Coronavirus Australia live news: Two new cases in Melbourne Holiday Inn cluster; SA shuts border
The number of cases linked to the Holiday Inn quarantine hotel has risen to eight; SA has closed its border to Melbourne.
- Two new cases in Melbourne cluster
- SA announces snap border closure
- Nebuliser link to Victorian cases
- NSW returns to 2sqm rule; 0 cases
- Melbourne quarantine hotel evacuated
Welcome to The Australian’s rolling coverage of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Two more cases have emerged from Melbourne’s Holiday Inn cluster, taking the total to eight. SA has closed its border to Melbourne from midnight. Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton says a medical device could be behind a hotel quarantine cluster in Melbourne. As Daniel Andrews shrinks from Victoria’s quarantine pledge to raise the cap on overseas arrivals, Gladys Berejiklian backs up NSW’s record with data.
Earlier, Gladys Berejiklian said she wouldn’t lower herself to respond to Daniel Andrews after the Victorian Premier said his state would take fewer returning travellers because its hotel quarantine system had “higher standards”.
Ellie Dudley 10.55pm: Australian in WHO team doubts Chinese theory
An Australian scientist in the WHO team that investigated the origins of COVID-19 says he believes the virus began in China and had been circulating as early as mid-November 2019.
Chinese scientists in the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday, when presenting the findings of the joint investigation, that the disease might have been brought into China on “cold chain” food parcels.
Professor Dominic Dwyer, a microbiologist and infectious diseases expert with NSW Health Pathology, disagreed on Wednesday night.
“I think it started in China, I think the evidence for it starting elsewhere in the world is actually very limited,” Professor Dwyer told 9News from hotel quarantine in Sydney.
“There is some evidence but it’s not really very good.
“I think it’s most likely that it came from a bat. We know that other viruses that are closely related to (COVID-19) are present in bats.
“We know that other viruses like MERS and SARS back in 2003 also came from bats. Now these bats don’t respect borders of course so they are present not just in China but in other parts on South East Asia and indeed elsewhere around the world.”
The explosion of COVID-19 in the Huanan market in Wuhan was really an amplifying event, Professor Dwyer said.
“The virus had probably circulating some good few weeks beforehand amongst people in the community.”
In the WHO presentation on Tuesday, however, the group said they were “unsure” of the market’s role in the initial outbreak.
Professor Dwyer also said her was surprised by the amount of politics involved in the investigation, but felt no hostility between China and Australia despite the Morrison government very publicly calling for the investigation to occur.
“It’s one thing discussing the science and all of us are used to doing that, it’s another thing, talking about the politics around this and see responses change around the politics,” he said.
“The Chinese were very hospitable hosts, everyone worked together very well, it was a joint mission after all.”
“There were some clear differences of opinion and there were some quite firm and heated exchanges over things but in general everyone was trying to do the right thing and certainly WHO got more data than they’ve ever had before, and that’s some real progress.”
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Rachel Baxendale 10.35pm: New alert for Melbourne shopping centre
Victoria’s health department has issued a late-night alert on Wednesday night, advising anyone who attended Sunbury Square Shopping Centre in Melbourne’s outer northwest on Friday, February 5, between 3.40pm and 4.30pm to urgently seek testing and isolate until they receive a negative result.
DH is taking a precautionary approach and strongly encouraging anyone who attended Sunbury Square Shopping Centre on Friday 5 February between 3:40pm and 4:30pm to urgently seek testing and isolate until they receive a negative result.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) February 10, 2021
(1/2) pic.twitter.com/dTRxwPVWsz
The shopping centre is home so some of the seven venues visited between Friday and Sunday by a Holiday Inn quarantine beverage attendant who developed coronavirus symptoms on Saturday and tested positive on Tuesday.
It was unclear whether another person who has tested positive for the virus attended the shopping centre.
“Individuals who attended the shopping centre outside of this timeframe are not considered at risk, but should monitor for symptoms and immediately present for testing if they become unwell,” the department tweeted.
Individuals who attended the shopping centre outside of this timeframe are not considered at risk, but should monitor for symptoms and immediately present for testing if they become unwell. For the latest list of testing sites, visit: https://t.co/ogHDjd53AD
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) February 10, 2021
(2/2)
READ MORE: Hotel cluster focus falls on vapour machine
Ellie Dudley 10.15pm: Elton, Caine in vaccine ad
Sir Elton John and Sir Michael Caine have starred in an advertisement for the British National Health Service encouraging Britons to get vaccinated.
The jovial advertisement was created by the NHS in conjunction with the Imperial College London to highlight the “necessary safety and quality standards” the vaccines have met.
The more people in society that get vaccinated, the more chance there is of eradicating the national COVID pandemic,” Sir Elton said in the advertisement.
He then proceeds to pretend to get the vaccine from a nurse.
“Hello. My name is Michael Caine. I’ve just had a vaccine for COVID. It didn’t hurt. Not many people know that,” Sir Michael Caine said to close off the 90-second clip.
Lights, camera, vaccine! 🎬
— NHS England and NHS Improvement (@NHSEngland) February 10, 2021
Thanks @eltonofficial and @themichaelcaine for encouraging people to get the #COVIDVaccine. (Sorry it didn't quite work out, Elton.) 😬 pic.twitter.com/m0BIzKIu1b
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Ellie Dudley 9.30pm: EU push to speed vaccine production
Europe must accelerate the manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines to keep up with emerging variants, European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen says.
“We underestimated the difficulty related to mass production. Normally, it takes five to 10 years to produce a new vaccine. We did it in 10 months. This is a huge scientific success, and we should be rightly proud — but in a way, science has outstripped industry,” she told the European Parliament on Wednesday.
While Ms von der Leyen said her Commission had made missteps in procuring vaccines on behalf of all EU countries, she continued to defend the overall strategy.
“We were late to authorise. We were too optimistic when it came to massive production. And perhaps we were too confident that what we ordered would actually be delivered on time,” she said.
But she said if they had not taken the approach they did, Europe’s wealthiest countries would have acquired a disproportionate amount of vaccines and that “would have been, I think, the end of our community,” she said.
Ms Von der Leyen said the Commission will now work to have more data shared across clinics in EU countries, improve regulations to allow the European Medicines Agency to approve vaccines quicker, and clear manufacturing problems halting vaccine production.
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Charlie Peel 9.10pm: Middle ground ‘a must for border closures’
Queensland tourism industry figurehead Daniel Gschwind says states need to find a middle ground on border closures and reacting to new COVID-19 clusters after sudden lockdowns cost the Queensland industry up to $20bn last year.
