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Health Minister Greg Hunt is speaking about the vaccine rollout and the recommendation from Australia’s expert panel to restrict the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to people aged at least 60.
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Victoria’s coronavirus chief Jeroen Weimar said the biggest issue plaguing Victoria’s COVID-19 immunisation rollout continued to be a lack of vaccine doses.
Asked whether Victoria should be given a bigger share of Pfizer doses than other states to keep pace with the state’s huge demand for first and second doses, Mr Weimar said: “My response to that would be - it’s not my decision - I am not in the Commonwealth ...
“I am always going to take a Victorian perspective and say ‘give me as much as you can because we have people here we want to vaccinate’.”
People queue to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at the vaccination hub at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton last month.Credit:Eddie Jim
But he said from an Australian perspective it was in the nation’s best interests to get as many people vaccinated across the country as possible.
“Those parts of the country that have shown they can get on with it and get people vaccinated should be able to as it’s in the national interest,” he said.
Mr Weimar said there were no immediate plans to include younger cohorts into the state’s rollout, despite calls from several epidemiologists to include people in their 20s and 30s, who are known to be the biggest transmitters of the virus.
“If you have more supply to an extent all these problems go away because people can get vaccinated and just get on with it,” he said. “So we will keep asking for more doses.”
He said Australia remained in an “enviable” position with low spread of the virus and its vaccine demands had to be balanced by the global context of the pandemic with virus raging in other parts of the world.
“The whole world is demanding vaccines and we are getting ours but we are not getting as much as we would like,” he said.
Victoria’s Coronavirus boss Jeroen Weimar told reporters earlier today that he has not yet been briefed about news that Australia’s expert immunisation panel would recommend raising the recommended age for AstraZeneca to 60 and over.
When asked about the news, Mr Weimar said he had not been told about any changes yet.
“No, not yet, my team is a meeting right now with the Commonwealth and I believe there is a number of conversations expected today,” he said. “But I have not yet received that advice.“
The update is a change from the current advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, which recommended the vaccine for people aged over 50.
Last week the Therapeutic Goods Administration revealed a 52-year-old woman had died after developing a severe case of the rare blood clotting side effect linked to the vaccine. At the time the advisory group confirmed AstraZeneca remained the vaccine of choice for over-50s.
The Victorian COVID-19 press conference has ended, however, NSW heath authorities have released more information about their recent cases.
NSW recorded two locally acquired cases of COVID-19 recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.Credit:Rhett Wyman
One new overseas-acquired case was also recorded in the same period, bringing the total number of cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 5,440.
NSW Health has now also been notified overnight of an additional two locally acquired cases of COVID-19.
These cases will be included in tomorrow’s numbers.
Earlier this morning, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian revealed a woman in her 70s, who was at a cafe identified as a COVID-19 exposure site, had tested positive to the virus.
“So it’s really, really important for everybody in the eastern suburbs or everybody who may have attended any of those venues to follow the health advice,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“If [you are] deemed to be a close contact of any of those venues, get tested, stay home and isolate 14 days, no questions asked.”
Back to the state’s COVID-19 update, testing commander Jeroen Weimar has confirmed a nurse who tested positive after working with COVID-19 positive patients at Epping Private Hospital did two shifts at Northern Hospital while infectious.
He said he was “exceptionally concerned” that this had occurred and the hospitals involved have been spoken to by the health department.
Jeroen Weimar.Credit:Asanka Ratnayake
He said the case highlighted how critical it was not to have staff working between sites when they were working with positive coronavirus cases.
“I’m exceptionally concerned and disappointed that this has occurred,” he told reporters.
The fully vaccinated nurse, who tested positive to the virus on Tuesday, worked on the coronavirus ward at Epping Private Hospital where three Arcare residents who were also confirmed cases were relocated about 11 days ago.
Mr Weimar said the Victorian health department had a provision stating staff working in a dedicated COVID-19 ward with positive patients were not to work across multiple hospitals or health services.
“We have very clear expectations and strong requirements of the designated COVID wards to look after our most vulnerable patients who are who are suffering with COVID,” he said.
“One of those expectations is that staff are dedicated to that particular ward and do not work elsewhere.”
Mr Weimar said he had been in a meeting with the chief executive officers of Northern Health and Epping Private overnight about the matter.
“This was to ensure we establish a far more rigorous regime in place to look after COVID patients,” he said.
The nurse completed two shifts at the Northern Hospital in Epping on June 11 and 12. As a result, 22 staff at the hospital have been identified as close contacts and are now completing 14 days quarantine.
The nurse also attended a vaccination clinic on June 14 for her final dose of the COVID vaccine.
Another 30 people there – five staff and 25 patients – have also been identified as close contacts of the nurse and will also complete 14 days isolation.
Mr Weimar said he remained confident healthcare workers will not be allowed to work between health services when they are treating coronavirus-positive cases in the future.
“This appears to be an operational error being made by Epping Private that allowed the roster to be run in a way and the attestations for staff to be done a certain way that meant we have a staff nurse working across two different sites,” he said.
“It should not be allowed to happen, had it not been allowed to happen, we would not have seen the impact on Northern Hospital that we see today with 22 staff being furloughed.”
Asked by reporters if he was certain such a breach would not occur again, Mr Weimar replied: “yes.”
