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Victoria loosens travel restrictions for several parts of the country
By Cassandra Morgan
The Victorian health department made several changes to its travel rules last night and plans to downgrade restrictions for various parts of the state from 11.59pm Saturday - just in time for the end of the school holidays.
For Queenslanders and Victorians stuck in the sunshine state, Brisbane, Moreton Bay and regions of the Sunshine Coast will be downgraded from “red zones” to “orange zones” at 11.59pm on Saturday, meaning Victorians in those areas can return home without needing to quarantine for 14 days.
Instead, they’ll have to get an orange zone permit, get tested for coronavirus within 72 hours of arriving in Victoria, and isolate until they return a negative result.
Other areas in Queensland including the Gold Coast, Townsville, Magnetic Island, Palm Island, Ipswich, Logan, Noosa, Scenic Rim, Lockyer Valley, Redland and Somerset will change from orange zones to “green zones”.
People coming into Victoria from green zones only need to obtain a permit.
The Perth and Peel regions in Western Australia will also be downgraded from orange zones to green zones tonight, as will Alice Springs and Greater Darwin in the Northern Territory.
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer is yet to make an announcement about the travel restrictions that apply to NSW, with all of Greater Sydney still declared a red zone and the rest of NSW declared an orange zone.
Queensland records zero new local cases for second consecutive day
By Toby Crockford
Queensland has recorded two consecutive doughnut days, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announcing the state recorded no new cases of community transmission this morning.
There were five new cases recorded, but all were detected in hotel quarantine and acquired overseas, Ms Palaszczuk announced on social media.
More than 14,000 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours and the state now has 49 active COVID cases, but none pose a significant threat to the greater community.
Rewind a week and large parts of the state were in lockdown as contact tracers tried to get on top of several small clusters that popped up in a matter of days.
There were fears the highly-infectious Delta strain could run rampant across south-east Queensland and parts of the state’s north, including Townsville, Palm Island and Magnetic Island.
However, the state appears to have dodged another COVID bullet with two doughnut days. Contact tracers have put 8,679 people into quarantine as a result of last week’s clusters.
NSW Premier to address media at 11am
By Natassia Chrysanthos
We are due to hear from Premier Gladys Berejiklian, NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant and NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Gary Worboys at 11am today.
We’ll bring you that press conference live when the time comes.
Meanwhile, our photographers have captured images from a deserted Liverpool shopping mall this morning, on Sydney’s first day of tightened restrictions.
Cafe owner Sam Aldoumany at the deserted Liverpool mall this morning.Credit:Sam Mooy
A shopper makes her once-a-day journey to Liverpool mall early on Saturday.Credit:Sam Mooy
What is the current state of Australia’s vaccine supply?
By David Crowe
Turning back briefly to some key news from yesterday, when Prime Minister Scott Morrison promised 4.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine would arrive during August in another increase in supply.
Mr Morrison said the shipments would increase from 1.7 million in June and 2.8 million in July to the higher target through August.
Pfizer confirmed the “ramp up” in the shipments for August. However, it said the timing did not change the overall amount of 40 million doses it will supply to Australia by the end of this year.
The company said the supply would rise to about 1 million doses each week from July 19 and would reach more than 4.5 million in August. The new rate compares to an average of 300,000 to 350,000 per week in May and June.
The government said the earlier deliveries would not mean opening Pfizer doses to more people aged under 40 at this point, amid Labor claims he was too slow to strike more deals to protect Australians.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has blamed a lack of vaccines for the scale of the problem in Sydney, saying the only way to avoid lockdowns was to increase the immunisation rate. Australia lags other developed economies in its overall vaccination rate.
The fine print of Sydney’s latest health order
By Natassia Chrysanthos
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian yesterday announced that several restrictions would be tightened for Sydneysiders in lockdown, such as limits on the number of people you can exercise with (one other person) or the distance you can travel from your home while exercising (10 kilometres).
But the public health order itself - you can take a look here - has a few extra details you might have missed.
When you leave your home for outdoor recreation, you are not allowed to car pool with anyone who is not part of your household. And anyone over 18 years old must carry evidence of their address and show it to a police officer if required.
NSW mounted police patrol the streets of Fairfield yesterday.Credit:Kate Geraghty
Anyone leaving greater Sydney must also carry evidence of their address and produce it if required by police, while no-one from outside the region is able to enter greater Sydney for outdoor exercise or recreation (only for funeral services or essential shopping).
Face masks must be worn in indoor common property areas of residential buildings such as apartment blocks, and also on construction sites after an exemption was removed.
These are alongside other limits, such as the rule only allowing one person in a household to go outside for food or other goods once a day.
So for anyone considering a run in the rain today, make sure you take your ID with you.
Victoria’s COVID-free streak continues
By Cassandra Morgan
Victoria’s COVID-free streak has continued. There have been no new local coronavirus cases recorded for a tenth consecutive day.
The state recorded three new cases in hotel quarantine in the 24 hours to midnight on Friday. Nearly 23,300 test results were received in the past 24 hours, and nearly 16,100 people received their vaccine doses.