He said state governments needed to agree on a way forward because the status quo, where business and consumer confidence was smashed by sudden restrictions and border closures, was destroying the industry.
Speaking at a Queensland Fortunes Institute forum, the Queensland Tourism Industry Council head said the way the pandemic was affecting the sector differed greatly based on region and type of business and any substitute to JobKeeper would need to be tailored.
Ellie Dudley 8.30pm: UK defends jail time for travellers
British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has defended the government’s threat of a 10-year jail sentence for travellers who lie about where they have come from.
Britain introduced an Australian-style hotel quarantine system this week for people travelling from 33 red-listed countries to help curb the spread of more infectious variants.
Connecting flights for some of those countries will still come into Britain but those who conceal where they have travelled from could face a decade of imprisonment.
Mr Shapps told BBC Breakfast: “It’s up to 10 years, it’s a tariff, it’s not necessarily how long somebody would go to prison for.”
“I do think it is serious if people put others in danger by deliberately misleading and saying that you weren’t in Brazil or South Africa, or one of the red list countries.
“What we’re talking about now are the mutations, the variants, and that is a different matter, because we don’t want to be in a situation where we later on discover that there’s a problem with vaccines.”
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Paul Garvey 7.45pm: Second job ban for hotel workers
Workers in West Australian quarantine hotels will be banned from having second jobs from Monday, as the government continues to change its systems in light of the state’s recent snap coronavirus lockdown.
WA Premier Mark McGowan announced on Wednesday that the government had struck an agreement with the four companies currently providing security services to Perth’s nine quarantine hotels. Those workers will now receive a 40 per cent pay rise as part of the deal.
The issue of second jobs for quarantine workers came to the fore after it emerged the security guard who contracted the highly contagious UK strain of the virus had been moonlighting as a rideshare driver. While the man had not worked any rideshare shifts while contagious, Mr McGowan said the lack of restrictions had caused community concern.
Victoria barred hotel security staff from having second jobs last year following a review into the failure of its quarantine systems.
Finn McHugh 7pm: Attorney-General attacks Labor’s IR plans
COVID-ravaged businesses face an “extinction level event” if Labor passes its industrial relations proposal, the Attorney-General claims.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese will unveil his vision for the Australian workplace on Wednesday evening, warning Scott Morrison he faces a “heavyweight title fight” over worker rights at the next election.
His pitch centres on plans to develop portable annual, sick, and long-service leave to insecure workers, and limit fixed-term contracts to two years.
But Attorney-General Christian Porter claimed the suite of proposals would allow 3.5 million casuals to “double dip” on entitlements, slugging businesses with an extra $20bn in taxes every year.
Mr Porter said Labor’s plan would enshrine a “bizarre” system in which casual workers were entitled to more benefits than a permanent worker.
But Labor industrial relations spokesman Tony Burke dismissed the appearance “one of the strangest things I’ve even seen”.
He insisted Labor had simply proposed to work with states and territories to expand portable leave, which already existed in numerous industries.
The government brought its own IR omnibus bill to parliament in December, including a bid to suspend the Better Off Overall Test (BOOT) in some circumstances.
Labor has staunchly opposed the change, which the government argued was necessary to unclog an enterprise bargaining system which had become cumbersome.
— NCA NewsWire
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Agencies 6.40pm: World’s second-oldest person recovers from Covid
A 116-year-old French nun who is believed to be the world’s second-oldest person has survived COVID-19 and is looking forward to celebrating her birthday on Thursday.
Sister Andre tested positive to the virus in January but recovered three weeks later, French media reports.
WATCH: 116-year-old French nun, believed to be the second-oldest person in the world, speaks out after beating Covid-19. pic.twitter.com/617unY2eKT
— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 10, 2021
Lilly Vitorovich 6.30pm: Troubled Australian Open fizzles with TV fans
Nine Network’s coverage of the Australian Open is struggling to attract big TV audience numbers. Read more here
Rachel Baxendale 6.10pm: Vic Health adds venues to its at-risk list
The latest former hotel quarantine resident of Melbourne Airport’s Holiday Inn to test positive for coronavirus has visited venues in Melbourne’s southeast.
Update: new exposure sites.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) February 10, 2021
Initial exposure sites and times include:
Tuesday 9 February
- Commonwealth Bank, Glen Waverley: 1.30pm - 2.45pm
- HSBC Bank, Glen Waverley: 2.15pm - 3.30pm pic.twitter.com/IiKclyd1fd
Victoria’s Department of Health tweeted late on Wednesday that the positive case had visited the Commonwealth Bank in Glen Waverley between 1:30 and 2:45pm on Tuesday, and the HSBC Bank in the same suburb between 2:15pm and 3:30pm.
Exposure sites listed for other people linked to the Holiday Inn cluster so far have been in Melbourne’s west and northwest.
Finn McHugh 5.50pm: Long wait until the world is vaccinated
The world will not be fully vaccinated from COVID-19 for six years, a timeline that could have serious consequences for Australia, a leading expert has warned.
Infectious diseases expert Sanjaya Senanayake made the claim to the National Press Club on Wednesday, urging the federal government to assist foreign vaccine rollouts once Australia is adequately covered.
With vaccine rollouts under way in just 70 countries, Dr Senanayake said worldwide protection would take a lot longer than widely thought.
“At the current rate of vaccination, it is estimated we won’t reach global coverage of 75 per cent with vaccines for about six years. Not one or two years but six years,” he warned.
Dr Senanayake warned that across 70 of the world’s poorest nations, just 10 per cent of people would be immunised by the end of the year.
The federal government expects Australia’s rollout to be complete by October this year, with 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to be produced in Melbourne.
But Dr Senanayake warned Australia would not reap the full benefits of its rollout unless it bolstered immunisation in foreign countries.
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Olivia Caisley 5.20pm: Vaccinate 95pc to fight mutant strains
Up to 95 per cent of Australians need to be vaccinated to combat virulent coronavirus strains, with global immunisation at least six years away, experts have warned. Read more here
Rachel Baxendale 4.40pm: Latest cases linked to medical nebuliser
The previous resident left the hotel on Sunday, Victoria’s Department of Health confirmed in a tweet shortly before 4:30pm.
Two further individuals linked to the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport have tested positive to coronavirus (#COVID19) today: a worker, and a previous resident who exited the facility on February 7. The number of cases linked to the Holiday Inn outbreak is now 8.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) February 10, 2021
The latest two cases come after an authorised officer working at the hotel tested positive on Sunday, and a guest who also left the hotel on Sunday and hotel food and beverage attendant returned positive results on Tuesday.
