Coronavirus updates: Queensland, NSW border bubble, NT opens to Blue Mountains
The Northern Territory has relaxed its border restrictions, opening to travellers from some parts of NSW while Queensland has confirmed a bubble will exist when the border shuts again tomorrow morning.
NSW
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Travellers from parts of NSW will be allowed into the Northern Territory after the hotspot status of some suburbs was revoked on Friday.
People from or who have travelled through the Eurobodalla Shire and Blue Mountains local government areas in NSW in the last 14 days will no longer have to go into 14 days of forced mandatory quarantine.
The territory’s chief health officer also revoked hotspot status for some Queensland suburbs including Brisbane, Ipswich and Logan.
It comes as Queensland announced a border town bubble will operate when the state is closed to all NSW and ACT residents.
New measures revealed on Friday will allow Gold Coast and Tweed residents to move freely across the border after the Saturday 1am closure however they cannot travel deeper in to respective states.
Gold Coasters are not allowed to travel to Byron Bay or beyond unless granted a special exemption or performing an essential service.
Conversely, Tweed residents will not be allowed to travel north of the Gold Coast.
They will also be refused entry to Queensland or forced in to quarantine if it is established they have travelled further south than the Tweed before trying to enter Queensland.
Gold Coast Police Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said the ‘border zone’ would allow all residents of Gold Coast City and Tweed Shire council areas to travel freely across the border for any purpose, including recreation.
“If you’re a Gold Coast resident, you’ll be able to go down to Kingscliff for a surf but not to Byron Bay,” he said.
“If you step out of the Tweed Shire, your ability to come back into Queensland stops.
“Byron Bay is completely off limits.
The new pass system would hopefully be available late this afternoon.
Those within the bubble will need an X-pass, to be updated every seven days, and identification showing an address.
Children who are with their parents will not need that identification.
PM ANNOUNCES $15B MORE FOR JOBKEEPER
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced an additional investment of $15 billion to JobKeeper, bringing the total to more than $100 billion.
“This is the largest program of this nature the country has ever undertaken,” Mr Morisson said following Friday’s national cabinet meeting.
The Prime Minister also stressed that JobKeeper is not just for Victorians.
“This is a national program. This is not an arrangement that has been put in place specifically for Victoria, it’s a national program and I was able to remark to the other leaders today at the meeting there’ll be many people in their states and territories who will also benefit from the changes that have been made for eligibility to make sure the JobKeeper reaches to those parts of the country where they’re also continuing to do it tough,” Mr Morrison said.
VICTORIA RECORDS 450 CASES, 11 DEATHS
Victoria has recorded 450 coronavirus cases and 11 deaths today including a woman in her 50s. Seven of the deaths are connected to aged care facilities.
Premier Daniel Andrews said 1548 active cases were currently linked to aged care facilities, out of the state’s 7637 active cases.
“To date, there are 1527 confirmed cases in healthcare workers. That’s 139 more than yesterday, and there are currently 911 healthcare workers who are active cases,” Mr Andrews said.
There were 66 new “mystery cases”, a lower number than in previous days.
ADF personnel and authorised officers door knocked 1150 homes on Thursday, with 150 of people with positive cases not at home. So far, 500 people have been referred to Victoria Police for not being home when contacted by authorities.
It comes as Andrews Government announced year 12 students impacted by coronavirus restrictions will be given special consideration for their ATAR rankings under a new plan to soften the blow to their end of year results.
NSW RECORDS 11 NEW CASES
Eleven new cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed in NSW the 24 hours to 8pm last night, bringing the state’s total number of cases to 3653.
One case is still under investigation – a female in her 60s from south western Sydney — as NSW Health warned the origin of several cases this week cannot be traced.
One new case was acquired in Victoria and nine were locally acquired linked to known cases, including a person who attended the Apollo Restaurant in Potts Point.
NSW WARNED: IT’S TIME TO MASK UP
NSW residents are being urged to wear masks in public at all times, especially indoors, despite current NSW government guidelines.
Australian Medical Association today said the state must go further to contain COVID-19’s spread or risk ending up like Victoria.
The NSW government currently recommends mask use where social distancing is impossible, as well as for public-facing employees, during religious worship, in cluster hot spots and indoor spaces such as supermarkets and on public transport.
