Coronavirus Australia live news: Lockdowns blow to youth mental health, says report; state of emergency extended again
A Victorian government report says soaring numbers of youths are self-harming and suffering other mental effects amid the pandemic.
- Victoria extends lockdown powers to July 1
- ‘No simple answer’ on when lockdown will lift
- Five new local cases in Victoria, cluster at 72
- Nationwide search for virus source
- PM shoots down Qld quarantine plan
- US paid PLA to engineer coronaviruses
Welcome to live updates on Australia’s battle against the coronavirus pandemic.
A Victorian government report has given an indication of increased harm to mental health among the young during the pandemic. Victoria has rec2orded five new local cases of Covid-19 as health authorities in multiple states check genomic sequencing data for all known Delta variant cases of coronavirus in Australia. Mystery surrounds the origins of a cluster of seven cases linked to a West Melbourne family who spent six days in NSW.
Staff reporter 11.55pm: Alert after viral fragments found in wastewater
Viral fragments have been detected in a wastewater sample retrieved from catchments serving suburbs in Melbourne’s inner west and north, the Sunday Herald Sun reports.
This detection is “of interest” to the Victorian Health Department, with no confirmed Covid-19 cases in those suburbs.
However, the catchment area contains exposure sites and is near to West Melbourne, where the Delta cluster has emerged.
Residents of and recent visitors to the suburbs of Aberfeldie, Essendon, Essendon West, Flemington, Footscray, Kensington, Maribyrnong, Moonee Ponds, Parkville and Travancore are urged to get tested if they develop any symptoms.
“The unexpected detection may be due to someone who has had COVID-19 that is no longer infectious continuing to ‘shed’ the virus or it may be due to an active but undiagnosed infectious case,” the department says.
It comes after five new locally acquired cases were recorded on Saturday, with one new case detected in hotel quarantine.
READ MORE: Wastewater testing has revealed Covid fragments
Damon Johnston 10pm: Big rise in harm to youth mental health in state
Soaring numbers of children and teenagers are self-harming, battling suicidal thoughts and suffering eating disorders as the long-term trauma of the pandemic and last year’s marathon lockdown continues to hit young Victorians.
A confidential 47-page Andrews government report, seen by The Weekend Australian, reveals alarming levels of mental-health emergencies among youths in February and March this year.
The Victorian Agency for Health Information report – Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services in Victoria – reveals “significant variances” on pre-coronavirus levels across key psychiatric categories.
The state report shows that in the six weeks to March 28, average weekly emergency department presentations for children and teenagers, aged up to 17, was running at 319, a 27 per cent increase on the 251 cases for the same period in 2020. The number of teenagers rushed to hospital after self-harming and suffering suicidal thoughts spiked by 51 per cent, rising from a weekly average of 98 in 2020 to 148 this year.
The most serious cases, where teenagers have needed resuscitation and emergency care, jumped 44.9 per cent, with the 2020 weekly average of 19.8 rising to 28.7 in 2021.
Doctors have told The Weekend Australian there is a high public interest in the mental health data being released, but the VAHI report is marked “confidential” and doctors are advised that if they receive the report in error they should “destroy it”.
The Minister for Mental Health, James Merlino, said the government had committed a record $3.8 billion in 2021-22 to rebuild the state’s mental-health system.
READ MORE: Covid lockdown trauma takes toll on teens
Millie Spencer, Olivia Jenkins 9.30pm: MP at protest as ‘essential worker’
A Victorian state MP has defended her attendance at an illegal protest at Flinders Street station in Melbourne;s CBD on Saturday.
Independent MP Catherine Cumming was at a small business rally a d described herself as “an essential worker’’.
“I’m a member of parliament and I am essential. The media were there, they are essential too,’’ Ms Cumming told the Herald Sun.
“I was not doing anything illegal, just like the media wasn’t doing anything illegal.”
Under current lockdown restrictions, attending a protest is not one of the five reasons to leave one’s home.
“What I am really struggling with at the moment is how government is choosing who and who is not essential, in the way of business,” Ms Cunning said. “I support businesses that have got Covid-safe plans.” Ms Cumming is the Member for the Western Metropolitan Region.
NCA Newswire
ALSO READ: Arrests at Melbourne protests here and here
Patrick Commins 9.10pm: Pandemic property boom surges again
The “red hot” Covid borrowing boom continued into April, new figures show, as new home lending lifted a further 3.7 per cent to a fresh monthly high of $31 billion amid surging property prices and low rates.