Shellharbour - with no COVID cases - questions why it’s in lockdown
By Julie Power
There’s one local government area of greater Sydney questioning why it’s in lockdown today: Shellharbour, 90 minutes south of the capital, hasn’t had any reported COVID-19 cases or traces of the virus in its sewage.
For Shellharbour mayor Marianne Saliba, the NSW government’s original decision to include Shellharbour in the lockdown, and not Kiama, the LGA directly to its south - which also has had no cases - makes no sense.
About 75 per cent of Kiama’s residents visit the Stockland shopping centre in Shellharbour each week. And traffic goes south, too. Visitors from the Shellharbour postcode bring the most business to Kiama out of all.
Marianne Saliba, the mayor of Shellharbour, which is part of the Greater Sydney lockdown.Credit:James Brickwood
In a letter to Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Health Minister Brad Hazzard and others this week, Cr Saliba asked for an explanation regarding the “absolute shemozzle” that surrounded Shellharbour’s inclusion in the Greater Sydney lockdown.
With no cases reported in Shellharbour again this week, residents vented their anger on social media. One asked why the government didn’t “stop people from Sydney from coming down the M1 and allow residents to carry on as usual”.
After hearing yesterday that the Premier had toughened lockdown rules, taekwondo grandmaster Robert Cooley asked: “Can you see my zen fading?”
But a spokesperson for NSW Health said the decision to continue to include Shellharbour recognised that even in lockdown, essential workers travelled across Greater Sydney and areas adjacent to it, including the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour, for work, education and social reasons.
Rapid tests to be deployed to south-west Sydney
By Lucy Carroll and Laura Chung
Rapid testing will be deployed in Sydney’s south-west in order to extinguish any unrecognised transmission of COVID-19.
Three local government areas – Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool – were singled out as major areas of concern this week but the number of swabs collected in the city’s south-west was vastly below that in the east.
More than 42,000 people across NSW came forward for testing on Thursday but Premier Gladys Berejiklian yesterday said that number needed to go higher. Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said people in suburbs such as Kareela, Sylvania, Hurstville and Maroubra needed to stay particularly vigilant and come forward.
SydPath testing staff members carrying out COVID-19 tests at the Fairfield Showground.Credit:Kate Geraghty
A spokesperson for NSW Health said rapid PCR tests will be available to “provide the quickest possible answer” and aid investigation to identify high priority cases where there is ongoing transmission. The tests will complement existing testing programs.
“Every hour matters and rapid testing is another tool to help us tackle the transmissibility of the Delta variant,” a NSW spokesperson said.
Most nasopharyngeal PCR tests can take up to 24 hours to return results but rapid tests can be used onsite and return results in 20 minutes.
Latest NSW Health exposure sites span Mosman, Miranda, Mt Druitt
By Natassia Chrysanthos
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian yesterday revealed the number of people in strict isolation after being designated a close contact had doubled overnight, from 7000 to 14,000, and case numbers were expected to rise.
The NSW Health list of exposure sites has ballooned accordingly. The following venues are the latest to be added - they were published at 9.30pm yesterday.
If you were at the following places at the set times you are a close contact and must strictly isolate for 14 days:
- Oporto at Westfield Burwood on Sunday July 4 , between 1pm and 1.05pm
- IKEA in Tempe on Tuesday July 6, between 10am and 9pm
- Terry White Chemmart in Revesby on Tuesday July 6, between 8am and 3pm
- Speed Medical Practice in Liverpool on Wednesday July 7, between 11.15am and 11.45am
- Decode Group Construction Excavation site on Parramatta Road, Homebush on Wednesday July 7, between 7am and 3pm
- St Andrews Pharmacy on Ballantrae Drive, St Andrews on Wednesday July 7, between 8.30am and 3.30pm
- Wetherill Park Medical Centre at Stockland Shopping Centre on Wednesday July 7, between 1.45pm and 2.30pm
There were a further 21 exposure sites where anyone who attended is considered a casual contact who must immediately get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result.
They include several furniture stores in Campbelltown and the Westfield Burwood shopping centre last Sunday afternoon, as well as locations spanning Mosman, Maroubra, Mt Druitt and Miranda. The government has urged the public to regularly check those locations on the NSW Health website here.
Good morning
Good morning and welcome to today’s coronavirus news live blog. My name is Natassia Chrysanthos and I’ll be here to bring you news of any developments in the current COVID-19 outbreak until early afternoon.
In the meantime, these were the key headlines yesterday:
- NSW recorded 44 new local cases of COVID-19, including 27 people who were infectious in the community, as Premier Gladys Berejiklian foreshadowed stay-at-home orders could be extended for a second time beyond Friday, July 16.
- Restrictions for greater Sydney residents were tightened at 5pm yesterday, including limiting outdoor exercise to two people within 10 kilometres of the home and mandating only one person from each household can go out to do the shopping.
- Prime Minister Scott Morrison promised Pfizer vaccine shipments will be brought forward within weeks, as he ruled out a return of JobKeeper and confirmed South Australia would trial home quarantine for returned travellers.
- A new advertising campaign for the nation’s vaccine rollout will begin on Sunday.
- And Melbourne office workers celebrated the removal of restrictions to wear masks at work in a measure businesses hope will see more people return to the CBD.
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2021-07-10 00:15:29Z
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