Coronavirus Australia live news: Countdown to Victoria lockdown
The state will be subject to statewide restrictions from midnight, as 10,000 contacts are identified and the virus cluster cases hit 26, with one in ICU.
- Queensland to close border to Victoria
- Victoria lockdown announced
- Statewide lockdown to last seven days
- Cluster grows to 26
- Melbourne to enter lockdown as cluster grows
- Open door in Adelaide started outbreak
Welcome to live updates on Australia’s unfolding Covid-19 situation.
The Victorian government has announced a seven-day statewide lockdown from midnight, after 11 new cases were confirmed overnight, bringing the cluster total to 26.
Patrick Commins11.30pm:Stay-at-home order a $1.3bn hit to business
Victoria’s “circuit breaker” seven-day lockdown will cost the national economy $1.3 billion and “devastate” businesses in the country’s second largest city.
The measures announced on Thursday to suppress the latest Covid-19 outbreak include forcing shops to move to click and collect, and cafes and restaurants to offer takeaway only.
Victorians will not be allowed to travel more than 5km from home for non-essential business, children will study from home, and private and public gatherings have been banned.
John Ferguson10.45pm: Stoicism as virus empties a city again
The impotence of lockdown life started almost as soon as it was declared.
The stoic, some might say meek, Melbourne community accepted the Lockdown 4.0 news like it had happened a few times before. Just as it had.
No school, no community sport, no restaurants, no pubs. No point.
Just after midday, a skateboarder spoke for 6.6 million people when he cruised down the hill in Melbourne’s Bourke St in no danger of being struck.
A solid 12 hours before the official shutdown, fewer than 20 commuters were under the clocks in Flinders St. A familiar pattern followed throughout the capital as grey nomads fled the city up the Hume Freeway in their hundreds and the holiday house crew loaded their cars for the frigid surf.
Melbourne airport was heaving with domestic refugees and people quietly started to again vigorously wash their hands and log into the QR code system.
Tom Whipple10pm:Could a lab leak really be to blame for Covid-19?
Alina Chan is scared. “I don’t know what’s going to happen next,” she says. “The thing has become so big now that I can’t control it.”
She corrects herself. “I’ve never been in control of it, and now it is even worse.”
This is, in normal times, an oddly paranoid way for an early-career researcher to talk about a chain of events that began with a not-peer-reviewed paper on the evolutionary dynamics of a virus.
It is less odd, of course, when you realise that the virus is coronavirus and that her paper, published a year ago, made the case that those evolutionary dynamics were a bit odd. More specifically, it argued that the virus was unusually — one could say, though she didn’t, suspiciously — well adapted to humans.
In the months since, Chan, a researcher at the Broad Institute in Massachusetts in the US, has conducted a sometimes lonely campaign, collecting evidence that contradicts the accepted narrative of how this pandemic began — evidence that points to it starting not in central China’s bat caves, but in the lax biosecurity controls of central China’s laboratories.
Followers of her Twitter feed have learnt about the bats of the Mojiang mine, the missing spreadsheets of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the alleged conflicts of interest of the World Health Organisation investigators.
Nicholas Jensen 9.15pm: Ghan passengers forced off train
Scores of passengers travelling to the Northern Territory on the Ghan have been ejected from the iconic train after they were found to have visited some of Victoria’s high-risk exposure sites.
More than 30 passengers travelling from the Greater Melbourne region boarded the train on Wednesday and were stopped at the South Australian town of Marla, about 1000km from Adelaide.
On board the Ghan. Passengers who have been to Greater Melbourne in past 14 days offloaded in Marla and getting put on a bus back to Adelaide. @7NewsAdelaide@sunriseon7pic.twitter.com/i986dXIqsO
— Amanda Bachmann (@akbachmann) May 27, 2021
On Thursday afternoon the passengers were escorted from the train onto a bus and driven back to Adelaide.
Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions, which runs the train service, said affected guests would be provided with overnight accommodation in Adelaide.
“Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions is currently working with state government authorities and affected guests as a result of the developing COVID-19 situation in Victoria and subsequent border restrictions,” a company spokesperson said.
“Our priority is to ensure the safety and welfare of our guests and crew while complying with state government mandates.”
READ MORE:Labor states place the blame on jabs, hotel quarantine
Nicholas Jensen8.45pm: Hunt defends vaccine rollout
Greg Hunt has defended the commonwealth’s vaccine rollout, saying close to half a million Australians have now been fully immunised against Covid-19.
But the Health Minister acknowledged that 74 aged-care facilities across the country were yet to be vaccinated.