The pandemic economic recovery since last year has been remarkable for the money being moved into housing property.
The value of total new housing finance commitments was up almost 70 per cent on a year earlier, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and 55 per cent above average levels recorded before the pandemic.
The value of new loan commitments for owner-occupier housing also forged a new high, up 4.3 per cent in April at $23 billion, the seasonally adjusted figures showed.
CBA head of Australian economics Gareth Aird described the latest borrowing numbers as “red hot” and that “the strength in lending means that home prices will continue to rise strongly over the near term”.
“The early evidence indicates the baton has now been passed from first-home buyers to investors,” Mr Aird said.
READ MORE: Home borrowing hits record $31bn in April
Agencies8pm: Known Covid death toll passes 3.7m people
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 3,714,923 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 8pm AEST on Saturday.
At least 172,499,930 cases of coronavirus have been registered. The vast majority have recovered, though some have continued to experience symptoms weeks or even months later.
The figures are based on daily reports provided by health authorities in each country.
They exclude revisions made by other statistical organisations, which show that the number of deaths is much higher.
The World Health Organisation estimates that the pandemic’s overall toll could be two to three times higher than official records, due to the excess mortality that is directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19.
A large number of the less severe or asymptomatic cases also remain undetected, despite intensified testing in many countries.
On Friday, 9916 new deaths and 427,592 new cases were recorded worldwide. Based on latest reports, the countries with the most new deaths were India with 3380, followed by Brazil with 1454 and the US with 605.
The US is the worst-affected country with 597,001 deaths from 33,346,365 cases.
AFP
ALSO READ: Nine may hold key to Covid origin
Frances Vinall5.45pm:Victoria extends lockdown powers to July 1
The Victorian government has extended its state of emergency, the legal mechanism allowing it to take extraordinary measures to fight Covid-19 including lockdowns.
Health Minister Health Martin Foley extended the state of emergency last week to July 1.
He said it was extended “due to the ongoing serious risk to public health throughout Victoria”.
He consulted with chief health officer Brett Sutton and Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp before signing off on the order, he said.
The state of emergency has been in place in Victoria for over a year.
It first came into effect on March 16, 2020, and has been extended 17 times.
It was announced last March that it would be in place for four weeks.
It would “assist with measures designed to ‘flatten the curve’ of Covid-19 and give our health system the best chance of managing the virus”, Premier Daniel Andrews and then-Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said about 15 months ago.
Brought in under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act, it gives the chief health officer and other authorised people the power to order “any direction an authorised officer considers reasonable to protect public health”.
That includes “detaining people, restricting movement and preventing entry to premises”, through measures such as lockdowns, enforcing mask wearing, and mandatory hotel quarantine for returned travellers.
It does not mean lockdown will be in place until July 1, but gives the government the power to extend lockdown or to bring in other restrictions during that period.
READ MORE:Two mystery cases recorded in Victoria
Kat Lay5.38pm:Covid infections surge but Britain’s reopening on track
Coronavirus cases in England have surged by 76 per cent in a week but the government insisted last night that there was still no evidence to support a delay to the final stages of reopening on June 21.
Infections are rising more quickly than at any time since September but No 10 said that the data remained “as expected”.
Analysis by The Times suggests that although cases may be rising, the proportion of elderly patients in hospitals is falling. Doctors said that Covid patients tended to be younger and less sick than those admitted during the first or second wave.
In January the over-65s made up on average about 62 per cent of hospital admissions for Covid. Last month they made up 45 per cent. Those aged between 18 and 54 made up 37 per cent, up from an average of 22 per cent in January. The number of patients needing intensive care has fallen in all age groups.
The Times
READ MORE:Bernard Salt — Duty and the jab
Rhiannon Down5pm:‘String of broken promises’ on vaccine rollout
Labor MP Andrew Giles has criticised the federal government’s handling of the vaccine rollout amid a string of “broken promises”.
The scale of the negligence is something that is quite extraordinary,” he told the ABC.
“In terms of the vaccine rollout overall, I’m staggered that (the government) can express any degree of comfort, as the minister was saying yesterday, when we’re seeing what’s going on right now in Melbourne.
“We’ve seen so many broken promises from this government when it’s come to the vaccination rollout. We still don’t have an effective campaign.
