Covid-19 updates: NSW has 1029 cases, Scott Morrison says kids will get vaccines soon as 18m get jabs
NSW has announced new freedoms for vaccinated people as it recorded its worst day with 1029 cases. It comes as Scott Morrison revealed more about getting jabs to kids.
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NSW recorded a new daily high of 1029 Covid cases and three deaths on Thursday.
Ninety-one were in isolation throughout their infectious period and 33 were in isolation for part of their infectious period.
Sixty-one cases were infectious in the community, and the isolation status of 844 cases remains under investigation.
One of the three deaths was a man aged in his 30s.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said no one is coming out of lockdown in NSW this weekend.
The regional lockdown has been extended for another couple of weeks to Friday September 10.
She also said that “additional freedoms” will be given to those who are vaccinated from next month.
From 12.01am, Monday, September 13:
· For those who live outside the LGAs of concern, outdoor gatherings of up to five people (including children, all adults must be vaccinated) will be allowed in a person’s LGA or within 5km of home.
· For those who live in the LGAs of concern households with all adults vaccinated will be able to gather outdoors for recreation (including picnics) within the existing rules (for one hour only, outside curfew hours and within 5km of home). This is in addition to the one hour allowed for exercise.
Ms Berejiklian then called on the community and industry to prepare for opening up more widely when NSW hits 70 per cent double dose vaccination of the eligible population.
She said this could be as soon as the middle of October.
“That is when there will be more freedoms,” she said.
NSW deputy premier John Barilaro said regional NSW was “sitting on a knife’s edge” and they needed to keep the lockdown on to keep people safe as more get vaccinated.
“It is a tinder box waiting to explode,” he said.
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said they have 698 people admitted to hospital and 116 people in intensive care, 43 who require ventilation. The age range is from their 20s through to their 70s.
“So, again, Covid can impact in a very serious way on all age groups, and there is no room for complacency,” she said.
“The vast majority of people - 102 of the 116 people in ICU - are not vaccinated. So, again, please do not delay.
“Access vaccines now. Vaccines are available through pharmacies, GPs, through the booking system, so go online. Please get vaccinated.”
PM: JABS FOR KIDS COMING ‘VERY SOON’
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said 18 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have now been administered in Australia with 1.9 million in the past week alone.
Fifty-five per cent have had their first dose. He described it as “the safe plan” to get Australia out of the pandemic.
He also said “today has been another day of hope” as the final advice from ATAGI will be coming “very, very soon” on vaccinating 12 to 15 year olds.
It comes as more than two-thirds of Australians want lockdowns to end as soon as possible and don’t believe returning to zero Covid-19 cases is achievable.
A new YouGov study revealed most think lockdowns should be lifted after 80 per cent of the population is vaccinated, according to The Australian.
The NSW lockdown has sparked a marked shift in public attitudes towards Covid-19 restrictions, vaccination and government control, according to the poll taken for the Centre for independent Studies think tank.
The YouGov survey found a total of 71 per cent believed Covid-19 restrictions and lockdowns should be raised either as soon as possible or after the national cabinet’s agreed vaccine thresholds were reached, The Australian reports.
Less than a quarter wanted some restrictions to continue until complete elimination of Covid-19 (13 per cent) or even to continue after the pandemic (13 per cent).
VICTORA HAS 80 NEW CASES
Victoria has recorded 80 new locally acquired Covid-19 cases on Thursday, the highest daily figure of the latest outbreak.
The state’s health department announced the new local cases about 9am, which included another 13 mystery infections.
The department said 67 of the 80 new cases could be linked to existing outbreaks.
But alarmingly, only 39 cases - less than half - were in isolation throughout their infectious period, meaning 41 were out in the community.
Victoria’s sixth Covid lockdown is due to end in a week with a call on whether it will be extended drawing ever closer.
Covid-19 commander Jeroen Weimar said it was still possible for contact tracers to get a ring around the outbreak by September 2 but another day over 50 new cases comes as a blow to that hope.
