As it happened: Victoria lockdown will lift from midnight as state records zero COVID-19 cases; AstraZeneca boss says vaccine safe for over-65s

Follow Thursday’s live coverage here: Victoria emerges from hard lockdown as Australian Open welcomes back crowds

That brings us to the end of another big day of coronavirus coverage. A quick reminder of what made news today:

• To the great relief of Victorians, Premier Daniel Andrews announced that the state’s five-day

  lockdown ends at midnight toight. While schools and businesses will reopen, some restrictions on public and private gatherings will remain.

• Greater Melbourne will also no longer be considered a national COVID-19 hotspot from midnight tonight, with most states and territories moving to ease travel restrictions on Victorians.
• The Australian Open will return to approximately 50 per cent capacity from Thursday, with nearly 7,500 people allowed into Melbourne Park per session going forward.
• Victoria has recorded no new local COVID-19 cases for the first time since February 9. NSW recorded no new local cases for the 31st day in a row and Queensland recorded its 41st straight day of zero cases.
• NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has confirmed that from Monday, roughly 35,000 frontline workers will be vaccinated in NSW over the next three weeks.
• A returned traveller blamed for spreading coronavirus through the Holiday Inn quarantine hotel by using a nebuliser is pushing for an independent review of his case because he does not trust the state government to investigate itself.

  It comes as debate rages among scientists over whether a nebuliser really was the source of the outbreak, as the state government has suggested.

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  That’s all from us tonight. Take care and good night.

With Victoria to emerge from lockdown in just over four hours time, the travel rules for Victorians wanting to go interstate have changed.

Each state and territory is handling restrictions in a different way, so here’s a round up of the current state of play:

• SA: From midnight tonight, regional Victorians are free to enter South Australia as they please, but those from metropolitan Melbourne are still barred from entry until next Tuesday February 25 (14 days after the last public exposure).
• NSW: Once the lockdown lifts, those from Victorian travelling into New South Wales will only need to fill out a COVID declaration form.
• QLD: As it stands, Melburnians are still barred from entering Queensland without undergoing 14 days of quarantine. Those from outside metropolitan Melbourne can travel to Queensland but need to need to apply for a border pass for entry. Queensland plans to lift its border restrictions for Greater Melbourne next Saturday (February 27).
• WA: Travellers from Victoria will be allowed to come to Western Australia from Saturday subject to undergoing home quarantine and getting tested for COVID-19 under relaxed border conditions.
• TAS: Victorians will be able to travel to Tasmania again from 12:01am on Saturday, as long as there are no new COVID-19 cases in Victoria that are considered a public health risk. As long as they haven’t visited an exposure site in Melbourne in the past 14 days, Victorians won’t need to quarantine in Tasmania.

• ACT: From midnight tonight, the ACT is only enforcing travel restrictions on Victorians who have attended specific exposure sites listed by Victorian health authorities.
• NT: The Northern Territory government has already revoked the hotspot declaration of Greater Melbourne earlier this evening. That means anyone currently in quarantine in the NT from Greater Melbourne will be released and no new arrivals from Melbourne will be required to quarantine.

A resident from an aged care facility in Melbourne’s north is undergoing further testing after he returned a weak-positive COVID-19 test in hospital, the Department of Health has revealed.

The man, who lives at Twin Parks aged care facility in Reservoir, was diagnosed with COVID-19 in August last year. His latest test result is thought to be an instance of viral shedding rather than a new infection.

“He tested negative twice before a third test returned a weak positive,” a statement from the Department said.

“This case has not been added to the numbers as it is still under investigation.”

The man has no links to the Holiday Inn cluster, and was being retested today while his case is reviewed by an expert panel.

“Out of an abundance of caution while awaiting the repeat test, the aged care facility has been kept safe and all staff and residents were tested yesterday evening,” the statement continued.

Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison has urged governments to accept a higher risk threshold of COVID-19 and learn to live with the virus as the travel industry nervously eyes the end of the JobKeeper wage subsidy in March.

