Omicron updates: New Zealand delays re-opening due to Omicron; Aussies cancel domestic flights
New Zealand has delayed its border re-opening plans amid the Omicron surge, while nervous Aussies are cancelling domestic flights over Covid fears.
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New Zealand has delayed its border re-opening until late February amid a surge of Omicron cases in Australia and around the world.
Kiwis in Australia were due to be able to return to New Zealand without hotel quarantine from January 17.
New Zealand’s Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins on Tuesday said delaying until late February would allow over 80 per cent of Kiwis to have their booster shots, and the country will be well advanced in vaccinating five to 11 year-olds.
Mr Hipkins said with New South Wales estimating 25,000 cases a day by end of next month, it was too high risk to open the border in mid-January as planned.
“All of the evidence so far points to Omicron being the most transmissible Covid-19 variant yet and public health advice suggests that soon, every case that comes into MIQ will be Omicron,” Mr Hipkins said.
“But experts still don’t know how severe it is. So while it’s sweeping the globe at a bewildering speed and appears to be the dominant variant, how sick it makes people and the impact it has on health systems is not yet fully understood,” Mr Hipkins said.
“But we need to do more. Parts of the world are going back into lockdown and experiencing major disruption, and with these extra steps we aim to keep Omicron at bay to ensure New Zealanders get the break they deserve and businesses can remain open.”
Booster shots can be given from four months after the second dose, down from six months.
By then the country should be better protected from Omicron, Mr Hipkins said.
AUSSIES CANCEL XMAS FLIGHTS
Australians are so nervous about Covid-19 this Christmas that they are cancelling their travel plans, as flight operators call on state premiers to “hold their nerve” and keep borders open amid a new Covid-19 challenge.
As a new survey reveals nearly three-quarters of Australians are wavering on their Christmas travel plans amid a surge of Covid cases and the new Omicron variant. Rex Airlines have already begun recording a spike in cancellations.
Deputy chairman John Sharp said he was urging state premiers to “hold the line” and give Australians confidence this holiday season.
“People are now starting to cancel their bookings to fly around Australia or from overseas as well because they’re nervous about catching coronavirus, or alternatively worried that they might be a close contact to somebody who has got the virus and will be put into quarantine” Mr Sharp told Today.
“When you travel, you are obviously going to be in very close contact with people and so the risks, people are assessing, are quite high.
“We are going to continue to operate our flights as per our schedule, that is our intention. (But) it is very much up to state premiers.
“State premiers have proven in the past that they are very keen and willing to close borders and introduce travel restrictions and so I would say that the risk of cancellation is very much up to those governments, premiers, and I would urge those state premiers to hold the line.”
Mr Sharp said Australians had been “persuaded” to get vaccinated to not only protect themselves against getting the virus, but also to travel freely around the country.
“I think it would be a breach of trust between governments and the public if state premiers were now to say, despite the fact that we have got the highest vaccination rates anywhere in the world, we are going to close borders and restrict your ability to travel,” he said.
“Keep your nerve and don’t break that trust.”
According to the survey, conducted by the Tourism and Transport Forum, asked 1500 people about their travel plans over December and January – 74 per cent of whom said Omicron had “negatively impacted” their plans.
More than half of the respondents said they were worried by the lack of consistency in rules and border restrictions between different states and territories.
The survey found only two per cent of Australians plan on heading overseas this summer, while 20 per cent will head interstate. More than three quarters of the respondents will travel within their own state.
Chief executive Margy Osmond said the tourism industry, which had lost the last four school holiday periods in a row tot ravel restrictions and lockdowns, was in a state of concern.
“The tourism sector is now, more than ever, relying on a strong December/ January holiday period to drive recovery and this setback will provide more pain just as operators and the aviation industry were preparing for a bumper summer,” she said.
“Of all the states, Queensland is likely to suffer the most from the uncertainty with high yield travellers from Sydney and Melbourne making up almost 70 per cent of the national market and choosing to holiday within their own state.”
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who was earlier this month diagnosed with Covid-19 while in Washington DC said the threat of border closures was “frustrating”.
“Let’s make sure people get vaccinated and then let's get on with our lives because that's the only alternative, otherwise the economy cannot just keep shutting things down, you will go broke,” he said.
AIRLINES’ FIERCE WARNING TO TRAVELLERS
Australians boarding flights this Christmas period will be subject to a zero-tolerance policy which includes the threat of being placed on a “no fly list” if they engage in bad behaviour, after the four major airlines launched a new campaign.
A recent increase in reports of “offensive and disorderly incidents” in airports and on planes have prompted Qantas, Virgin, Jetstar and Rex Airlines to launch the joint campaign ‘No More Carry On’.