More than 50 new local cases has been recorded on six of the past seven days.
“If we continue to work together, we have pulled six, seven outbreaks now in the last eight months, so collectively as a Victorian community we can absolutely (get a ring around the outbreak),” Mr Weimar said.
It comes as 150,000 bookings to get the Covid vaccine were made on Wednesday at the state government’s mass hubs after the Pfizer jab was finally opened up to Victorians aged 16 to 39.
There are now more than 800 exposure sites in multiple suburbs across metropolitan Melbourne and more than 17,400 people remain in isolation across the state.
There are now 600 active cases across the state, up from 538 on Wednesday.
Covid-19 commander Jeroen Weimar said 114 of the 538 active cases were aged 9 and under, 101 were aged between 10 and 19 years old, and 89 were aged in their 20s.
No new cases were recorded in hotel quarantine on Thursday.
48,000 LIVES SAVED BY TRAVEL BANS
Travel bans imposed at the beginning of 2020 prevented 48,000 Covid cases coming to Australia, new modelling by the CSIRO shows.
The modelling shows the February 1 travel ban from China, which was the first to be implemented, was the most effective at stopping the virus, with 94.5 per cent efficacy.
The March 1 ban on travellers from Iran was much less effective, with a 32 per cent success rate, but the South Korea travel ban implemented on March 5 was almost as successful as the China ban, with 94 per cent efficacy.
The ban on travellers from Italy implemented on March 11 after it became the first country in Europe seriously impacted by Covid-19 was 77 per cent effective, according to the CSIRO model.
“Our modelling shows that without travel restrictions, over 48,000 Covid-19 cases were likely to have been imported to Australia from January to May 2020,” lead researcher Dr Jess Liebig said.
“However all of Australia’s travel bans successfully lowered imported cases into Australia by 88 per cent, to an estimated 6000 cases over the studied period.”
The research team said their model provided a flexible framework that could be used in determining border openings and international travel restrictions in future.
BARNABY JOYCE ATTACKS QLD PREMIER
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has slammed Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk after she enforced a hard border between NSW and Queensland to stop the spread of Covid-19.
Ms Palaszczuk said Brisbane’s 22 quarantine hotels were all full and could no longer accommodate the large volume of people travelling from NSW, Victoria and the ACT.
The Premier subsequently banned arrivals from those areas for two weeks on Wednesday, sending police and army personnel to patrol the NSW-Queensland border.
Mr Joyce blasted Ms Palaszczuk for the move, stating she was “on the wrong side of history” for pursuing a border lockdown policy that many Australians no longer supported.
“We had the idiot position at one stage … where a person‘s front gate was in Queensland, the house was in NSW and they had to get a permit to drive out or drive in,” Mr Joyce told Sky News Australia host Chris Kenny.
“This is the sort of lunacy that’s happening,” he said.
The Deputy PM accused Ms Palaszczuk of being tone deaf to Australians’ feelings about the management of Covid-19, accusing her of “not reading the tea leaves”.
“People have moved on ... what people were highly supportive of and right behind maybe some months ago, now they just want their lives back,” Mr Joyce said.
“The only job you have now is to work to a process of giving Australia back the liberties and freedoms that all the people who voted for you were born with.”
But Ms Palaszczuk was firm in her decision, insisting her state “simply does not have any room at the moment”.
“Queensland is being loved to death,” she said as the border crackdown came into force on Wednesday.
But Mr Joyce told Sky News that Ms Palaszczuk was cheering for a losing team in taking such a hard-line stance.
“If you're banging on about keeping people locked up in their house, mothers locked up in their houses, if you’re being part of that process, no matter what side of the border it affects, you’re on the wrong side of history,” he said.
“Egotistical plays for power that might have worked maybe half a year ago, but by gosh they ain't working now.”
The Queensland border shutdown is set to last until September 8.
