Summary
- Germany has warned against giving the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to people aged over 65, citing a lack of trial data.
- The green zone travel bubble with New Zealand has been suspended for a further three days after two more cases were diagnosed in Auckland.
- Australia has gone 11 days without any cases of community transmission.
- Queensland has announced it will reopen its borders with NSW from Monday, and South Australia will remove quarantine requirements for NSW travellers who test negative from Sunday.
Watch live: Health Minister Greg Hunt gives a COVID-19 update
Health Minister Greg Hunt is giving a COVID-19 update at 1pm AEDT.
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Vaccine program on track
By Marissa Calligeros
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt insists Australia remains on track to roll out the first coronavirus vaccines in late February.
“Our timeframes have been reaffirmed by both Pfizer and AstraZeneca during the course of the week and in addition, we have seen positive test results for a third major vaccine supplier, Novavax,” Mr Hunt said.
“While Australia has based its vaccine strategy on the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccinations, we also have other vaccine agreements: one for 51 million doses of the Novavax vaccine, being made in several locations across Europe.
“Phase three trials for the Novavax vaccine are ongoing, but the latest information coming out of the UK is that it’s 89 per cent effective - that’s quite a high efficacy rate and pretty similar to the results in the Pfizer vaccine trials.
“We [expect] that we will be exceeding [vaccine] supply with the commencement in late February, with completion on track for the end of October,” Mr Hunt said, citing Australia’s deals with Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Novavax.
In total, Australia will receive 140 million doses of various vaccines.
Hunt: NZ travel bubble could resume
Health Minister Greg Hunt says the latest advice from Acting Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd is that there have been no further community cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand, paving the way for the resumption of green travel zone arrangements, which don’t require New Zealand arrivals to quarantine.
“His (Dr Kidd’s) advice is that after talking with New Zealand health authorities, there have been no further community cases.
“They are doing a tremendous job, a tremendous job in terms of widespread testing of staff relating to the hotel quarantine facility, guests, contacts and community,” Mr Hunt said of New Zealand.
“And this provides a basis for them [the AHPCC] to be reconsidering the current travel pause for the green zone on a 24-hour basis so they will be considering tomorrow, and if there are continued excellent results out of New Zealand, which is commensurate with their entire performance over the course of the pandemic, then we hope to be in a position to resume that in the coming days.”
Mr Hunt said the one-way travel program could resume soon, with the AHPPC keeping a close eye on cases across the Tasman.
“We will continue that program and we look to be able to recommence it at the earliest possible time.,” Mr Hunt said.
“The news is good and the AHPPC, which has been fearless in its medical advice, and we have been scrupulous in following that advice, will be reviewing every 24 hours with a view to commencing as early as possible and if things continue as they are, we hope to have good news before the end of the weekend.”
Twelve days without transmission: Hunt praises Australia’s position
By Marissa Calligeros
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has started his Melbourne press conference highlighting the stark difference between Australia’s position regarding COVID-19 and the rest of the world.
“The advice I have from the National Incident Centre is that again, there are zero cases of community transmission in Australia. Significantly, zero lives lost and zero patients in ICU with COVID-19. So that is a really important outcome.
“Importantly, as well, this is the 12th consecutive day of zero cases in community transmission in Australia,” he said.
“That’s a testament to the work of our medical professionals, our public health teams, but Australians everywhere.
“At the same time, we have seen some agonising global figures. Over the last 24 hours, the advice I have is 630,000 cases, 17,400 and 22 lives lost. That’s an astonishing figure in one day.
“And then over the last 15 days, the National Incident Centre [has] advised me that across the world, we’ve seen approximately 9 million diagnosed cases of COVID-19 and incredibly, over 200,000 lives lost.
“If you’d asked me a year ago can you imagine a circumstance where Australia was at zero cases but the world was at 630,000 cases in a day, I would have struggled to be so bold to have made that prediction so our efforts are extraordinary.”
Signs point to recovering economy: Frydenberg
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says data has shown that of the $250 billion worth of loans deferred during the pandemic, repayments have started on 80 per cent of them.
Three-quarters of the loans were housing loans, and the rest were small business loans.
“It’s a sign of confidence across the economy, it’s a sign that jobs are coming back, and the recovery is well under way,” Mr Frydenberg said.
The Treasurer said taken in conjunction with the fall in unemployment to 6.6 per cent and the creation of 95,000 jobs in the past seven months, as well as rising house prices, it was more evidence of Australia’s economic recovery from the “once-in-a-century” pandemic.
“And of course the IMF recalibrated economic forecasts which see Australia in a better position than nearly any other country in the world,” Mr Frydenberg said.
The latest forecasts showed the Australian economy contracting by 2.5 per cent in 2020, compared to up to 11 per cent for the Spanish economy, 9 per cent for the French and Italian economies and a 10 per cent contraction in the UK.
Watch live: Frydenberg press conference
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is giving a press conference at 12.30pm AEDT.
