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Vaccination target will provide relief for home-schooling families: Education Minister
By Cassandra Morgan
Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge says that, as a father of three in Melbourne, he understands how families are hurting from not having their schools open.
Speaking on Radio National’s breakfast program earlier this morning, Mr Tudge said the Government wants schools reopened as quickly as possible. He added the national vaccination plan would provide relief for home-schooling families.
“The national plan, as you know, has those four phases,” Mr Tudge said.
“When we get to 70 and 80 per cent of adults vaccinated, then the whole economy opens up, the whole society can open up, and that includes the schools.
“That’s the great hope for us as a society as a whole.”
Mr Tudge said NSW is developing plans to try to get schools opened earlier.
Queensland’s new border rules ‘really difficult’ but necessary: Deputy Commissioner
By Broede Carmody
As we reported earlier, new border rules are now in place for Queensland.
People returning or relocating to the state from NSW, Victoria and the ACT will be turned back at the airport and at road checkpoints (unless they have an exemption on compassionate grounds or are a vaccinated essential worker).
Queensland Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski. Credit:Getty
Queensland Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski, who is in charge of enforcing the new rules, has acknowledged they are tough for everyone.
However, he says the temporary measures are necessary because his state’s hotel quarantine system is stretched to its limit.
Here’s what he had to say on the Today show earlier:
COVID has put us in an absolute awful situation. This is one of the really difficult things we have to deal with.
Our problem is of course we want Queenslanders to come back in. But we have a system that is really, really struggling with the numbers.
Our health workers and our police have to balance all the other things they have to do as well. And we just couldn’t carry on the way that we were going with the numbers.
We had to reset the system and [make it] more sustainable for us. If we can [please] ask for patience... we will get that system fixed in the next couple of weeks.
If people have a compelling reason to come back they can apply for an exemption. We are not locking everyone out.
Family vaccine bookings to be introduced when rollout includes 12-year-olds
By Rachel Clun
Families will be able to book in for a joint vaccination appointment under a federal government plan set to be revealed on Friday when 12- to 15-year-olds are given the green light to join the rollout.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the 1.2 million adolescents in that age group will be able to get vaccinated in “the weeks and months ahead” once the change is made.
People line up for vaccinations in Melbourne on Wednesday. The federal government wants to open up bookings to whole families in a bid to further speed up the rollout.Credit:Chris Hopkins
The Pfizer vaccine has been deemed safe for use in 12- to 15-year-olds by the country’s medical regulator, and the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation is expected to approve its use in that cohort ahead of Friday’s national cabinet meeting.
Exposure sites grow in regional Victoria
By Cassandra Morgan
In case you missed it, Victorian health authorities identified several new COVID-19 exposure sites late last night, including several in regional Victoria.
The food court at Shepparton Marketplace was declared a tier-1 site between 12pm and 1pm on Thursday, August 19.
The deepening coronavirus crisis in Shepparton has forced at least a third of the regional city into 14-day isolation and sidelined a significant chunk of the working population, with people struggling to buy groceries and receive deliveries of essential supplies.
In Victoria, tier 1 means anyone who was at an exposure site during the times listed must immediately get tested for COVID-19 and quarantine for 14 days regardless of the result.
A few retail outlets in Shepparton were also declared tier-2 or casual contact sites, meaning anyone who attended them during the specified timeframes has to urgently get tested and isolate until they receive a negative test result.
The new tier-2 sites in Shepparton included a bakery, the Big W at Shepparton Marketplace and a post office in Shepparton south.
Several retail outlets in Hoppers Crossing in Melbourne’s south west were also declared tier-2 exposure sites, as was IGA Princes Hill at Brunswick East in the city’s inner north and Chemist Warehouse at Brighton (in the south east).
A full list of Victorian exposure sites can be found here.
NSW man charged after alleged violence during pharmacy COVID vaccination
By Sarah McPhee
A man will face court today after allegedly becoming verbally aggressive and swinging a bag of glass bottles at staff and customers in a Newcastle chemist on Friday.
Police say the man had attended the Pharmacy 4 Less store on Blue Gum Road, Jesmond, just before 5pm for a COVID-19 vaccination.
“The man was initially refused entry as he was not wearing a mask and returned a short time later with an appropriate face covering,” NSW Police said in a statement.
“As staff began inquiring about his details for the vaccination, he allegedly became verbally aggressive towards staff.
