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Coronavirus Australia live news: Victoria premier Daniel Andrews provides Covid update in press conference as PM says vaccine will be mandatory
Coronavirus Australia live news: Victoria premier Daniel Andrews provides Covid update in press conference as PM says vaccine will be mandatory
(32 minutes later)
‘My view on this is pretty clear and not for turning,’ prime minister says. Follow today’s news live
‘My view on this is pretty clear and not for turning,’ prime minister says. Follow today’s news live
Brett Sutton says he wouldn’t be looking at things that closely - and that not all issues are immediately apparent
Oh - and Victorian CMO Brett Sutton rejected reports claiming Victoria had half the number of contract tracers than NSW.
Back in Victoria, chief medical officer Brett Sutton is asked about people being able to walk three kms to their local park to exercise, but not drive.
Sutton also says that Victoria is getting to a point with case numbers, where it can start issuing alerts of where people newly diagnosed have visited - something the other states have been doing, and he says will be helpful for regional Victoria (which has had less cases) in particular.
He says that may change:
OK. I think that is the main bits from all the press conferences - Scott Morrison’s, Daniel Andrews’s and Gladys Berejiklian’s but I’ll update you with anything I missed in that hour.
But despite pointing the finger at the states, in this case, Victoria, Scott Morrison insists he is leaving the blame game to others.
In Victoria, CMO Professor Brett Sutton urges caution on people hanging all their hopes on one vaccine.
(His words would suggest otherwise, but you could argue that until you are blue in the face and not get a response other than ‘I’m focused on the now’)
He says everyone needs to wait and see what the outcome is – and there is a chance that even if successful, a vaccine may only have low success rates – just 20% of people for instance.
Scott Morrison:
Which is why he says it is important that we spread the vaccine hunt wide, while also investing in our own research.
Back to Scott Morrison for a moment - he has been asked about aged care, and whether or not he attaches himself to successes, but falls back on ‘it’s the state’s responsibility’ when things go bad (I’ll let you be the judge of that)
Gladys Berejiklian is still worried about virus transmission in south-west and western Sydney:
Q: We have a national royal commission into aged care, you say there’s federal responsibility, Daniel Andrews keeps saying it’s a federal responsibility. Is there an element here of you being happy to own the successes when it comes to dealing with the pandemic but not the failures?
Looks like Scott Morrison is inching closer to a “show us your border closure evidence” demand from the premiers.
Morrison:
In NSW, Gladys Berejiklian is asked why a security guard who is working within the hotel quarantine program, is also allowed to work in public sites, such as the Sydney Markets in Flemington:
I think that’s an unkind assessment, and it doesn’t bear out the facts.
In Victoria, Daniel Andrews is asked about the ADF testimony yesterday, that it had personnel on standby for Victoria.
There is a combination of challenges we have with the pandemic.
Andrews stands by his previous statements (and that of emergency commissioner Andrew Crisp) that there was no “offer”.
There is a public health issue and there is a specific aged care issue and that’s where responsibilities merge.
(I told you semantics would be important in this).
And when have you a community outbreak like we’ve had in Victoria, that’s where those responsibilities do overlap.
Andrews:
Certainly, we have had to lead the response in responding to the community outbreak in Victoria, but I think the best demonstration that this is a shared responsibility is the formation of the response centre.
There has been another four cases of community transmission in NSW in the last 24 hours.
It’s a combined effort of Victorian and Commonwealth officials.
Masks are still not mandatory - but they are now being ‘encouraged’ for hospitality workers.
We understand our responsibilities and we will be responsible for those, but when have you a community pandemic, the virus will find its way into many places.
Gladys Berejiklian:
It can find its way into shopping centres. It can find its way into workplaces. It can find its way potentially into schools but thankfully that hasn’t been a significant issue here in Australia and many other places and so it’s the overlapping of public health responsibilities which sit with states and federal aged care regulation responsibilities sit with the Federal Government so, yes, it is a complex set of responsibilities and they are shared and that’s why we’re working together.
Now we head to NSW.
I keep stressing - working together, not against each other, is the way we manage these impacts. And so all I said this morning, I think, to take a very binary approach to this, I think is overly simplistic and doesn’t let Australians know the complexity of responsibilities that are here.
This is the most travel any of us will be allowed to do for months, so I hope you’re enjoying this whip around the country.
Reporters have probed Morrison about whether the deal with Astra Zeneca is iron-clad and what the cost implications might be.
Scott Morrison is asked again about that criticism from Peter Rozen:
Morrison said the cost is “commercial in confidence” - as is whether money has already changed hands.
Given the counsel assisting the royal commission into aged care has been pretty scathing of the federal government’s role in responding to the pandemic, Scott Morrison is asked if he still has confidence in the royal commission:
He said:
(The Coalition has been in power since 2013 and has had three prime ministers since then. The person making the ‘assertions’ the prime minister is referring to - the assertions being the federal government had not prepared the sector and still had not prepared it - was the counsel assisting the royal commission, Peter Rozen QC, not some lad on social media)
“We’re at the letter of intent stage, which will lead to an agreement which goes to supply and pricing ... They will be contracts we will be entering into.”
Daniel Andrews is asked about Scott Morrison’s comments this morning that Victoria is responsible for the Victorian aged care response, as it is a public health matter (aged care is a federal responsibility)
Morrison also confirmed that other countries are further along in signing agreements to get the Oxford vaccine. He dismissed concerns Astra Zeneca could drive a hard bargain, telling reporters negotiations are in “good faith”, he is not concerned, and the company is “not looking to profiteer”.
Andrews:
Acting chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, asked why he was only cautiously optimistic two weeks ago. He confirmed this is still his position, but even in the last two weeks there have been promising trials of the vaccine candidate on primates.
Back to Scott Morrison, the prime minister is asked about the indexation freeze on payments, including the pension:
The Astra Zeneca is the “first of many”, Kelly says, in addition to the $5m the federal government gave to support the University of Queensland research. He likened it to diversifying an investment portfolio.
Brett Sutton says he wouldn’t be looking at things that closely – and that not all issues are immediately apparent.
Just ducking to NSW for a moment: there have been another seven cases recorded - two are returned travellers.
From AAP:
There has been a “workplace inspection blitz” in Victoria – 724 workplaces have been visited since 19 July – and 62 notices have been issued.
Since the pandemic began, there have been 4911 businesses visited, and 168 notices issued in total.
On infections in aged care and the NDIS, Daniel Andrews says:
So that is just 16,000 tests yesterday - less than the 17,000 which raised concerns that there weren’t enough tests the day before.
Daniel Andrews begins with the daily breakdown of the most recent numbers:
Paul Karp is going to keep watching the Morrison press conference, while I jump across to Daniel Andrews.
