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'We have got in early': PM spruiks vaccine deal
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has completed a breakfast TV triathlon of sorts this morning, appearing on Sunrise, Today and News Breakfast to spruik the federal government's new coronavirus vaccine deal.
The Prime Minister said, if the human trials of the Oxford University-developed vaccine are successful, Australians should have access in early 2021, noting it would "take a couple of months after we receive the recipe" for the vaccine to be locally produced by CSL in Melbourne.
"We have got in early and that will mean, should the trial prove successful, that we can get on with it," he told Sunrise, encouraging people to receive the vaccine when it becomes available to protect the vulnerable in the community.
Appearing next on Today, the topic of conversation was largely state politics, with the Prime Minister thanking the NSW government for creating an exemption for agriculture workers and the South Australian government for creating an exemption for the Lindsay Point Victorian border community this week, while noting Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk had "taken her position".
Asked about Victoria's public health resourcing after a Nine News report revealed the state had half the number of contact tracers as NSW despite having 30 times the number of active cases, Mr Morrison said it was "not [his] job" to criticise the Victorian response.
"My job to say keep focused on the challenge that I have: to protect Australians every single day ... that's where Australians need my focus, not on politics," he said.
Finally on News Breakfast the Prime Minister was a bit tight-lipped on what the priority lists of the vaccine would look like, stressing that, while the elderly and frontline workers were "obvious priorities", all decisions would be made on the basis of medical advice.
He told the ABC morning show the plan B if the vaccine trials do not succeed is to live with the virus in the way we are now. Earlier on Sunrise he had said measures such as social distancing and contact tracing were unlikely to go away, even if there was a vaccine.
Pressed on aged care, Mr Morrison told News Breakfast he did not believe the federal government was wholly responsible for aged care outbreak failings in Victoria, saying public health is a "shared responsibility".
"We regulate aged care, but when there is a public health pandemic, then public health, whether it gets into aged care, shopping centres, schools or anywhere else, then they are things that are for Victoria," he said.
Sydney supercluster confirmed as genetic fingerprint links two outbreaks 34km apart
By Kate Aubusson and Pallavi Singhal
Two of Sydney's mystery COVID-19 clusters are in fact one supercluster, with NSW Health confirming the Thai Rock Restaurant outbreaks are genomically linked.
More than 34 kilometres separate the two Thai Rock eateries, but an analysis by NSW Health found their cases share a close genomic fingerprint, unequivocally fusing the two clusters which, combined, account for 153 COVID-19 cases.
The latest NSW COVID-19 surveillance report reveals whole-genome sequencing of the Thai Rock Potts Point cases "cluster with cases from Thai Rock Wetherill Park".
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant indicated she suspected a link between the two clusters several weeks ago but was waiting on the results of the genomic sequencing to confirm it. Just how the virus spread from the Wetherill Park restaurant to its Potts Point counterpart is still unknown.
France reports more than 2000 new coronavirus infections
The French health ministry reported 2238 confirmed new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, less than recent daily highs but still at levels last seen during the March-May lockdown imposed to stem the spread of the disease.
On Monday, when the number of reported cases typically falls sharply due to a lag in weekend test results, the ministry had reported just 493 new cases, after more than 3000 each on Sunday and Saturday and more than 2500 per day last Wednesday through to Friday.
The seven-day moving average of the case count, which smooths out daily reporting irregularities, has now been above 2000 for five consecutive days, a level that was last seen around the middle of April.
Following a sharp uptick in new infections, the French government announced on Tuesday it would make the wearing of masks mandatory in all workplaces from September 1.
Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry to continue tomorrow
After two days of hearings, Victoria's hotel inquiry will be taking a break today, to return on Thursday.
The public will learn new details about what happened inside troubled quarantine hotels when security guards, returned travellers and officials responsible for infection control front when the inquiry starts up again, Paul Sakkal reports.
On Thursday, two nurses and four returned travellers will give evidence to the inquiry chaired by retired judge Jennifer Coate.
The following day, two more returned travellers and a security guard will be questioned about their experiences. They will be joined by an authorised officer, a government worker seconded to a hotel to oversee day-to-day operations.
The Age has reported authorised officers, some of whom were brought in from disparate government agencies including Parks Victoria and the Environment Department, were responsible for monitoring infection control protocols at hotels.
Today's front pages
Here's what is making news on the front pages of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age this morning.
Speeding driver pinged for breaking Melbourne's curfew
By Rachael Dexter
Police in Melbourne's south-east have nabbed a driver who was breaking Chief Health Officer directions while drunk and speeding overnight.
A white BMW was spotted driving at 138km/h in an 80km/h zone in Brighton at 8.10pm last night.
The driver, a 43-year-old Beaumaris man, was taken to a police station where he blew an alleged blood alcohol reading of 0.157.
A police spokesman said the man's car was impounded for $878.50, his licence was immmediately suspended for a year and he was issued a $1652 fine for breaching coronavirus restrictions.
"He is expected to be summonsed to appear at a Magistrates Court at a later date for traffic related offences," the spokesman said.
Another breach of hotel quarantine in Perth, ADF support requested
There has been another hotel quarantine breach in Perth this week, with two South Australian women charged after allegedly leaving their hotel accommodation to attend a party.
The 19-year-old and 22-year-old had been escorted to the Novotel hotel after attempting to enter Western Australia without a valid permit.
However, police allege they then escaped the hotel through a stair well. Authorities were alerted to the breach when a city bus driver overheard the women bragging about their escape while en route to the party.
It comes after a Perth man allegedly escaped hotel quarantine in the city to visit his girlfriend earlier this week.
The Western Australian government has said ADF personnel will be moving in to guard Perth's hotel quarantine facilities.
More details on that vaccine deal
It is set to be the biggest story of the morning, so here are some few more details about the federal government's plan to secure a vaccine for every Australian, from Rob Harris.
The Morrison government has confirmed an agreement to secure at least 25 million doses of an Oxford University COVID-19 vaccine if trials prove successful.
Researchers at the University of Oxford are working on a promising coronavirus vaccine, which Australians will get free if it is proven to work.Credit:AP
The deal with British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars, will ensure Australians will be among the first in the world to receive the vaccine if human trials are judged as successful, safe and effective.
Today the government will also release its multibillion-dollar vaccine strategy, to be led by Department of Health secretary Brendan Murphy. It includes a $24.7 million deal with American medical technology giant Becton Dickinson to secure 100 million needles and syringes.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said under the deal, every Australian would be able to receive the Oxford University vaccine free. Priority candidates for the first doses will probably include over-60s and Australians with co-morbidities such as asthma, heart disease, transplant recipients and cancer patients.
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2020-08-18 21:01:00Z
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