Mr Giles said the rollout in aged and disability care homes have been the most disappointing, after the issue came under scrutiny in Senate Estimates this week.
“And when we look at the particular circumstance of both residents and workers in aged care and disability care, we have seen the promise of vaccination by Easter completely breached,” he said.
“The standards in disability care are nothing short of a disgrace, as I’ve raised in the parliament this week.”
READ MORE: Naomi Wolf — The plague afflicting liberal democracy
Richard Lloyd Parry4.31pm:Asia loses its winning edge against virus
Last year, Asia looked like a winner in the battle against the coronavirus. While the people of western Europe and North America laboured under alternating lockdowns and surges of infection and death, places such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam were praised for protecting their populations from the worst of the pandemic.
In Tokyo, the government boasted of the success of the “Japanese model”, which kept infections down without a mandatory lockdown or comprehensive testing. In Vietnam, a country of 97 million people, there were no deaths until July last year. People pointed to Asian habits of bowing and cleanliness and to the lessons learnt from the Sars epidemic. Then, this year, the situation began to change.
Countries such as Britain and the United States are making a patchy, uneven but measurable return to normal. The crisis has shifted, first to India and other south Asian countries such as Nepal, and now to southeast Asia.
Last month Singapore closed schools after a surge in the Indian variant. Vietnam says it has detected a “very dangerous” hybrid of the Indian and British strains of the virus, which is being investigated by the World Health Organisation.
READ MORE:Chinese military scientist filed Covid vaccine patent within weeks of pandemic
Agencies4.06pm:Olympic swim champ admits Covid-hit Tokyo ‘scary’
Defending Olympic 100m freestyle champion Kyle Chalmers has admitted the prospect of being in Japan is a “little bit scary”, with the Australian expecting Covid-19 to impact the Tokyo Games.
The 22-year-old, one of Australia’s top swimming gold medal prospects, is ramping up preparations as he readies for an expected Olympic showdown with American Caeleb Dressel.
Chalmers outpaced Dressel to win gold at the Rio Olympics in 2016 but was pipped to the 2019 world title by the American in a jaw-dropping 46.96 seconds.
With Tokyo currently under emergency measures, less strict than blanket lockdowns, to tackle a fourth wave of coronavirus cases, he admitted he was nervous.
“Obviously, it is a little bit scary,” Chalmers said ahead of next weekend’s Australian Olympic trials.
“My biggest fear is getting through the heats and semi-finals and then testing positive for Covid and you’re out of the final and sitting in your bedroom for 14 days.” Most, if not all, Australian athletes will be vaccinated before heading to Tokyo.
AFP
READ MORE:Origin caught in state of trepidation
Rhiannon Down3.43pm: Protesters converge on Melbourne’s CBD
Protesters have gathered in Melbourne’s CBD for the second weekend in a row in contravention of COVID-19 restrictions.
Police have reportedly made multiple arrests after “freedom” protesters met at Flinders St station today.
Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton criticised those who gathered to protest outside vaccine centres and Melbourne’s Flinders Street station on Saturday, saying that the jab was voluntary.
“It is unfortunate that sentiment is in anyone, they represent a small minority,” he said.
“I do should say the vaccine is not mandated, as an individual you are free to not get it if you do not want to get it for yourself.
“I still find some discomfort with that, because we’re all going to be protected with high vaccination coverage, but it is your choice.”
Professor Sutton thanked community members getting the vaccine today and asked those planning to show up to protest not to get in the way of Victorians who were doing the right thing.
“Record numbers again for Victoria, and those Victorians you understand that you are protecting yourself,” he said.
“It is not only helping to protect your immediate family … but those who were too young to get vaccinated, or those who are otherwise unable to be vaccinated right now, they will also have the relative protection of you getting the vaccine.”
READ MORE:Dan’s party suffers from it’s own infectious variant
Natasha Robinson3.15pm:Debate on droplet spread up in the air
From early on in the pandemic in Australia and around the world, debate has raged as to whether Covid-19 spreads via the airborne or droplet route. At the heart of the feud between Australia’s top infection control experts and those labelled “miasma theorists” – who emphasised airborne spread of respiratory infections – were scientific misrepresentations that have permeated public health guidelines and messaging for decades.
