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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Sydneysiders are making the most of the Labour Day public holiday in the sunshine, as the city prepares for lockdown restrictions to ease next Monday.
Photographers Peter Rae and James Brickwood have captured the crowds at Coogee Beach in the eastern suburbs and North Curl Curl Beach on the northern beaches respectively.
The Bureau of Meteorology forecast a sunny end to the long weekend in Sydney and a maximum temperature of 28 degrees.
Crowds on Coogee Beach in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.Credit:Peter Rae
The Murray family enjoying the surf at North Curl Curl Beach on the Labour Day public holiday. Credit:James Brickwood
Earlier, NSW Health’s Dr Jeremy McAnulty reminded residents the number of fully vaccinated adults who can gather outdoors together remains at five, and also urged people to “please take care of each otherâ€.
In greater Sydney, exercise and outdoor recreation is limited to a five-kilometre radius from home or within your local government area. The travel limit will be scrapped from October 11, allowing many more people to make the most of the beaches leading into summer.
A gym at Shepparton in regional Victoria has been identified as a tier-1 or close contact exposure site over several more days.
MFS 24/7 Gym was this morning listed as a tier-1 site between 4.30pm and 5.45pm from Monday, September 27 through to Wednesday, September 29.
This afternoon, another four time periods were identified as tier-1 at the gym:
Thrive Bulk Wholefoods at Eltham in Melbourne’s north east has also been identified as a tier-2 site.
A full list of Victorian exposure sites can be found here.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has defended the money given to hospitals as sufficient, as states and territories prepare for an upswing in COVID-19 cases when restrictions ease and borders reopen later this year.
Last week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison rejected state and territory calls for more hospital funding, saying the pandemic should “not be used as an excuse for shakedown politicsâ€.
“We already provide 50:50 funding for additional COVID expenditure in hospitals; we’ve provided $6.3 billion as part of their COVID hospital funding split,†Mr Hunt said, noting that agreement was ongoing.
Mr Hunt was also asked about the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s decision to recognise the Chinese Sinovac vaccine in returned overseas travellers.
The recognition, which has also been extended to AstraZeneca’s Indian Covidshield vaccine, means people entering Australia who have received the Chinese vaccine will be able to complete a seven-day home quarantine on arrival rather than 14 days in a hotel.
It does not mean the vaccine is approved for use in Australia.
Asked why the vaccine, which has a lower efficacy against symptomatic infection than vaccines available in Australia, had been recognised, Mr Hunt denied it was a political move to encourage people from China, including international students, to come to Australia.
“This was a without fear or favour assessment by the TGA ... their medical advice was clear and unequivocal,†he said.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt says his government’s position on mandatory vaccinations has not changed, although he would not criticise recent policies introduced in NSW and Victoria requiring hundreds of thousands of people to be vaccinated in order to continue to work.
“We have maintained a position that our approach is of voluntary participation, but we have already said it is a matter for states and territories,†he said.
“It is important that people have sufficient time and access to be able to make sure they’re vaccinated, so we want to make sure that there are no critical workforce shortages, wherever that is done.â€
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the government’s approach to vaccinations is one of voluntary participation. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
Last week, Victoria expanded vaccination mandates to take in about 1.2 million authorised workers.
In NSW, the shot is mandatory for health staff, and a number of workers from hotspots in Sydney’s west were required to have one dose of the vaccine to return to their jobs.
Vaccinations have also been mandatory in the aged care sector, which is overseen by the federal government, since mid-September.
Mr Hunt said 99.4 per cent of aged care staff were now at least partially vaccinated.
“Every Australian has to assume that at some point they’ll be exposed to COVID, so the best reason to be vaccinated is to save your life,†he added.
Follow Australia’s progress via our COVID-19 vaccine tracker here.
We’re hearing there are a lot of different responses to restrictions easing.
While there is a lot of excitement, there is also some angst.
Sarah Berry, the lifestyle health editor at The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, is keen to talk to people who are feeling some anxiety and fear about reopening, or even feel ambivalent, perhaps after finding a good rhythm to life in lockdown.