All five cases are believed to be linked to a hotel guest who used a piece of medical equipment known as a nebuliser to vaporise medication and inhale it.
That guest and two family members have since tested positive for coronavirus, with the guest hospitalised in an intensive care ward on Tuesday, where they remain.
The department said there may be exposure sites linked to the latest former resident to test positive.
“Interviews are underway, and any sites will be published onlineas soon as possible,” the department said. “There are currently no exposure sites linked to the hotel quarantine worker.”
There may be exposure sites linked to the previous resident. Interviews are underway, and any sites will be published online at https://t.co/JAVfgxmiDO as soon as possible. There are currently no exposure sites linked to the Hotel Quarantine worker.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) February 10, 2021
Rachel Baxendale 4.45pm: Two more positive cases in Melbourne cluster
The number of coronavirus cases linked to Melbourne Airport’s Holiday Inn quarantine hotel has risen to eight, including five contracted in the hotel, after another worker and another previous resident returned positive results on Wednesday afternoon.
Ellie Dudley 4.25pm: SA announces snap border closure
An emerging coronavirus situation in Melbourne has triggered South Australian health authorities to flag the potential for the state to shut its borders to travellers from the Victorian capital.
The announcement came as Victoria closed down its Melbourne Airport Holiday Inn quarantine hotel after three workers tested positive.
Anyone arriving in South Australia from the greater Melbourne area after midnight tonight will likely be locked out and required to quarantine for 14 days, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said.
The health authorities made the pre-emptive announcement to alert travellers as early as possible.
“It’s a very dynamic and moving situation,” South Australia Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said. “Our steps in South Australia are taken with an abundance of caution to make sure we are minimising the risk.”
Mr Stevens said SA health authorities are being “as adaptive as possible” with the evolving situation.
“If there’s an opportunity to relax those restrictions, then that’s what we will do. We are assessing regularly to make sure the measures we put in place are proportionate to the situation.”
Chief health officer Nicola Spurrier described the border closure as “inconvenient”, but said the health authorities have to prioritise the health of South Australians.
She also said it was “very likely the cases in Melbourne are of the UK variant, where there is “higher transmissibility.”
“It is likely we will have the border restrictions in place in Melbourne, but we’re waiting on more information from Victoria.”
Paul Garvey 4.15pm: WA quarantine workers can’t have second jobs
Workers in Western Australian quarantine hotels will be banned from having second jobs from Monday, as the government continues to change its systems in light of the state’s recent COVID lockdown.
WA premier Mark McGowan announced on Wednesday that the government had struck an agreement with the four companies currently providing security services to Perth’s nine quarantine hotels. Those workers will now receive a 40 per cent pay rise as part of the deal.
The issue of second jobs for quarantine workers came to the fore after it emerged that the security guard who contracted the highly contagious UK strain of the virus had been moonlighting as a rideshare driver. While the man had not worked any rideshare shifts while contagious, Mr McGowan acknowledged it had caused concerns in the community.
Victoria had also barred hotel security staff from having second jobs last year following a review into the failure of its quarantine systems.
The WA government had previously said it did not institute a ban on second jobs as there was nothing to stop those workers from mingling with the broader community.
Mr McGowan said the new conditions would apply to cleaning and catering staff in those quarantine hotels.
“Obviously people working in hotel quarantine still have lives, so they still go to the shops, still go to schools with their children, they still might visit their parents. All of those sorts of things are difficult to stop,” he said.
“But the second job aspect, which we know was a concern, that ends as of next Monday.”
There has not been a single case of community transmission of the virus in WA since the security guard tested positive on 30 January. That case prompted the government to introduce a five-day lockdown of two million people in Perth and WA’s South West, and the metropolitan area is still subject to mask orders and gathering restrictions until Sunday.
Mr McGowan said the state would extend its requirement for arrivals from Victoria to spend 14 days in quarantine upon arrival, in light of the latest cases to emerge out of Melbourne’s quarantine hotels.
“Anyone coming from Victoria still needs to quarantine and they still need to be tested.”
“That will continue for the foreseeable future.”
He said he would get fresh advice from his chief health officer on lifting quarantine requirements for NSW once the state hits 28 days without a case of community transmission in the coming days.
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Robyn Ironside 4pm: Virgin Australia matches ‘cab fare’ tickets
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Natasha Robinson 3.45pm: ‘No evidence’ over why Wuhan lab cleared
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Rachel Baxendale 3.30pm: Andrews queries delay in positive worker’s test
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said he was “not sure” why the state’s latest coronavirus-positive hotel quarantine worker had failed to get tested until Tuesday, despite developing symptoms on Saturday.
The Holiday Inn food and beverage attendant also visited a series of venues in Sunbury in Melbourne’s northwest on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, including a Cellarbrations bottle shop on Saturday and Sunday evenings.
“We’ll need to follow that through. They may have good reason for that,” Mr Andrews said of the delayed testing.
“Obviously it’s always best to have any symptomatic Victorian in that time to test that we talk about, those exposure days, the best thing as I’ve said literally thousands of times, and millions of Victorians have done this, if you’ve got symptoms, getting tested is very important, but getting tested quickly is even more important.”
Asked whether he was disappointed that the worker had not been tested until the 9th of February, despite news of a positive case at her workplace breaking late on the 7th, the day after she developed symptoms, Mr Andews said: “I would encourage all Victorians with any symptoms or if notified that because of your movements and the people that you’ve come in contact with and the places you’ve been, if you’re urged to get tested, please, don’t delay.”
“We can’t change (the timing), but that’s been my position and it’s been my advice to Victorians for a long time now.”
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Rachel Baxendale 2.57pm: Coburg, Reservoir on alert after virus detected
Coronavirus fragments have been detected in sewage in the Coburg and Reservoir catchments in Melbourne’s north, despite no known coronavirus cases residing in those areas.
Health Minister Martin Foley said primary close contacts of known cases in workers and a former guest at the Holiday Inn did reside in the area, but authorities are urging anyone in Melbourne’s north and northwest to monitor for coronavirus symptoms and get tested.
“We would alert that persons residing in or visiting these (Coburg and Reservoir) areas in a 72 hour period through to the morning of the 6th of February should, if they have any signs of illness, any signs or symptoms, should get tested and just to be alert for possible symptoms, particularly if you are in those Coburg and Reservoir areas,” Mr Foley said.