Australian Airports Association chief executive James Goodwin said while carry on luggage would be allowed this festive period, disruptive or abusive “carry on” behaviour would not be tolerated.
“While the majority of passengers were doing the right thing, during the pandemic there has been a noticeable increase in the number of people behaving badly, despite the reduction in passenger numbers,” Mr Goodwin said.
“We understand many travellers may be anxious about flying again with so many new rules and Covid-19 regulations, but it’s important any frustrations are not taken out on airport staff who are working harder than ever to ensure the safety of all passengers.”
Anyone caught behaving badly faces a fine of up to $11,100, as well as being placed on a “no fly” list and denied boarding on their flight.
Rex Airlines deputy chairman John Sharp said as recently as last week there had been a “very bad incident”.
“A passenger turned up late for their flight and missed it … They were so upset, they picked up one of the poles you have in the lines up to the check in counter, and threw it at the check in counter,” Mr Sharp told the Today show.
“It managed to miss the staff, but it actually knocked over the computer monitors in the process of doing that.
“That’s not an isolated incident, that is happening regularly throughout our industry at the moment.
“We’re urging people to respect each other, to respect their fellow passengers and the people who work in the airlines and airports.”
COVID BOOSTER SHOT DELAYS
The demand for Covid-19 booster shots has dramatically increased over the past week in the wake of a new wave of infections across the country.
However, Australia’s peak health bodies have warned surging demand and cuts to funding have created a bottleneck for those seeking the shots.
The wait time for booster shots was reduced from six months to five months last week in response to the Omicron variant, leaving an additional more than two million Australians eligible for their top-up dose before the end of the year.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Sunday that almost half of the administered 1.33 million boosters – 640,000 doses – had been delivered in the past seven days.
“The vaccination rate in Australia has gone from 500,000 a week on average to over a million a week,” he said.
“We’ve seen the system ramp up and respond to demand.”
Mr Hunt also issued a plea for Australians eligible for their booster to come forward for their top-up shot before Christmas.
He said there was a “large volume” of supply available and pointed to the “flexibility” in the health system to ramp up booster delivery.
“We’ve been in contact with the states and territories, encouraging them to continue their state clinics, while the vast bulk of delivery has been done through GPs and pharmacies,” he said.
With some GP practices closing over the Christmas period, Mr Hunt said pharmacies — who increased dose delivery from 15,000 per weekday to 50,000 in the past week — played a huge role in the booster rollout.
However, Pharmacy Guild of Australia president Trent Twomey said that the network was doing “more vaccines with fewer pharmacies” because of the reduced funding for the booster program and shorter time frame for booster shots.
“There is plenty of stock available in pharmacies but it doesn’t seem to be where we need it because we’re seeing people become eligible for boosters at different times,” he told The Australian.
“We weren’t given any notice of the bring forward of the booster program so pharmacies in larger states like NSW and Victoria were caught off guard and have started to run out of stock.”
It comes as Mr Hunt said it’s unlikely Australia will be forced to re-enter lockdowns as countries abroad move to impose heavy Covid-19 restrictions in response to the Omicron variant.
In Europe, the Netherlands will spend the Christmas and New Year’s period in lockdown with all non-essential shops, bars and restaurants closed.
Asked if Australia could face a similar fate, Mr Hunt said the nation had different circumstances, pointing to the summer season and lower case numbers.
“We don’t see that’s a likely situation in Australia,” he said.
“They’re going into the depths of winter with a vastly higher case rate, and sadly, having had a vastly higher loss of life.
“We’re going into summer, we have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, and a very different set of circumstances.”
‘EVERYWHERE’: QLD ISSUES OMICRON WARNING
The Covid tide continues to rise in Queensland with 24 local cases being reported on Saturday.
The new figures – which are made up of 31 cases when including international arrivals – continues an uptick in case numbers since the state dropped its hard border six days ago.
Five new cases are linked to interstate travel, one was a mystery case in the community, eight are connected to known cases, and 15 cases are under investigation. The cases are scattered across the state.
There are now 12 cases in Queensland with the new Omicron strain.
“We expect the Omicron variant to become dominant in Queensland in the coming weeks,” Chief health officer John Gerrard said.
Saturday 18 December – coronavirus cases in Queensland:
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) December 17, 2021
• 24 new locally acquired cases
• 5 new interstate acquired cases
• 2 new overseas acquired cases#covid19pic.twitter.com/Wy9XCLFgyG
He said no cases currently in Queensland hospitals were seriously unwell.
“You must assume that Covid is everywhere here in Queensland, everywhere,” Dr Gerrard told journalists.
