NSW records Seven deaths announced in NSW’s last daily briefing

There has been more than a thousand cases announced during NSW’s last daily media conference.

Our rolling Covid coverage has finished for the day, but we will be back tomorrow for all the latest developments.

NSW has had a welcome drop in cases today, with 1262 new infections overnight, down from yesterday’s record 1599 cases.

There have also been seven deaths, including a man in his 20s, with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian holding her last daily 11am press conference on Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, the ACT has recorded 15 new cases and there were 392 new cases in Victoria, while Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced one million Moderna doses were now on their way to Aussie shores.

Gladys' chilling warning of NSW's greatest challenge

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned that the coming months will be the worst the state has faced in history.

She gave the unnerving prediction as she defended her move to end her daily 11am pressers.

“The next two months will be the most challenging our state has seen perhaps ever,” she said.

“And I need to make sure we are not only making decisions for the next day but for the next week and next month and it‘s really important to make sure all of government is prepared for what the next few months bring us.

“I will still be a regular feature at 11am but not every day and I was very upfront about that, and I’d rather be upfront and tell people than them saying where is the Premier today or tomorrow because I need to make sure the government runs, gets back to its usual processes as quickly as possible, just as the community will start to reopen, the government has to get used to not running in crisis.”

Health Minister Greg Hunt. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

More than 400k extra vaccines for Victoria: Health Minister

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has revealed Victoria will get an extra 417,219 vaccines to help the state fight its growing outbreak.

127,680 Pfizer doses will be given to Victorian GPs as well 108,000 AstraZeneca vaccines and 180,786 Moderna doses.

“We know it’s a challenging time, as a Victorian I understand this, and I see this, and so this is about hope, and support and protection to Victoria,” Mr Hunt told reporters.

Mr Hunt also rejected suggestions his office had been slow to act in securing Pfizer coronavirus vaccine doses.

“There are no scenarios under which there would have been any different outcome,” he said.

Seven deaths in last daily update

Premier Gladys Berejiklian this morning announced 1262 locally transmitted Covid cases and seven deaths during the last of her daily coronavirus media conferences.

The NSW Government has been slammed for their decision to end the 11am updates. Premier Berejiklian said in the future, she will appear before the media when she needs to.

It comes after NSW recorded its worst day on Saturday with 1599 cases and eight deaths.

Of today’s seven deaths, one was a man aged in his 20s. Chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said the man had serious underlying health conditions and had not been vaccinated.

Hint at crisis ahead

Dr Chant today gave a hint on when the state’s cases may peak.

NSW recorded 1,262 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.

No new cases were acquired overseas in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, and 15 previously reported cases have been excluded following further investigation. pic.twitter.com/6I0aiHrugj

— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) September 12, 2021

“I am still hoping that we peak [this week]. But to some extent, those projections depend on how effectively we can control the spread outside the local government areas of concern,” she said.

Meanwhile, the premier has urged Sydneysiders to follow social distancing rules after people flooded beaches in the Eastern Suburbs.

“The next couple of months will be the most challenging for us. We know that people are tired of the enormous things we‘ve been asking of them but we must stay the course,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“Please, don‘t start getting complacent now.”

Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dylan Coker

Health expert ‘NSW did it the wrong way’

The NSW government’s Covid response has been blasted by a health expert.

Professor Bill Bowtell took to social media on Sunday morning after Queensland recorded no new Covid cases.

“1. Maintain at or near zero 2. Vaccinate everyone 3. Open up,” he posted on Twitter

“NSW did it the wrong way. No restrictions are off the table for (the) indefinite future.”

1) maintain at or near zero 2) vaccinate everyone 3) open up. NSW did it the wrong way. No restrictions are off the table for indefinite future. @DrRimmerhttps://t.co/wtLoNtpUJa

— Bill Bowtell AO (@billbowtell) September 12, 2021

Worrying sign in Victorian outbreak

An epidemiologist has outlined a worrying trend which shows the Victorian Covid outbreak is actually growing faster than NSW’s.

While infections are lower in Victoria compared to NSW at the same stage of the pandemic, the southern state reached a three-day rolling average of 369 cases on September 11 – the 62nd day since the first case in the community.

NSW recorded its 62nd day on August 16 with a three-day rolling average of 427 daily cases.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

However, a leading scientist told Nine Newspapers Victoria is now accelerating more quickly due to lockdown fatigue and slow vaccine uptake.

“Sydney always took a more of a nutcracker approach, but that didn’t work when it came to Delta,” epidemiologist Professor Catherine Bennett said.

“We (Victoria) came in with a sledgehammer, but that still didn’t work. There’s probably not as much difference between, in terms of effectiveness, the sledgehammer, and the nutcracker – I think it was a bit of a distraction for all of us.

“Every time my partner comes back from his hour of exercise or a bike ride, he tells me he’s seen 40 people with no mask and 20 with a mask, so there’s this sense that even early in this lockdown it quickly looked a bit like the end of the last big lockdown.”

The concerns have been echoed by epidemiologist Professor Mary-Louise Laws who told the ABC it was just a matter of time until the high daily cases were recorded.

“It is very similar to what we‘re experiencing in New South Wales as well. So sadly Victoria, unless they do something remarkable at the moment, will go on the same projection as Greater Sydney, and that is 1,000 cases at some stage per day,” she said.

She added, young people needed to go out and get vaccinated.

“It really needs to be focused that the drivers of this infection, that is the 16 to 39, particularly the 20 to 39-year-olds need to get vaccinated, and those 80 and over, because they‘re the ones with enormous risk of death and hospitalisation,” she said.

As of Saturday, Delta was producing 1.4 times faster in Victoria than it was in NSW.

On Sunday Victoria recorded 392 new cases – with just 107 linked to existing clusters.

More than 36,000 vaccines were administered on Saturday, and 48,063 tests were carried out.

As of Sunday morning, 65 per cent of Victorians have had at least their first dose of vaccine.

Reported yesterday: 392 new local cases and 0 cases acquired overseas.
- 36,534 vaccines administered
- 48,063 test results received

More later: https://t.co/lIUrl1hf3W#COVID19Vic#COVID19VicData [1/2] pic.twitter.com/BwAX6H3S6H

— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) September 11, 2021

Dan reveals huge vax shake up

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has revealed his government will be “taking the vaccine” to the people via pop-up vaccination clinics at a 100 “priority” postcodes and schools.

“This will be done in stages, we can’t open all these pop-ups in one day, but there will be significant additional vaccination activity in those 100 postcodes. The first of those are five community based pop-ups, they will be in areas that need it the most, so where cases are and where they are potentially growing, so in Hume, Dandenong and Casey.

There will also be rolled into, this a very significant effort to vaccinate our school kids, and their families as well. We have a commitment to have all our 12-year-olds and up, all our secondary students, to get them through the vaccination program by the end of the school year.

There will be around 70 sites across our public system, where families and students, as well as teachers and staff, will be able to go. These pop-ups are about removing another barrier, and taking the vaccinations to you.“

Big boost for kids’ vaccination

Children as young as 12 will get access to Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine from Monday and the supply will be boosted by a million new doses from Europe.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) has recommended the Moderna jab for people aged 12-59 and those people will be able to access the vaccine through pharmacies.

The one million extra doses were sourced from European Union member states, the Prime Minister said.

“Families will now be able to go along together to their pharmacy to get their vaccinations,” Scott Morrison said.

The Moderna jab uses the same modern science as the Pfizer product, mRNA, to prevent serious illness from the coronavirus.

Queensland records no new cases

Queenslanders have narrowly avoided a snap lockdown for another day as the state recorded no new cases of Covid-19.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles thanked Queenslanders for doing the right thing, but the region could “breath a sigh of relief”.

“We’re not out of the woods yet, though,” he said.

“But this is the best result we could have hoped for at this point of the outbreak.”

Meanwhile, rugby league fans in central Queensland will be able to get vaccinated before Sunday afternoon’s game, in a trial authorities hope will boost immunisation rates.

Thousands of people are expected to attend the NRL final at Browne Park in Rockhampton between the Parramatta Eels and the Newcastle Knights.

Set up outside will be a Queensland Health pop-up vaccine clinic.

Rugby league fans attending today’s @NRL final at Browne Park in Rockhampton between @TheParraEels and the @NRLKnights will be able to get vaccinated at the game.

A pop up vaccine clinic is being trialled outside the venue. pic.twitter.com/BYyfiAS0sr

— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) September 12, 2021

SA to end NSW border ban

The South Australian Premier has promised his residents they will be reunited with their families in Covid-locked down jurisdictions for Christmas, provided the state meets a key vaccination target.

Steven Marshall confirmed to Sky News on Sunday that his state remained committed to the national plan, and that the borders would reopen to NSW, Victoria and the ACT once SA reached 80 per cent double dose vaccination rates.

Based on its current trajectory, the state should hit the double dose “well before Christmas”.

Mr Marshall said the state could still lock out some interstate travellers, but that is likely to be based on local government areas or exposure sites.

Originally published as NSW records Seven deaths announced in NSW’s last daily briefing