In April 2020, the World Health Organisation tweeted: “FACT: #Covid-19 is NOT airborne”. In an about face, the WHO in April acknowledged airborne transmission as a source of SARS-CoV-2 spread, but the organisation remains wedded to the idea that respiratory droplets – that fall to the ground after an infected person coughs or sneezes – are the dominant form of transmission.
Australian infection control guidelines, both commonwealth and state, also continue to state that droplets are the primary cause of virus transmission.
“These dogmas, once they’re adopted particularly by people that don’t understand the science, are very hard to shift,” says the president of the Australian Medical Association (WA), Andrew Miller, one of the most strident critics of the Infection Control Expert Group which advises the Australian Health Protection Principle Committee and formulates national guidelines.
Read the full story here.
Rhiannon Down2.35pm:No local cases as new Qld vaccine hubs open
Queensland has recorded no local cases and one new overseas-acquired case in hotel quarantine, as the state opens its network of community vaccination centres.
The 17 vaccine hubs across Queensland including Cairns Hospital, Queensland Children’s Hospital and Baillie Henderson Hospital Toowoomba opened this weekend, with many already fully booked.
Queensland #COVID19 update 5/6/21
— Queensland Health (@qldhealthnews) June 5, 2021
Queensland has recorded 1 new case of COVID-19 today.
The case was overseas acquired.
Full details can be found here: https://t.co/kapyXpSIAPpic.twitter.com/BQvWFL23Of
As many as 15,000 vaccinations are expected to go into arms at the centres this weekend alone, with Queenslanders asked to book an appointment where possible though walk-ins will be accepted at some centres.
READ MORE:School in limbo after teacher’s long journey from home
David Penberthy2.20pm:Adelaide quarantine guests moved amid testy time
A second scare over the aerosol transmission of Covid-19 in an Adelaide quarantine hotel has forced the evacuation of all residents to a new facility following the testing of an unwell two-year-old boy who returned to Adelaide from India.
The boy’s mother now also has Covid-19 and there are fears it may have become airborne in the hotel corridor after lengthy delays while her distressed son was being tested.
The evacuation comes just one week after SA Health revealed that the Covid-19 case linked to the ongoing Victorian cluster may have been spread by aerosol transmission through opened neighbouring doors at the Playford Hotel.
SA Health said it had taken staff 18 minutes to test the boy and his mother at the Peppers quarantine hotel facility in the Adelaide CBD last Thursday. The delays were caused by the toddler’s distress, and identity check and language difficulties.
Read the full story here.
Rhiannon Down1.42pm:No new cases in NSW, 14,900 vaccinated
NSW has reported zero new cases of locally acquired transmissioned and no new cases from overseas, as health authorities add a Gundagai supermarket to its list of exposure sites.
The double doughnut day comes just days after a Melbourne man and his family travelled to the region on, sparking fears that the virus had crossed the border.
Health authorities added a Foodworks in the NSW town to the list of exposure sites this morning.
“NSW Health has been advised of an additional venue of concern in Gundagai visited by confirmed cases of COVID-19 while they were travelling in the region between 19 and 24 May,” the department said.
NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and no new overseas-acquired cases in the 24 hours to 8pm last night. The total number of cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic remains at 5,401. pic.twitter.com/1Qg7zveWRH
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) June 5, 2021
“Anyone who attended Foodworks at 152 Sheridan Street, Gundagai, on 19 May between 11am and 12pm must monitor for symptoms and if they occur get tested immediately and self-isolate until a negative result is received.”
NSW Health received 19,403 tests were received in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, down from the previous day’s total of 22,583.
It also administered 14,977 vaccines in the same period, including 5478 jabs at Sydney Olympic Park.
READ MORE:Traditional industries safe with us, says Albanese
Rhiannon Down1.30pm: Covid scare shuts down major construction site
A major construction site in Melbourne’s CBD has been shut down after a worker’s partner tested positive for COVID-19.
Victorian testing commander Jeroen Weimar said a shopper at Craigieburn shopping centre contracted the virus, sparking major concerns after the person’s partner went to work at a major construction site employing 170 people.
“We have not yet formally connected the individual to the wide Whittlesea outbreak, but work and investigation is ongoing,” he said.
“In addition, their partner, who is an employee of one of the larger construction sites in the city.
“It does mean we have 170 further workplace contacts with a partner who are now in lockdown.
“My thanks to the construction site concerned, the construction industry has worked incredibly hard over the last year or more to put in place really strong workplace controls, workplace recording systems, and they are now of course, since last night, going through the process of contact tracing with us to make sure that we lock all of our staff down.
