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Coronavirus Australia live update: Daniel Andrews holds press conference as Victoria reports 13 new cases and four deaths Coronavirus Australia live update: Daniel Andrews holds press conference as Victoria reports 13 new cases and four deaths
(32 minutes later)
NSW records no new locally acquired cases for fifth day as pressure mounts over border closures and budget speculation intensifies. Follow all today’s updatesNSW records no new locally acquired cases for fifth day as pressure mounts over border closures and budget speculation intensifies. Follow all today’s updates
There is an update on testing - there have been 160,000 tests over the last 2 weeks, which is about 3300 tests for every positive found, which is very good news. Outdoor gatherings in Melbourne are limited to five.
So if you have three kids, you can not take your kids out to meet another parent with three kids.
But if your household is more than five, you can go outside together. The difference is the ‘gathering’ - a household going outside is not considered a gathering, but a meet up with people from another household, is.
The rapid testing kits you may heard a little about - are being tested against the gold standard in Victoria at the moment - but they want to make sure they reasonably catch as many infections.
What about their mental health? Has Brett Sutton heard reports of an increase in mental health issues in school students?
Yes.
Sutton:
Why aren’t more students back at school?
Brett Sutton:
Brett Sutton says Jenny Mikakos was “extraordinarily hard-working” in his first comments since her resignation as health minister.
But he says he and new health minister Martin Foley are also “on the same page” and he doesn’t believe the change will cause much disruption to the department.
Former Victorian health minister, Jenny Mikakos tweeted the other day that Victoria was “well on its way to eradication” which is not something Victoria has been pursuing.
Prof Brett Sutton is asked about that comment:
Prof Brett Sutton gives a little more detail on the numbers authorities are looking for, in terms of opening up:
Victoria Health is going to break down the active cases by LGA again, now that numbers are more manageable.
“The criticality of protecting regional Victoria is very high,” Prof Brett Sutton says, which is why there probably won’t be too much more movement in easing restrictions in regional Victoria very soon, despite the low case numbers.
Victorian CHO Brett Sutton says he thinks the spike in testing on Tuesdays is a bit of human nature in play – it is more convenient for people to get tested on a Monday or Tuesday, which tends to mean higher numbers on Wednesdays.
At the moment, there will be about 95 different businesses which will have to step up its testing regime, but that number could grow.
Victoria Health has just put out this statement, after viral fragments of Covid were found in the Anglesea sewer network – despite there being no confirmed cases:
While the preliminary result may not mean there are currently active cases of Covid-19 in the Anglesea community, the Department of Health and Human Services has increased testing in the area with local health services and taken further wastewater samples.
Residents of Anglesea and recent visitors who have even the mildest of symptoms are urged to get tested and isolate as they await their result.
A pop-up testing site has been established at Anglesea Memorial Hall, 1B McMillan Street. It will be open from 11am to 6pm on Wednesday 30 September and from 10am to 6pm every day until Sunday.
The department is analysing wastewater for fragments of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, at sites across Victoria as part of the national collaboration for sewage surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 (ColoSSoS).
The positive trace of coronavirus was detected in a preliminary test result and then confirmed on Tuesday 29 September in a sample collected from the entry to wastewater treatment plant on Tuesday 22 September.
The test result may be a result of someone with coronavirus infection who hasn’t been detected through testing. It could also be because someone who has previously been infected is continuing to “shed” the virus.
It can take several weeks for someone to stop shedding the virus. The fragments themselves are not infectious.
Victoria’s chief health officer Prof Brett Sutton said that while positive samples have been expected at sewage testing sites because of the prevalence of Covid-19 cases in Victoria, the Anglesea result is of interest because there have been no known cases in the local community in recent weeks.
While the result may not signify any current cases and could represent virus shed from people who had visited the town, it has provided an opportunity to increase testing and minimise potential transmission.
In early September, testing was stepped up in the Apollo Bay area after virus fragments were detected in wastewater. With more than three weeks having passed since detection, it is unlikely that there is an active undiagnosed case in the area.
Why is this step being taken? Why step up testing at the high risk worksites, given the plans which are already in place?
Daniel Andrews:
Asked if businesses will follow the new Covid-safe plans, Daniel Andrews says:
There is an update on testing – there have been 160,000 tests over the last 2 weeks, which is about 3,300 tests for every positive found, which is very good news.
Still, if you have any symptoms, get tested.Still, if you have any symptoms, get tested.
Victoria has recorded 13 new coronavirus cases and four more deaths, bringing the state’s death toll to 798 and the national figure to 886.
The new cases, confirmed by the Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday, bring Melbourne’s 14-day average down to 16.4.
“I can report to you that the strategy is absolutely working,” Andrews said.
There remain 21 mystery cases between September 14-27, all in Melbourne.
Melbourne’s 14-day average must drop below five and have fewer than five mystery cases for a fortnight before the state eases restrictions further, and no further easing will occur before 19 October.
“The good news is, though, our modelling from multiple sources… [shows] that we are on track and, all things being equal, we will be able to take a significant step in just three weeks time,” Andrews said.
Only 444 Victorians remain hospital with Covid-19, six are in intensive care, and three requiring a ventilator. There are now 147 active cases in aged care facilities and only one active case, a staff member, in disability care.
Daniel Andrews then addresses critics who have been calling for restrictions to be lifted faster - which includes federal government ministers - now that case numbers are coming down.
I missed the beginning of the press conference looking for a feed (apologies) but there were about 18,000 people who came forward to get tested yesterday, which makes the 13 new infections, on what is usually a peak numbers day, very good news indeed.
There were a lot of questions on this yesterday – how Victoria was dealing with high risk worksites.
Well, here is the answer.
That is from 13,575 tests which is great news – the 24 hours prior just 6,381 New South Wales residents were tested.
NSW has recorded four new cases of Covid – but all are in hotel quarantine.
This is the fifth day of no community transmission/locally acquired cases for NSW.
If you want to follow along with the debate though, and can’t get to a TV, you’ll find the Guardian’s live coverage here
Everyone is broadcasting the Trump v Biden debate (do debates even matter anymore?) but I’m trying to hunt down the Australian press conference feeds.
The Parliamentary Budget Office has released its report looking at jobseeker.
It doesn’t look at social impacts – that is not its job – but it does include this:
The rise of long-term recipients and older recipients is likely to continue irrespective of short-term fluctuations in unemployment, given the gradual increase in age pension qualifying age to 67 currently underway and the jobseeker payment appearing to function as a kind of pre age-pension payment for some older Australians in the labour market.
Changes to eligibility for other payments over previous decades may mean that the jobseeker recipient population has a larger share of recipients with higher barriers to employment than was previously the case. This is reflected in the lower proportion of existing recipients (also referred to as the “stock”) who move off the payment each year relative to new recipients and will likely lead to higher jobseeker expenditure in the future.
It is important to note, however, that this increased expenditure is at least partially offset by savings from other income support payments due to eligibility changes. These eligibility changes mean expenditure on these other payments such as DSP and the age pension is lower than it would have otherwise been as a result of the payment rate for jobseeker being lower relative to these payments.
Overall, these longer-run developments are likely to maintain upward pressure on jobseeker expenditure into the medium term.
The PBO will continue to monitor developments and adapt its projection approaches across payments in the social welfare system as a whole, given the importance of these inter-relationships for expenditure trends.
Ahead of that presser is a new high-risk locations list.