“It could be on this street. It could even be among you here now. You may not know it. It is spreading throughout Queensland.”
As of Saturday morning – the first day of the state’s new mask mandate – more than 135,000 border passes had been issued for fully-vaccinated visitors and returnees to the Sunshine State.
This includes a jump of 36,000 border passes overnight.
Queensland turned back 269 cars and 12 heavy vehicles, while 101 people from hot spots were put into quarantine until their PCR tests come back.
“What we‘re finding … (is) that some of those are just not getting their PCR test results in time,” Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said.
Health authorities have accepted that many people coming into the state be unwittingly carrying the virus, but Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has ruled out any lockdowns over the Christmas period.
Dr Gerrard has also said he was not considering shutting out Sydney or other places with high case numbers.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Carroll said police had received a few isolated reports of businesses copping abuse when enforcing new vaccine mandates, although she was mostly pleased with the public’s behaviour so far.
There was one incident where a man was “quite belligerent” in attempting to access the ICU unit of a hospital he was not a patient of.
She also said a number of business that had threatened to flout the new vaccine mandate rules had backed down after being spoken to by Queensland Health.
“Many of those businesses have changed their attitudes and we’ve given them a little bit of latitude,” Commissioner Carroll said.
“If over the next 24 hours for the next couple of days … if they haven’t obviously complied, they will be issued with hefty fines and I am talking about fines of $6,800 and above.”
The surge in Queensland cases may have been expected but it has triggered the reintroduction of a mandate for face masks over the Christmas period.
Ms Palaszczuk on Friday said the state would surely start to see more cases as it opened its border to the rest of the country.
“What we are seeing in NSW is a dramatic escalation in cases and we know that families are uniting during this time over Christmas and New Year,” she told reporters on Friday.
“So everyone, time to bring these (masks) out over the Christmas and New Year period and we will revise this at 90 per cent (vaccination rate).
“This is a small price to pay for your freedoms. We are asking you to do this to slow the spread of the virus.”
Masks are required in all retail, shopping centres and public transport.
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the mask mandate would be reviewed when the state hit 90 per cent of eligible people fully vaccinated, predicted to occur in mid-January.
Meanwhile, unvaccinated people banned from entering pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes, and indoor entertainment venues such as nightclubs and cinemas.
Sports stadiums, theme parks, festivals, and state government-owned galleries, museums or libraries are also among the venues that are allowed to refuse entry if a patron is not double-dosed.
The tough new measures – announced last month – were tipped to trigger a spike in abuse from patrons during an already hectic time of year, exacerbated by rolling staff shortages and an influx of visitors after the opening of borders.
A protest against the Covid measures is scheduled to occur in the West End and South Brisbane area from 3pm.
Businesses and members of the public are advised there may be traffic delays in the area as a result and should plan their trips accordingly.
BOOSTER JAB CALL MADE
The waiting time for Covid-19 booster shots will remain at five months following a review from the national vaccine expert group.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly made the announcement on Friday afternoon where he said the third jab works against the new, more transmissible Omicron variant.
“The vaccine remains effective against severe disease, perhaps a little less than is the case against with Delta, for example, but it does remain effective. And I think that’s one of the reasons why we are seeing increases in cases but not so much of an increase in hospitalisations or other forms of severe disease, so that is important,” Prof Kelly said.
Prof Kelly urged people to be flexible over the Christmas period, adding booster shots can be taken “a week or two before the five months” if people are worried.
It comes amid a “dramatic escalation” of Covid-19 cases in NSW has sparked Queensland health authorities to reintroduce a mandate for face masks over the Christmas period.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the state would start to see more cases as it opened its border to the rest of the country.
“What we are seeing in NSW is a dramatic escalation in cases and we know that families are uniting during this time over Christmas and New Year,” she told reporters on Friday.
“So everyone, time to bring these (masks) out over the Christmas and New Year period and we will revise this at 90 per cent (vaccination rate).
“This is a small price to pay for your freedoms. We are asking you to do this to slow the spread of the virus.”
Masks will be required in all retail, shopping centres and public transport from 1am Saturday.
NSW recorded a surge in new infections on Friday, posting 2213 – a record for the state.
Victoria recorded 1510 new cases and seven more deaths on Friday.
As of 5am on Friday, unvaccinated people in Queensland could be banned from entering pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes, and indoor entertainment venues such as nightclubs and cinemas.
Sports stadiums, theme parks, festivals, and state government-owned galleries, museums or libraries are also among the venues that are allowed to refuse entry if a patron is not double-dosed.