“There are no known cases residing in those particular catchments, but there are a number of close contacts.”
Mr Foley said there had also been an unexpected detection of coronavirus in a catchment in the Glenroy, Broadmeadows and Roxburgh Park area in Melbourne’s north and northwest.
“Of course that does link in with some of the areas linked to persons that we know about, but again, anyone residing or visiting these areas in the 48 hours through to the morning of the 8th of February, again monitor your symptoms, please come forward to get tested.”
The affected local government areas are those of Hume, Moreland and Darebin.
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Rachel Baxendale 2.32pm: Symptomatic hotel worker didn’t get tested for three days
The latest hotel quarantine worker to test positive for coronavirus in Victoria did not get tested until three days after she developed coronavirus symptoms, and five days after she worked her last shift, Premier Daniel Andrews has confirmed.
Mr Andrews revealed on Wednesday the worker was a food and beverage attendant at Melbourne Airport’s Holiday Inn, where she as well as another worker and hotel guest are believed to have contracted the virus from a family of three who had recently returned from overseas.
“She last worked on the 4th of February and tested negative at the end of her shift,” Mr Andrews said.
“She developed symptoms on the 6th of February. On the 8th of February she was advised that she was a primary close contact related to the previous identified exposure at the Holiday Inn and was as such required to isolate and get a test.
“She got tested on the morning of the 9th and returned a positive result.”
News broke of the first case in an authorised officer at the Holiday Inn late on Sunday night — more than 24 hours before the woman got tested on Tuesday.
The woman visited a series of locations in Sunbury, in Melbourne’s outer northwest, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, despite having experienced symptoms on Saturday.
Mr Andrews said 13 social and household primary contacts of the woman had so far been identified and all had been contacted and were isolating at home.
“There are several high-risk individuals within that cohort. Last night as part of our rapid public health response, we arranged for them to be tested after hours, a special run if you like,” he said.
“Five have so far come back negative and the balance of those results should be available to us today, and as soon as we are in a position to update you, then we will.”
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Courtney Walsh 2.03pm: Queen from King of Prussia beats quarantine
Strict quarantine may have tripped champions including Bianca Andreescu, Angelique Kerber and Victoria Azarenka in Melbourne in recent days.
But spending a fortnight in her hotel room certainly has not harmed young American Ann Li, who reached the third round of the Australian Open on Wednesday.
Li, who progressed when defeating Frenchwoman Alize Cornet 6-2 7-6 (6), may well boast the best-named birthplace of any Australian Open competitor this year.
Should the 20-year-old rise through the ranks, she may well one day be hailed as the Queen from the King of Prussia. You read right. Li was born in the Pennsylvanian town which sits on the edge of Philadelphia.
Its name stems from a pub in the town dating back to the 18th century called the King of Prussia Inn.
Li will tackle Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the seventh seed, for a spot in the last 16.
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Rhiannon Down 1.36pm: Mutant South African, UK Covid strains merge
UK health authorities say two mutant COVID-19 variants have merged creating a new strain of concern.
The new variant, believed to be a mixture of the South African and UK strains, which are up to 70 per cent more contagious, was reportedly discovered in Bristol.
The South African strain has caused alarm for the medical community, after studies suggested it was more resistant to vaccines.
Testing efforts have since ramped up in the country, and a hotel quarantine program is being launched for arrivals from 33 red list countries to slow the spread of new variants.
Virus numbers in the UK have finally started to level off this week from its highs last month, recording 12,364 new cases in the last day.
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Rachel Baxendale 1.10pm: Andrews quits plan to raise arrival cap
Victoria has abandoned plans to increase its overseas arrivals cap from 1120 people to 1310 on Monday, following five coronavirus transmissions reported across three quarantine hotels over the past week.
The state had agreed to the increase at last Friday’s national cabinet meeting, alongside NSW and Queensland each agreeing to double their caps to 3010 and 1000 respectively.
SA’s cap will go from 490 to 530, while WA‘s will stay steady at 512.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said in Wednesday morning he had informed Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s office that Victoria would not proceed with its promised increase.
“As a result of this outbreak and the fact that we really need to get to the bottom of what’s going on here, have a better understanding of the risks posed by these variants, these mutant strains, we will not be increasing to 1310 arrivals a week as was planned from Monday,” Mr Andrews said.
“That has been paused, and we will have further announcements to make about when and if we can make that jump, but that will not be occurring on Monday.
“The Prime Minister, through his office, has been informed of that. We believe that it is appropriate to have a very low tolerance, or perhaps no tolerance for risk, particularly risks that you don’t quite understand, and that’s the nature of some of these events and the need to further work on this evolving theory, run these things to ground.
“We’re not taking any risks that would see us have to get to a situation where we ask Victorians to deal with other restrictions.”
Mr Andrews’ comments came as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian reaffirmed that NSW would proceed with increasing its cap to more than 3000 from Monday, saying that since the beginning of the pandemic, NSW had quarantined 120,000 international arrivals, 45 per cent of whom were not from that state.
Mr Andrews has responded to Gladys Berejiklian’s remarks that the measure of success for hotel quarantine was how many people it accommodated, while keeping the community safe.
The Victorian Premier said: “I’m sure I will find a way to recover from that barb, I am focused on keeping the people of Victoria safe.”
The war of words was sparked after Mr Andrews said on Monday that Victoria could not accept as many returned travellers as NSW because his state has “higher standards” than its northern neighbour.
The NSW Premier told 2GB’s Ben Fordham: “I think success is measured by how many people you’re able to bring in and how you can keep the community safe.
“All I’ll say is he’s pretty good at spin”, she added.
Victoria did not take any international return travellers between June and December 2020 as it battled its second wave of coronavirus, which was sparked by breaches in hotel quarantine, caused more than 20,000 infections and killed 801 people. — With Rhiannon Down
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Victoria Laurie 1.02pm: WA records 2 new cases in hotel quarantine
Western Australia has reported two new cases of COVID-19 overnight, bringing the State’s total to 909.
The cases are a male and female aged in their 30s who have travelled from overseas and are in hotel quarantine.
WA has detected 19 cases of variant COVID strains, 15 cases of the UK B.1.1.7 variant strain and four of the South African B.1.351 strain.
Yesterday 6126 people were tested for COVID-19, making a total of 813,567 tests that have been processed throughout the state.
WA Health is monitoring 8 active cases of COVID-19, and 892 people have recovered from the virus in WA.
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Adeshola Ore 12.27pm: ‘Lessons to be learned from WHO report’
Anthony Albanese says he hopes the lessons from a World Health Organisation report into the origins of COVID, that failed to pinpoint the original source of the virus, will help prevent future pandemics.