Victoria turns final NSW red zone orange
As of 6pm tonight the final red zone in NSW, the Local Government Area of Cumberland, will turn orange, allowing anyone from NSW to enter Victoria with a permit.
All the zones that are currently orange will become green at the same time.
Premier Daniel Andrews said people arriving from Cumberland would still need to get tested within 72 hours of arrival in Victoria.
“We’re extremely happy to see the last red zone in New South Wales be downgraded. We’re reminding people to get tested if they’re returning from an orange zone, so we can continue to enjoy an open and COVIDSafe summer.”
This means the Greater Sydney LGAs of Blacktown City, Burwood, Canada Bay City, Canterbury-Bankstown, Fairfield City, Inner West, Parramatta City and Strathfield Municipality and Liverpool will move from orange to green.
Wollongong and the Blue Mountains will also move to green, leaving Cumberland as the only remaining orange zone.
Travel from an orange zone requires people to self-isolate on arrival in Victoria, get tested within 72 hours of arrival and remain in quarantine until they receive a negative result. Test results are usually sent within 24 hours.
Travel from a green zone requires people to watch and get tested if they have any symptoms at all.
All travel into Victoria from other states and territories requires a travel permit. You can apply for a permit via the Service Victoria website at service.vic.gov.au.
NZ hotel worker sacked after bedroom breach
By Jenny Noyes
An employee at a managed isolation hotel in Auckland has been fired after he was caught in the bedroom of a returned traveller earlier this month.
The employee had entered the room to deliver an item and remained there for 20 minutes before being caught by the hotel’s security manager, who had arrived to investigate the delay, according to a statement from NZ’s Managed Isolation and Quarantine program (MIQ).
Both the staff member and the guest have returned negative tests for COVID-19.
The head of MIQ, Brigadier Jim Bliss, called the incident at the Grand Millennium Hotel on January 7 “incredibly irresponsible and extremely disappointing.”
The actions of the pair “are not reflective of the more than 4000 people working in the 32 Managed Isolation and Quarantine facilities across the country” who do “a fantastic job”, he said.
The hotel staffer was sacked and the returnee was given a formal police warning after the incident, which triggered an ongoing MIQ review to determine if further security measures are needed.
The breach of protocol comes as investigations continue into three positive COVID-19 cases were found in people who had recently left quarantine. The source of the virus is believed to be another arrival who was isolating in a nearby room.
On Friday, NZ’s Director-General of Health, Ashley Bloomfield, said to date there is no evidence of any further community transmission either in Auckland or the Auckland region.
Australia yesterday extended its suspension of the travel bubble with New Zealand for a further 72 hours after more community cases were reported there.
The travel arrangements allowing people to travel from New Zealand to Australia without undertaking quarantine have been suspended until 2pm on Sunday after two new cases with the new highly contagious strain of COVID-19 were detected in Auckland this week. The initial suspension period was due to end at 2pm yesterday.
Queensland regional quarantine proposal to go to PM on Monday
By Lydia Lynch
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has called on the Prime Minister to “step up” and take greater responsibility for quarantining returning Australians, which she says is a federal responsibility.
The Queensland Premier is moving forward with her plan to quarantine international arrivals in regional cities, with a formal proposal expected to hit the Prime Minister’s desk by Monday.
“As we contend with the new unknowns of COVID-19, a national quarantine plan would mean proper Commonwealth funding as well as adequate Defence Force and Border Force resourcing,” she wrote on Twitter.
“There’s no doubt the state-run hotel quarantine program currently in place is first-class, having served Queensland well over the last 10 months.
“But now is the time for the Commonwealth to step up to the plate.”Ms Palaszczuk pointed to recent quarantine breaches of highly contagious strains of the virus in Brisbane and New Zealand.
“But now, like I have said, we have this new UK strain I really think there needs to be more national input into the way we do quarantine,” she said.
“I think there does need to be more of an appreciation and understanding that quarantine is our last line of defence and we need to have contingencies and we need to have options on the table.“
Scott Morrison has said he would keep an “open mind” but would not make up his mind until he had looked over the plan, which would require federal approval.
Palaszczuk is ‘victim of a policy she put in place herself’: NSW Premier
By Mary Ward
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has expressed apathy towards her Queensland counterpart’s calls to extend JobKeeper payments for the tourism industry, saying Annastacia Palaszczuk’s border closures contributed to the situation faced by her state.
“She is now the victim of a policy she put in place herself,” Ms Berejiklian said.
The NSW Premier said Ms Palaszczuk had kept the Queensland border closed to NSW unnecessarily.
“The whole point is that NSW has been so strong in keeping borders open in Australia [to prevent] exactly what the Queensland Premier is now complaining about.”
On Thursday, Queensland announced it would be reopening to Greater Sydney on February 1 after closing its border before Christmas.
Greater Sydney last recorded a new local coronavirus case 13 days ago.
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2021-01-29 02:29:00Z
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