VICTORIA BACKTRACKS ON MASK PLAN
Victoria had planned to drop its mask mandate this week, but Omicron has forced the state to delay the move.
Victorian shoppers will be forced to use masks until at least January 12 after the state government reneged on its promise to scrap the requirement in all retail settings.
It’s prompted calls from leading business figures and Opposition Leader Matthew Guy for the government to align rules with NSW, which dropped masks and QR code check-ins at thousands of venues on Wednesday.
Masks will remain a fixture, despite Premier Daniel Andrews last month flagging that the rule would be lifted after December 15 if Covid-19 hospitalisations did not soar.
The number of people in hospital with the virus has remained steady over recent weeks, but the ICU admissions rate has increased, with the vast majority of those people being unvaccinated.
Health Minister Martin Foley said they had changed plans because of “Omicron. (It) has changed the landscape.”
Victoria Chief health officer Professor Brett Sutton said that the “highly uncertain” nature of the Omicron strain had halted plans to strip masks.
“We’ll see a significant increase in our Omicron cases,” he said.
“It’s another punch that none of us wanted, but we’ve always rolled with the punches. We have to face the reality and being in denial about it will delay and defer being able to manage cases appropriately.
“We need to be able to lean in and that’s why mask mandates in retail have remained. There’s still a huge role for masks, for distancing and for ventilation.”
NSW HOSPITALS BAN VISITORS
The majority of NSW hospitals have been forced to banned visitors after the state recorded the highest ever daily spike in Covid-19 infections.
The decision was made by NSW Health on Thursday night, leaving some families devastated if they can’t see loved ones spending Christmas alone in hospital.
NSW recorded 1,742 new cases on Thursday – the biggest number the state has seen since the pandemic began.
“We have temporarily restricted visitors to healthcare facilities due to increasing transmission rates with the emergence of the Omicron variant,’’ a statement read.
“We have not made this decision lightly. We must always prioritise our vulnerable patients and staff who are arguably the most vital workers needed in a pandemic.
“Health settings more than any other setting in the community necessitate added caution given the impact transmission events can have on staff and patients.”
We have temporarily restricted visitors to healthcare facilities due to increasing transmission rates with the emergence of the Omicron variant. pic.twitter.com/WyrFQhUO3b
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) December 16, 2021
Visitors will be permitted in exceptional circumstances and compassionate reasons such as supporting women in labour, providing care for children in hospital and loved ones in palliative care.
Local Health Districts will grant visitor exemptions on a case-by-case basis.
Visitors granted entry must be fully vaccinated and wear a mask.
It comes as on of Australia’s the country’s former deputy chief medical officer hit back at some medical commentators saying they are “increasing fear” over Omicron.
Speaking on ABC News on Thursday evening, Dr Nick Coatsworth also denied that he said Australia should let Covid-19 “rip”.
“Certainly, those numbers would have been shocking in 2020 when we had no vaccines and no treatment,” he said.
“Now in 2021 we have emerging evidence that this is a milder variant and I don’t think those numbers are of as great a concern as we would be led to believe.”
He said while there should be concerns about Omicron, “the answer is not snap lockdowns, the answer is not increased restrictions for Covid-19. The answer is a booster blitz”.
“We’ve been held back by some medical commentators who insist on focusing on case numbers.
“It’s disappointing they’ve been unable to move forward.
“We need to be leaders of the community; we need to bring our community forward without fear, and with as much fact and evidence as we possibly can.
“That means we do need to focus on hospitalisations and getting ourselves boosted and then the most modest restrictions we can possibly have to live our lives as freely as we can.”
TAYLOR SWIFT PARTYGOERS ON ALERT
A Taylor Swift album party in Sydney has been identified as a Covid-19 superspreader event, with authorities issuing an urgent warning after the venue was associated with at least 97 confirmed cases.
NSW Health said some of these would likely be the Omicron variant.
Anyone who attended the “On Repeat: Taylor Swift Red Party” at Metro Theatre on George Street from 9pm onwards on Friday is considered a close contact and “the people who attended must isolate until tomorrow or when they receive their negative result, whichever is later.”
NSW Health is urgently contacting 600 people who attended and checked in via the QR code, directing them and members of their households to immediately get tested.
Those household contacts must all self-isolate until a negative result is received by everyone in the property.
NSW Health is also appealing for anyone who attended but did not check in using the QR code to urgently get tested and isolate, and for the community to ensure other potential attendees are aware of this advice.
Penalties for noncompliance with the isolation, testing and quarantine requirements have increased five-fold to $5000 for individuals and doubled to $10,000 for corporations.
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Originally published as Omicron updates: New Zealand delays re-opening due to Omicron; Aussies cancel domestic flights
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