Mr Albanese said he had not seen the report’s findings but said Labor had supported the WHO conducting the investigation.
“It is appropriate that that’s occurred and it’s appropriate that people be held to account for what’s happened,” he said.
“Not just as a matter of looking back but as a matter of looking forward so that we make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
The WHO delegation has left open the possibility that the disease originated in a region other than Wuhan. It said the introduction of SARS-CoV-2 through an intermediary animal host was the “most likely” theory that would be the focus of further studies.
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Rhiannon Down 12.12pm: NSW to increase quarantine intake to 3000 a week
NSW will increase its hotel quarantine intake to 3000 per week from Monday, Gladys Berejiklian says.
“We do this on the basis that firstly, it’s the right thing to do by Australians,” the NSW Premier said.
“Secondly, because our system, we believe, can handle it and thirdly, because we know that the sooner Australians come home who want to come home, the sooner we can work on other issues which support our economic activity. Which is increasingly a threat this year, given the end of JobKeeper and the other challenges which New South Wales and Australia, for that matter, will face.”
The announcement follows remarks Daniel Andrews made on Tuesday, that Victoria’s hotel quarantine system would never take as many overseas return travellers as NSW because his state has “higher standards”.
Adeshola Ore 12.08pm: Albanese accuses Hunt of breaching standards
Anthony Albanese has accused Health Minister Greg Hunt of breaching ministerial standards after he tweeted an image of a federal government announcement about COVID vaccines with the Liberal Party logo attached.
On Wednesday morning, Mr Hunt said the ABC presenter Michael Rowland identified with the left after he was asked why the logo was placed on a government announcement about the vaccines during an interview with News Breakfast.
On the advice of the Scientific Industry Technical Advisory Group on Vaccine lead by Professor Brendan Murphy, the Australian Government has secured an additional 10 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. pic.twitter.com/OHGZ0eepUx
— Greg Hunt (@GregHuntMP) February 4, 2021
“The vaccine is something that isn’t a Liberal Party vaccine,” the Opposition Leader said.
“If the Liberal Party is paying for vaccines, then they can post with Liberal Party logos on it. But if it’s the Australian taxpayer, then quite frankly, it’s an abuse, it’s completely inappropriate and a breach of ministerial standards and it’s an outrage.”
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Rhiannon Down 11.49am: Wollongong case ‘likely infected overseas’
Gladys Berejiklian says a Wollongong resident who tested positive for COVID-19 two days after being released from Sydney hotel quarantine, most likely did not become infected in the hotel.
“The other good piece of news is that one person who tested positive on day 17 of arriving in Australia is unlikely to have contracted it in quarantine,” the NSW Premier said.
“So the best advice is that it’s either an old infection or else the person obviously has had an unusually longer incubation period which can happen.”
“But it is unlikely to have been acquired in quarantine, but it does show the risks that are posed and it does show the vigilance of our New South Wales Health team and making sure that we not only test people on days two and 12 but also follow them up post quarantine in certain circumstances to make sure that there aren’t lingering infectiousness in people who are leaving the quarantine system.”
The returned traveller, who had returned from South America last month, had tested positive on a day 16 test, a new measure put in place by NSW health authorities.
READ MORE: Albrechtsen — PM has abandoned citizens stuck overseas
Rhiannon Down 11.36am: Theory nebuliser linked to Victorian hotel cases
Victorian CHO Brett Sutton says the Holiday Inn cases could be the result of a medical device that could have sprayed fine mist particles into the air.
Professor Sutton said the working theory aligned with the time frame of exposure, as understood by health authorities.
“Certainly the working hypothesis for the Holiday Inn is that these cases are related to an exposure event that involved a medical device,” he said.
“So that medical device is called the nebuliser and it vaporises medication or liquid into a fine mist ... especially when it is used as medication and someone is infectious or later tests positive, that next up the virus, and that mist, can be suspended in the air with fine particles.”
“We think the exposures are (linked ) to that event, this nebuliser, whereby the method of a virus, was carried out into the corridor and exposed the authorised officer, the food and beverage service worker and also the other resident.”
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Rhiannon Down 11.28am: Close contacts of infected hotel worker negative
Daniel Andrews says five of the 13 social and household primary close contacts of a worker at the Holiday Inn have so far tested negative.
The Victorian Premier said there were no more exposure sites to add to an extensive list of locations released on Tuesday, and renewed calls for anyone who visited the hot spots to get tested.
The state’s second case recorded in yesterday’s number was in a returned traveller who tested positive after being released from hotel quarantine, but had stayed home since leaving the facility.
Mr Andrews said a family of three who had tested positive for the UK variant, were currently in hospital with two experiencing some “significant health challenges”.
READ MORE: Why didn’t others get hotel virus?
Lilly Vitorovich 11.20am: ABC journo defends clash with Hunt
ABC journalist Michael Rowland has gone on the defensive over his questioning of Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt’s use of a Liberal Party logo on a government announcement about COVID-19 vaccines.
Just minutes before the public broadcaster’s News Breakfast TV show wrapped up on Wednesday, Rowland posted a clip of his interview with Mr Hunt on social media platform Twitter, and rejected Mr Hunt’s claim that he identifies with the left.
Rowland, who has co-hosted the program since 2010, says he was just doing his job as an ABC journalist.
“No, Minister, I don’t identify with the left. My job as an ABC journalist is to hold ALL sides of politics to account, as I was this morning,” Rowland said in his post, which generated a lot of comments and nearly 2000 likes by 10am.
“It was, and is, a simple question,” he said, adding that the minister was welcome back on the show any time.
During the interview, Rowland asked Mr Hunt “why did he feel the need to attach a Liberal Party logo to an Australian government announcement” last week that it had secured an additional 10 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
“We made the Australian government announcement as the government with the Prime Minister but I was elected,” Mr Hunt said before Rowland interrupted.
“But I’m asking about why the Liberal Party logo was there?,” Rowland said.
READ the full story here
Rhiannon Down 11.13am: Return to 2sqm rule as NSW records 0 local cases
NSW has recorded zero new locally acquired cases in the past 24 hours, while four cases were discovered in hotel quarantine.
Gladys Berejiklian has also announced the majority of NSW venues will revert to the 2 sqm rule from Friday.
NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases of #COVID19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) February 10, 2021
Four new cases were acquired overseas, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 4,940. pic.twitter.com/vuO1SUZAJE
The NSW Premier said the restrictions, which applies to most venues including hospitality businesses, would exclude gyms.