“We have 98 per cent of (aged care) facilities around Australia (vaccinated) and a program that’s protecting Australians,” Mr Hunt told ABC’s 7.30 program on Thursday night.
Asked about the Victorian outbreak, he emphasised that almost 99 per cent of Victorian aged-care facilities had been vaccinated, despite “some issues whether it was a gastro outbreak or the flu vaccine”.
Mr Hunt said nine more aged-care facilities in Victoria were to be vaccinated on Friday.
“Given the epidemiological situation in Victoria,” Mr Hunt said, “we have been able to bring forward the period in between the flu vaccine and the doses which are now to be given tomorrow”.
READ MORE:Could a lab leak really be to blame for Covid-19?
Rachel Baxendale8.20pm: Exposure sites list nears 200
The Victorian health department’s tally of public coronavirus exposure sites for the Whittlesea cluster has reached 104, with the department noting that the list “does not include small, private or closed exposure sites such as Uber rides or medical appointments”.
This means the total of 150 public and private exposure sites cited by Acting Premier James Merlino at Thursday morning’s press conference — when the public list was closer to 70 — has now grown to closer to 200.
The new sites added to the list on Thursday extend across Melbourne, from Yarraville and Seddon in the city’s inner west to Aspendale Gardens and Cranbourne in the bayside and outer southeast, Carlton, Fitzroy, Brunswick, Coburg and Bundoora in the inner north and north, Tullamarine in the northwest, and South Melbourne.
They include multiple gyms, pubs and restaurants, a cinema, a Thai massage studio, a nail salon, a hair salon, an optometrist and a service station.
The health department said it was still particularly concerned about exposure sites made public on Wednesday at the Three Monkeys and Somewhere Bar bars in Prahran and Circus Bar in nearby South Yarra, in Melbourne’s inner southeastern Chapel Street precinct, where a positive case spent a long night out from Saturday night into the early hours of Sunday morning.
“The department calls on the public to come forward or advise any friends who they know visited these sites,” it said.
The department’s full list of coronavirus exposure sites can be accessed here.
READ MORE: Victimising vaccine-hesitant won’t work
Rachel Baxendale7.50pm: Hotline flooded with Pfizer queries
The announcement that Victorians aged over 40 will be able to make appointments to receive the Pfizer jab at state-administered vaccine hubs from Friday helped generate 77,000 calls to Victoria’s coronavirus hotline in 15 minutes, the state’s health department says.
Many failed to get through, with the department saying the demand “caused a number of technical issues which network providers have been successfully restoring throughout the day – and more resources will be added”.
Stopping short of apologising, the department said in its daily press release that it was “grateful for everyone’s enthusiasm and patience”.
READ MORE: Victorians react to another lockdown
Rachel Baxendale7.20pm:Close contacts list hits 14,000
The number of primary and secondary close contacts linked to Victoria’s Whittlesea cluster of 26 coronavirus cases has now reached “around 14,000”, according to Victoria’s health department.
In its daily press release, issued on Wednesday night, the department revealed the 12 latest cases comprise three men in their 40s, four men in their 30s, and two men and three women in their 20s.
READ MORE: Playing the Covid-19 blame game is a gamble
Emily Cosenza6.40pm:India flight touches down in Melbourne
A repatriation flight from India has landed in Melbourne hours before the state is plunged into a seven-day lockdown.
About 150 people on Qantas flight QF112 arrived in the Covid-19 stricken city just before 5pm on Thursday after travelling from New Delhi via Darwin.
All passengers who boarded the plane returned negative tests for COVID-19 and will begin their two weeks of isolation in hotel quarantine.
Victoria’s acting Premier James Merlino announced the snap week-long lockdown on Thursday after the state recorded 11 new locally acquired cases.
Richard Lloyd Parry 6.13pm:Sponsor calls for Tokyo Olympics to be cancelled
One of Japan’s biggest newspapers has become the first Olympic sponsor to call for the cancellation of the Tokyo Games, saying that the decision to press ahead during a global pandemic is “beyond reason” and denouncing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for “self-righteousness”.
The Asahi Shimbun, which sells 4.9 million copies a day, is the latest Japanese institution to demand the cancellation of the Olympics — due to begin on July 23 — and Paralympics. The editorial comes a day after the United States warned its citizens not to visit Japan because of a fourth wave of the pandemic, which is overwhelming hospitals in parts of the country and has forced Tokyo and other big cities to adopt a state of emergency.
