Summary
- Victoria’s five-day, hard lockdown has ended and greater Melbourne is no longer considered a COVID hotspot. Residents are now free to travel more than five kilometres from their homes and the four reasons for leaving home have been revoked, but some restrictions on public and private gatherings remain.
- Victoria has recorded no new local COVID-19 cases for the second day in a row, although one new case has emerged in hotel quarantine. NSW recorded no new local cases for the 31st day in a row on Wednesday and Queensland recorded its 41st straight day of zero cases.
- Debate rages among scientists over whether a nebuliser really was the source of Victoria’s Holiday Inn outbreak, as the Andrews government has suggested. Meanwhile, the man blamed for spreading the virus by using the nebuliser is pushing for an independent review of his case.
- More than 35,000 of Sydney’s frontline workers will roll up their sleeves to receive a COVID-19 vaccine within just three weeks from Monday.
- Visit our new vaccine tracker, which shows how many people around the world have been vaccinated so far and which countries are leading the charge.
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Social distancing about to get harder on Sydney public transport
By Tom Rabe
Green dots on Sydney’s public transport will soon be irrelevant, as patronage approaches 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, meaning commuters will struggle to adhere to social distancing during peak hour.
The dots, implemented to ensure passengers were appropriately distanced, may only be useful during off-peak times, NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance says.
Mr Constance said the city’s network was “bouncing back” as people returned to work after months of dwindling patronage during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NSW government is anticipating a surge in public transport patornage.Credit:Louise Kennerley
The number of people using Sydney’s public transport network reached 60 per cent of pre-COVID levels on Tuesday. The government is predicting double-digit increases across the network later in the week. Some recent weekdays have already surpassed 1.4 million trips, or more than 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.
Two per cent of the city’s services are pushing past the recommended social distancing measures, which are marked by green dots on trains and buses. Mr Constance said they would still be a useful guide during non-peak periods.
“It does remind people, particularly in the off-peak services, to go and sit on one and keep a bit of distance from people. Obviously its practicality in the middle of a peak service where everyone has come to the station at the same time, that’s a bit more problematic,” Mr Constance said.
Despite the green dots soon becoming redundant amid peak-hour services, Mr Constance said the government was not immediately going to change its public transport plan.
Immune system protects children from severe COVID-19, Australian study finds
By Melissa Cunningham
When Francesca Orsini noticed her daughter Beatrice had a runny nose last winter her thoughts turned to her family in Italy who were engulfed in a devastating coronavirus outbreak which had killed thousands.
“We got her tested and she came back positive two days later,” the 36-year-old Italian migrant said. “I was really scared. I couldn’t believe it was happening to us. We had seen what happened to our grandparents and parents back home and how terrible it had been for them.”
Francesca Orsini and Alessandro Bartesaghi with their children Beatrice (right) and Camilla (left). Credit: Justin McManus.
The day after Beatrice, then aged 5, was tested, Ms Orsini and her husband Alessandro Bartesaghi woke up with flu-like symptoms.
“We knew immediately that we had the virus too,” the biostatistician said. Their then one-year-old daughter Camilla also had the virus, despite not showing any symptoms before being tested.
For more than two weeks, Ms Orsini and Mr Bartesaghi were almost bedridden with extreme fatigue, fevers, headaches and muscle pain. They also lost their sense of taste and smell.
“Camilla had a slightly runny nose the day the test came back, but that was all,” Ms Orsini said. “Beatrice’s symptoms never really got worse either.”
Now, new research reveals infection-fighting cells in a child’s immune system rapidly target coronavirus, clearing the disease before it has a chance to take hold.
As part of an Australia-first study, researchers from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute analysed blood samples from 48 children and 70 adults across 28 Melbourne households who had been infected with or exposed to COVID-19 during the state’s deadly second wave.
“What we found was that children are less likely to become infected with the virus and up to a third are asymptomatic, which is strikingly different to the higher prevalence and severity observed in children for most other respiratory viruses,” Dr Melanie Neeland, who led the research, said.
The researchers also identified that the children were likely being protected from severe COVID-19 because their innate immune systems – our first line of defence when we become infected with a virus – was quicker to attack the disease than an adult’s.
Accept risk: Tourism chief says Australians must live with virus
Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison has urged governments to accept a higher risk threshold of COVID-19 and learn to live with the virus as the travel industry nervously eyes the end of the JobKeeper wage subsidy in March.
Ms Harrison said governments must relax their strategy to adopt a higher risk tolerance of COVID.
‘We will only open up if we accept that there will be COVID in this community’ says Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa HarrisonCredit:Rhett Wyman
“Somewhere along the way it went to eradication and that was never the intention,” she told a travel industry symposium held by Nine, the publisher of this website, at the Sydney Opera House on Wednesday.
“I think we have a job to do to move public opinion from being that we must live in a COVID-zero environment to living in a COVID-normal environment where we live with this thing.
“Politicians are reflective of their constituents. They are listening to their medical advisors, but they’re also listening to public opinion.
“If constituents are happy living with a higher level of risk, then I think there would be more imprimatur for the states and for the federal government to be a little bit less reactive.”
Ms Harrison said vaccines would be important but they shouldn’t be viewed through the prism of eradication.
“The vaccines will only work ... [and] we will only open up if we accept that there will be COVID in this community,” she said.