“The site is now closed and we will continue to work with them over the coming days to ensure we get those workplaces tested.”
READ MORE: Are Aussies going to miss the travel boat?
Rhiannon Down1.15pm:‘No simple answer’ on when lockdown will lift
Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley has refused to be drawn on when a decision will be made on extending the state’s lockdown.
“There is no simple answer,” he said, when asked about the targets for lifting the lockdown.
“Clearly, as we approach next Thursday, the kind of facts we have been going through here, the evidence, what cases (we are) aware (of), either linked or unlinked, have we got the support around them.
“How we got the evidence that Professor Lewin was talking about, as to knowing where they’ve come from.
“Have we seen any upstream outbreaks however close to the downstream … these all go into the mix and rest assured, the people of Victoria, we don’t want to keep the system in place for a moment longer than the public health advice says we need it in place. “We will have more to say about that in the coming days.”
READ MORE:Hospitality workers, where the bloody hell are you?
Rhiannon Down12.40pm:Delta variant cluster now at nine cases
Victorian testing commander Jeroen Weimar has confirmed that two of today’s five new Covid-19 cases are part of a cluster of the Delta variant.
Mr Weimar confirmed the cluster, which was first detected in one family from West Melbourne who spent six days in NSW last month, had grown to nine cases.
“Then of course, our new cluster, the Delta variant cluster that we are most concerned about,” he said.
“Nine active cases, that is an increase of two from yesterday.
Mr Weimar said one of the cases was in a child belonging to the second family in the cluster, who have already had one child test positive.
“One of those is a second child of the second family,” he said.
“So we have two families of four, both active with Covid, and then one where the primary close contact, a workplace colleague of the first case that was identified a few days ago.
“We have identified some exposure size for that individual.”
READ MORE: Katrina Grace Kelly — Why Victoria? It’s so obvious
Rhiannon Down12.15pm:Delta variant mystery no closer to being solved
Victorian health authorities are still in the dark about how the Delta variant of coronavirus got loose in the community.
Doherty Institute infectious disease expert Sharon Lewin, whose team identifies new cases using genomic sequencing, said it was possible authorities will never know what caused the outbreak.
“It could well be from a post that was positive in quarantine in whom we do not have the genetic sequence,” she said.
“Every effort is being made right now to look for that match, but we may not get the match.”
Professor Lewin said in many cases health experts were unable to get sufficient genetic samples of the virus for testing.
“For 20 per cent of people in hotel quarantine their virus levels are too low in order for us to get the genetic sequence, or they are a phase of their illness which is only fragments of a virus in there,” she said.
“Or the genetic sequencing just does not work, it will happen in a small percentage of people.”
READ MORE:Delta infection more likely to lead to hospital admission
Rhiannon Down11.45am:Three of five new Vic cases already in isolation
Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton has confirmed that three of the five new cases in today’s Covid numbers were already in isolation.
“Certainly it has been gratifying to have three of the five new cases effectively in quarantine during the entire infectious period, so minimal if any new exposure sites tested for them,” he said.
“The two new cases who have not been identified as primary close contacts previously, do have that link to Craigieburn shopping centre and they were frequent attendees of both of those so.
“We have not got a definitive crossover time with known cases, but they did get tested, or at least one of them was prompted to get tested because they saw that we had concerns about those settings as potentially at risk for people who pass and have casual contact with others at.”
Professor Sutton urged residents to pay close attention to the growing list of exposure sites, with today’s cases expected to push the list higher still than its total number on Saturday morning of 366.
“Not to over-emphasise these sites, but you say that it does become a challenge if people are not aware that they are primary close contact, and there will be some exposure size for these individuals because they were not quarantining already,” he said.
“But it has flagged that you should look at all of the exposure sites that are listed, and not just reflect on their specific times and days for those exposure sites.
“But if you are a frequent attendee of some of the shopping centres in particular, and you do not know the exact times and dates that you might have been there, you should think about getting tested, and certainly if you are symptomatic.”
READ MORE:Paul Kelly — Victoria is failing. This cannot go on
Rhiannon Down11.10am:Why aged care jabs not mandatory yet
Liberal MP Julian Leeser says the government hasn’t mandated Covid jabs for aged care workers over fears it would make it hard to retain staff in the sector.
