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Locally produced mRNA vaccine won’t be available until at least 2023
By David Crowe
Australia is likely to take until 2023 to produce its own messenger RNA vaccines like those from Pfizer and Moderna, as scientists call for a huge federal investment to match countries that already have manufacturing deals.
The federal government is expecting several commercial bids this Friday to build local facilities to produce the mRNA vaccines, but its plans rely heavily on talks with Moderna to lure the US company.
The federal government’s plan to produce mRNA vaccines relies heavily on talks with Moderna to lure the US company.Credit:Getty
Australia is already two months behind other countries in the region in signing a major global partner for local mRNA facilities after Singapore, South Korea and China struck agreements in May for domestic production.
One scientist said the federal government’s funding promises so far were “wildly insufficient” to expand local vaccine research and development to a scale that could attract a company like Moderna.
Read the full story here.
NSW Treasurer says Sydney florists could very well be essential services
By Broede Carmody
NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet was speaking on the ABC’s RN Breakfast earlier this morning.
Host Fran Kelly asked him whether florists or homeware stores are essential services. As you might recall, NSW has had a series of retail exposure sites in recent days (for example, Kmarts and furniture stores).
NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet.Credit:Kate Geraghty
The situation is pretty unthinkable for people in, for example, Victoria where a lockdown means most retail stores would close their doors and shift to online delivery. The NSW government says it’s difficult to define what is essential and what isn’t and wants people to use common sense.
“We’re constantly reviewing [the rules],” Mr Perrottet said. “From my perspective, the vast majority of retail should be closed and these are constant discussions that we will have.”
Kelly: “Should a florist be open?”
Perrottet: “There may be a reason as to why they could be deemed to be an essential service. I will make sure this is raised today. But I can assure you that the discussions we have with our health team... we follow their advice in relation to what should be deemed to be an essential service and what their concerns are in relation to what is open.
“I believe, as the Premier has said, the policy settings that we have in place will ensure that we get out of this lockdown as quickly as possible.”
Three 24-hour testing clinics open in Fairfield area in Sydney’s west
By Jenny Noyes
Two new 24-hour testing clinics are operating in the Fairfield area today in Sydney’s west, bringing the total number of 24-hour clinics in Fairfield to three.
NSW Health is scrambling to deal with the demand for swabs after bringing in new mandatory testing rules for locals working outside the virus-ravaged area.
This coronavirus testing clinic at Fairfield, Sydney, now operates 24-hours a day.Credit:Louise Kennerley
An existing drive-through clinic at Fairfield Showground moves to 24-hour operation from 6am today. Another 24-hour clinic is set to open at the Mounties Club car park at Mount Pritchard from 10am. And a 24-hour clinic opened at Endeavour Sports Park on Tuesday morning.
The hours of the Wetherill Park drive-through clinic have also been extended. It now runs from 7am to 10pm.
Students and staff at Geelong school told to isolate
By Cassandra Morgan
As we reported yesterday, one of Victoria’s new coronavirus cases is a teacher who works at a school about 60 kilometres north-west of Melbourne but lives in Barwon Heads, close to the regional city of Geelong.
Two members of that teacher’s family, who also live in Barwon Heads, have tested positive. As a result, staff and students at a local primary school on the Bellarine Peninsula have been told to limit their movements.
A parent at Barwon Heads Primary School, Simon Quirk, tweeted on Wednesday night that everyone at the school has been told to isolate and get tested.
Mr Quirk said a testing centre was being set up at the local Country Fire Authority and everyone had been assigned a time to get tested on Friday.
Victorians have had a ‘gutful’, senator says
By Broede Carmody
Crossbench Senator Jacqui Lambie was speaking on the Today show earlier this morning.
Here’s what she had to say about the situation Victoria is facing this morning:
Crossbench Senator Jacqui Lambie.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
“Those bloody poor Victorians, I tell you. They must have had a gutful ... to be honest with you.
“We have to get those vaccines moving. People are at the end of their tether. A lot more people wanting to step up to the plate to get those vaccines. It has been bungled the whole way through. They [the federal government] should have had the mRNA ones and I have gone and got my shot. I did that about two weeks ago.
“I thought for goodness sake for the sake of the elderly down here in Tasmania I will bite the bullet. What really annoys me the younger kids will have to ... get the AstraZeneca because we seem to have a heap of them, and line up and do that. We know that that Delta variant really bites. So do they risk taking AstraZeneca to get that availability or do they wait and see whether they catch the Delta strain?
