Coronavirus latest: Qld limits social gatherings as virus worries soar as Kath and Kim joint COVID-19 fight
Queensland authorities have tightened health restrictions, with immediate effect, as iconic Aussie comedy Kath and Kim pitches in to help in the battle against COVID-19.
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Queensland authorities have tightened health restrictions, with immediate effect, as Aussie comedy Kath and Kim pitches in to help in the battle against COVID-19.
Queensland has introduced new social gathering limits after another six COVID-19 cases were linked to the Brisbane detention centre.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk made the announcement as she three new cases were also diagnosed in ship crew members.
Gatherings in homes and public places with no COVID-safe plan are now limited in Queensland to 10 people.
The move comes as Victoria recorded less than 200 virus cases for the second day in succession, with 182 cases in the last 24 hours and 13 deaths.
Numbers in Victoria are expected to drop below 150 daily next week.
“There’s a decrease in the number of people being hospitalised, in ICU and people ventilated so the overall trend is positive and next week if we carry on like this I expect to see numbers below 150,” Victorian Chief medical officer Brett Sutton said.
Sutton said 20,000 tests were being conducted in Victoria every day.
The new restrictions apply in Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Scenic Rim, Moreton Bay and Redlands local government areas. Elsewhere in southeast Queensland the total number of people permitted for social gatherings is 30.
Palaszczuk said new testing clinics would be opened across affected areas.
“What we are concerned about is these people have been out and about in the community,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“We have been planning for this and we have all of our management systems in place.”
“If you have any symptoms whatsoever, we need you to get tested now.
“This is a very important time, especially over the next couple of days, and we do expect there could be even more cases linked to this cluster.”
The rise in cases has fuelled fears the virus may be more widespread than initially thought.
The Wacol youth detention facility was put into lockdown on Thursday after a 77-year-old worker tested positive to COVID-19.
However, Palaszczuk said she was not worried about the cases than had emerged on the ships.
Victoria recorded 179 new case on Friday, the first time the state’s daily numbers had fallen below 200 since July.
NSW has recorded nine new cases in the past 24 hours.
Those developments came as it was revealed the stars of iconic comedy, Kath and Kim including Sharon Strzelecki (Magda Szubanski) will feature in a series of commericals aimed a urging Victorians to do the right thing during the pandemice.
Fellow actor Shane Jacobson and AFLW star Tayla Harris are among other high-profile identities who will feature in the campaign.
MORRISON COMMITS MORE FUNDS
An extra $170 million will be poured into the struggling aged care sector as Scott Morrison was forced to defend his embattled Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck.
As political pressure grows on the Morrison Government over COVID-19 deaths in residential care, Senator Colbeck was forced to apologise after he was unable to recall how many elderly residents have died or how many seniors are currently battling the deadly virus.
The frontbencher was left red-faced when he fumbled for almost a minute before he admitted he didn’t know the answer, forcing a departmental official to intervene.
“I have got the details, I just couldn’t find it and bring it to hand, I’m sorry,” he said on Friday.
Senator Colbeck was then asked how many aged care residents are currently fighting for their lives in Commonwealth-run nursing homes he is responsible for.
“I don’t have the report with the actual detail in front of me,’’ he said.
“I am looking for the report on my IT system.”
A Departmental official later revealed there are 1811 cases of COVID-19 in aged care homes and 254 residential care recipients have died.
Amid an ongoing tit-for-tat between the state and federal governments over aged care, Senator Colbeck also conceded the federal government was responsible for infection control in nursing homes and conceded the government has not got “everything perfectly right”.
The prime minister was forced to defend the frontbencher after the embarrassing slip up.
“This is a very demanding environment, people are working 24/7 on these issues … and I know that those issues are not far from the minister’s mind on a minute-by-minute basis,” Mr Morrison said.
“I am sure the Minister regrets not being able to call those figures to mind.
“I think it’s important to play the issue not the man”.
The blunder came as the Morrison Government pledged an extra $171 million to help the ailing sector battle coronavirus, bringing its total investment to aged care during the pandemic to $1 billion.
The bulk of the money will go towards building a bigger workforce and covering quarantine costs for interstate staff deployed to nursing homes battling outbreaks.
An extra $50 million will go towards retention payments for aged care workers due to be paid in September.
Mr Morrison also flagged more funds would be announced in the October budget.
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PM: JOBS MATTER IN ‘WEEK OF HOPE’
Australia has entered a “week of increased hope” after coronavirus case numbers in Victoria dipped below 200 for the first time in more than a month, Scott Morrison said.