Essential workers are permitted to cross the NSW-Queensland border only if they have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
WOMAN, 30, DIES IN NSW
Ianeta Isaako, a 30-year-old mother of three, on Monday became the youngest woman in NSW to die with the virus.
Friends and family have written on social media with tributes to Mrs Isaako and well wishes to her husband Sako, who is also fighting Covid-19.
“I know there is nothing in this world matters anymore, when death takes the most beautiful part of your heart. I want you to think of what she would've wanted you to do,” one person wrote.
“My heart is broken,” said another.
Health officials on Tuesday afternoon confirmed Mrs Isaako’s death, the 75th since NSW’s latest outbreak began on June 16.
“NSW Health extends its deepest sympathies to her loved ones,” the department said.
“This tragic death is being investigated by the Western Sydney Local Health District.”
Her death has been referred to the coroner.
Earlier on Tuesday, NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said authorities were aware of the media reports but were unable to determine the cause of her death.
It is not yet known if the woman had any underlying health conditions or whether or not she was vaccinated against Covid-19.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian praised Blacktown, the local government area the woman lived in, for dramatically ramping up its vaccine rollout.
“We've seen Blacktown go from one of the lowest rates of vaccination to the highest in the state. Thank you to the people from Blacktown for coming forward and getting the jab,”.
Six million people have now received their first vaccine dose in NSW, which recorded 753 new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday.
PM’S CHRISTMAS PLAN
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says there is no reason families can’t be reunited for Christmas, but only if the states stick to the agreed national vaccination plan.
Australia’s road map to a Covid normal life has been under threat in recent days as Western Australia and Queensland indicated they want to keep their borders closed to stop the virus creeping in from NSW.
But Mr Morrison on Tuesday urged state premiers not to waiver from the national plan to ease restrictions when vaccination rates hit 70 and 80 per cent.
“Let me be clear, there is nothing more powerful to deal with Covid-19 than the vaccine,” he told Sunrise.
“There is no government, no individual, no set of border protections that is more powerful than the vaccine.
“Once the vaccine is there at 70 and 80 per cent, you do more harm than good to your people by locking them down and locking them up and keeping them in the cave.”
Mr Morrison said if the plan was followed then there was “no reason” why Australians couldn’t be reunited for Christmas.
“I believe we will be able to be in that position if we had those marks of 70 per cent and 80 per cent because there is no reason why you shouldn't be,” he said.
The prime minister has sought to ramp up the pressure on the states to fall into line and to prepare Australians for more cases and deaths as restrictions ease.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Monday said “the goalposts have changed” since she agreed to the plan.
The plan, Ms Palaszczuk argued, was modelled on an initial outbreak of 30 cases, noting there are now “thousands” of cases across Australia.
“This is a book that hasn’t been written, folks. This is uncharted territory,” she said.
But late Monday evening, the Doherty Institute – which mapped Australia’s way out of the pandemic – said reopening the country was still safe despite higher case numbers.
“There is light at the end of the tunnel – once we achieve 70 per cent -80 per cent vaccination we will see less transmission of Covid-19 and fewer people with severe illness, and therefore fewer hospitalisations and deaths,” a statement read.
“Covid-19 won’t go away but it will be easier to control in the future.”
“This level of vaccination will make it easier to live with the virus, as we do with other viruses such as the flu.
“However, it won’t be possible to maintain a situation where there are no cases at all.”
The Doherty Institute estimated at phase B – or 70 per cent – Australia could see 385,983 symptomatic cases of Covid-19 and 1457 deaths over six months.
Testing and tracing cases as well as isolating and quarantining those who test positive, will assist in keeping the numbers down.
Mr Morrison said the restrictions in this phase is just “common sense”.
“There is not zero restrictions, there are common sense baseline level restrictions and I wouldn't even call them restrictions, it’s just common sense behaviour,” he said.
“Washing your hands and maintaining good hygiene and doing all that sort of common sense stuff.”
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