“It is just really not a nice morning. Eighteen months to get their crap together up there in Parliament and still it’s a mess, mate. Absolute mess.”
Melbourne lockdown ‘seems likely’: Epidemiologist
By Broede Carmody
Monash University Associate Professor James Trauer was speaking on Seven’s Sunrise just moments ago.
He was asked if a snap lockdown is inevitable in Melbourne after Victoria recorded 11 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday.
Associate Professor James Trauer of Monash University. Credit:Scott McNaughton
“It seems likely,” he said.
“We have seen increasing cases over the last few days, more exposure sites every day and we know that if we go early with lockdowns, the earlier we go, the shorter they need to be. We need to get on top of this and we still don’t really understand the scale of the number of cases that have been created at the moment. I would really support an early lockdown.”
Nurse on COVID-19 ward at Sydney’s Westmead Hospital tests positive
By Jenny Noyes
A fully vaccinated nurse working on the COVID-19 ward at Sydney’s Westmead Hospital has tested positive to the virus and NSW Health is conducting urgent investigations into the source of the infection.
In a statement, a spokesman for NSW Health said a staff member at the hospital tested positive yesterday during routine surveillance and is now isolating at home. The nurse did not have any symptoms.
A Westmead Hospital nurse has tested positive for COVID-19Credit:Kate Geraghty
“The staff member wore full personal protective equipment at all times while working, as did their colleagues,” the spokesman said.
“There has been no further transmission associated with this case to date.”
Patient care at the hospital has not been impacted and continues as normal.
Busy train stations, Officeworks, McDonalds among new Victorian exposure sites
By Cassandra Morgan
In case you missed it, the Victorian Health Department listed more than 30 fresh COVID-19 exposure sites late last night.
Nine of the new tier 1 exposure sites are various shops at the DFO shopping centre at Bundoora in Melbourne’s north-east. A McDonald’s in Craigieburn, in Melbourne’s north, was also declared a tier-1 site, as were two tram routes, a sporting club and a football and netball club.
Drive through COVID testing in Melbourne earlier this year.Credit:Getty Images
In Victoria, people who have visited a tier 1 site during the specified times must immediately isolate, get a coronavirus test and quarantine for 14 days regardless of the result.
Some of the new tier 2 sites included an Officeworks in a suburb of Geelong, train routes from the busy Flinders Street Station in Melbourne’s CBD and a tram stop. Flinder’s Street Station itself has also been declared a tier 3 site.
Mask-wearing rules were reintroduced at 11.59pm on Wednesday, meaning Victorians now have to put their masks back on in the office and at secondary schools.
For all the venues of concern relevant exposure windows, visit the Victorian health department’s website. You can also use our interactive graphic.
Two new exposure sites for regional NSW
By Broede Carmody
The Riverina region in southern New South Wales is on high alert after infectious removalists – the ones who travelled from Sydney to Victoria, sparking an outbreak in north-west Melbourne – told state health authorities they’d stopped off at petrol stations in the regional towns of Jindera and Gundagai.
Anyone who visited the following venues during the relevant times is considered a close contact of a positive coronavirus case and must immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days regardless of the result:
- The Shell Coles Express in South Gundagai on Thursday, July 8 from 1pm to 1.30pm; and
- The Shell on Urana Street in Jindera on Saturday, July 10 between 11.15am and 11.45am.
For a full list of the NSW exposure sites that came through late last night, visit the state health department’s website.
Sydney hospital COVID scare as south-west’s testing systems struggle
By Mary Ward, Alexandra Smith and Lucy Carroll
A major hospital in the centre of Sydney’s coronavirus outbreak has been forced to postpone all non-urgent surgery after a patient tested positive to COVID-19, sending dozens of staff into strict isolation as the testing system struggled to cope with the widening crisis.
The operating theatres at Liverpool Hospital, the largest in the city’s south-west, have undergone deep cleaning after the patient, who is believed to have been pregnant and having a C-section delivery, returned a positive test on Wednesday. NSW Health said emergency surgery at the hospital is continuing.
The hospital scare came as the NSW government announced a two-week extension of Greater Sydney’s lockdown and as an outbreak in Victoria grew to 11 cases, with thousands who attended an AFL match at the MCG between Carlton and Geelong being directed to test and isolate and the southern state considering reinstating its own coronavirus restrictions.
Read the full story here.
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2021-07-14 22:27:43Z
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