The prime minister said “getting Australians back into jobs” and “job creation” was the Federal Government’s priority in a press conference following Friday morning’s National Cabinet meeting, and that the economic recovery plan would focus on three key areas: income support, infrastructure programs and capital works, and taxes and regulations.
Mr Morrison also said the Reserve Bank governor has called on the states and territories to lift their infrastructure and capital works programs to two per cent of gross state product – or $40 billion – over the next two years.
Transport, housing, hospitals and schools will also be a key priority.
“It’s important that we do this together … look to be as synchronised as possible,” the prime minister said.
Western Australia has also joined the JobTrainer program, meaning there will now be up to 340,000 training places across the nation, despite unemployment expected to be at over seven per cent in the next two years.
Mr Morrison said there needed to be a clear definition of what a COVID-19 hotspot was, which was echoed by Acting Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly.
“There needs to be a clear medical and scientific definition of what that is. These decisions cannot be made on an arbitrary basis. I am not saying they are, I’m just saying,” Mr Morrison said.
On the issue of state borders, Mr Morrison said: “Of course it’s necessary where they are put in place, but there needs to be a careful balance later about the cost and impact of those borders … weighed up against the health benefit.”
He said he was pleased Queensland was easing restrictions for border community members seeking to access health services.
NSW and Victoria had also “been able to come to other agreements”, Mr Morrison said.
He said the next National Cabinet meeting would look at establishing a code that would allow agricultural workers to travel interstate.
Caps on international arrivals would remain the same for now, he said.
“We will be reviewing those caps every fortnight, we will review them again a fortnight from now. Once the Victorian situation, and the NSW situation I think, are even better than they are now, then we could have a look at those caps,” he said.
“But right now on the balance of risks I think we need to keep the caps where they are.”
VICTORIA RECORDS PROMISING DIP
Victoria has recorded less than 200 new coronavirus cases for the first time in more than a month.
The state reported 179 new cases on Friday after conducting 20,326 tests. The number of new infections is the lowest daily increase since July 13.
There are 4421 active COVID-19 cases across the state.
Victoria has also recorded another nine deaths, taking the state’s death toll to 385.
The latest deaths included a male in his 60s, a female in her 70s, two females and two males in their 80s, two female in their 90s, and one males in his hundreds.
Seven of the deaths were related to aged care outbreaks.
The total number of tests conduced in Victoria has now surpassed two million, which the state’s premier Daniel Andrews labelled a “fantastic effort”.
“To be over two million tests now is … a very impressive thing. But we’ve just got to keep those testing rates up. We’ve got to make sure that people are coming forward, even with the mildest of symptoms, as soon as you get those even mild symptoms, and then stay at home till you get your test result,” Mr Andrews said.
“It’s a massive, powerful, critically important thing that every Victorian with symptoms can do. And it will get us to the other side of this quicker.”
Mr Andrews also announced a $15 million commitment to set up a Victorian Disability Response Centre in a bit to reduce the mobility of that workforce and stop them visiting multiple sites.
The cost will be split between the state and federal governments.
“That $15 million … that’ll be about compensating workers who may be out of pocket because they only work at one site rather than a multitude of sites that would be their normal working week,” he said.
In terms of case numbers Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said Victoria was “where I expected us to be”, as authorities prepare to review the stage four lockdown on September 13.
Dr Sutton said he would like to see double-digit case numbers in the lead-up.
“I‘d love us to be below 50. I would be really gratified if it were in single figures. But I’m not convinced that it will be,” Dr Sutton said.
“I think it’s possible, but I think there are really significant challenges to get there. If we were in single figures, I’d be … very relaxed.”
Mr Andrews said it was “way too early” to discuss what the easing of restrictions would look like, or “even to be definitive about when that will be”.
“That’s not designed to, in any way, dispirit people or take away sense of hope. We can be hopeful about these numbers (Friday’s case numbers). We can be positive about these numbers. But that can’t be accompanied by any sense of complacency,” he said.
He said he was confident the strategy to lower COVID-19 community transmissions was working.
On the issue of borders, Mr Andrews confirmed they had been discussed at Friday’s National Cabinet meeting.
“I’m very pleased to say that I’ll continue my discussions with Gladys (Berejiklian, the NSW premier) in relation to trying to get some commonsense changes to some of those border restrictions to the north, and I’ll be speaking with Steven Marshall (the SA premier) later on today about a number of communities – there are eight or nine communities that run down the South Australian border,” Mr Andrews said.
