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| Australia news live update: NSW records 29 Covid deaths as cases expected to ‘plateau’ next week; Victoria reports 18 deaths; 3,500 in hospital | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Follow all the day’s news | Follow all the day’s news |
| Turning to vaccinations, and they’re picking up in every state and territory, as the booster interval is reduced and five to 11 year-olds join the rollout. | |
| The Guardian’s Nick Evershed has updated a series of Covid charts - first, on NSW and Victoria: | |
| Meanwhile: | |
| Dr Chant is asked how many deaths have been reported with the Omicron variant compared to Delta. | |
| She says at the moment, the focus is on understanding admissions to ICU, where everyone is being tested, and in some instances it is difficult to tell the cause of the death itself: | |
| Dr Chant says is have become clear the risk of hospitalisation is “substantially lower” with Omicron than Delta – and the hospitalisation numbers “speak for themselves in that regard”. The length of stay in hospital is also lower. | |
| Emergency department attendances have also been down over the past week. | |
| Chant: | |
| Dr Chant turns to the modelling Perrottet mentioned earlier, which shows NSW projecting relatively well in terms of hospitalisations and ICU admissions. She makes an excellent point that can be easy to forget – that behind all the modelling and graphs and Covid updates there are people. | |
| OK, this is interesting. Dr Chant clarifies that if you have tested positive for Covid and quarantined for seven days, you do not have to self-isolate if you are deemed a close contact for a full month after your exposure to the virus. | |
| She says the terminology of “close contacts” is moving towards degrees of risk. | |
| Dr Chant turns to the changed definition of close contacts. She says the state is moving away from the term more broadly and focusing efforts on those most at risk – household exposures. She also points out that while Covid-positive people are allowed to leave isolation after seven days, the risk does extend for a full 14 days. | |
| NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant is up, providing a breakdown of today’s 29 deaths. Fifteen men and 14 women have lost their lives, aged between their 40s and their 90s. | |
| More than 40% of the eligible population in NSW have received their booster shot, Perrottet says. Nationwide, that figure is around 50%. | |
| The NSW government released modelling last week in relation to the health system’s hospitalisations and ICU presentations. Perrottet says new modelling will be released today on where the state is tracking – which is “better than the best case scenario” released last week: | |
| Perrottet turns to changes agreed to in national cabinet to close contact definitions for critical workers, and the tightened condition of close contacts that excludes venues (supermarkets, bars etc). | |
| Turning to schools, Perrottet says plans to get students back to face-to-face learning on “day one, term one” will be submitted at national cabinet next week and will be publicly released following the meeting on Thursday: | |
| The NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, is appearing before the media in Sydney. He starts by sending his condolences to the families and loved ones of those who have died with Covid. The figure has reached 772 in the state after 29 deaths were reported today: | |
| There has been a fatal car crash on the New England Highway. | There has been a fatal car crash on the New England Highway. |
| In Victoria, detective inspector Dean Thomas will front the media at 11am following a double homicide in Mill Park and a double homicide in Mordialloc overnight. | In Victoria, detective inspector Dean Thomas will front the media at 11am following a double homicide in Mill Park and a double homicide in Mordialloc overnight. |
| Homicide squad detectives are investigating after a stabbing attack at a home in Mill Park resulted in the death of a woman and a six-year-old girl. | Homicide squad detectives are investigating after a stabbing attack at a home in Mill Park resulted in the death of a woman and a six-year-old girl. |
| In Mordialloc, a man has been arrested following a suspected fatal double shooting. Two people died at the scene. | In Mordialloc, a man has been arrested following a suspected fatal double shooting. Two people died at the scene. |
| Over in Queensland, Gold Coast district acting chief superintendent Rhys Wildman will front the media at 11am, local time, to discuss the removal of border restrictions in the state from 1am Saturday. | Over in Queensland, Gold Coast district acting chief superintendent Rhys Wildman will front the media at 11am, local time, to discuss the removal of border restrictions in the state from 1am Saturday. |