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Australia Covid news live update: mask mandates in place across most of Australia as Omicron cases soar
Covid news live update: mask mandates in place across most of Australia as Omicron cases soar; Hunt reportedly to announce shorter booster interval
(32 minutes later)
Follow all the day’s news live
Follow all the day’s news live
The Sydney fireworks display will still go ahead at this stage despite record Covid case numbers.
Another thing to look at is how many tests are coming back positive. We’re still seeing high testing numbers in both states.
NSW MP Stuart Ayres says “ultimately we have got to continue to live with this virus - it’s not going away”.
Some 2.57% of today’s tests in Victoria came back positive. In NSW, that figure is 3.42%. So both a little up on the seven day average.
Finally, people queuing for something other than a Covid test.
So the good news is we haven’t seen a dramatic rise in case numbers in New South Wales or Victoria overnight. They’ve remained relatively stable in both states, and actually dropped a smidge in NSW.
Turning to hospitalisations, they have jumped by 35 in NSW overnight, including a further eight people requiring intensive care.
In Victoria, hospitalisations are stable, with a small increase of people requiring intensive care up by three to 75.
Numbers are in over in NSW, and it’s another high number, though still slightly down on Thursday - 5,612 Covid cases.
There has been one death, and there are 382 people being treated in hospital including 53 in intensive care.
Victoria has recorded 2,095 cases and, sadly, eight further deaths.
There are 397 people being treated in hospital.
This hasn’t been independently verified by Guardian Australia but 10 News is reporting Hunt is poised to announce a reduction of the booster dose interval to four months.
The Sydney fireworks display will still go ahead at this stage, despite record Covid case numbers. NSW MP Stuart Ayres:
Nice weather in Melbourne? It’s a Christmas miracle!
Nice weather in Melbourne? It’s a Christmas miracle!
It may be Christmas Eve but the news stops for no man!
It may be Christmas Eve but the news stops for no man!
Labor MP Jim Chalmers was up and about on breakfast television earlier today, expressing shock at NSW premier Dominic Perrottet’s slow limp to reintroducing mask mandates.
He said mask mandates were just “common sense” right now:
Jane Halton is asked about an idea NSW health minister Brad Hazzard has floated to force the unvaccinated to pay for hospital treatment. She says it is an “interesting” idea but not a good one:
Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations chair Jane Halton is up on Radio National, arguing it’s in the interest of all countries to provide assistance to supply and administer vaccines in the developing world:
We will be watching hospitalisations in NSW today, which have jumped in the past week:
The ABC is reporting Shoalhaven Heads lawyer Paul Ell has pulled out of the marginal Gilmore pre-selection race, and endorsed Andrew Constance as the “best candidate”.
The Bega MP and former transport minister has a strong backing from local branch members, and found wide popularity during the 2019-20 bushfires. His path to becoming the Liberal candidate is now all but confirmed.
Queensland’s deputy premier providing a useful reminder to treat retail staff with the utmost respect and patience today:
In non-Covid news, tributes are flowing in for US journalist and author Joan Didion, who has died at 87.
The Year of Magical Thinking, accounting the year after the death of Didion’s husband John Gregory Dunne, may be the most powerful book about grief I’ve read.
Mary Louise McLaws is asked whether we’re going to see exponential growth of Covid cases from here. She says it’ll be “quite likely” if we don’t quickly administer booster shots. There has been increasing pressure on Atagi to reduce the interval between doses from five months down to four:
Epidemiologist Mary Louise McLaws was just up on ABC News Breakfast, discussing rapidly rising Covid case numbers. Australia has had a 52% increase in numbers since yesterday, “not good news” for those who’ve been infected:
It’s Christmas Eve and you know what that means: a healthy dose of Mariah Carey, last-minute wrapping and a Love Actually rerun. But first, the news.
Caitlin Cassidy is here to run you through it, starting in NSW, where premier Dominic Perrottet backflipped yesterday on his anti-mandate position.
Compulsory mask wearing is now in place across almost every state and territory as Covid restrictions are slowly reimposed with infections soaring across the country.
NSW will also reintroduce QR codes for hospitality and retail as well as some lower-risk settings, while density limits will return after Christmas. It comes after the state hit a new record of 5,715 daily infections and one death on Thursday, which is up almost 2,000 cases from the day before.
Victoria also reintroduced a mask mandate, with the state recording more than 2,000 new infections and 10 deaths on Thursday.
Over in Western Australia, Mark McGowan has also been forced to introduce mask mandates after a backpacker who arrived from Queensland tested positive to the virus yesterday. The backpacker was infectious in the community for a number of days, visiting a string of venues across Perth.
High-risk, large public events will be cancelled and dancing has been banned except for at weddings. “I know this is not the news we wanted to hear two days before Christmas, but unfortunately this is the reality of Covid-19,” McGowan said.
Queensland reported 369 new daily infections, South Australia 484, Tasmania 26 and the Northern Territory 10.
The ACT also recorded a new daily case record, with 85 new infections, prompting the territory to update its definition of a close contact.
Close contacts will now only be defined as a household contact of a positive case, or someone who has spent an extended period of time with a positive case. Casual contacts will no longer need to fill out a declaration form for ACT health authorities, but will still need to get tested and isolate until a negative result is received.
There are also growing calls for the federal government to make rapid antigen tests available for free as concerns rise over a Christmas spike.
The NSW government announced on Thursday its intention to make rapid antigen tests free to ease congestion at overwhelmed PCR testing sites. Perrottet said people lining up for a test who didn’t have symptoms or weren’t close contacts should take a rapid test instead.
The NSW government estimates about one in five tests are for the purposes of travel, jumping to about 50% in the ACT, according to the territory’s health minister.
The blown-out lines at testing clinics around the country have prompted calls for a rethink of entry requirements in states like Queensland which demand a negative PCR test before arrival. Queensland will move to allow rapid antigen tests before travelling but not before the new year.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese has called on the federal government to make rapid testing more accessible for people on low incomes. The federal government has put in free rapid testing measures at residential aged care facilities but resisted calls by medical professionals to make the tests free universally.
SA will allow the sale of rapid antigen tests in stores from today.