“The man was asked to leave the store and as he was exiting, he picked up a plastic bag of glass bottles and allegedly began swinging them towards staff and customers, before finally leaving.”
Pharmacy 4 Less chief executive Feras Karem told radio station 2GB he was “absolutely shocked” by the incident.
“I felt so angry and so upset that someone who is providing this great service ... had to face this,” he said.
“These people go out every day, leave their homes, leave their families, put themselves on the front line and the last thing that should happen is that they should face someone like this.”
Staff member Catherine McDougall told Network Ten she had been concerned for her staff, particularly the junior workers.
“It was quite frightening,” she said. “He was quite a large man, he was very aggressive.”
Police arrested a 54-year-old man at a home in Jesmond on Wednesday and he was charged with affray and failing to comply with a public health order by not wearing a face covering.
He was refused police bail and is due to face Newcastle Local Court today.
Victoria Police ask public to help identify anti-lockdown protesters
By Cassandra Morgan
Victoria Police are seeking the public’s assistance to identify eight men who attended Melbourne’s violent anti-lockdown rally over the weekend.
In a statement issued earlier this morning, police reiterated that several officers were assaulted during the rally, with multiple people charging and punching them. Flares were also set off.
Victoria Police are appealing to the public to help identify several men after officers were assaulted and flares were set off at a recent anti-lockdown rally in Melbourne’s CBD.
Police are looking to identify eight men who they believe can assist with their inquiries into those incidents.
Shortly after the anti-lockdown protest last week, police said six officers who attended the rally were hospitalised. One had to undergo surgery.
Pictures of all eight men police are looking to identify can be found here.
NSW hotspot hospitals to triage COVID-19 patients in makeshift units to manage surge
By Lucy Cormack, Lucy Carroll and Mary Ward
Coronavirus patients in Sydney’s hotspots will be triaged in makeshift units at Westmead and Blacktown hospitals to free up ambulances after paramedics were told to redirect some COVID patients as far as the north shore.
Today, Westmead will open short-stay units in the emergency department to manage surging case numbers, after the hospital last week saw 280 COVID-19 patients delivered by ambulance, triggering the hospital’s “code-yellow” alert.
Blacktown Hospital’s receiving bay for the Emergency Department. Credit:Wolter Peeters
Almost 80 per cent of the state’s available intensive care beds are now full, of which 17 per cent are coronavirus patients.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said there was no doubt the hospital network was under severe pressure, when the majority of cases were located in the same region.
More on this story here.
Labor claws back support as Victorians stick by incumbents
By Annika Smethurst
The Andrews government has won back some support lost during the pandemic and is in an election-winning position in Victoria 15 months from polling day.
The findings, in a survey by Resolve Political Monitor conducted exclusively for this masthead, show Labor has regained support from voters who previously planned to vote for independent candidates.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Credit:Justin McManus
Since the last survey taken in May-June, the Andrews government’s primary vote has risen 3 percentage points to 40 per cent.
But the repeated lockdowns triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic have taken a toll on the government’s popularity. Labor’s primary vote is still 3 points lower than it was at the 2018 poll.
Read the full story here.
This morning’s headlines at a glance
By Broede Carmody
Good morning and thanks for your company.
It’s Thursday, August 26. I’m Broede Carmody and I’ll be anchoring our live coverage for the first half of the day.
Here’s everything you need to know before we get started.
- There was a record 919 daily coronavirus cases reported in NSW yesterday. It’s the largest daily number reported anywhere in Australia since the beginning of the pandemic. Seventy-six people have now died with coronavirus as part of NSW’s current outbreak. There are 645 coronavirus patients currently in NSW hospitals. Almost 80 per cent of the state’s available intensive care beds are now full.
- Victoria recorded 45 new cases yesterday, of which nine are mystery cases. Melburnians have spent more than 200 days in lockdown since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. And yet polling shows Victorian Labor has managed to claw back support. Its primary vote is around the same as the 2018 state election.
- Queensland’s two-week pause on interstate arrivals has come into effect. People from NSW, Victoria and the ACT will be turned away at the border (however, there will be exemptions on compassionate grounds and vaccinated essential workers). Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says her state’s hotel quarantine system is stretched to its limit because people are flocking to the Sunshine State to escape lockdown. More than 5000 people are currently in hotel quarantine in Queensland.
- And the ACT recorded nine new COVID-19 cases yesterday. The total number of cases in the territory’s outbreak is now 176. Canberra’s lockdown will not end before September 2.
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2021-08-25 22:22:08Z
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