Australian Open players and officals freed from hotel quarantine
After a controversial two weeks in hotel quarantine, Australian Open tennis players and officials are being set free.
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Australian Open tennis players are being released from quarantine on Thursday afternoon after spending two weeks confined to hotel rooms.
A number of players and officials were released from quarantine and entered awaiting cabs from View Melbourne near Albert Park at 6:30pm.
30-year-old Slovak player Norbert Gombos said he was “happy” and “relieved” to leave hotel quarantine.
Mr Gombos said he felt ready to take on the Australian Open.
According to police almost 20 players and officials will be released between 9 and 10pm.
ADF support needed to expand Victoria’s hotel quarantine program
Victoria’s hotel quarantine program will not be expanded once it reaches capacity in February unless the state is given ADF support, says the state’s Police Minister.
Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville has confirmed “there are limits on how many people we can take” with the program unable to be run using private security following the state’s second-wave quarantine bungle and judicial inquiry last year.
Currently, the program has capacity for 1,100 returned travellers, but this will be increased to 2,000 in February.
Ms Neville said this was unlikely to change further unless they receive Commonwealth assistance.
“It’s not an endless program and we can’t see it as that – an endless program to take anyone and everyone back whenever they want,” she said.
“We will do this systematically, we’ll do this safely and public health is at the centre of that.
“I think everyone agrees that in Victoria we are not using private security … I don’t think anyone wants to walk away from the recommendations of inquiry so we will continue to use Victoria police members.”
Ms Neville said a request for more ADF had been made from the Commonwealth but pointed out a similar request “was rejected last time”.
SYDNEY ON TRACK FOR ‘GREEN ZONE’ CHANGE
Restrictions on Sydney areas are on track to be downgraded with the “vast majority” of the city to turn green soon, according to Daniel Andrews.
It comes as Victoria recorded its 22nd day without a locally transmitted coronavirus case, while there are three cases in hotel quarantine.
The Victorian Premier flagged changes to New South Wales restrictions from Friday, saying the “vast majority” of Sydney would be made green but warned “there may still be a couple of local government areas … that go to orange from red”.
The good news will mean more Victorians can return home; however, when asked whether the move would see Victoria Police officers redeployed from border checkpoints, Mr Andrews said: “Those are deeply operational matters, and are a matter for the chief of police.
“I’m grateful to each and every sworn member, and unsworn, they’ve done some amazing work this year and we asked a lot of them and working on the border is not easy but it is playing a significant part in keeping us safe and keeping us open.”
COVID’S BIG TOLL ON VICTORIAN HOSPITALS
One in three Victorians who arrived at a public hospital emergency department with an urgent or emergency problem were not treated on time in the past financial year.
A new Productivity Commission report on government services reveals Victorian hospitals lagged behind every state except Tasmania for seeing patients deemed to have emergency issues within the required time frame.
While 40 per cent of Victorian patients were considered to have urgent issues, only 65 per cent of those were seen on time.
There were also 572,736 Victorians who arrived at emergency departments who could have avoided going to hospital and seen a GP instead.
The report, to be released on Thursday, also shows Victorian paramedics responded to a record 972,290 incidents in 2019-20 — more than any other state except Queensland.
Statewide, ambulance crews arrived at 90 per cent of incidents within 18.7 minutes, the second best result of the last decade.
Nine out of 10 incidents in Melbourne saw an ambulance respond within 15.8 minutes, compared to 22.2 minutes in Sydney and 18.3 minutes in Brisbane.
The Productivity Commission report, which focuses on the performance of Australia’s health system, also highlights the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on elective surgery waiting lists.
Hospitals had to cancel category two and three operations at the height of the crisis last year to free up beds for potential COVID-19 patients.
In Victoria, this meant that in the year to June 30, 49.2 per cent of category-two patients waited longer than the required 90 days, up from 22.7 per cent in 2018-19.
Overall, 27.4 per cent of Victorian elective surgery patients waited longer than the required time frame in the last financial year, which was the highest number in the last decade, and up from just 12.2 per cent in the previous year.
The report also shows in the last financial year, 190,471 Victorians aged under 25 needed some form of Medicare-subsidised mental health help from a GP, psychologist or other allied health services — a 50 per cent increase over the last five years.
This included 55,505 high school students — 12.5 per cent of all teenagers — as well as 41,482 primary school students and 4524 Victorian children aged under five.
Amid intense pressure on the mental health system, Victoria increased the number of available psychiatric hospital beds from 152 to 168.
15-MINUTE TEST COULD OPEN UP TRAVEL
A simple 15-minute test could be the key to opening up international travel for Australians.
Travellers would be able to take a test at the airport to check if they are sufficiently immune to COVID-19, under a proposed new technology.
The rapid testing would be collected through finger prick blood samples, with results returned within 15 minutes.
It would determine if travallers were at risk of being infected with coronavirus or infecting others.
According to the companies proposing the system, it could speed up a return to international travel and help people avoid hotel quarantine.
The testing technology was being pitched to the Australian and New Zealand governments and if approved could be rolled out by July.
Read the full story here.
AUSTRALIA EIGHTH IN COVID PERFORMANCE INDEX
New Zealand has been ranked the world’s most effective handler of COVID-19, just beating Vietnam in managing the coronavirus that has infected more than 100 million people.
Australia came in eighth place, trailing Thailand, Cyprus, Rwanda and Iceland.
The research project — by Sydney-based think tank the Lowy Institute — compared the handling of COVID-19 by 98 countries. It is one of the most rigorous studies of the dramatically different health impacts of the pandemic around the world.
— Will Glasgow
MASK RELIEF NOT HAPPENING FOR US
The Andrews government has held firm on its mandatory mask rules for stores and shopping centres, despite NSW on Wednesday easing its restrictions.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced masks would no longer be required in retail and other public places as part of new relaxed coronavirus measures. But mandatory mask use remains enforced for public transport, religious gatherings, salons and for staff facing the public at hospitality venues.
The relaxation of the rules comes after NSW recorded 10 straight days without a new local case of the virus.
When asked if Victoria would follow suit to bring the state in line with other parts of the country, the Andrews government said it had no announcement to make.
Victoria has gone 21 days without a case of coronavirus in the community and there are no longer any active local infections. All other active cases are in hotel quarantine.
A Department of Health and Human Services spokesman said masks were still strongly recommended.
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