The federal government announced after Friday’s National Cabinet meeting that it would be mandatory for all aged care centres to report their staff vaccination numbers for June 15.
“We’re making sure that there aren’t any unintended consequences,” he told the ABC.
“When there was a mandate of security guards in Western Australia, we saw people leave that particular line of work.
“We can’t afford to have people leaving the aged care sector.”
Mr Leeser defended the vaccine rollout against criticism after it was revealed this week in senate estimates that Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck didn’t know how many workers in the sector had received the jab.
“The vaccine rollout is going at a cracking pace at the moment,” he said.
“We’ve got 4.8 million people who’ve been vaccinated. It continues to roll out at an exponential pace.
“We have 1 million people vaccinated in the last 10 days. When the vaccine rollout started, it took 47 days to vaccinate people. The second million in 19, the third million in 13.”
READ MORE:Peter van Onselen — Ready or not, the nation will reopen
Peter Lalor10.44am:Covid costs cricket $50m and counting
Covid cost Australian cricket $50 million in 2020-21 and newly appointed chief executive Nick Hockley says the game is bracing itself for even greater expense in an Ashes summer with six international teams due to tour.
Speaking exclusively to the Cricket Et Cetera podcast, Hockley revealed the additional costs incurred in the BBL, state cricket, the Indian Tests and the women’s series against New Zealand totalled almost $27m.
The new CEO indicated head office would be looking for a way to get players and states to share the one-off expenses — a signal that CA will be looking to modify elements of the MOU in negotiations which are due to start soon.
Former chief executive Kevin Roberts had predicted a $30 million impact this time last year and eventually lost his job as staff and the states bristled at his pre-emptive cost-cutting measures.
Loss of revenues, including ticket sales, pushed the total impact of the pandemic on the 2020-21 summer much higher.
Read the full story here.
Rhiannon Down10.08am:Costco, office building join 366 Melbourne exposure sites
Victoria’s list of exposure sites has surpassed 360 locations after a Costco supermarket, office building and northern suburbs shopping centre were added to the alert list.
The Costco Wholesale store in Docklands, CBD office building at 55 Collins St, and Merrifield City Shopping Centre at Mickleham have been listed at Tier 2 sites, with authorities asking anyone who visited the sites during the exposure window to get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result.
The locations and exposure times were added late on Friday night bringing the list to 366 locations.
The list now includes:
– Costco Wholesale Docklands, 381 Footscray Road, Docklands: Sunday May 30 between 3pm and 4.30pm.
– 55 Collins (office building), 55 Collins Street, Melbourne: Tuesday 25 May between 8.30am to 6.30pm.
– Merrifield City Shopping Centre, 270 Donnybrook Road, Mickleham: Monday May 31 from 9.45am to 10.40am.
READ MORE:Chris Kenny — The Covid beast that ate our brains
Rhiannon Down9.28am:Victoria records five new locally acquired cases
Victoria has recorded five new local cases of Covid-19, bringing the cluster that plunged the state into its fourth lockdown to 72 cases.
One additional case was recorded in hotel quarantine bringing the state’s total active cases to 78.
It comes as health authorities race to uncover the source of a new cluster of Delta variant cases linked to a West Melbourne family who spent six days in NSW.
Victorians continued to turn up in droves at Covid testing sites on Friday, with 36,362 tests received in the 24 hours to 8pm.
Meanwhile, 23,263 vaccine doses were administered in the same period.
Reported yesterday: 5 new local cases and 1 new case acquired overseas (currently in HQ).
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) June 4, 2021
- 24,263 vaccine doses were administered
- 36,362 test results were received
More later: https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco#COVID19Vic#COVID19VicDatapic.twitter.com/nbhjV98XDS
More to come …
Adam Creighton8.50am:Chinese lab leak theory gains momentum
Senior officials in the US government – under the Trump and Biden administrations – tried to throttle investigations into the theory, until recently dismissed as a conspiracy, that Covid-19 might have accidentally leaked from a Chinese laboratory.
Senior State Department officials were mired in conflicts of interest because of their previous support for controversial virology research and one group set up to prove the lab leak scenario was “repeatedly advised not to open a Pandora’s box”, according to four former departmental staffers.
In an investigation published on Friday, US magazine Vanity Fair reported Christopher Park, a senior State Department figure, advised other officials “not to say anything that would point to the US government’s own role in gain-of-function research”.
