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Watch live: NSW Premier provides vaccination update
By Michaela Whitbourn
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Health Minister Brad Hazzard will provide an update at about 10.30am on the state’s vaccine rollout. They’re at the new Sydney Olympic Park vaccination hub which opened last week. You can watch it live here.
I’m handing over the blog now to my colleague Broede Carmody who will keep you informed of the latest news and views throughout the day.
Under 40s already getting the Pfizer jab: NSW Premier
By Kate Aubusson
People in their 40s are already getting their Pfizer vaccines at NSW’s mass vaccination hub in Homebush, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced at a press conference this morning.
In less than a week almost 110,000 people aged 40-49 years old have registered their interest with NSW Health to receive the vaccine after the Premier decided to open up the vaccination program to the younger age group.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says people in their 40s are already receiving the Pfizer vaccine at the state’s mass vaccination hub.Credit:James Alcock
“Last Thursday, 16,000 people were invited to get the jab and 9000 people were already booked in that 40 to 49 category alone. Some had already received their first dose this morning,” Ms Berejiklian said.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said it was inevitable that the virus would find its way back into the Australian community.
“So my strong encouragement is: get out and get vaccinated,” Mr Hazzard said.
Ms Berejiklian said essential workers and the families of essential workers are the highest priority.
“But every week when we get doses – especially the Pfizer dose which requires refrigeration – we have to make sure we use those doses up.
“So if at any time ... if there [are] doses left over, we can draw on the list of 40 to 49 year-olds that have registered and that’s exactly what we’ve done.”
Australian arrested over child sexual abuse in the Philippines
By Simone Fox Koob
A Victorian man has been arrested and 14 children, including toddlers, have been rescued in the Philippines as part of a federal police operation into alleged child sex abuse.
Six girls and eight boys, aged between two and 17, were rescued on May 7 and placed in the care of a local social welfare office after intelligence was provided by Australian police to Philippine authorities.
Read the full story here.
Watch live: Victorian Royal Commission into Crown Melbourne
Melbourne Showgrounds COVID-19 vaccination hub opens today
The Victorian government’s new mass vaccination hub opens at Melbourne Showgrounds today.
Ballarat’s Mercure Hotel is already opening as a vaccination hub. Those eligible for the AstraZeneca or Pfizer shot (depending on their age) include the over 50s and adults with a significant underlying medical condition or disability.
The Australian government’s vaccine eligibility checker is here.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Health Minister Brad Hazzard are due to provide a vaccination update at 10.30am today from the government’s new vaccination hub at Sydney Olympic Park, which opened last Monday.
No new local coronavirus cases in Victoria or Queensland
Victoria and Queensland recorded no new cases of community transmission of COVID-19 overnight. Each state recorded one case of the virus that was acquired overseas, and both remain in hotel quarantine.
Twitter has become the go-to medium for health authorities and politicians reporting the latest COVID-19 figures, at least when numbers are low.
Singapore considers new vaccine strategy to deliver first shot to more people
Singapore is considering a new vaccine strategy, our south-east Asia correspondent Chris Barrett reports, after recording its highest number of locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in more than a year.
The city state, which is home to more than 20,000 Australians, confirmed 38 new cases of community transmission on Sunday, its highest number in more than a year. Eighteen of those cases were unlinked.
A food centre in Singapore’s Ang Mo Kio area. Restaurants have been closed for a month.Credit:Bloomberg
It’s now considering giving as many people as possible the first of two COVID-19 shots, rather than focusing on fully vaccinating a smaller number of people at any one time.
Oil refinery rescue package aimed at national security: Energy Minister
A multibillion-dollar rescue package for Australia’s two remaining oil refineries will attempt to secure the nation’s long-term domestic production of petrol and fast-track a switch to better quality fuel to allow the uptake of lower-emitting cars, Rob Harris reports.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison will today unveil the final details of the plan aimed at retaining self-sufficient refining capability and limiting costs on motorists and businesses, by locking in the long term future of the Viva refinery in Geelong and the Ampol refinery in Lytton, near Brisbane.
Scott Morrison and Energy Minister Angus Taylor in April.Credit:Jessica Hromas
Energy Minister Angus Taylor said this morning the $2.4 billion package was “all about national security”.
“We’ve seen around the world, the uncertainty that is being created in fuel markets. We saw a cyber attack on a pipeline in the US last week. We’re seeing what’s happening in the Middle East right now. It’s an important time to make sure we’ve got the fuel we really need in the worst possible circumstances,” he told ABC News Breakfast.
“The agreement is through to 2027. We would expect it to extend beyond that. Part of the package is to require the refineries to do an upgrade to clean their fuels, to reduce the sulphur levels in the fuels, which has a very positive environmental benefit.”
‘Galling’: Greens lash special exemptions for sportspeople and families
As Australian cricketers and support staff touch down in Sydney after fleeing India, federal political reporter Katina Curtis reports that elite sportspeople and their families are being granted special exemptions to travel into Australia while thousands of citizens remain stranded.
New information from the Department of Home Affairs reveals the Australian Border Force (ABF) granted travel exemptions to all family members of tennis players competing in the Australian Open who asked for one.
Tennis champ Serena Williams with her daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian jnr, arrives at Adelaide Airport in January.Credit:Mark Brake/Getty Images
The guidelines on travel exemptions say accompanying family members should generally only be approved if they intend to stay in Australia for at least a year.
The ABF granted eight travel exemptions for the Australian Open and refused none, the department said. It didn’t name the travellers, but they likely included Serena Williams’ husband, Alexis Ohanian, who attracted attention in the stands, and their three-year-old daughter.
Greens senator Nick McKim said it was “galling” to Australian citizens and residents who had their own travel exemptions knocked back to see what appeared to be special treatment.
CSL welcomes push for onshore manufacturing of next-gen vaccines
We’ve heard a lot about Messenger RNA – or mRNA – vaccines in recent times. The vaccines, which include the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 shots, use new technology which prompts an immune response by delivering a genetic blueprint of instructions to the body.
The technology was commercialised for the first time during the pandemic and the federal government committed in last week’s budget to developing Australia’s onshore mRNA vaccine manufacturing capability (although we don’t know how much money this will involve).
Prime Minister Scott Morrison meets CSL staff working on the AstraZeneca vaccine in Melbourne in March. Credit:Andrew Henshaw
Australian biotech giant CSL, which manufactures the AstraZeneca COVID-19 jab – which is not an mRNA vaccine – had initially warned that producing these next-generation vaccines in Australia would be a slow and costly process, but it is now sounding more upbeat.
Business reporter Emma Koehn reports that the vice-president of pandemic readiness at CSL’s vaccine arm Seqirus, Dr Lorna Meldrum, said the company was now investigating how onshore production of the new vaccines might work.
When asked whether CSL could potentially collaborate with a company like Moderna to make its vaccine onshore, Dr Meldrum said those decisions came down to whether a particular product could be successfully transferred to CSL’s facilities.
“Theoretically, if we were able to do a technical transfer of an existing technology like we did with AstraZeneca – and there are currently two registered mRNA vaccines in the world – then we could modify our existing facilities for mRNA manufacturing. That would be a mid-term solution and would involve a willing partner.”
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2021-05-17 00:38:26Z
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