Masks would remain mandatory on public transport or were recommended when social distancing wasn’t possible, Ms Berejiklian said.
“Especially in an indoor setting where you can’t guarantee social distancing we ask you to wear a mask.”
READ MORE: Huge take up of online Covid measures
Rhiannon Down 11.01am: Andrews again lauds quarantine ‘gold standard’
Daniel Andrews has again referred to the state’s hotel quarantine system as the gold standard for the nation.
“You’ve heard me speak many times about the fact that our reset hotel quarantine is the most risk averse, it is the most labour-intensive,” the Victorian Premier said.
“Elements of it are in fact now the national standard, but even then, with all of those steps and, can I say, a willingness to do more when we need to, these hyper infectious strains are proving very difficult to contain, and that’s a real challenge.”
Mr Andrews also has described the new variants of COVID-19 as a “wicked” enemy that is “no reflection on any system”, following a number of infections in Victorian hotel quarantine.
“These are, as we know, highly infectious, hyper infectious, really, and it is a very significant cause for concern, not just for us but I think for every government and public health officials across the country,” he said.
“This is a wicked enemy, made more challenging by the fact that it is changing, it is a moving
target, and that really does cause significant concern for all of us.”
READ MORE: Why didn’t others get the hotel virus?
Rachel Baxendale 10.11am: Students from elite girls school ordered to isolate
Year 11 students at exclusive private school Melbourne Girls’ Grammar have been ordered to isolate and get tested as secondary close contacts of a case linked to the Holiday Inn quarantine hotel at Melbourne Airport.
The Australian understands the case is a boarder, who returned to school on Monday after quarantining at the Holiday Inn.
All Year 11 students who attended school on Monday or Tuesday have been told not to attend until further notice and to quarantine at home.
Schools in Sunbury in Melbourne’s outer northwest have completely closed on Wednesday on advice from the Education Department due to a number of secondary close contacts linked to a COVID-19 positive worker at the Holiday Inn.
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Rhiannon Down 10.00am: ‘Domestic travel won’t bounce back for some time’
Rex deputy chairman John Sharp says the domestic travel market won’t bounce back to pre-COVID levels for “quite some time”.
It comes as the regional airline attempts to entice customers, announcing heavy discounted flights between Melbourne and Sydney.
“I think internationally it’s going to be very difficult because borders are closed, the coronavirus seems to be out of control in the US and similarly so in Europe,” Mr Sharp told Today.
“So international travel is going to take a long time to recover. I think Alan Joyce has said 2024 is realistic in saying that.
“Domestically, I think that travel will pick up slowly. I don’t think we’re going to be at 100% of pre- COVID domestically for quite some time.”
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Adeshola Ore 9.45am: Wuhan laboratory theory ‘never pursued by Australia’
Greg Hunt says he is pleased that the World Health Organisation’s study into the origins of COVID has deemed unlikely the theory that it emerged from a laboratory.
A WHO delegation that travelled to China to investigate the origins of COVID-19 failed to identify the original source of the pandemic, but has left open the possibility that the disease originated in a region other than Wuhan. Scientist Peter Ben Embarek, who was part of the delegation, said the laboratory theory was “extremely unlikely” and had been ruled out.
“That was never the advice, never something that the Australian government has ever pursued,” he told the ABC.
Australia’s calls for an independent investigation into the origins of COVID last year led to increasing hostility from Beijing, with tariffs slapped on numerous exports.
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Rachel Baxendale 9.26am: Hotel at centre of latest infections evacuated
The Victorian quarantine hotel linked to two coronavirus infections in workers and one in a resident is being evacuated on Wednesday morning.
Melbourne Airport’s Holiday Inn was closed overnight, and people could be seen leaving the premises early on Wednesday.
Further information regarding the closure is expected when Premier Daniel Andrews and Health Minister Martin Foley address the media at 10:30am.
“CQV is implementing strict infection prevention and control measures after a hotel quarantine worker, who last worked at the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport on 4 February, tested positive for the virus,” COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria said in a statement released on Wednesday morning.
“As a highly precautionary measure, the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport is being closed until further notice for terminal cleaning, and with detailed contact tracing and investigations underway.
“All staff and residents at the hotel during the exposure period of 27 January and 9 February are considered primary close contacts and need to quarantine.”
CQV said approximately 135 staff across all programs at the hotel were stood down on Tuesday night and instructed to quarantine for 14 days at home and get retested.
Meanwhile, Victoria has officially recorded two new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, both linked to the Holiday Inn on Tuesday.
Yesterday there were 2 new locally acquired cases reported. 22,849 test results were received. Thanks for getting tested, #EveryTestHelps. More later: https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/YWynWuxAwC
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) February 9, 2021
“Yesterday there were 2 new locally acquired cases reported,” the DHHS said in a statement on social media.
The new cases included a staffer at the hotel, whose case was announced late on Tuesday, and a returned traveller.
A number of exposure sites in Melbourne’s west were placed on high alert, after the worker tested negative on February 4 and went about their weekend before being tested again on February 7. — With Rhiannon Down
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Rhiannon Down 9.22am: Caravan parks ‘most viable’ option for quarantine
Health experts say specially built facilities could be the most viable alternative to hotel quarantine, following a number of infections linked to the program.
Monash University infectious diseases physician Michelle Ananda-Rajah said the cases highlighted the risk of aerosols spreading in hotel quarantine as well as the toll it took on mental health, though admitted there were few “other options”.
“I don’t like the idea of putting people into hotel quarantine,” she told radio 3AW. “There is a real dark underbelly to all of this which is the mental health effects of confining people in close spaces without access to fresh air.”
Dr Ananda-Rajah said there were some issues with home quarantine and electronic monitoring, though purpose-built facilities, similar to Howard Springs near Darwin, would be ideal.
“I’ve been thinking to myself whether caravan parks would work,” she said.
“At least people then would get access to fresh air.
“I think there are options and I think we need to start talking about them.”
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Adeshola Ore 9.17am: I won’t rank states on quarantine: Hunt
Health Minister Greg Hunt says he will not rank states’ quarantine regimes after Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews declared his state’s system has “higher standards” than NSW.
On Tuesday, hours before Victoria recorded two additional COVID cases linked to quarantine hotels, Mr Andrews said his state would never take as many overseas return travellers as its northern neighbour and stressed that he led with “higher standards.”
Mr Hunt said all states and territories were “doing well” in managing hotel quarantine and protecting the Australian community from COVID.