David Penberthy5.45pm:‘Breach’ a ‘misnomer’: SA disputes blame game
The infection of a healthy man in Adelaide hotel quarantine who subsequently spread Covid to Victoria was not a “breach”, the South Australian Government has argued in a bid to shirk any responsibility for the release of the virus into the community.
SA chief health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier said it was a “misnomer” for Victorian acting Premier James Merlino to describe the incident as a breach and that all steps had been taken in accordance with existing protocols.
Mr Merlino said on Thursday that the lockdown would not be happening if not for the transmission of the virus to the healthy man in SA, who then left hotel quarantine and unwittingly spread the virus on his arrival in Victoria.
“The reason why we are dealing with this outbreak today is because of a hotel breach in South Australia, that is not a criticism, it is just a fact,” he said.
But Professor Spurrier insisted that the protocols had been followed after it emerged that a person inside the Playford Hotel had tested positive to Covid.
That person was subsequently moved to the Tom’s Court facility, a dedicated medi-hotel used to house people who have tested positive.
“Our protocol, to be very clear, is that somebody who is infectious … is shifted to Tom’s Court, not everybody who has been in contact,” Prof Spurrier said.
“Because, in fact, everybody that has had potential contact with Covid is in one of our medi-hotels by the very fact that they’ve come from overseas.”
“We were doing the very best we could. We were following every protocol, and not only that we’ve had continuous quality improvement processes in our medi-hotels.”
An SA Health report released on Wednesday identified the opening of guest room doors between adjoining rooms at the Playford Hotel as the likely source of aerosol transmission from one infected guest to another.
Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas has rejected the Government’s explanation and said it was time to admit hotel quarantine was a failure.
“If I was premier now I’d be actively working with the Commonwealth Government about building a purpose-built quarantine facility that works,” he said.
He called on SA to work with the Commonwealth to establish a facility outside of the CBD similar to Howard Springs in Darwin.
“That facility hasn’t had a single breach of quarantine, despite having a significant number of Covid cases coming through that facility, which stands in stark contrast to the medi-hotels around the country,” he said.
READ MORE:AFL scrambles to contain Covid chaos
Nicholas Jensen5.25pm:TGA confirms two clotting cases in WA
The Therapeutic Goods Administration has confirmed two new cases of TTS (Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome), in a man and a woman who were recently vaccinated in Western Australia, saying both are “likely associated with the AstraZeneca jab”.
WA Health is working closely with the TGA to investigate the cases.
One is a woman in her early 50s, who is currently in a stable condition at Perth Metropolitan Hospital. The second is a male in his 70s, who is also from the Perth metropolitan area and is recovering at home.
Due to patient confidentiality, WA Health says it will not be releasing further details on these patients, requesting people to respect their privacy.
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation estimates the risk of developing TTS from the AstraZeneca jab is approximately 2.6 per 100,000 in those younger than 50, and 1.6 per 100,000 in those older than 50.
WA Health says experts at ATAGI are “continuously reviewing the benefit versus risk profile of both the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines”.
“The risk of Covid-19 remains real, as evidenced by the current situation in Victoria, and the risk of severe disease or death associated with Covid-19 illness far outweighs the risks associated with vaccination.”
READ MORE: Why victimising the vaccine-hesitant won’t work
Remy Varga5.15pm:Timeline to four Victorian lockdowns
Victoria has done it all before. As a seven-day snap lockdown looms, with restrictions to kick in statewide from midnight in response to the latest coronavirus outbreak, here is the pandemic path the state has had to tread.
Rachel Baxendale4.30pm:Daniel Andrews in loop with Merlino on lockdown
Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino says he has been in constant contact with Premier Daniel Andrews over the past few days, but it appears Mr Andrews was not a direct participant in meetings to determine the length and nature of the state’s latest lockdown.
Mr Andrews has been recovering at home on sick leave since March, when he fell on slippery steps at a Mornington Peninsula holiday rental property and broke his back and several ribs.
He has not made any public statements since April 18, when he tweeted that although he was walking for an hour each day — up from 15 minutes during his early rehabilitation — he would miss the May 20 state budget but his team of specialists were confident he would be back at work in June.
“I spoke to the Premier this morning and yesterday as well,” Mr Merlino said on Thursday.
“His recovery is going well. This was a nasty incident — fractured ribs, fractured vertebrae, very, very lucky, a very nasty injury and a long recovery.
“Anyone who’s had a major back injury knows that the duration, the pain of that recovery, but he’s going well, he’s walking. He put out a statement a little while ago that he hopes to be back in June. That’s going to be subject to his doctors’ advice, but he is going well.”
