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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2021/sep/15/australia-covid-updates-live-nsw-victoria-coronavirus-vaccines-gladys-berejikilian-scott-morrison
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| Australia Covid update live: NSW hits vaccination milestone; Ballarat to enter seven-day lockdown; ACT outlines roadmap | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Follow today’s news | Follow today’s news |
| Premier Daniel Andrews, on the lockdown in Ballarat: | |
| Reporters have asked the premier whether it was necessary to send Ballarat into lockdown. | |
| 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. | 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: | Gunner: |