Australia Covid news live: PM confirms extra Pfizer doses as NSW records 141 new cases and two deaths, including woman in her 30s
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Version 13 of 19. Follow all the latest updates, live One of the questions being asked the most of the NSW government at the moment is: when is the lockdown going to end? The current lockdown is scheduled to go until this Friday 31 July. But, with case daily new cases having eclipsed 100 several time this past week, it’s unclear whether restrictions will end in just a few days. If anything, the current outbreak in Sydney may take months to recede, according to Guardian Australia analysis of Covid-19 waves across the OECD. Of the 80 outbreaks examined, the Guardian found it took more than 80 days on average to go from the peak to the end of the wave. And the Sydney outbreak may not have peaked hit, with the New South Wales premier warning that case numbers will likely keep rising. All this Covid-19 news can be a bit draining. So here is some heartwarming content to switch things up a little. It’s snowing in Tasmania today! And people have been taking to social media to share photos and videos of glorious sky powder, including the Guardian Australia’s very own Adam Morton and First Dog on the Moon. Just look at this snow! It’s like a scene from Narnia. And if frozen ice isn’t your thing, Tasmania is looking as gorgeous as ever post-snow. Look at that rainbow! Idyllic. The federal government has rejected the NSW treasurer’s calls to bring back jobkeeper, as the state continues to report high Covid-19 case numbers. Rather, federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg today defended the federal government’s Covid-19 disaster payments. But, as Paul Karp reports, Scott Morrison has left the door open for further support payments in the future, telling reporters in Canberra the federal government is “very open to consider how we deal with the situation as it further evolves”. Now that we are done with ALL. THOSE. PRESS. CONFERENCES let’s dive a bit deeper into a Covid case that is causing concern for the NSW and Queensland governments. A NSW man who received a negative test result travelled to Queensland, where he has since tested positive. Even though he had tested negative, the man was still required to self-isolate for a full 14 days, but allegedly didn’t adhere to his self-isolation order and travelled on Virgin Airline’s flight VA1139 from Sydney to Ballina on 14 July. He then travelled by car to Queensland with the QantasLink flight attendant who tested positive for Covid on Friday. Unfortunately, it was later confirmed that he had been Covid-positive and had received a false-negative test result. Queensland deputy premier Steven Miles said the flight attendant likely caught Covid from the man. AAP reports: Both cases were active in and around Brisbane and the Gold Coast, with numerous exposure sites listed by Queensland health. The sites include Dreamworld and a popular Gold Coast restaurant.Miles said anyone in Brisbane or Gold Coast with respiratory symptoms should immediately get tested. “The risk in Brisbane and Gold Coast in particular remains very real and the wearing of masks continues to be incredibly important,” he said. Queensland’s borders remain closed to NSW, Victoria and South Australia. There were also five cases reported on Sunday in Queensland’s hotel quarantine system. The press conference is over and it was ... more of the same? One interesting thing Morrison talked about that we haven’t addressed yet on the blog, is how the government is going to help people in lockdown, particularly those on income support who aren’t eligible for the government’s Covid-19 disaster payment. Morrison was asked by NSW treasurer Dominic Perrottet for the federal government to reinstate the jobkeeper payment, published in the Sydney Morning Herald today. For context, here’s what Perrottet said: Morrison defended the government’s existing Covid-19 disaster payment, saying that you can qualify for these payments if you work casual, part-time or full-time. He also argued that the disaster relief payments allow the government to pay those affected workers directly, rather than through jobkeeper. Morrison added that the federal government is providing $500m a week in support payments for those in NSW lockdown. Morrison was also asked about whether Australia, being a wealthier country, should be talking about booster shots, while poorer countries are still waiting for their first doses. What is Australia doing to support developing countries trying to get their populations vaccinated against Covid-19? Morrison says that the 85m booster doses, 60m of which are due to arrive in 2022, is “more than enough for us, particularly as single dose booster shots”. He says that these “will equip us to lean in even further to the support we’re providing to our Pacific family”. We know Atagi has updated its advice and recommends that people over 18 in greater Sydney should get any vaccine available to them, including AstraZeneca. Morrison is also asked whether he will now lobby Atagi to broaden its advice to people over 18 across Australia, especially given that a woman in her 30s has died overnight in Sydney after contracting Covid-19. Morrison was vague, but said: A lot of questions around the vaccine. Morrison is asked whether the federal government is still standing by its commitment to ensure every Australian is offered a vaccine by the end of this year, given everything that has gone wrong with the rollout? Morrison says that this still “remains our goal by the end of the year”. He adds that, in relation to 12- to 15-year-olds, Atagi is now assessing what vaccines can be made available to that age group and “will be providing us further information in mid-August, I understand”. Morrison is asked whether other states should be diverting extra Pfizer doses to NSW. Morrison basically says nope. He says the federal government has already given NSW extra doses but he adds that Australia’s vaccine rollout needs to “work right across the country”. Morrison has been asked what he thinks of the anti-lockdown protests in Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland yesterday. But he’s also been asked what he thinks of Liberal National party backbencher George Christensen’s support of the protests, and the fact that he attended a local protest near his office in Queensland. Naturally he leaves his Coalition colleague’s behaviour aside for a minute and focuses on the protests. But while he thought the behaviour in Sydney was selfish, he didn’t condemn the protests in other states (like Qld, where Christensen attended the protest): So basically, we are going to ignore the fact that Christensen – a Liberal National party member of the Coalition – was explicitly promoting the protests in other states under lockdown. Cool cool. Morrison is now addressing concerns around the supply of Pfizer, especially to NSW. (Remember: the NSW government asked the federal and other state government to divert their Pfizer doses to it to deal with the state’s growing Covid-19 outbreak.) Morrison says the federal government provided NSW with 50,000 extra doses of Pfizer on Friday. |