Travel and tourism businesses have been heavily affected during the pandemic, and their recovery hinges on repairing fragile consumer confidence that has been shattered due to repeated state border closures at short notice.

Tourism Australia’s Phillipa Harrison.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Ms Harrison said governments must relax their strategy to adopt a higher risk tolerance of COVID.

“Somewhere along the way it went to eradication and that was never the intention,” she told a travel industry symposium held by Nine, the publisher of this website, at the Sydney Opera House on Wednesday.

“I think we have a job to do to move public opinion from being that we must live in a COVID-zero environment to living in a COVID-normal environment where we live with this thing.

“Politicians are reflective of their constituents. They are listening to their medical advisors, but they’re also listening to public opinion.

“If constituents are happy living with a higher level of risk, then I think there would be more imprimatur for the states and for the federal government to be a little bit less reactive.”

Ms Harrison said vaccines would be important but they shouldn’t be viewed through the prism of eradication.

“The vaccines will only work ... [and] we will only open up if we accept that there will be COVID in this community,” she said.

Qantas chief marketing officer Jo Boundy said there must be “a national consistent approach to borders” because the constantly changing restrictions are creating too much uncertainty.

“People actually aren’t so worried about the health and safety of travelling any more. It’s about flexibility and disruption,” she said.

Read the full story here.

The Australian Open will return to approximately 50 per cent capacity from Thursday, with nearly 7,500 people allowed into Melbourne Park per session going forward.

Patrons will only be able to buy tickets for centre court, and there will be no more restricting people to “zones” across Melbourne Park.

Tickets are already back on sale.

“Masks required where physical distancing isn’t possible,” Tennis Australia said on Wednesday.

A quick reminder of the numbers involved in containing the Holiday Inn outbreak in Melbourne, courtesy of the Department of Health:

• There are about 3400 people in isolation right now in Victoria for two weeks.
• There are 59 household and primary close contacts linked to households and social groups.
• There are now more than 40 public and private exposure sites.
• There are now 1312 primary close contacts linked to exposure sites.

• All 10 primary close contacts identified at Glenroy Central Kindergarten have now tested negative.
• 83 of the 87 primary close contacts at the Goodstart Early Learning centre in Glenroy have also tested negative, with the remaining five results expected by end of day.
• 103 of the 130 primary contacts found linked to two mental health facilities in the northern suburbs have since tested negative, with the rest expected soon.
• 279 of the 340 primary close contacts connected to swimming pools at Oak Park and Pascoe Vale have also tested negative.
• Most of the 138 primary close contacts linked to the Queen Victoria Market have been tested with results expected by end of day.

Remember, all those who are considered a primary close contact are required to stay in isolation for 14 days, regardless of their initial test result.

A returned traveller blamed for spreading coronavirus through the Holiday Inn quarantine hotel by using a nebuliser is pushing for an independent review of his case because he does not trust the state government to investigate itself.

It comes as debate rages among scientists over whether a nebuliser really was the source of the outbreak, as the state government has suggested.

Victoria’s latest outbreak is centred on the Holiday Inn at Melbourne Airport.Credit: Penny Stephens

The man, who has chronic asthma, previously told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald he was twice given permission by Victorian health authorities to use the medical device, which turns liquid medications into a fine mist that can be inhaled, while in quarantine.

This is despite nebulisers being banned for use in most Victorian hospitals, except in specially designed negative pressure rooms, after they were suspected to have fuelled serious outbreaks during the state’s second wave of coronavirus infections.

“I don’t trust the state level of government any more. They’ve really killed my trust in this system,” said the father of one, who asked for his name not to be published to protect his family’s identity.

“I was getting misinformation left, right and centre ever since we arrived at the first hotel.”

The 38-year-old, who has been discharged from hospital and is now back in hotel quarantine with his family, revealed on Wednesday he had contacted the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care and requested an independent review.

He said his request for an independent investigation was in response to a state government audit of the Holiday Inn incident, which found there was no record of him declaring the device.

The man said he was never asked for his account of events prior to the audit being conducted. He said he was told on Tuesday, after being contacted by the Health Department, that there were three different files for his case.

