Summary
- Victoria will return to harsher COVID-19 restrictions and up to 600 Australian Open players, officials and support staff have been told to isolate and get tested after a hotel quarantine worker tested positive to coronavirus on Wednesday. All tennis matches at Melbourne Park today have been called off.
- Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said in a late-night press conference on Wednesday that the state would return to mandatory masks indoors, would reintroduce caps on gatherings to 15 people in a household and would pause the 75 per cent return to work, scheduled to begin on Monday.
- Western Australia continues to face twin emergencies - a coronavirus lockdown and devastating bushfires - as Perth residents enter their fourth day of a hard five-day lockdown.
- Queensland has clocked up 24 days without a locally acquired case. NSW reached its 17th day without a case of community transmission on Wednesday.
- The federal government is working with the biotech industry on ways to establish large-scale mRNA vaccine manufacturing in Australia as a group of senior scientists work on a parallel plan to enable local production of the cutting-edge jabs.
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Queensland border also remains open to Victoria, for now
By Lydia Lynch
It’s a similar story in Queensland, which has no plans to close its border to Victoria after a Melbourne hotel quarantine worker tested positive for COVID-19.
Acting Queensland Premier Steven Miles said anyone who has entered the Sunshine State from Melbourne since January 29 is required to get tested isolate until they receive a negative result.
Brisbane’s Hotel Grand Chancellor, which saw an outbreak of the UK variant of coronavirus last month. Victoria was quick to declare Brisbane a “red zone”.Credit:Attila Csaszar
Mr Miles urged residents to check the list of coronavirus exposure sites, released by Victorian Health authorities.
“If they have been to any of those locations at the time is of concern, they will be required to quarantine for 14 days,” he said.
However, the border may close in coming days if there is a rapid escalation of cases in Victoria, he said.
South Australia holds off closing border to Victoria
Anyone who has arrived in South Australia from Greater Melbourne since January 28 is now required to get a COVID-19 test and isolate until they receive a negative result.
“People coming in from the Greater Melbourne area have to have a PCR test – this is the nasal and throat swab – on day one, day five, and a 12. And, at this stage, to isolate after the first test pending that result coming back,” SA Premier Steven Marshall said.
It appears other states and territories are not rushing to close their borders to Victorians, but as we know, that can quickly change.
Anyone who has been at the Grand Hyatt quarantine hotel in Melbourne will be required to enter hotel quarantine in South Australia.
“We are also asking people to isolate who have come into contact with a range of areas of concern that have been identified by Victoria ... which include Lululemon at Moorabbin Airport, Club Noble, Bunnings Springvale, Coles Springvale ... Woolworths Springvale [and] the Melbourne Golf Academy at Heatherton,” Mr Marshall said.
“That this list is likely to grow and so if you are coming from greater Melbourne we are asking you to stay abreast of any developments in areas of concern and if you do have any concern that you may have been to one of these areas than we are asking you to get in touch with SA Health.
Mr Mashall said the state’s “transition committee” will meet tomorrow.
“One of the things that we will be looking at tomorrow is the requirement to isolate after the first PCR test. As you would be aware, we now have a requirement for anybody coming in from New South Wales, and as of today Greater Melbourne, and also Western Australia to have a testing arrangement.
“The transition committee will meet tomorrow to consider this and whether it is still a requirement to isolate before the result is received.“
Mr Mashall said while South Australians needed to be alert, “we don’t need to be alarmed”.
“We certainly have been able to deal very effectively with these types of situations before and they expect that it is going to continue in the future,” he said.
Victorian Premier expects Australian Open to go ahead
By Ashleigh McMillan
Victoria’s Premier says he expects the Australian Open will go ahead, despite the new COVID-19 case connected to one of the tournament’s hotel quarantine sites.
Premier Daniel Andrews said while there were no “guarantees” with COVID-19, the tournament was not expected to be scrapped.
Novak Djokovic plays a ‘tweener’ during a practice session at Melbourne Park on Sunday.Credit:Getty
The new positive case, a 26-year-old man from Noble Park in Melbourne’s south-east, was a resident support worker at the hotel where hundreds of players and support staff were quarantined.
“We all understand that there’s no guarantees in any of this. But at this stage, the tournament shouldn’t be impacted by this,” Mr Andrews said.
“These things can change.“
Mr Andrews said he was “prepared to make difficult decisions” when advised by public health experts.
Around 520 players and staff from the Australian Open will now need to be tested for COVID-19 and isolate until they get a negative result.
“I think I have well and truly demonstrated that those connected to the Australian Open do not get special treatment,” Mr Andrews said.
“People’s classification is made as to their risk. They are not judgements made by me. They are judgements made by public health experts.”
Victoria’s COVID-19 response commander, Jeroen Weimar, said there were dedicated test facilities for the Australian Open players and support staff, but because they have been deemed to be casual contacts of the worker authorities are “not as concerned about them”.
Genomic testing to determine if the man has contracted the more virulent UK strain of the virus is expected to be completed by Friday.
Victorian authorities investigating possible ‘airborne transmission’ in quarantine hotel
Victorian health officials are exploring whether a hotel quarantine worker became infected with COVID-19 through airborne transmission.
“One thing is we can’t rule out is aerosol transmission – airborne transmission of this,” Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said.
“That is challenging – very, very challenging. [The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee] has been dealing with some of these issues. No doubt this will be a feature of the report that I will give to national cabinet tomorrow.