Asked whether Mr Andrews had been a participant in cabinet meetings to determine the lockdown, or had been consulted on the sidelines, Mr Merlino said the Premier had been involved through “engagement with myself”.
“As I’ve said a number of times, whether it is the budget, whether it’s other big decisions, whether it’s the pandemic and how we respond on the big issues, I’m regularly in contact with the Premier, but in terms of the day-to-day business of government and meetings, we want him focused on his recovery,” Mr Merlino said.
Emergency Services and Police Minister Lisa Neville, who held responsibility for hotel quarantine, has also been on leave since February, when she was admitted to hospital due to ongoing complications associated with Crohn’s disease.
In April she underwent bowel surgery, and was not expected to return to work until at least July.
Mr Merlino said he did not have any update on Ms Neville’s return, or that of Victoria’s Covid-19 logistics chief Jeroen Weimar, who is on more temporary sick leave.
“I don’t, at this stage. Lisa is recovering, and I spoke to her about a week ago. Jeroen is ill at the moment and hopefully he’ll be back on his feet shortly,” Mr Merlino said.
READ MORE:‘Hell and back’: retailers’ $1bn blow
Remy Varga4.25pm:How states and territories reacted to lockdown
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly declared Melbourne a hotspot after Victoria saw rapid transmission of the Indian B.1.617 strain.
Meanwhile, Australia’s other states and territories have also closed their doors to or introduced restrictions on Victorian residents.
NSW: Any Victorian who entered NSW after 4pm on Thursday has to abide by restrictions of the state’s fourth lockdown, including only leaving a primary address for food and essential items, medical care or caregiving, essential work and permitted study, two-hours of exercise and to undergo a vaccination.
ACT: Anyone entering the ACT from Victoria on or after 11.59pm on Thursday has to abide by restrictions of the state’s fourth lockdown, including the five permitted reasons to leave their primary residence.
As well, Victorians will be allowed to leave for animal welfare reasons such as tending to livestock.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA: South Australia shut its border to Victorians on Wednesday, prior to Acting Premier James Merlino announcing the state’s fourth lockdown.
After 6pm on May 26, nobody who had been in greater Melbourne since May 20 would be allowed in South Australia.
There are exemptions for SA residents, people relocating to the state and people fleeing domestic but they will need to undergo quarantine for 14-days.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA: WA announced a “hard border” with Victoria from 10am WST on Thursday, with only residents trying to get home allowed to return to the state.
Anyone who had been in Victoria since May 15 must undergo a test within 48-hours of their return and self-quarantine until they receive a negative result.
QUEENSLAND: Queensland closed its borders to Victorians from 1am Friday and any arrivals after this time will have to complete hotel quarantine.
Anyone already in Queensland who had been in Victoria in the past 14 days will have to follow restrictions under the latest lockdown.
NORTHERN TERRITORY: NT shut its borders to anyone who had been in Melbourne or the Bendigo from 12.01am Thursday. Incoming passengers have been transported to the Alice Springs or Howard Springs quarantine facilities for 14 days upon arrival in the NT. Anyone who arrived between May 12 and Thursday are required to undergo testing and isolate until they receive a negative COVID-19 result.
TASMANIA: Tasmania closed its borders from 2pm on Thursday, with anyone who had been in Victoria in the 14-days prior to their arrival forbidden unless they had approval as an essential worker.
Nicholas Jensen3.45pm:Melbourne hotspot official, for seventh time
Federal chief medical officer Paul Kelly has declared Greater Melbourne a commonwealth “hotspot”, saying that rapidly increasing transmission overnight has caused a high risk situation.
“I declare this is the seventh time this has happened (a commonwealth hotspot) for Greater Melbourne ... the reason for that is that it has reached that definition of concern from the commonwealth level.”
Professor Kelly said the Victorian cases are related to India’s current outbreak and a higher level of transmission, saying we should proceed with caution.
Professor Kelly said the hotspot status will activate “some of the support from the commonwealth, especially in relation to single site support for aged care facility staff”.
While Professor Kelly said additional PPE and vaccines would be delivered to Victoria, he urged all Victorians to focus on getting vaccinated as a matter of urgency.
“I have said many times on this podium and other podiums, please get vaccinated,” he said.
“To protect yourself, your family and to contribute to the protection of the whole community in Australia — if you are in those groups where vaccination is available right now - please make that appointment and get vaccinated.”
