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Watch live: NSW’s COVID-19 update
By Broede Carmody
The NSW government will shortly provide a televised COVID-19 update.
It comes after the state recorded 11 new cases. Watch the livestream below.
Moderna one step closure to being used in Australia
By Rachel Clun
Australia is one step closer to approving Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine, after the country’s medical regulator decided the company can now apply for provisional registration.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration granted the vaccine provisional determination to Moderna on Thursday, and the regulator said in a statement it expects Moderna will submit its provisional registration application shortly.
“Importantly, registration and supply in Australia will only commence should the vaccine be approved as safe and effective by the TGA,” the regulator said in a statement.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration is yet to approve the vaccine, but is looking at using it in people over the age of 12.
“If approved, a complete course of the Moderna vaccine is likely to be two doses given 28 days apart,” the statement said.
So far Australia has approved the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines for people over the age of 16, and the regulator is examining whether to extend Pfizer’s eligibility to people aged 12 to 15.
Australia has signed an agreement for 25 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, with first deliveries expected in September.
That vaccine is likely to go to GPs and pharmacies in rural and remote areas to help vaccinate people living outside the major urban centres.
Today’s headlines at a glance
By Angus Thompson
Angus Thompson here, I’m taking over from my colleague Broede Carmody during an eventful day our national blog, while Nick Bonyhady will also be contributing the latest from federal Parliament. If you are just tuning in, allow us to bring you up to speed on the major news items so far:
- Rapid COVID-19 testing is underway at NSW Parliament, which is operating on skeleton staff amid news NSW Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall has contracted coronavirus. He was in the same room as Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Treasurer Dominic Perrottet in the period after contracting coronavirus but before he was told to isolate or tested positive.
- NSW has recorded 11 new COVID-19 cases in the community, with six of those detected overnight. All but one of the 11 cases have been linked to existing cases or clusters, with urgent investigations underway to identify the source of transmission to a man in his 40s.
- Residents of Queensland, which has closed its border to NSW hotspots, have been warned against travelling to NSW, while Victorian authorities have implemented a “soft border” with NSW to prevent spreading in the ski fields.
- Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud has made clear he would have run for the party’s leadership had the incumbent, Michael McCormack, not put his hand up to unsuccessfully take on Barnaby Joyce.
- Australia is one step closer to approving Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine, after the country’s medical regulator decided the company can now apply for provisional registration. The Therapeutic Goods Administration granted the vaccine provisional determination to Moderna on Thursday, and the regulator said in a statement it expects Moderna will submit its provisional registration application shortly.
Coalition divided over Murray Darling Basin Scheme
By Nick Bonyhady
There are some pretty remarkable scenes in the House of Representatives in Canberra right now.
The government is divided over amendments that Nationals MP Damian Drum is trying to move to the Murray Darling Basin Scheme.
Nationals MP Damian Drum.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Defence Minister Peter Dutton, who is the government’s tactics leader in the chamber, is trying to stop him.
Labor is aiding the Nations and delighting in the disunity within the Coalition.
Speaker Tony Smith decided the amendments cannot be moved.
“I am ruling that these amendments breach standing order 160, that’s on considered advice and that’s my ruling,” Mr Smith says.
However he emphasises that the House is welcome to override his ruling if there are sufficient votes. This will be another test for the government because we will see whether the Nationals and Liberals vote together or not.
WA Police Commissioner in self-isolation after Sydney layover
By Hamish Hastie
Meanwhile, WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson and his wife have been caught up under the border rules he helps enforce.
Mr Dawson is required to self-isolate until June 30 as the Sydney outbreak continues to grow. He recently travelled to Canberra for his first in-person meeting with the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission board since November 2019.
WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson.Credit:Hamish Hastie
He originally planned to fly to the capital via Melbourne but changed his route to stop over in Sydney.
Read the full story here.
Chinese Communist Party rejects claims it is ‘brittle’ and ‘insecure’
By Nick Bonyhady
Here’s a bit of a break from the coronavirus news, but no less serious a topic.
China’s foreign ministry has rejected criticism from Australia’s top foreign affairs official that the Chinese Communist Party is “brittle” and “insecure” despite its power.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. Credit:AP
My colleague Anthony Galloway reported the speech from Frances Adamson, who will shortly leave the Department of Foreign Affairs to become governor of South Australia, yesterday.
She argued that the CCP under president Xi Jinping saw itself besieged by threats abroad and at home because of its authoritarian power.
Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said he had noted the reports.
“The remarks of the Australian official couldn’t be further from the fact,” Zhao said.
He blamed the deterioration in the Australia-China relationship entirely on Australia.
“I’d like to stress that since the latter half of 2017, China-Australia relations have experienced one serious setback after another. The crux is that Australia, in a breach of international law and basic norms of international relations, grossly interfered in China’s domestic affairs, hurt Chinese interests and wantonly placed restrictions on bilateral exchange and cooperation.”
That “hurt” has been in the form of things such as Australia’s call for an international investigation into the origins of the coronavirus and China’s handling of the first outbreak in Wuhan, criticism of human rights abuses in China, and a ban on Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei providing infrastructure for Australia’s 5G network.
China, in turn, has put trade strikes on billions of dollars of Australian exports.