Get in touch via the tip box below, or email: sarah.berry@smh.com.au
Victorian Education Minister James Merlino says he has great confidence that the vast majority of teachers in the state will get vaccinated against COVID-19 in line with the mandate.
Teachers and other school staff in Victoria have to receive a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by October 18, and a second dose by November 29 to continue working unless they have an exemption.
During today’s coronavirus update, Mr Merlino said authorities had conducted a survey, which so far had 40,000 respondents - about 98 per cent of whom said they were vaccinated.
“I’ve got great confidence that the vast, vast majority of teachers and staff will get vaccinated in adherence to the requirements set down by the public health direction,†Mr Merlino said.
“This is a critical intervention, and teachers and staff know it. They are there to protect themselves, and to protect the kids in [their schools].
“There will be a small minority of course in every, in every single sector ... who do not want to get vaccinated, and if that’s the case in schools, they will not be attending school.â€
The quarantine timeframe for Victorians who visit some COVID-19 exposure sites could be reduced, as authorities review the current 14 days and consider a more targeted, risk-based approach.
The state’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said on Monday that “most cases are going to be positive in that first seven daysâ€, but he would not jump to the conclusion that the quarantine period would be reduced from 14 to seven for tier-1 exposure sites.
Here is more of what Professor Sutton had to say about the timeframe:
We will continue to review that to make sure that it is proportionate and that we are, again, investing in the highest effectiveness of interventions.
There will always be an isolation requirement for positive cases, but with the Delta variant in particular, most cases are going to be positive in that first seven days.
It might be seven, it might be 10, but it really does depend on your risk of becoming a positive case.
If you’re a household member that is very, very high.
If you’re an international arrival who’s fully vaccinated from a low prevalence country, it might be less than one in 100, so we need to look at those comparisons and use the evidence accordingly.
Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton says while it has been an “awful sacrifice†for Melbourne to become the most locked-down city in the world, it has been a necessity to avoid potentially catastrophic numbers of deaths and coronavirus cases.
“It was an awful sacrifice, but what a triumph ultimately to have driven cases back down to nothing to give us some of those freedoms through late last year and through much of the early part of this year,†Professor Sutton said during Monday’s COVID-19 update.
Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton. Credit:Justin McManus
“We have, unfortunately, faced multiple incursions into Victoria that we have to deal with on the basis of what we’re faced with and what it would mean with the vaccination coverage that we had.
“It’s a reality that we are lagging amongst OECD countries for the vaccination rollout.
“That is the vulnerability, that means that you have to have a lockdown to manage potentially catastrophic numbers and catastrophic numbers of deaths.
“We are effectively left with no choice until we’ve got that high vaccination coverage, but we should focus on where we’re headed to now.
“We are well on the way to those road map thresholds that means that we can enjoy so many of the things that we’ve had to sacrifice over many, many months.â€
Victorian health authorities will likely stop publishing tier-2 or casual contact COVID-19 exposure sites in the coming days, the state’s Chief Health Officer says.
Professor Brett Sutton said the following during Monday’s COVID-19 update: “We have to focus our efforts on where we’ll get the most bang for buck, the greatest efficiency and effectiveness of contact tracing.â€
He said authorities were still contacting every positive case and their household and close contacts were being quarantined appropriately and in a timely way.
But with so many tier-2 cases, even if authorities were to publish all of them, “people can’t go through 100 pages of tier two exposure sites, online, they simply won’tâ€.
“So it’s not an effective use of all of that energy and human resources that can be put into the best and most effective interventions, which relate to household transmission and the transmission of those closest contacts,†Professor Sutton said.
“So I think you’ll see that we’ll be publishing the highest-risk tier sites, as well as letting households know and letting those businesses know what they need to do for those particular higher risk exposures.â€
He said tier-2 websites would likely drop off the Victorian government’s website progressively over the coming days.
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 from 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 from today.
“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,†Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton 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.
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