Commodore Eric Young also reported that the Therapeutic Goods Administration cleared 352,170 doses of Pfizer on Sunday evening.
“At this stage we will clear 54,000 doses of CSL, manufactured by AstraZeneca, in the coming days and they will conduct a batch testing of another 550,000 doses of AstraZeneca.”
Commodore Young said supply to Victoria will be based on “the utilisation chart released on Monday”, adding that 268,000 doses will be available for the Victorian Health Department to administer “on top of what they are getting each week.”
Rachel Baxendale3.41pm:‘Absurd’ to say contact tracers are getting it wrong
Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton earlier defended the state’s contact tracers at the press conference to announce Victoria’s lockdown, telling a journalist who asked why the state was “getting contact tracing so wrong” that her proposition was “absurd”.
Since the first case in the Whittlesea cluster was detected on Monday morning, contact tracers have identified 26 cases across more than 150 public and private exposure sites, with 10,000 primary and secondary close contacts identified.
More than a fortnight ago contact tracers identified and isolated more than 100 primary close contacts of the Wollert man in his 30s who caught coronavirus in an Adelaide quarantine hotel.
But they have not managed to establish how the index case in the Whittlesea cluster caught the virus via the Wollert man, and have clearly been struggling to keep up with the sheer volume of new cases and exposure sites, with lags of up to eight hours between businesses and community groups notifying their customers and members that they have been exposed, and the sites appearing on the health department website.
A bungle saw the department declare the wrong Epping Woolworths as an exposure site for the Wollert man before correcting the mistake 10 days later also shook public confidence in contact tracing, although it has not yet been demonstrated to have played a direct role in the spread of the Whittlesea cluster.
“It is an absurd proposition that contact tracing has gone wrong,” Professor Sutton said at the press conference.
“We’ve talked about exactly what the contact tracing team have done here, and it is an extraordinary job. Contact tracing is an integral part of how to get control. It does not do magic.
“If you’ve got someone who’s incredibly infectious, and we’ve had a case, in this outbreak, and they’ve been around and about as most people have in Australia now, with the settings that we have, there is enormous opportunity to transmit to many other people.”
Professor Sutton said it was “entirely appropriate” that some people would learn of exposure sites on venues’ social media pages before they were officially confirmed by the health department.
“This is a collective effort and it’s entirely appropriate for businesses with the channels that they have to contact all of their clients and their customers when they know that they’re an exposure site,” he said.
“We’ll do the double-checking of their details to get it up on our website and people should check that, but when a setting knows that they’re an exposure site, and they will have their own mechanisms, they’ve got their own Facebook pages, Instagram pages, they’ve got their client and customer lists and they can email en masse and provide that information.
“They will and must do that, as we formally put the exact times, verified, and exact locations on our website.”
“There will be some people who do not check websites, there’ll be some people who’ll turn up at a setting and see the sign on the door, so we have to use all methods.”
READ MORE: Playing Covid-19 blame game a gamble
Nicholas Jensen3.30pm:Brett Sutton: no need for scapegoats
Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton has taken to Twitter to defend the state’s contact tracers, saying that he won’t allow them to be attacked and used as “scapegoat”.
I think I've been pretty calm over the last 16 months and I hope I've always been respectful. But I *will* get fired up when contact tracers are attacked. They do extraordinary work and do it brilliantly. 10,000 contacts found! The false narrative hurts real people, mentally. (1)
— Chief Health Officer, Victoria (@VictorianCHO) May 27, 2021
Following this morning’s Covid-19 press briefing, in which Professor Sutton faced questions regarding Victoria’s contact tracing, he Tweeted: “I think I’ve been pretty calm over the last 16 months and I hope I’ve always been respectful. But I *will* get fired up when contact tracers are attacked.”
“They do extraordinary work and do it brilliantly. 10,000 contacts found! The false narrative hurts real people, mentally.”
Professor Sutton called on the public to support the effort of contact tracers and not to search for an “imaginary scapegoat”.
“It’s the time to support Victorians going through another really tough time. We know what to do now and we’ll do it like no other. You’ve gotta love Victorians for how we support each other.”
Adeshola Ore3.10pm:Welfare ‘tasks’ put on hold for Victorians
Mutual obligation requirements for Victorians receiving welfare payments will be paused until June 7, as the state prepares to enter a snap lockdown.
The suspension will apply across the entire state from today until Monday, June 7. It applies to job seeker in Jobactive, Online Employment Services, Disability Employment Services and participants in ParentsNext.
Mutual obligations are compulsory tasks welfare recipients must do, such as attending appointments, in exchange for payments.