“ I won’t try to rank them. They are doing well,” he told Channel Nine.
“What really matters is we have a system that overwhelmingly prevents the cases coming into the community.”
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Adeshola Ore 8.59am: Victorian response to new cases ‘appropriate’
Health Minister Greg Hunt says the Victorian government’s response to two additional COVID-19 cases linked to quarantine hotels has been “proportionate and appropriate.”
A returned overseas traveller left hotel quarantine after completing 14 days at Melbourne Airport’s Holiday Inn on Sunday but returned a positive result after getting tested on Monday. A coronavirus case in intensive care in a Victorian hospital is a member of a family of three who were transferred from the Holiday Inn to a “health hotel” last week after testing positive.
Mr Hunt said Australia had a robust quarantine system, despite Victoria now recording five COVID cases linked to three hotels in the past week.
“As the UK have said, they’ve turned to Australia for advice on hotel quarantine. Our hotel quarantine system has prevented thousands and thousands of cases entering Australia,” he told Sky News.
“In any circumstances, if we engage with the outside world there is the risk of transmission. That’s why we have what are called rings of containment.”
“Victoria’s response has been proportionate and appropriate.”
On Tuesday night, Victorian health authorities were contacting dozens of past residents who have completed quarantine at the Holiday Inn over the past fortnight, ordering them to complete an extra 14 days in isolation.
Rhiannon Down 8.51am: Berejiklian hits back at Andrews over quarantine
Gladys Berejiklian says she won’t lower herself to respond to Daniel Andrews after the Victorian Premier said his state would take fewer returning travellers because its hotel quarantine system had “higher standards”.
The NSW Premier said: “(Mr Andrews) is pretty good at spin and I’ll leave it at that.”
Ms Berejiklian said NSW had carried the brunt of the burden of quarantining returned travellers, with more than half arriving in the state.
“We’ve done that on behalf of the states and that’s all I’ll say but is the system in NSW perfect? No, and I wouldn’t boast about it,” she told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
“I think success is measured by how many people you’re able to bring in and how you can keep the community safe.
“I believe in NSW we’ve demonstrated, because of the number of people we’ve been able to bring back home, the robustness of it and mistakes will happen, it doesn’t matter how good your system is.
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Adeshola Ore 8.27am: WHO report part of global learning about Covid: Hunt
Greg Hunt says the World Health Organisation’s report into the origins of COVID, which failed to identify the original source of the pandemic, is about “global learning on multiple fronts.”
A WHO delegation that travelled to China to investigate the virus has left open the possibility that the disease originated in a region other than Wuhan. A lead scientist in the delegation said the introduction of SARS-CoV-2 through an intermediary animal host was the “most likely” theory that would be the focus of further studies.
“The overwhelming likelihood is that you have an animal based source and that the virus is likely to arise somewhere in the vicinity of the first human cases. No surprises in that,” the federal Health Minister told Sky News.
“Importantly we continue to learn about the origins and most significantly how we respond with our containment and our capacity,”
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Joyce Moullakis 8.04am: CBA investors get bumper dividend rise as profits fall
Commonwealth Bank has delivered investors a bumper rise in its interim dividend, as profit dropped to $3.89bn and the bank increased expected loan losses to navigate the COVID-19 fallout.
The nation’s largest home lender posted a 10.8 per cent fall in cash profit to $3.89bn for the six months ended December 31, compared to the year earlier period, it said in an ASX statement on Wednesday. That reflected profit from continuing operations.
CBA declared a 53 per cent jump in its first-half dividend to $1.50, compared to the last payment made in September.
CBA chief executive Matt Comyn said the economic outlook “was positive” but health and economic risks could still dampen the pace of Australia’s COVID-19 recovery.
Loan impairment expenses - related to the pandemic - were further increased to $882m.
CBA last paid a 98 cent final dividend in September, the lowest second-half dividend since 2006 due to a regulatory cap on distributions imposed as the pandemic gripped markets. A year ago, before the fully-fledged onset of COVID-19 CBA declared a $2 interim payment.
Analysts were expecting CBA to hand down a first-half cash profit of almost $4bn, and a dividend in the order of $1.45. They are also looking out for any comments flagging capital management - including any share buybacks and special dividends - to return proceeds to shareholders from a string of CBA divestments.
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Rhiannon Down 7.41am: Eyes ‘likely’ source of virus leaks in hotels
A number of COVID-19 infections at the Holiday Inn in Melbourne may have spread through the eyes, experts say.
ANU infectious disease expert Peter Collignon said there were a lot of “basics” not being addressed, that were more likely to be the source of the leak.
“When I look at lots of photos all around Australia, there is no eye protection,” Professor Collignon told Sunrise.
“You are just as susceptible to this infection through your eyes as you (are through) your nose and mouth.”
Professor Collignon said poor ventilation and lax rules around guests opening doors could also be the cause.
“People open doors without masks on, it goes into quarters, (because of) positive pressure behind them, a ventilation issue,” he said.
“Security guards and others may not be wearing masks, or eye protection. It is not a surprise that that has been some cross infection.
“Before we worry about aerosols in the air staying four hours and channelling distances between floors, there are a lot of basics from my observations …. that needs to be improved.”
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Jack Paynter 7.34am: Bakers Delight, bottle-o added to virus alert list
Residents in the outskirts of Melbourne are on high alert today after seven venues in the one town were added to the list of COVID-19 public exposure sites.
The health department added seven locations in Sunbury, in the city’s northwest, including a bottle shop and Bakers Delight, to the exposure sites list late on Tuesday night.
A confirmed case of coronavirus visited several stores in Sunbury Square Shopping Centre on February 5 and 6, as well as the Cellarbrations bottle shop in Batman Avenue on February 6 and 7.
Among the other shops added to the public exposure sites list were Sunny Life Massage, PJ’s Pet Warehouse, Aldente Deli, Sushi Sushi and Asian Star.
The updated alerts list came after two further cases escaped hotel quarantine in Victoria.
The health department on Wednesday confirmed a second worker at the Melbourne Airport Holiday Inn quarantine site and a returned traveller who has already completed quarantine tested positive to COVID-19.
It’s the third hotel quarantine worker to test positive in the past week with health officials racing to stop the emerging outbreak before it spreads further.
Schools close as precaution
Two schools in Melbourne’s northwest have been closed after seven venues from the one town were added to the list of coronavirus public exposure sites.
Salesian College Sunbury and St Anne’s Catholic Primary School in Sunbury are both closed on Wednesday due to COVID-19 concerns in the area.