The investigation – which comes days after release of a series of emails that suggested Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, entertained the idea last year that Sars-CoV-2 was “engineered” – will put pressure on the US government’s new investigation into the origin of the disease called by Joe Biden last month.
Read the full story here.
Rhiannon Down8.20am:Ethnic groups left out in the cold on jab info
Australia’s multicultural communities are calling on state and federal governments to bolster their information campaigns surrounding the Covid-19 jab, as concerns mount over the risk posed by dangerous vaccine conspiracy theories to people with limited English language skills.
Melbourne father of eight Ambrose Mareng, who founded the Sudd Foundation to support his South Sudanese community, said many people in his tight-knit community with limited English had struggled to access reliable information about the vaccine.
Mr Mareng, 52, said his organisation had been left to “bridge the gap” left by government information, translating Covid-19 information into Dinka to share on social media, and hitting the phones to reach those not online.
“There is a lot of negativity (surrounding the vaccine) in the media which confuses individuals and families,” he said.
“That’s where we can come in to bridge the gap with the right information from the government, translate it, and share it around.”
Read the full story here.
Angelica Snowden7.40am:Melbourne residents banned from ski-season opening
Melburnians will be banned from the opening of the ski season after the extension of the Covid-19 lockdown for non-regional residents.
“I want to be upfront with people that even if all goes well, we won’t be able to have people from Melbourne travelling to regional Victoria during the Queen’s Birthday long weekend,” Acting Premier James Merlino said yesterday.
It is unclear if popular ski destinations at Mount Buller, Falls Creek and Mount Hotham plan to open and operate ski lifts for regional visitors only next weekend.
The Victorian ski resorts’ misfortune is in contrast to Perisher resort in NSW, which opened a week early on Friday following early snowfalls and good snow-making conditions.
Read the full story here.
Jack Paynter7.15am:Why Victorian police ditched ‘ring of steel’
Police have revealed why they ditched the “ring of steel” separating locked-down Melbourne and the rest of the state after restrictions were eased in regional Victoria overnight.
Restrictions have been extended for another seven days for metropolitan Melbourne – until 11.59pm on June 10 – as the latest community outbreak swelled to 65 cases.
Regional Victoria was freed from tough stay-at-home orders on Friday.
Police set up static checkpoints on major roads out of Melbourne the last time the city and country were under differing levels of Covid-19 restrictions.
But there will be no “ring of steel” this time, police instead focusing efforts on roving patrols on the main arterial roads out of Melbourne, along with back roads, and using automatic number plate recognition technology to help identify cars from metropolitan areas.
Read the full story here.
Stephen Lunn6.45am:Delay on compulsory jabs for aged-care staff
National cabinet has stopped short of making Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory for aged and disability care workers, instead agreeing on an “in-principle disposition” to move towards the idea.
But nursing homes must report from June 15 how many workers have received the jab as the federal government looks to draw a line under a damaging political week in which it was forced to admit it didn’t know how many carers had been vaccinated.
Scott Morrison on Friday said the commonwealth and states had asked the nation’s top medical expert panel to advise how a mandatory program for aged and disability care worker vaccination could be implemented, and to recommend a time frame.
The AHPPC earlier this year recommended against mandatory vaccines for aged-care workers, and took the same advice to national cabinet on Friday.
Chief medical officer Professor Kelly said the AHPPC had to weigh up “unintended consequences” of mandatory vaccination, including concerns aged-care workers could flee the sector if forced to vaccinate.
Read the full story here.
Geoff Chambers6.10am:Frewen leads Operation Borders-style jab plan
Scott Morrison has appointed Lieutenant-General John Frewen to lead a powerful new national Covid-19 vaccination taskforce under an “Operation Sovereign Borders” model, integrating multiple government departments, agencies and stakeholders to maintain the record pace of inoculations across the country.
The Prime Minister, state and territory leaders on Friday also ordered the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee to devise an urgent plan to implement mandatory vaccination of aged-care and disability workers. With 20 per cent adults having received their first Covid-19 jab and the country on track to hit 5 million doses by the end of the week, the Morrison government has moved to fast-track vaccine supply to reach more Australians.
National cabinet agreed to expand access to vaccines from next Tuesday, with Pfizer jabs to be made available for all Australians aged 40-49, and vaccines ensured for Indigenous Australians and people on the NDIS and their associated carers over the age of 16. Temporary visa holders under 50 who have been approved for return travel to Australia under exemptions will also be eligible.
