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Australia Covid updates live: Victoria records 867 cases, four deaths; new Brisbane restrictions after four local Qld cases; NSW train strike disrupts services Australia Covid live news: NSW to give update; Victoria records 867 cases, four deaths; new Brisbane restrictions after four local Qld cases
(30 minutes later)
Follow the latest updates liveFollow the latest updates live
The Department of Health is being grilled by Labor Senator Kristina Keneally on a report released by the Disability Royal Commission on Monday which criticised the vaccine rollout for the sector. And we’ve switched over to federal health minister, Greg Hunt, who is announcing that the TGA has approved home testing from 1 November.
The health department secretary Brendan Murphy has denied “deprioritising” the disability sector, but says it turned the focus of vaccine providers to residential aged care because it was the area of ”significantly greater risk”. Hunt says this is obviously subject to individual tests being approved as “safe and effective” but that the approval was “ an important additional protection” for Australians.
“We definitely focused them on residential aged care as their major area of focus until the residential aged care was completed, because there was a strong priority to complete them by winter, but we continued to provide access to residential disability, but not at the same rate as aged care and we have acknowledged that,” Murphy said. How this will work and how the tests will be made available is still uncertain.
“Residential aged care is the single highest risk setting and every experience of every country around the world has shown that.” Will QLD have different restrictions for the unvaccinated moving forward? This is what D’Ath had to say:
But Murphy said he would not comment on the findings of the Royal commission’s report as it was a draft report and the government was yet to be sent a copy. When will a decision be made on the NRL Grand Final? Young says on the actual day (Sunday).
We’re expecting a more detailed update from Queensland health officials in around eight minutes now. Young was asked how concerend she was about the situation in the state, and gave a relatively comprehensive answer:
So just on the confusion around whether the additional Victorian case numbers were to be added on to previous days’ numbers, or if they were being counted in today’s numbers, my colleague Josh Nicholas has cleared it up: Queensland CHO, Dr Jeanette Young, has given some details on the cases, including a truck driver who was infectious in community for eight days.
Melbourne’s Tullamarine Freeway looks a bit jammed up amid reports of drivers protesting. He had stayed at three different locations, raising concerns about transmission.
Palaszczuk says restrictions (not a lockdown) for the Brisbane and Moreton Bay region will be announced by the chief health officer, Jeannette Young, later this morning. Queensland police have confirmed that a man in his 50s has been found dead in hotel quarantine. They confirmed he was an Australian citizen but gave few details:
That will include measures at aged care centres, prisons and in disability settings. Queensland health minister Yvette D’ath has just stepped up, announcing that a mask mandate will be applied in the Brisbane city council and Moreton Bay council areas.
It means residents will need to wear a mask when visiting indoor venues:
New Zealand has reported eight new cases of coronavirus in the community, all in Auckland, bringing the total in the outbreak to 1,185. It is the lowest number of new daily cases since the first case of Delta was announced in mid-August. Seven cases have been epidemiologically linked to household cases. The remaining person visited Waitakere hospital on Monday evening and has since been transferred to North Shore hospital. Health officials are working to establish a link.
Wastewater testing has shown an unexpected positive result in Tauranga. That could be down to a previous positive case shedding the virus or an undetected acute case. People in that region are being asked to get tested.
On Tuesday prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced that a further 3,000 managed isolation places will be released from 5pm NZST, for those looking to return to the country between October and December. Additional rooms will be announced in the coming weeks.
Ardern said:
Aucklanders wishing to leave the city’s boundary to travel to other parts of the country – which have fewer restrictions – will be allowed to from midnight Tuesday, providing they are permanently relocating out of the city, have child-caring duties or are returning home.
Nearly 75% of eligible New Zealanders – those 12 years and older – have had one dose of the vaccine, while 42% are fully inoculated.
Australia’s Department of Health is being grilled by Labor senator Kristina Keneally on a report released on Monday by the disability royal commission which criticised the vaccine rollout for the disability sector.
Health department secretary Brendan Murphy has denied “deprioritising” the disability sector but says the focus of vaccine providers was turned to residential aged care because it was the area of “significantly greater risk”:
But Murphy said he would not comment on the findings of the royal commission’s report as it was a draft report and the government was yet to be sent a copy.
We’re expecting a more detailed update from Queensland health officials in about eight minutes.
So just on the confusion surrounding whether the additional Victorian case numbers were to be added on to previous days’ numbers or if they were being counted in today’s numbers, my colleague Josh Nicholas has cleared it up:
Melbourne’s Tullamarine Freeway looks a bit jammed up amid reports of drivers protesting:
Annastacia Palaszczuk says restrictions (not a lockdown) for the Brisbane and Moreton Bay region will be announced by the chief health officer, Jeannette Young, later this morning. These will include measures at aged care centres, prisons and in disability settings:
So the Queensland premier had a short update there, saying that a more comprehensive update will come from health officials in around 40 minutes.So the Queensland premier had a short update there, saying that a more comprehensive update will come from health officials in around 40 minutes.
The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, says there is “no need to panic” but some of the new cases are concerning. Mask rules will be tightened for indoor areas in the Brisbane and Moreton Bay areas.Of the four cases in the community:
Two cases are a husband and wife from Eatons Hill. The husband is fully vaccinated and works in an aviation training facility. He was infectious in the community for three days.
The third case, which is the most concerning, is a truck driver who was living in shared accommodation and has been infectious in the community for around a week. Police are speaking to this truck driver to gain more information about his movements.
This fourth case is a person who completed their full 14 days’ hotel quarantine but then tested positive after leaving.
Queensland has recorded six new cases of Covid-19, including four people who had been in the community.
The Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has just stepped up and announced that the state has recorded six new cases today.
She said more details will come later today.
In addition to all the press conferences already listed, we have Anthony Albanese speaking to reporters at 11.45am.
S0, let’s list them out:
Queensland Covid update one – 9.45am
Queensland Covid update two – 10.30am
Federal health update – 10.45am
NSW Covid update – 11am
Vic Covid update – unknown
Labor leader update – 11.45am
A busy morning coming up.
An odd little detail in Victoria’s Covid update was that the health department has added 140 new cases to yesterday’s numbers, and nine to Sunday’s tally, because they “became aware that a number of COVID-19 test results were incorrectly recorded by a third-party software vendor supporting a private vendor”.
That means Victoria actually crossed the NSW numbers yesterday, but only confirmed today.
And here is a graph of Victoria’s Covid case numbers and the trend in this outbreak. A worrying increase:
We have case numbers, and it isn’t good news. Victoria has recorded 867 new cases and four deaths.
The number of new cases in Victoria is higher than the number recorded in New South Wales yesterday.
So, case numbers out of Victoria are delayed today (we normally have them by now), and I’m not sure why. I hope it’s just because the news is so good, everyone in health got too excited and forgot to post them. One can only hope?
Oh, and we’ll also have a federal health update from Greg Hunt at 10.45am.
We have two Queensland press conferences to look forward to this morning:
Unsure why there are two, but we’ll be blogging them both.