Australian Open tennis players and quarantine workers at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Melbourne on January 20.Credit:Eddie Jim
“It is just that step-by-step painstaking detective work. Looking at all the CCTV footage was really important. But the other thing too ... is the more test results we get back, the more people we can rule out, [and] that will help us with that evolving theory also.
“There is no obvious breach. There’s no problem where you can say, ‘Right. That’s probably where it happened’. So, we will have to wait until we get more of that contact tracing done, more of the test results. Then we will be able to narrow the field down.”
Queensland health authorities have also investigated whether the highly contagious UK variant of the virus was spread through airconditioning, or “airborne transmission”, after a cleaner at the Grand Chancellor quarantine hotel in Brisbane became infected, sparking the city’s three-day snap lockdown last month. A report on the Brisbane outbreak is due shortly.
Watch live: South Australia COVID-19 update
South Australian Premier Steven Marshall, Health Minister Stephen Wade and Police Commissioner Grant Stevens are due to hold a press conference about 9.45am local time (10.15am AEDT). You can watch their press conference live, below:
Remote quarantine sites do not eliminate the risk: Andrews
By Ashleigh McMillan
If health experts and national cabinet suggest moving quarantine hotels away from major cities and into regional areas, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says he would consider it.
But it doesn’t remove all risk of the virus escaping quarantine, he said.
Some experts have called for regional quarantine facilities, similar to Howard Springs near Darwin.Credit:Ben Sale
Mr Andrews said that if there were decisions made at a national level to reduce the COVID-19 risk, he would “keep an open mind”.
He said he would be willing to sit down with Prime Minister Scott Morrison and see if there were “some bespoke facilities that can be built”, which could potentially be used as emergency housing for bushfires outside of the pandemic.
“That might give you some greater capacity and might be useful not just for this pandemic but events that could occur in the future,” he said.
“On the issue of risk, though, any facility will have to be staffed. Staff have lives. They have a family. You can put it 50 kilometres from where we are standing now or 500 kilometres, but there will be people there, too, and the virus spreads.
“I think geographic location alone is not necessarily the biggest issue here.”
Queensland reaches 24 days without a local COVID case
By Lydia Lynch
Some good news for Queensland – the Sunshine State has recorded its 24th consecutive day without a new locally acquired coronavirus case.
No new infections have been detected in hotel quarantine either, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk confirmed via Twitter. That’s what Victorians would call a “double doughnut” day.
There were 8226 tests conducted in the past 24 hours, above the daily target of 5000 tests.
Six cases remain active.
Testing regime to change for Victorian hotel quarantine workers
By Ashleigh McMillan
Victorian hotel quarantine workers will now be tested on their days off, well after they finish their last shift.
The source of the COVID-19 infection in the 26-year-old Grand Hyatt hotel quarantine worker is still unknown, but Victoria’s Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said it would now be policy that workers are tested for the virus well after they complete their roles in hotel quarantine on their days off.
A hotel worker and tennis player at the Grand Hyatt hotel on January 20.Credit:Eddie Jim
The hotel worker from Noble Park tested negative to COVID-19 after he completed his last shift on January 29, but then tested positive on February 2.
The last positive virus case in the Grand Hyatt where he was working was on January 22, and that person was moved to a health hotel.
There had been six total COVID-19 cases at the Australian Open hotel quarantine site.
“It’s probably not rocket science to say he’s probably caught it from one of the cases,” Professor Cheng said. “We have got a program for testing them while they are at work and we’re making sure that they are also tested on their days off as well.
“There will be a testing program for people that finish work as well. We’re always trying to learn from all of these things and make sure that we tighten up on every step along the way.”
Genomic testing, to determine whether the quarantine worker is carrying a more-virulent UK strain of the virus, has not yet been completed.
Professor Cheng said he believed the risk to Australian Open players and staff at the Grand Hyatt was “relatively low” because they were in their rooms at the time, but they are undergoing precautionary testing.
Victoria scrambles to open new testing sites
By Ashleigh McMillan
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews sympathises with people waiting in long queues for a COVID test this morning but says there is “no other way” to root out any potential cases.
A new COVID-19 testing site will be opened in Noble Park, where the 26-year-old hotel quarantine resident support worker who tested positive on Wednesday lives.
The queue for testing at Springers Leisure Centre in Keysborough.Credit:Joe Armao
Mr Andrews said he was “pleased to see a strong response in the south and south-east” but encouraged people to check the Department of Health website to find sites with shorter wait times.
“Yes, there will be delays, there is no other way around it, it has got to be done meticulously,” he said.
“We cannot have people stampeding through those bases, it must be done slowly, meticulously. I don’t want a testing site to become a super spreading site. It has to be done very carefully.”
Victoria’s COVID-19 response commander, Jeroen Weimar, apologised for the delays but said the state government was setting up at least four additional testing sites today and was working to increase capacity in Clayton, Brighton and in the CBD.
“We would ask you to check before you go to the site that you want to go to to make sure that the queues there are not excessively long,” he said.
“We will ensure the testing capacity is there today, tomorrow, over the weekend and as long as is necessary to run this particular outbreak to ground.
“We know this virus is wildly infectious. We know it is still now an issue for us to deal with yet again. We will, as the Victorian community, deal with it in the same way we always do – acting swiftly and promptly.”
Daily wastewater testing will now occur in Melbourne’s south-east water catchment.
Mask rules in Victorian schools
As we mentioned earlier, Victorian primary school students are not required to wear masks at school. But high school students are required to wear face masks.
This is the latest message from Victorian Education Minister James Merlino:
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2021-02-03 23:58:00Z
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