Both schools are not listed as public exposure sites, but it’s believed the schools have been closed as a “precautionary measure” after seven venues in Sunbury were added to the alerts list by the health department late on Tuesday night.
Anyone who has visited the “tier 1 exposure sites” below during the times listed must immediately isolate, get tested and remain isolated for 14 days.
The health department said the venues had been visited by a confirmed case during their infectious period.
Victorian venues affected:
Friday February 5 2021
- PJ’s Pet Warehouse: Sunbury - 3:37pm – 4:10pm
- Bakers Delight - Sunbury Square Shopping Centre: Sunbury - 3:40pm - 4:15pm
- Al dente Deli - Sunbury Square Shopping Centre: Sunbury - 3:45pm - 4:23pm
- Sushi Sushi - Sunbury Square Shopping Centre: Sunbury - 3:53pm - 4:28pm
- Asian Star - Sunbury Square Shopping Centre: Sunbury - 3:57pm – 4:30pm
Saturday 6th February
- Sunny Life Massage – Sunbury Square Shopping Centre: Sunbury - 4:30pm - 6:30pm
- Cellarbrations: Sunbury - 6:17pm - 7:02pm
Sunday February 7 2021
- Cellarbrations: Sunbury - 5:44pm - 6:19pm
— NCA Newswire
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Rhiannon Down 6.50am: Hotel quarantine measures need to be ‘tightened’
Experts say hotel quarantine measures will need to be “tightened” to prevent further leaks, after a worker at the Holiday Inn in Melbourne tested positive on Tuesday night.
Deakin University chair of epidemiology Catherine Bennett said infection risk in corridors and stairways was likely to be a focus for an AHPPC review into a number of recent infection scares in the program.
“I do think that corridors are going to be a major focus of this next level of revamping,” she said.
“Not only looking at the PPE that staff wear in those areas, which they have done in Victoria, but also looking at boosting the ventilation in corridors, because there is this risk if the doors are opening on from rooms on to the common space.
“And if it is a dead space in particular, you could have virus particles there long enough that it does pose a risk.”
She also said the move to daily testing for staff, as well as testing of returned travellers on day 16 after they’ve finished quarantine, was picking up cases that “might have been under the radar before”.
“It identifies potential further hotel transmission that happened while these people were in quarantine as we’re probably seeing in this most recent case in Melbourne,” she said.
“So identifying any of those even small chances of transmission are really going to inform this next level of tightening up that we’re currently going through and the ongoing review we need to do.”
The case identified on Tuesday night, that sparked a race to locate contacts from a number of western suburb venues, was the third linked to the Holiday Inn in a number of days. A returned traveller and a second staffer also tested positive.
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Rhiannon Down 6.45am: WHO: One in 10 may have long Covid
The World Health Organisation has raised concerns about the prevalence of “long COVID”, studies indicating as many as one in 10 cases may be affected by extended symptoms.
Very little is known about a post-COVID condition that causes fatigue, brain fog and even cardiac and neurological issues despite millions of infections world wide, according to WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“Long Covid should not fall through the cracks,” he said.
Even those who were not hospitalised during their infection have suffered life-changing long term health issues, medical experts said.
The WHO will run a number of seminars aimed at expanding medical knowledge of the condition.
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Natasha Robinson 6.00am: Why didn’t others get hotel coronavirus?
It’s the big question around Australia’s recent infections of workers who acquired coronavirus from hotel quarantine: why did they not pass it on to anyone else, despite all being infected with the highly contagious UK strain?
In the three incidents in which the virus escaped hotel quarantine — first in Brisbane, then in Perth and then Melbourne — each infected patient did not pass the virus on to anyone at all.
Lockdowns were ordered in Brisbane and Perth, but the virus did not spread to a single person in the community.
Perhaps it was just good luck, but there could be a medical explanation. Immunologist John Dwyer, an emeritus professor at the University of NSW, has one theory. “It’s possible these workers got infected by people who are close to the end of their course with COVID-19, a person who was shedding the virus but not in an infectious form,” he says.
“In that case, you would still be able to contract the virus, but not to pass it on because it’s a non-viable virus. You could pick up remnants of the virus but it wouldn’t be in a form that’s going to cause any disease or multiply in the person who is infected.”
READ the full story
Natasha Robinson 5.45am: No joy on source of Covid for WHO team
A World Health Organisation delegation that travelled to China to investigate the origins of COVID-19 has failed to identify the original source of the pandemic, but has left open the possibility that the disease originated in a region other than Wuhan.
The WHO-convened Global Study of the Origins of SARS-CoV-2 reported its findings in a press conference in China at the end of the investigators’ two-week scientific visit to Wuhan.
They said the search for the origin of SARS-CoV-2 was still a “work in progress”.
The delegation said its investigations had followed four main hypotheses: the introduction of the virus through “direct spillover” from infected animals, the introduction to humans through an intermediary host, transmission via cold chain products, and the theory that the virus may have escaped from a laboratory.
Scientist Peter Ben Embarek, who was part of the delegation, said the laboratory theory was “extremely unlikely” and had been ruled out.
He said the introduction of SARS-CoV-2 through an intermediary animal host was the “most likely” theory that would be the focus of further studies.
READ the full story
Rachel Baxendale 5.30am: New infections defy Andrews’ standards boast
Two more COVID-19 cases have been linked to Victorian quarantine hotels, bringing the total number of transmissions identified in the program in less than a week to five across three hotels — on the day Premier Daniel Andrews declared his state’s system had “higher standards” than those in other jurisdictions.
Health Minister Martin Foley and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton late on Tuesday said a returned overseas traveller left hotel quarantine after completing 14 days at Melbourne Airport’s Holiday Inn on Sunday but had returned a positive result after getting tested on Monday.
“I can also inform Victorians that literally in the last 10 minutes we have been advised of another positive case related to the Holiday Inn,” Mr Foley said, confirming the latest case was a worker at the Holiday Inn.
The newest cases follow news on Sunday night that an authorised officer working at the same hotel had tested positive for what was later confirmed as the highly contagious British variant of the virus. Four days earlier, a 26-year-old man had contracted the virus while acting as a residential support officer for the Australian Open tennis entourage at the Grand Hyatt, while earlier that Wednesday a female resident of the Park Royal hotel had contracted the virus from a family staying across the corridor.
Victorian health authorities were on Tuesday contacting dozens of past residents who have completed quarantine at the Holiday Inn over the past fortnight, ordering them to complete an extra 14 days in isolation.
READ the full story
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