Adeshola Ore2.55pm:Commonwealth to declare Greater Melbourne a hotspot
Health Minister Greg Hunt says the commonwealth is due to announce Greater Melbourne as a commonwealth coronavirus hotspot.
Victoria will enter a snap seven-day lockdown from midnight on Thursday after it was revealed contact tracers had identified 10,000 primary and secondary contacts linked to the coronavirus outbreak which is now at 26 cases.
Mr Hunt said Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly had advised him about the classification following a meeting with a medical expert panel.
Professor Kelly is due to address the media at 3.30pm.
A commonwealth hotspot helps the federal government to determine federal government support such as deployment of supplies from the national medical stockpile and additional funding.
Charlie Peel2.45pm:Hotspot: Queensland to shut border to Victoria
Queensland’s border will close to Victorians from 1am Friday and anyone returning to Queensland will be forced into hotel quarantine.
Annastacia Palaszczuk announced on Thursday afternoon that Victoria would be declared a Covid-19 hotspot.
The premier said anyone who has been to Victoria in the past 14 days who has already returned to Queensland will be required to follow the same lockdown measures as if they were in Victoria.
Chief health officer Jeannette Young said anyone who has been in Victoria in the past two weeks needs to be tested for the virus and that anyone who has booked in to receive a vaccine but is subject to the lockdown restrictions will still be able to keep their appointment.
Police will be stationed at Queensland airports to check arrivals have complied with the measures.
Rachel Baxendale2.35pm:Now 86 exposure sites, some dating back to May 13
Exposure sites dating back to May 13 have just been added to the Victorian Health Department’s list — indicating authorities may be getting closer to working out how the previous index case, Case Five, caught the virus from the Wollert man in his 30s who caught it in an Adelaide quarantine hotel.
Both new sites are in the Whittlesea local government area, where both the Wollert man and Case Five reside.
The Caltex Woolworths service station in Epping between 4.10pm and 4.55pm on Thursday, May 13, and Bunnings in Thomastown between 11:am and 12pm the same day, were listed as Tier 2 exposure sites shortly before 2pm on Thursday.
Anyone who has visited either site must get a coronavirus test and isolate until they receive a negative result.
The listing of the Caltex and Bunnings follows the listing earlier on Thursday of three fruit shops in nearby Lalor on May 14.
The Wollert man is understood to have been infectious from about May 6, having developed symptoms on May 8, tested positive on May 10, and gone back into quarantine when his positive result was received on May 11.
Case Five, aged in his 60s, is believed to have been infectious from about May 15, developed symptoms on May 17, met with the first known case in the cluster on May 18, and did not test positive until May 25.
Victoria’s Health Department has also added a new coronavirus exposure site at the Pentridge Palace Cinema in Coburg, in Melbourne’s north, on Monday May 24.
A positive case attended Monday night’s screening of “Those Who Wish Me Dead” between 6.45pm and 9.30pm.
Anyone who attended the screening must quarantine for 14 days and get tested for Covid-19.
A full list of what is now 86 exposure sites is available at: https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/exposure-sites
Sophie Elsworth2.32pm:Anxious wait as thousands try to fly out of Melbourne
Thousands of passengers are flocking to Melbourne Airport in a last-ditch attempt to escape Victoria’s fourth lockdown.
Many passengers were still checking into flights before Victoria is plunged into lockdown at midnight on Thursday night.
Some Virgin Australia flights have been cancelled and many anxious passengers are still waiting at flight gates in the hope they can catch their scheduled flights.
Border passes are being checked on those arriving into Victoria as passengers continue to enter the Victorian capital despite the seven-day lockdown being just hours away.
Joseph Lam2.12pm:No breach here, says South Australia health chief
South Australia Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier has knocked back claims that a breach occurred in hotel quarantine in her state.
Professor Spurrier on Thursday said internal investigations found that local health authorities were clear.
“It has certainly been most likely that an admission event has occurred in the hotel but I think very clearly our investigation has shown there has been no breach of protocol whatsoever,” Professor Spurrier said.
“We were doing the very best we could. We were following every protocol.”
At least 104 people have been told get to tested and isolate immediately in South Australia.
READ MORE:How virus ‘likely’ escaped quarantine
Adeshola Ore2.12pm:16 Victorian aged care centres remain unvaccinated
Health Minister Greg Hunt says there are 16 unvaccinated residential aged-care centres in Victoria that are yet to receive their first dose.
Mr Hunt said the remaining facilities would all receive their first coronavirus vaccine within the next two days.