‘VIGILANCE MUST BE MAINTAINED’: ONE NEW CASE IN NSW
NSW recorded just one new case of coronavirus on Friday, chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant confirmed.
The new case is a close contact of a previously reported case at Hornsby Hospital.
Dr Chant said the case went into isolation before their infectious period, after the previous Hornsby case was revealed.
While case numbers may be low, the chief health officer urged residents to remain vigilant.
“The virus continues to circulate in the community and vigilance must be maintained,” she said.
“It is vital that high rates of testing continue in order to find the source of the cases still under investigation and to identify and stop further spread of the virus.”
There were 32,580 tests recorded in the 24-hour reporting period to Friday.
NO NEW QLD CASES AS CLUSTER LINK INVESTIGATED
Queensland recorded no new COVID-19 cases on Friday, as authorities continue to search for a link between the state’s latest case and known clusters.
It comes as the state’s chief health officer said serology testing had revealed one probable historic case, linked to a known outbreak earlier on in the pandemic.
Dr Jeannette Young said it was of no concern, with the state’s total number of active cases now just six.
Dr Young said she was awaiting genomic testing to determine whether a 77-year-old Bundamba woman who tested positive to COVID-19 is linked to a cluster linked to two Logan women last month, after health officials ruled out the possibility of a false positive.
Health authorities have been left scratching their heads after the Wacol Youth Detention Centre operations supervisor tested positive for a second time, sending the centre into lockdown for at least two weeks.
It’s unclear how she contracted the virus, having not recently been overseas or interstate. She is being treated in Ipswich Hospital with minor symptoms.
She worked five shifts while infectious, sparking massive contact tracing testing, effectively confining all 127 youths at the centre into their own rooms. There are at least 500 staff employed by the centre.
So far 56 of the young people have returned negative test results, which Dr Young said was a great outcome.
“We will continue to process all staff and young people,” Dr Young said.
Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles said the source of her infection was still a mystery, but confirmed it was “highly unlikely” it was a false positive.
“Public health teams are working with her to identify how she was exposed,” he said on ABC radio.
“The chief health officer is very confident this health result is positive, a second test also came back positive. It’s highly unlikely to get two false positives in a row.
“Genomic testing will show whether her strain is related to other strains. The most obvious link could be to the Logan women, but we hope to have more information today.
“We’re trying to get to the bottom of whether there is any unknown community transmission this could be related to.”
PNG PROBES FOREIGN WORKER VACCINATIONS
Papua New Guinea is investigating an “unauthorised” vaccination program involving employees of a Chinese mining company.
It comes after The Australian revealed 48 workers of the Chinese-owned Ramu Nickel were subject to what could be the world’s first group vaccination attempt.
Following the explosive revelations, PNG’s pandemic controller David Manning blocked the arrival of a flight carrying 180 Chinese workers and had demanded answers from Beijing’s top diplomat in the country, according to The Australian.
“The government of PNG demands and deserves to fully understand (the) vaccine development and SARS-COV-2 vaccine immunisation program undertaken in China and its potential risks prior to any further approval being given for Chinese travel requests,” he said in a diplomatic note to Chinese ambassador Xue Bing.
Mr Xue also faces questions over why PNG officials were not informed of the claimed immunisation status of the Rami Nickel workers, and has been asked for proof workers had consented to receive the trial vaccine.
China also needed to provide “care management protocols” for the workers in case they required hospitalisation, Mr Manning said.
“Until the Chinese government, through the Chinese embassy in Port Moresby, provides that information, I will be best guided by our health and medical experts … when considering the applications of Chinese nationals who have been subjected to this Chinese vaccination trial entering into the country,” he said, according to The Australian.
On Thursday, PNG Health Minister Jelta Wong says his department will be investigating the claim made by Chinese-owned Ramu Nickel.
An official statement from the company submitted to the PNG Health Department said that 48 employees of Ramu Nickel Management Limited were vaccinated with SARS-COV-2 vaccine on August 10, 2020.
The statement claims that if COVID tests of its employees within a week of the stated vaccination “show positive results”, that would be the result of antibodies produced in the vaccine recipient’s body — not infection.
“If they need to be tested again for COVID-19, it is suggested to be conducted at least seven days after the vaccination date,” the statement says.
According to The Australian, Ramu NiCo is run by one of China’s largest state-owned enterprises, the Metallurgical Corporation of China Ltd.
The Chinese government says it has approved two vaccines for use by state-owned companies and their employees overseas. Another vaccine will be tested on China’s military.
Originally published as Coronavirus latest: Qld limits social gatherings as virus worries soar as Kath and Kim joint COVID-19 fight