Graph: Victoria’s daily testing numbers
The headline number in the Victorian Health Department’s daily COVID-19 update is always the number of new locally acquired cases, but the daily testing numbers were a key factor in ending this week’s lockdown.
Premier Daniel Andrews said Tuesday was “the biggest testing day we have ever had in the last 12 months”. Almost 40,000 Victorians were tested on Tuesday, 5000 more than on any other day during the pandemic.
The testing figure was still impressively high yesterday - 30,261 Victorians were tested.
And here’s a look at how local cases have been tracking since the beginning of the year:
Victoria records no new local cases, one in hotel quarantine
Today’s numbers are in and Victoria has recorded no new local coronavirus cases, although one has emerged in hotel quarantine.
More than 30,000 people were tested yesterday.
Almost 40,000 Victorians were tested on Tuesday, 5000 more than on any other day during the pandemic. Health chiefs said the strong testing numbers fuelled confidence the virus had not spread widely in the community, as was feared when the lockdown was announced last Friday as the highly infectious British variant of COVID-19 spread to more people connected with the Holiday Inn outbreak.
In photos: Melbourne’s CBD the morning after lockdown
Our photographer Scott McNaughton is in Melbourne’s CBD this morning where cafe owners are setting up tables and chairs and commuters are making their way back to their offices.
Melbourne, opening for business again.Credit:Scott McNaughton
Degraves Street.Credit:Scott McNaughton
Commuters outside Flinders Street Station.Credit:Scott McNaughton
Office workers outside Flinders Street Station.Credit:Scott McNaughton
‘It’s like time travelling’: Jim Courier praises Australia’s COVID response
As we mentioned earlier, Australian Open crowds return to Melbourne Park this morning as the state emerges from lockdown.
Former world No. 1 and Open commentator Jim Courier, who spent 14 days in quarantine in a Melbourne hotel, says he would enjoy an extended holiday in Australia once the grand slam ends on Sunday night if it weren’t for his wife and children back home in the US.
“I have a wife and two young boys, so I’m desperate to get home. If I didn’t, I would probably stick around and have a holiday,” he told Melbourne radio station 3AW a short time ago.
“It’s like time travelling to be here honestly, it’s incredible.”
Jim Courier, Australian Open commentator.
Of life in the US with surging coronavirus cases and deaths, Courier said: “It’s been hard. It’s been brutal.”
He described his time in Australia as a “more memorable experience”, saying there are few times at his stage in life where he gets to experience things for the first time.
Of his time in quarantine, Courier said: “I did fine because I knew I was going to be in there for 14 days. The people who I think struggled were the players who expected to be able to get out for five hours [but] their planes came in with COVID and they couldn’t do it. I was fine. I actually got pretty fit. Maybe I need to do it every year after New Years.”
Front pages of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald
In today’s Age exacerbated Victorian business leaders are calling for clarity about future lockdowns in the state.
Australian Retailers Association chief executive Paul Zahra said this week’s lockdown left a “bad taste” with his members in Victoria who had endured longer shutdowns in 2020 than retailers in any other state.
“We can’t continue to run businesses like a light switch; turning off and then on again, so this needs to be sorted out,” Mr Zahra said. “So we’re advocating strongly for a national framework, that would at least be consistent.”
‘More lockdowns than Rocky movies’: Businesses reeling after latest Victorian shutdown
By Erin Pearson
The lockdown is over and kids are heading back to school, but Victorian businesses are reeling this morning.
Victorian Chamber of Commerce chief executive officer, Paul Guerra, says this week’s lockdown “knocked a lot of businesses just completely out of the park”.
“No-one saw it coming and then all of a sudden we’re in lockdown,” Mr Guerra told the Today show.
Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Paul Guerra.Credit:Wayne Taylor
“[In] Victoria we’re nudging towards more lockdowns than Rocky movies. That’s not a good thing for anybody in this state. It destroys confidence and destroys ability to get going.”
Mr Guerra urged Victorians to get out and support businesses with the Labour Day weekend and then Easter just a matter of weeks away.
“We know it will continue to be bumpy until a vaccine is fully rolled out. We will live with a virus for a while. Let’s wrap our arms around each other support the local businesses, support each other and as we get confidence let’s get on and being one Australia again.
“Businesses are waking up today, dusting themselves off as you said, breathing a sigh of relief. We’ve just got to get on with it now, but we can’t keep having brick walls thrown up in front of businesses as we try to recover.”
$2.3b in household spending lost or postponed in Victorian lockdown: Ai Group
The Australian Industry group believes some $2.3 billion in household spending was lost or postponed during Victoria’s hard lockdown.
“Businesses will only cautiously welcome the end of the latest Victorian lockdown given the ongoing possibility of future snap state closures and continuing quarantine failures,” said Ai group’s Victorian boss Tim Piper.
“It is clear that testing and tracing were the keys to resolving this potential outbreak, and not the lock-down which was disproportionate to the risk.”
All retail shops were closed during the five-day lockdown.Credit:Wayne Taylor
Cara Devine, manager of Melbourne bar Bomba which reopened at midnight as soon as the lockdown ended, says it’s been a particularly hard week for casual workers.
“People in casual jobs, nothing has been given to them for this lockdown, so five days off work could mean that they can’t make their rent this month and I think that needs to be addressed at some point,” she told radio station 3AW.
The state’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton says there are no guarantees Victoria won’t be plunged into a ‘circuit-breaker’ lockdown again.
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2021-02-17 21:49:00Z
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