Sydneysiders warned against travelling to Victorian ski fields
By Simone Fox Koob
Anyone caught driving from NSW into Victoria without the correct permit to try and go to the ski fields will be fined almost $5000, police have warned.
Victoria’s Chief Commissioner of Police Shane Patton on Thursday said they have a “soft border” in place between the two states.
Victorian police boss Shane Patton.Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui
“We are now in effect putting in a soft border, we haven’t gone to a hard lockdown, but given concerns with red zones in NSW we have now implemented a new operation up around Wodonga, Wangaratta, because of the concerns about the influx to the snowfields and a potential super-spreader event, that’s what the Chief Health Officer’s advice is,” he told radio station 3AW.
“But right along the NSW border locally we’ve set up extra resources.”
He said that during past lockdowns police set up checkpoints and a hard border to monitor movement across the state and the rate of detection for breaches of coronavirus restrictions was 1.14 for every 1000 cars checked.
However, the most recent model they have used - where there is no hard border but a more mobile police presence which uses number plate recognition - had a detection rate of 48 offences per 1000 cars checked.
“That didn’t mean that every one of them got an infringement, but they could be warned,” he said.
“It goes to show that the model that we believed would be really effective ... we found it also gave us increased mobility to be around the back roads, the feeder roads, we’d set up booze buses and the like, and people didn’t know where we were, versus, well you’re at this checkpoint, we know they are there, we know we can get around it.”
He said anyone who came into Victoria from NSW without a permit would be fined $4957 and sent back.
“It would be fair to say if you’re coming into Victoria with New South Wales plates, you’ve got a target on your back?” asked host Neil Mitchell.
“That would be fair,” Mr Patton replied. “They will be checked and appropriately checked as would any hire car as well.”
COVID positive MP was in same room as NSW Premier and Treasurer
By Nick Bonyhady and Jenny Noyes
New South Wales Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall has confirmed he was in the same room as Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Treasurer Dominic Perrottet in the period after contracting coronavirus but before he was told to isolate or tested positive.
Mr Marshall was told by NSW Health to go into isolation late on Tuesday night after visiting a pizza restaurant on Monday night at the same time as someone who had the coronavirus. Mr Marshall tested positive for the virus on Thursday morning but has no symptoms.
NSW Minister for Agriculture Adam Marshall.Credit:Rhett Wyman
Speaking to Sky News, Mr Marshall described his day on Tuesday.
“We had the normal budget day of Parliament, a series of meetings, but nothing out of the ordinary at all,” Mr Marshall said.
Asked whether that meant he was in the same room, but not close, to either the Premier or Treasurer, Mr Marshall said that was correct.
“I feel pretty ordinary … that he [the NSW Treasurer] is going to be impacted by me testing positive particularly given the nature of Parliament and the number of people [who] have been in the building due to budget week.”
NSW Parliament is operating on a skeleton staff. People not in the building have been told to stay home today and those already there are being rapidly tested.
Steph Cooke, Nationals MP for Cootamundra, is among the MPs currently forced into isolation. It’s understood she was among those at the dinner at Christo’s pizza restaurant in Paddington where Mr Marshall contracted COVID-19.
Ms Cooke confirmed in a statement on Thursday that she received a text from NSW Health on Wednesday morning advising her to isolate and get tested.
Her test has since come back negative, she said, but “I am following the advice of NSW Health by staying in isolation and taking further tests in coming days”.
All but one of NSW’s 11 new cases linked to existing cases or outbreaks
By Broede Carmody
Of the five previously unreported cases in NSW that came through before 8pm last night, all have been linked to other cases. These five people are:
- Two women and a man from Sydney’s south west who are linked to the birthday party outbreak which can be traced back to the Bondi cluster;
- A teenager from Sydney’s eastern suburbs linked to the Bondi cluster; and
- A woman in her 20s from Sydney’s eastern suburbs who is a close contact of a previously reported case.
All but one of the six NSW cases that came through after 8pm yesterday have been linked to existing cases or outbreaks.
Nationals MP Adam Marshall tested positive to COVID-19 after dining at Christo’s Pizzeria at Paddington on Monday night.Credit:Janie Barrett
All but two of these people were isolating while infectious, according to NSW Health. They are:
- Three are women who are close contacts of a previously reported case who worked as a hairdresser at a Double Bay hair salon;
- A man in his 30s who attended Christo’s Pizzeria in Paddington at the same time as a previously reported case linked to the Bondi cluster;
- A man in his 40s has also been linked to the West Hoxton birthday party; and
- Another man in his 40s who has not yet been linked to a known case or cluster. NSW Health says urgent investigations are underway.
NSW records 11 new cases of COVID-19 in the community
By Broede Carmody and Mary Ward
NSW’s daily coronavirus numbers are in.
The state has recorded 11 new cases of COVID-19 in the community.
Five new, locally acquired cases of COVID-19 were detected in the 24 hours to 8pm yesterday. In addition, six new cases were detected overnight.
People wait for a COVID-19 test at the Sydney Eye Hospital testing site. Credit:Kate Geraghty
Those numbers are off the back of 48,402 tests, up from yesterday’s 44,640.
One of Thursday’s cases was NSW Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall, whose positive COVID-19 test sent his colleagues into a spiral at state parliament this morning.
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2021-06-24 02:33:13Z
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