The man said he had also contacted the office of federal Health Minister Greg Hunt, who on Tuesday also called for an independent investigation of the matter.

Read the full story here.

Japan kicks off vaccination amid heightened Olympic fears

Japan launched its COVID-19 inoculation drive on Wednesday, administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to Tokyo hospital workers, as Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga attempts to defy the odds and host the Olympics this northern summer.

Separately, the governor of Japan’s Shimane prefecture said on Wednesday the Olympics torch relay should be reconsidered, adding he was against the Games being held and worried about coronavirus infections.

UK could give two doses of vaccine to all adults by Sept

Britain could give two doses of COVID-19 vaccine to all adults by August or September, helped by its portfolio approach of buying from several different producers, the interim head of the country’s vaccine taskforce told Sky News on Tuesday.

The country has vaccinated 15.6 million people with a first dose and 546,165 with a second, the fastest rollout per capita of any large country so far.

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To keep across the global rollout of the vaccine, check out our new COVID-19 vaccine data tracker, launched today.

The infrastructure company behind the Howard Springs quarantine facility near Darwin has pitched a plan to build Victorian government’s new quarantine village outside Melbourne in as little as four months, at a cost of up to $170 million.

A senior executive at US construction giant AECOM, Paul Clark, said a 300-bed facility could be built at Avalon or Melbourne airports for as little as $45 million to $60 million. It could be completed within four to six months, or much sooner under a streamlined building process, he said.

The airports are currently seen as the most likely sites for the quarantine village.

AECOM built the Howard Springs facility as mining accommodation in 2012 and says it could do similar in Victoria.Credit: Louise Radcliffe-Smith

A Victorian camp similar in size to the 850-unit Howard Springs facility would cost between $127.5 million and $170 million, although Mr Clark said cost efficiencies could reduce that price.

Premier Daniel Andrews said on Tuesday that his government wanted to construct a cabin-style accommodation hub to either replace or supplement the existing hotel quarantine scheme following recent leaks of COVID-19 out of Melbourne’s hotels.

Victorian officials will travel to Howard Springs to inspect the motel-style setup, built by AECOM in 2012 as mining accommodation at a cost of about $400 million, but the Premier has refused to speculate on how much a custom-built site in Victoria would cost or how long it would take to be up and running.

Mr Clark, whose company has built temporary lodgings in immigration centres for the federal government, estimated every quarantine accommodation unit would cost between $150,000 and $200,000.

Read the full story here.

Australia has a “strong supply” of the AstraZeneca vaccine, according to Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly.

AstraZeneca’s manufacturing partner in Australia, CSL, will produce about 1 million doses a week from the start of March.

Those vaccines will be distributed to GPs, pharmacies and vaccination clinics around the country to immunise most of the population.

While there are different strains of the virus now circulating widely around the globe, Professor Kelly said there was no information so far to show that the AstraZeneca vaccine was less effective at preventing serious illness in those cases.

“What we need to do is to get those vaccines out as soon as possible, either the AstraZeneca or the Pfizer vaccine, because they are both very strongly effective at saving lives, and that is the number-one perspective at the moment,” he said.

Professor Kelly said it would be great to see many people vaccinated before winter.

“As many people as possible getting this jab especially before winter would be a strong thing,” he said.

First up in phase 1A are quarantine and border workers, front-line healthcare workers and aged care and disability staff and residents.

“We definitely want them to be vaccinated as soon as possible,” Professor Kelly said.

“The more people that do get vaccinated, the quicker we can get back to some sort of normal life.”

Professor Kelly said the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines would save lives, and that was being demonstrated in Britain.

“Both of them are working very well, they are both safe, and they are definitely saving lives,” he said. “We are starting to see a very large and rapid drop in hospitalisations and death in the UK.”

“I would say to anyone, all Australians, when your turn comes consider getting the vaccination and the more people that are vaccinated – particularly those most vulnerable groups that might otherwise get severe infection – that is going to be a great benefit.”