Health Minister Greg Hunt also announced the commonwealth would increase the supply of vaccines to Victoria in response to a vaccination spike in the state, fuelled by the latest outbreak. In the 24 hours to Friday, a daily record 143,659 doses were delivered taking the overall number to more than 1 million in 10 days.
The elevation of Lt-Gen Frewen – a former acting head of the Australian Signals Directorate who led the Australian Defence Force’s Operation Covid-19 Assist – adds to the role of Commodore Eric Young, appointed under Mr Morrison’s “war footing” to manage vaccine supply and distribution.
Read the full story here.
Rachel Baxendale5.30am:Breakout virus cluster sparks national search for source
Health authorities in multiple states are checking genomic sequencing data for all known Delta variant cases of coronavirus in Australia, as mystery surrounds the origins of a cluster of seven cases linked to a West Melbourne family who spent six days in NSW.
The revelation that the seven cases are unrelated to Melbourne’s other community-acquired cases came amid confusion over the Andrews government’s handling of two false positive cases revealed late on Thursday, which contributed to Wednesday’s decision to extend Melbourne’s lockdown.
Of 67 community-acquired cases diagnosed in Victoria since a man in his 30s caught the virus in an Adelaide quarantine hotel and returned to the outer northern Melbourne suburb of Wollert on May 4, 54 are linked to the main Whittlesea cluster across Melbourne’s northern suburbs and an associated workplace in Port Melbourne, while five are associated with a cluster linked to the Arcare aged-care facility in Maidstone in Melbourne’s west.
The direct links between the Wollert man, the Whittlesea cluster and the Arcare outbreak have not been established, but genomic sequencing has shown all are cases of the Indian B. 1.617.1 Kappa variant of coronavirus which originate from the Wollert case.
The West Melbourne cluster was first detected on Tuesday in a man who had driven with his family to Jervis Bay on the NSW south coast, via Gundagai and Goulburn, camping in the Booderee National Park from May 19 and visiting several local towns, before returning to Melbourne via the same route on May 24.
Victorian chief health officer Professor Brett Sutton said it was “absolutely” within the bounds of possibility that the family had contracted the virus in NSW, given the average incubation time for coronavirus is five or six days.
However, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard told 2GB that there was “no evidence whatsoever” that the family had picked up the virus in his state, given no match had been found on a national database of genomic sequences of all coronavirus cases in Australia.
“There is no evidence whatsoever that this family picked up the variant in NSW,” he said. “There’s no evidence, equally, that they picked it up in Victoria. There is simply no evidence at this time.”
Read the full story here.
Michael McKenna5.15am:Morrison pulls rug on Queensland quarantine plan
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk delivered her final, detailed plan for a regional quarantine camp to the federal government on Friday, only for the proposal to be almost immediately scuttled by a new requirement for the facility to be built on commonwealth land.
State officials were blindsided by the new provision in the federal government’s criteria for partnership with states on proposed quarantine facilities.
The move was interpreted as a bid by Scott Morrison to kill off the Queensland plan, expected to cost $300 million in its first year and which had been backed by the university and agricultural sectors to help fast-track the return of overseas students and workers to the state.
The move came as the federal government approved a 500-bed quarantine facility in Victoria – either in Avalon, near Geelong, or Mickleham to Melbourne’s north – and pledged $200 million towards its construction. It is expected to be completed by January next year.
Read the full story, by Michael McKenna and Charlie Peel, here.
Sharri Markson5am:US paid PLA to engineer viruses before pandemic
Anthony Fauci’s institute funded research by the Chinese military, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and American scientists to genetically manipulate coronaviruses soon before the pandemic hit.
The revelation shows American money was funding risky research on coronaviruses with People’s Liberation Army scientists – including decorated military scientist Zhou Yusen and the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s “Bat Woman”, Shi Zhengli.
Their research paper, submitted to the Journal of Virology in November 2019, was funded with three grants from the National Institutes of Health, via US universities. Details of the research funding, contained in the forthcoming book What Really Happened In Wuhan, go to the heart of whether senior US officials were reluctant to give credence to the theory that Covid-19 may be a result of a laboratory leak, out of concern that it would expose their complicity in providing funding to a facility that intelligence agencies suspected might have sparked the pandemic.
Read Sharri Markson’s exclusive story here.
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