ve laid out our plan to get students back into the classroom this term, but we know some kids will need more support â€" and this program will make it easy for them to reach out and get the mental health care they deserve,†he said.
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