“Seven are to receive their first dose today and the remaining nine tomorrow and that will bring the residential aged-care facilities within my home state of Victoria to 100 per cent,” he said.
Adeshola Ore2.00pm:Lockdown could have been avoided: Albanese
Anthony Albanese says Victoria’s snap lockdown could have been avoided, as Labor attacks the federal government for not establishing national quarantine facilities and delays with distributing the vaccine.
Victoria will enter a snap seven-day lockdown from midnight on Thursday after it was revealed contact tracers had identified 10,000 primary and secondary contacts linked to the coronavirus outbreak which is now at 26 cases.
“Labor has been saying for a long period of time that the government had two jobs this year: to get quarantine right, and to get the rollout of the vaccine right,” the Opposition Leader said.
“It’s particularly tough because this could have been avoided.”
Joseph Lam1.50pm:ACT stay-at-home orders on Victorian arrivals
Anyone entering the ACT from Victoria on or after 11.59pm on Thursday will be subject to stay-at-home orders.
Residents under stay-at-home orders will only be permitted to leave home for exercise, essential shopping, caregiving and permitted work or education are all reasons one can leave their house.
ACT residents will be allowed to leave home to receive a Covid-19 vaccination as well as for animal welfare such as tending to livestock.
Victorian residents who enter the ACT before midnight will be required to fill out a declaration. After midnight, no one travelling from Victoria will be allowed to enter.
ACT has also declared City of Whittlesea and Bendigo as areas of concern and have restricted residents who have visited those areas over the past 14 days from attending work or high-risk settings such as hospitals, residential aged care facilities, correctional facilities and residential accommodation facilities for a period of 14 days.
UPDATE: new requirements for the ACT due to the Victorian Government’s announcement of a lockdown for all of Victoria come into effect at 11.59pm tonight, 27 May 2021. More information here: https://t.co/X08WcAXr8hpic.twitter.com/ySYfO90Oyb
— ACT Health (@ACTHealth) May 27, 2021
Adeshola Ore1.43pm:PM ‘highly’ in favour of purpose-built quarantine
Scott Morrison says the federal government is “highly” in favour of a proposal by the Victorian government for a purpose-built quarantine facility to supplement hotel quarantine.
The federal government is currently reviewing a proposal by Victoria for a quarantine facility.
“We are highly favourable towards this,” the Prime Minister said.
“One of the useful elements of this proposal is that it adds to capacity, it is not in place of hotel quarantine, they propose it to be in addition.”
Rachel Baxendale1.40pm:Fruit shops could offer clue to link to quarantine case
Three fruit shops in Melbourne’s north could offer a clue as to how members of Victoria’s latest cluster of at least 26 coronavirus cases caught the virus via a man who returned to his Wollert home from Adelaide hotel quarantine on May 4.
Victoria’s health department updated its list of exposure sites shortly before 12:30pm on Thursday, to include the Everfresh Fruit Market, Fruits of Lalor and No. 1 Fruit Market, all in the northern suburb of Lalor, and all between 11.30am and 12.30pm on Friday, May 14.
The three sites had previously been listed as exposure sites between 12.00pm and 1.00pm on Wednesday, May 19. Those times remain as exposure periods, in addition to the exposures on May 14.
The May 14 date represents the earliest known exposure for members of the Whittlesea cluster.
At Thursday morning’s press conference chief health officer Brett Sutton confirmed authorities still regarded the fifth known case in the cluster to be the index case, from whom all other known cases contracted the virus.
Case Five, aged in his 60s, is believed to have been infectious from about May 15, developed symptoms on May 17, met with the first known case in the cluster on May 18, and did not test positive until May 25.
The discovery of an exposure as early as May 14, implies that authorities may be moving closer to establishing how Case Five caught the virus, and how his case is linked to the original Wollert case.
The Wollert man, aged in his 30s, is understood to have been infectious from about May 6, having developed symptoms on May 8, tested positive on May 10, and gone back into quarantine when his positive result was received on May 11.
Both the Wollert man and Case Five are residents of the Whittlesea local government area, and both had visited sites in the Epping area, although no direct overlaps have been detected.
Fast food outlet Betty’s Burgers & Concrete Co at the Westfield shopping centre in Doncaster, in Melbourne’s east, has also been added to the list of exposure sites, for the period spanning 7.40pm to 9.30pm on Sunday May 23.
Adeshola Ore1.34pm:Victoria a ‘wake-up call’ for vaccination: AMA
Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid says Victoria’s coronavirus outbreak should be a “wake-up call” about the threat of the virus, as he urged eligible people to get vaccinated.