But it is yet to make masks mandatory.
“Current indications are that it now needs to go further,” AMA President Dr Omar Khorshid said. “We’re at a time when NSW could go either way in terms of ending up like Victoria or moving back to a situation closer to where we were before this outbreak.”
It comes as police arrested the organisers of an anti-lockdown anti-mask protest planned for Melbourne’s CBD on Sunday.
The ‘Freedom March’ planned in Melbourne’s CBD on Sunday, was dubbed a “blatant breach” of COVID-19 restrictions by police as authorities grapple with the state’s outbreaks
AMA NSW President, Dr Danielle McMullen, said while many people have responded to suggestions to mask up indoors, such as supermarkets, infections persisted and NSW “is struggling to return to the previous environment where it had no community transmission.”
Masks should not be worn by young children or anyone who has trouble breathing or who is unable to remove the mask themselves without assistance.
NEWCASTLE OUTBREAK GROWS
Health authorities are desperately trying to find the source of a growing family cluster of coronavirus in Newcastle, after a third case was recorded overnight.
The male teenager is a household contact of two other cases confirmed during the last two days. One is a teenager and the other is a man in his 20s.
Hunter New England Health District said it was still working to determine how the cluster started.
“The source of infection of the Newcastle family cluster is still unknown, so it is vital people in the community continue to present for testing if experiencing symptoms to limit the spread of the virus,” it said in a statement.
The health district has asked anyone who attended St Francis Xavier’s College in Hamilton East between Monday and Wednesday to get tested if they show any symptoms, no matter how mild.
“The school has been notified and will be closed for cleaning. Contact tracing is underway,” the department said.
Contact tracing is underway and the health department is working to find, and contact, any people or venues visited by the latest teenager to test positive.
It comes after patrons of three pubs in Newcastle were told to self-isolate immediately after the man in his 20s visited a string of venues while potentially infectious.
According to the Hunter New England Health District, the man visited five pubs and a stadium during the weekend.
The first teenage case is a team member of the Newcastle Jets under 15 representative squad and had played a soccer match against the Stanmore Hawks at Arlington Oval in Dulwich Hill on August 1.
The teenager’s teammates and members of the opposing team are considered close contacts and have been told to isolate for 14 days.
NSW Health said the teenager also caught the Number 26 school bus (Hamilton to Adamstown) to school on August 3, at 8.20am. Anyone on the bus has been urged to monitor symptoms.
TWO NEW VENUES FINED FOR COVID BREACHES
An inner-city bar has copped a $5000 fine for failing to ensure social distancing as the state’s COVID cops crack down on compliance measures designed to keep the economy ticking over.
A Maitland cafe has also been fined for not having any COVID-safe plan in place.
But in encouraging news for stopping the spread of coronavirus, government data has revealed young people are increasingly following COVID-safe guidelines.
Darlo Village Hotel copped the fine on Tuesday over an incident on August 1 when patrons were found seated at tables not 1.5m apart.
Soul Origin cafe in Green Hills, Maitland has also been fined $5000 after inspectors visited on Monday and found no COVID signage and customer tables and chairs too close together.
The manager told inspectors the business has “nothing in place”.
There have now been 17 venues fined for a lack of COVID-19 compliance.
“Business must do their bit in this battle to keep the community COVID-safe and we have empowered more inspectors to ensure this is the case,” Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello told The Daily Telegraph.
“This is about keeping people healthy and keeping businesses open.”
With the Premier and health authorities urging NSW residents to stay on high alert to stop the virus spreading, the government has found 18 to 34-year-olds are being more careful than they were previously.
Half of young people are now complying with guidelines, up from 40 per cent, a weekly government community survey has found.
The improvement has been driven by an increasing concern about family members catching the virus. More than 75 per cent of young people are concerned about their loved ones’ health, up from 60 per cent.
“It’s encouraging to see an improvement in compliance in this cohort,” Mr Dominello said.
“Anecdotally this could be due to an improvement in compliance of the venues they like to visit like pubs, cafes and restaurants — they can see how important it is.”
*A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Darlo Bar has been fined rather than Darlo Village Hotel
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