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Australia Covid update live: NSW hits vaccination milestone; Ballarat to enter seven-day lockdown; ACT outlines roadmap Australia Covid update live: NSW hits vaccination milestone; Ballarat to enter seven-day lockdown; ACT outlines roadmap
(32 minutes later)
Follow today’s newsFollow today’s news
Premier Daniel Andrews, on the lockdown in Ballarat: Okay, let’s leave it there with the Victorian Covid update and take a look at what happened at the Northern Territory’s (simultaneous) press conference.
NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner outlined the Territory’s roadmap out of lockdown going forward.
The Victorian premier has warned that life is not just going to go back to how things were pre-pandemic once we hit 80% of the population fully vaccinated.
Andrews:
Andrews says that he might roll out the announcement of modest restrictions easing, with a bigger roadmap out of lockdown this Sunday.
There have also been multiple questions around when Victoria is going to release its roadmap out of lockdown, given that we are going to hit 70% of the state vaccinated with at least one dose sooner than expected.
Andrews:
Andrews has responded to questions about whether it will become mandatory for healthcare workers to get a Covid-19 vaccine.
He said that this will be discussed at national cabinet on Friday.
Reporter:
Sutton:
Reporter:
Sutton:
(But also, I’d like to jump in and point out here that journalists are the ones writing the headlines)
Sutton has been asked about a man in his twenties who died, who was diagnosed with Covid.
Reporter:
Sutton said that there is no final coroner’s finding in this case, but that even if someone dies of cardiac arrest as the immediate cause of death, Covid can be the underlying diagnosis and that is why close contacts will have to quarantine.
Sutton:
Victorian chief health officer, Brett Sutton, has been asked if Victoria’s case numbers have peaked yet.
Sutton says they haven’t:
Sutton has also been asked about whether authorities are expecting cases to get over 1,000.
Sutton says the possibility is real.
Andrews, on the lockdown in Ballarat:
Reporters have asked the premier whether it was necessary to send Ballarat into lockdown.Reporters have asked the premier whether it was necessary to send Ballarat into lockdown.
Andrews:Andrews:
Covid Commander Jeroen Weimar says that there are currently 173 Victorians in hospital with Covid-19, of whom 44 are in intensive care and 23 of those are on a ventilator.
Of today’s cases, Weimar says that:
There are a number of exposure sites in Ballarat on the Victoria Health website.
Sites that Sutton mentioned at today’s press conference include:
The Q hotel in Lake Wendouree on the 9th and 10th between 7.50am and 7:55am.
The Forge Pizzeria on the 10th between 10:55am and 11:55am and on the 11th from 2:50pm until 3:30pm.
Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, is talking further about the news that Ballarat is going into a one-week lockdown tonight.
Of today’s four new local cases, two are authorised workers who work in Ballarat, and two people who reside in Ballarat who are household contacts of a case announced yesterday.
Sutton says that authorities have recorded positive wastewater detections from 8 September, and that there will likely be more cases recorded in the coming days.
This could be someone passing through the town, or someone who as recovered, but, he said “when subsequently you have confirmed cases identified, it does make you think that those wastewater detections related to someone who was positive and infectious and not detected in the community at least back until the eighth [of September] and probably for some days before that...”
Andrews also added that he is waiting on news from the federal government regarding how many new vaccine doses Victoria is set to receive in October, before he can set the state’s next vaccination target.
Andrews has confirmed, though, that authorities have reported Covid cases and wastewater detections in the Ballarat area.
As a result, from 11:59pm tonight, the city of Ballarat will have to go back into a lockdown for seven days.
“I know the people of that proud city will stick together. They will look out for each other. They will support each other,” Andrews said.
Health authorities will direct additional vaccines to the Ballarat area, but Andrews said that they are “right on the 70% single-dose already”.
The Premier said that while lockdown “is not the news Ballarat want to hear all the decision we to make, if we allow it to get away in one part of regional Victoria becomes a threat and a risk to all of regional Victoria.”
“We can’t have that happen.”
Andrews has announced the town of Shepparton has recorded no new Covid-19 cases for three days, and will be able to join the rest of regional Victoria and open up (with some restrictions) from 11.59pm tonight.
“Shepparton shows you that a community can be locked down, can stick together, can be supported and deliver fundamental control of an outbreak,” Andrews said.
In good news: roughly 68% of people in Victoria have received their first Covid-19 vaccine dose, meaning some limited restrictions will ease soon.
Just a reminder, Victoria recorded 423 cases. All locally acquired. Of these, 149 of them are are linked.
Sadly, Andrews has confirmed two Covid-related deaths: a man in his 40s from the Whittlesea area, and a second man in his 70s from Wyndham.
We are expecting Victorian premier Daniel Andrews to speak any minute now. Stay tuned.
NT chief minister Michael Gunner said that even when they hit 80% of the local population vaccinated (which should happen in the next 50 days), the Territory is going to have to keep border closures to parts of Australia that have high Covid-19 case numbers.
He said that “even in this next phase of the national plan our number one objective will be to keep Covid out as much as we possibly can so we can manage it safely.”
Gunner: