Coronavirus updates: Four NSW cases, 41 in Victoria and 9 deaths
A Victorian man and woman who tried to sneak into NSW via taxi have been fined for not possessing valid permits and escorted back across state borders. It comes as the state recorded five new cases of coronavirus today, while in Victoria, 41 people were diagnosed.
NSW
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A Victorian man and woman who tried to sneak into NSW via taxi have been fined for not possessing valid permits and escorted back across state borders.
At about 8.20am on Saturday, September 5, police stopped a taxi at a border checkpoint in South Albury and spoke with the passengers, a 23-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman.
Police conducted subsequent checks which revealed that, although the couple had permits, they were not valid for the reasons they provided.
They were then escorted back to Victoria; however, a short time later returned to the checkpoint and claimed to have obtained correct permits, which police discovered they had not. They were each fined $1000 for providing false details.
Also on Saturday, police stopped a Toyota Corolla with Victorian registration that was travelling through Deniliquin.
The driver, a 34-year-old woman, presented police with a permit, which checks revealed she was allegedly in breach of. She was also issued a $1000 fine for failing to comply with notice direction.
Other people fined over the weekend include a 36-year-old man who allegedly exited NSW and attempted to re-enter at several border crossing checkpoints and a 22-year-old man who failed to self-isolate for 14 days.
FORMALS GIVEN GO AHEAD
School formals and graduations have officially been given the green light for term four in NSW.
The end of year celebrations will be allowed from November 12 after the final HSC exam.
Schools will be given guidance from NSW health on how to develop a COVID-safe plan for formals and graduations.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said students “deserve time have events to look forward to after their exams”.
Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said allowing formals to go ahead after exams reduces the risk of COVID-19 impacting the HSC.
The clarification on school formals comes after increasing anger among students over formals being cancelled for term 3.
Regional Youth Minister Bronnie Taylor last month broke ranks from cabinet at the Telegraph’s Bush Summit to call for formals to go ahead in regional areas with no COVID infections.
Asked on why dancing would be allowed at formals and not weddings, NSW Chief Medical Officer Dr Kerry Chant said that all safety aspects of the event have yet to be clarified.
“We haven’t clarified the dancing, we want to hear from students and their ideas, but some of the aspects include that if the event is not alcoholic and many don’t have alcohol due to the range in ages, then some of the risks are less evident when you have an alcohol free venue,” she said.
“There can be things like outdoor dance settings, and also remember that these students will have been sitting together in indoor environments sitting their exams for periods of time.
FIVE NEW CASES IN NSW
Five more people have been diagnosed with coronavirus in NSW including four linked to a break out of cases at two hospital emergency departments and a returned traveller in hotel quarantine.
Four of the five are included in today’s case total while the fifth, a person who visited a patient at Concord Hospital emergency department (EDs) on September 1, will be reported in Tuesday’s cases.
Three of the new cases are healthcare workers who are linked to a previously reported case who worked at the Concord Hospital and Liverpool Hospital EDs on September 5.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Monday that one of the people who contracted COVID-19 in the last day was wearing a mask.
“Health is investigating the likelihood that the person got the disease from touching a surface or exchanging the same material,” she said.
“It’s really important to know that masks are important. You should be wearing them in the places that we ask you to wear them.”
NSW PREMIER WON’T ENDORSE VIC CONTACT TRACING
NSW has the “balance right” in managing the coronavirus health crisis while keeping the economy functional, Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said, in contrast with the Victorian response.
Ms Berejiklian also declined to endorse Victoria’s contact tracing as being as effective as NSW.
The Premier said Victoria’s recovery road map shows both governments “have very different views on how the disease is dealt with”.
“Clearly in NSW we’ve had the benefit of a whole of government systemic approach to dealing with the pandemic, which has allowed us to keep society pretty much open,” she said.
The NSW Premier said the response to COVID-19 is “really about getting that right balance” between managing the health and economic crises.
“I hope NSW to date has demonstrated that you can do both,” she said.
“If you go too hard, you lose support and if you go too soft the disease spreads. And I’d like to think in NSW, we have the balance right,” she said.
Meanwhile, Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said “not all cases are equally as concerning,” suggesting a Victorian threshold of having less than five new local cases per day before further easing restrictions is too simplistic.
“Not all cases are equally as concerning.
“I would think that a more nuanced look at locally acquired cases without any source … give me much more cause for concern,” Dr Chant said.
41 NEW CASES, NINE DEATHS IN VICTORIA
Victoria has recorded just 41 new cases of coronavirus in the past day – the state’s lowest daily total in two months.
Despite the low figures, nine Victorians died from the virus.
Premier Daniel Andrews revealed his government’s “road map” out of lockdown on Sunday which included a two-week extension of stage four restrictions and five-step reopening plan.
Federal health authorities are considering the plan before formally responding.
But in a statement Mr Morrison said the government would like to see Victoria’s restrictions lifted “as soon as it is safe to do so” amid fears of the long-term impact on mental health and the economy.
“Today’s announcement from the Victorian Government to extend lockdown arrangements will be hard and crushing news for the people of Victoria, and a further reminder of the impact and costs that result from not being able to contain outbreaks of COVID-19, resulting in high rates of community transmission,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Health Minister Greg Hunt said in a joint statement.
AUSTRALIA LOCKS IN DEAL FOR VACCINES
Almost four million doses of a successful coronavirus vaccine will be available in Australia from January as the federal government locks down a $1.7 billion manufacturing deal for two different options.
Under the agreement to be announced on Monday more than 84.4 million doses of two vaccines — one from the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca and one from University of Queensland/CSL — would be made in Australia and available “progressively” throughout 2021 provided the drugs pass trials.
The deal includes early access to 3.8 million doses of the University of Oxford vaccine in January and February.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said by securing production and supply agreements Australians would be “among the first in the world” to secure a safe and effective vaccine “should it pass late stage testing”.
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“Australians will gain free access to a COVID-19 vaccine in 2021 if trials prove successful,” Mr Morrison said.
“There are no guarantees that these vaccines will prove successful, however the agreement puts Australia at the top of the queue, if our medical experts give the vaccines the green light.”
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Mr Morrison said Australia was also committed to ensuring countries in the Pacific and regional areas of Southeast Asia got early access to a coronavirus vaccine.
Both of the vaccine agreements allow for additional orders to be negotiated and for doses to be donated or on-sold with no mark-up to other countries or international organisations.
The University of Oxford vaccine has entered Phase three trials, and to data has generate strong immune responses with no significant safety concerns.
The University of Queensland vaccine has been developed in Australia, with scientists recently announcing preclinical testing showed the vaccine was promising and already effective in
animal models.
SYDNEY SCHOOLS SHUT OVER STUDENT INFECTIONS
Two Sydney schools are closed today following confirmed coronavirus cases in students.
A child who attends Lidcombe Public School was revealed as one of two mystery cases announced by NSW Health yesterday.
Two Year 7 students at Kincoppal-Rose Bay School of the Sacred Heart in Vaucluse have also tested positive. The college’s high school is shut today but the early learning centre and junior schools is open as normal.
Close contacts of the Kincoppal students were informed over the weekend while all year 7 students and any staff members who worked with the grade in the past week are required to self-isolate until contact tracing is completed.
NSW SCHOOLBOY STRANDED IN QLD FOR HOLIDAYS
Regional families in NSW are pleading with states to adopt national COVID-19 hotspot guidelines as an “arbitrary” rule leaves a Year 6 boy the only student at his school unable to go home this holidays.
Not a single premier has adopted definitions developed by Australia’s top public health officials to determine if community transmission of coronavirus in an area is a risk, with harsh border measures and unfounded fears tearing bush communities apart.
Under the definitions proposed by the Australian Health Principal Protection Committee and adopted by the federal government last week, a metropolitan area is considered a COVID-19 “hotspot” if there are 30 or more cases over three days, while a regional area is considered a risk if there are nine cases.
Analysis by The Daily Telegraph has found no local government areas in NSW considered “regional” would be classed as a hotspot under the official commonwealth definition, however farmers and families remain unable to cross into Queensland for work or school.
No single local health districts in the state meets the “hotspot” threshold, according to the latest NSW Health information.
The district with the highest number of cases in the four weeks to September 4, was South West Sydney with 46 cases, followed by Western Sydney with 45, South East Sydney with 31 and Northern Sydney with 21 cases.
Despite living in a coronavirus-free district, Justine McNally’s son Henry Maunder, 11, is boarding in Year 6 at Toowoomba Anglican School in Queensland and is the only student unable to get home to their northern NSW property for the holidays due to border closures.
“I think they need some kind of robust online system so on a case-by-case basis they can assess the risk of where you’re from, not just a blanket postcode or government area,” she said.
The family live about 35km from Moree, which was added to a “travel bubble” list of border towns by Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Friday but Henry’s house is 10km outside the postcode exemption limit.
“I think (Henry’s) quite a stoic child, but he’s very frustrated by it, and I think on Friday he was most disappointed because he knows now all these other children in our district are coming home.”
The Moree local council area has had zero coronavirus cases in the last four weeks according to NSW Health data, and would not be considered a hotspot under the federal government guidelines.
VICTORIAN CONTACT TRACING NOT UP TO NSW STANDARD
A “crushing” blow has been dealt to Victorians ordered to remain in lockdown for longer after the state failed to follow the NSW “way forward” with effective contact tracing to contain its coronavirus outbreaks.
The federal government has renewed its offer to help Victoria improve its tracing system, with deputy chief medical officer Professor Michael Kidd declaring the commonwealth “stands ready” with further assistance.
“Contact tracing in Victoria … is now arguably one of the most important tasks in Australia,” he said on Sunday.
“NSW has shown us the model of high-performance contact tracing, which is keeping community transmission in that state at a low level.”
Prof Kidd said there was clear evidence Victoria’s time frame out of lockdown “could be accelerated” if the state had “improved contact tracing”.
“We know that it is essential that every single case of COVID-19 is being followed up every day so that we can prevent further transmission and stop the spread,” he said.
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