“It should not have been allowed to happen,” he said. “It is disappointing and I am very unhappy about that situation.”
He said teams at the hospitals had been spoken to and the departments were working with them “to ensure this never happens again.”
We are bringing you breaking news live from two press conferences – the Victorian COVID-19 update with testing commander Jeroen Weimar and another press conference with Acting Premier James Merlino.
In the latter, Mr Merlino said that if restrictions ease in Melbourne next week he hopes Queensland health authorities will also adjust their travel restrictions.
“We reflect our settings in terms of advice to Victorians travelling interstate when there’s an outbreak in another state,” Mr Merlino said. “All would hope to see as, as we ease restrictions that that’s reflected in the arrangements that other states and territories have in terms of Victorians travelling interstate.”
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Credit:Attila Csaszar
He said Victoria won’t be advising residents against travelling to NSW when movement restrictions ease at midnight tonight.
Mr Merlino said, at this stage, the advice wasn’t to avoid NSW despite new cases emerging in Sydney.
“Not at this stage, no, but we’re obviously closely monitoring the situation as we do whenever there’s an outbreak in any part of the country,” Mr Merlino said.
Victoria’s COVID-19 commander Jeroen Weimar said state authorities had run several of the state’s recent outbreaks to the ground.
Mr Weimar said the government had closed in on recent clusters with 90 per cent of primary contacts in the Port Melbourne, West Melbourne, City of Whittlesea all being cleared.
A pop-up testing site in Southbank on Wednesday.Credit:Joe Armao
“We really are very much in the last knockings of those particular outbreaks,” he said.
He said the Arcare aged care facility outbreak had also been contained with more than 80 per cent of close contacts being cleared of the virus.
Another two cases, which had been announced by authorities late on Tuesday, were in men at a Southbank apartment complex that is in lockdown after several cases have emerged.
Two further cases are linked to a family at the Kings Park building in Southbank.
Mr Weimar said all residents in the complex had been tested and the 21 residents deemed close contacts had all returned negative results.
“They will continue to be tested every two days as we go forward until we complete their isolation period,” he said.
He said another almost 200 residents who live in the complex had been tested and 90 per cent had returned negative results.
So far this morning, 8000 coronavirus tests have been processed and Mr Weimar said waiting times across testing centres were below 60 minutes.
Victoria’s COVID-19 commander Jeroen Weimar has started today’s press conference announcing there has been a huge increase in Victorians getting tested in the last 24 hours.
Mr Weimar said there had been a “solid” 25,500 tests undertaken yesterday and another 30,000 tests were processed after midnight. This followed a steep drop in testing in recent days with numbers dropping to 15,000.
Victoria’s COVID-19 commander Jeroen WeimarCredit:Jason South
“My particular thanks to people in South Melbourne and Port Melbourne for coming forward to get tested,” he said.
He said there were 54 active cases of COVID in the community, including three people who were currently in hospital receiving treatment.
He said there were more than 15,000 coronavirus vaccinations undertaken in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of doses administered in Melbourne to more than 1.8 million.
One of the first cruises scheduled to sail from the United States has been postponed after eight crew members tested positive for the coronavirus during routine testing.
Royal Caribbean International’s Odyssey of the Seas, which was scheduled to sail to the Caribbean on July 3 from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, will now start its first voyage on July 31.
“Two steps forward and one step back!” Royal Caribbean International CEO Michael Bayley wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday night. He said the decision was made “out of an abundance of caution”.
One of the first cruises scheduled to sail from the United States has been postponed after eight crew members tested positive.Credit:
It’s the latest reminder of the difficulty of keeping the virus off cruise ships, which have not carried passengers from US shores since March 2020. Earlier this month, two passengers on a Celebrity cruise that left St Maarten tested positive during a Caribbean sailing, despite a requirement that everyone over 16 be fully vaccinated. Also this month, two people on an MSC cruise in the Mediterranean tested positive during a routine test; vaccinations were not required for that voyage.
All 1400 crew members on Odyssey of the Seas got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on June 4, according to the cruise line. Because the vaccine only requires one dose, they would have been considered fully vaccinated after two weeks had passed. But the crew members in question tested positive on June 10. Two have mild symptoms, and the rest are asymptomatic.
Read more: Royal Caribbean cruise postponed after eight crew members test positive for COVID
Victoria’s COVID-19 commander Jeroen Weimar will provide today’s COVID-19 update, which is due to begin now.
Earlier today at a separate press conference, Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino warned the state it is not ‘out of this yet’ despite recording no new local cases on Wednesday.
Mr Merlino said there was still 54 active cases in the state and there remained the potential for more cases to emerge.
James Merlino.Credit:Jason South
“There are zero new locally acquired cases in today’s numbers and one new case in hotel quarantine. While that’s very, very encouraging, everything that we said yesterday still stands.
“We are not out of this,” Mr Merlino said. “These are encouraging signs but we need to see this over a period of time.
“We’re still taking this step by step. Every Victorian has a role to get tested, no matter the mildest of symptoms and to get vaccinated if you are eligible.
“To that end, we reported 15,610 vaccinations yesterday and 25,635 tests, so thank you to everyone. It’s good to see those testing numbers are going back up.”
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2021-06-17 02:57:46Z
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