“It [the virus] is here now and the best thing you can do as an Australian, not just for your own health but the health of the people around you is to go and get your vaccine as soon as it is available to you,” he said.
“The events of the last few days have demonstrated that Covid is a real and present threat to all of us, all the time, despite our excellent arrangements.”
READ MORE:Five reasons Victorians can leave home
Adeshola Ore1.28pm:20,000 additional vaccines to Victoria today: Hunt
Health Minister Greg Hunt says the commonwealth will open up expression of interests for an additional 900 GP practices to participate in the vaccine rollout, in response to Victoria’s coronavirus which has risen to 26 cases.
Mr Hunt also announced a $2.6 million funding package for doctor’s mental health.
Mr Hunt acknowledged it was a “difficult day” for Victorians.
“We have been through this before, we will get through this again,” he said.
Mr Hunt said the first 20,000 of the additional 130,000 coronavirus doses would be provided to Victoria today.
“The Victorian age care response Centre has been stood up and contact tracing through the National incident Centre has also been offered,” he said.
Mr Hunt said Wednesday was another “record day” for vaccinations with 111,3888 presenting to get a shot.
There are now 3.9 million doses that have been administered across the nation.
READ MORE:Panicked residents flee lockdown
Joseph Lam1.25pm:Early Victorian lockdown seeps into NSW
Residents who enter NSW from Victoria after 4pm on Thursday will be subject to the same rules enforced by the Victorian Department of Health.
NSW Health introduced the changes following Victoria’s announcement of a snap seven-day lockdown in a bid to curb the spread of Melbourne’s latest Covid-19 cluster.
“Anyone arriving in NSW who has been in Victoria since 4pm today must remain at their home or place of residence in NSW for the seven-day duration of the Victorian measures,” A NSW Health statement read.
“People will only be permitted to leave their places of residence for limited reasons, including shopping for essential items, medical care, caregiving, outdoor exercise, and essential work or education, if you cannot do it from home.”
NSW residents will also be granted a fifth reason to leave home, similarly to Victorians, which is to get vaccinated, NSW Health said.
However the state would not yet follow Victoria in vaccinating the general public aged 40 to 49.
READ MORE:10,000 people ordered into isolation
Adeshola Ore1.18pm:Extra vaccines, ADF to support Victoria: PM
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the next seven days will be challenging for Victoria as the state prepares to enter its fourth coronavirus lockdown at midnight.
The state will commence a snap seven-day lockdown from midnight after it was revealed contact tracers had identified 10,000 primary and secondary contacts linked to the coronavirus outbreak which is now at 26 cases.
“We are very mindful of the distressed and the difficulty this will impose upon people right across Victoria,” he said.
Mr Morrison said “every support” had been given to the Victorian government, and pointed to the additional 130,000 vaccines the commonwealth will send to the state.
He said 218 Australian Defence personnel were in Victoria under an ongoing operation.
Mr Morrison says it’s crucial that Victoria is able to open up as soon as possible.
The Prime Minister thanked the state’s contract tracers for doing a “tremendous job” after they identified 10,000 primary and secondary contacts linked to the coronavirus outbreak which is now at 26 cases.
“What we need to do now is what we have done on every occasion, we just need to focus on working the issue, and working together, that’s how we have come through on every occasion,” he said.
“That’s the way the Commonwealth government, my government is addressing this together with the Health Minister.”
READ MORE:Politics Now live blog
Adeshola Ore1.13pm:Victorians should ‘never have been put in this situation’
Anthony Albanese says Victorians should “never have been put in this situation,” as Labor seeks to blame the Morrison government for the state’s coronavirus outbreak.
Victoria will enter a snap seven-day lockdown from midnight on Thursday after it was revealed contact tracers had identified 10,000 primary and secondary contacts linked to the coronavirus outbreak which is now at 26 cases.
“My heart goes out to everyone in Victoria going into lockdown today,” the Opposition Leader said in a video message posted on Twitter.
“You’ve been through this before and I know that the next period is going to be tough for so many,” he said.
My heart goes out to everyone in Victoria going into lockdown.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) May 27, 2021
The truth is that you never should have been put in this situation – because the Federal Government should have fixed quarantine.
Victoria, stay safe. Stay strong. Australians are with you. pic.twitter.com/xv7Siubapw
Labor has criticised the Morrison government for not establishing national fit-for-purpose quarantine facilities and the delayed vaccine rollout.
Mr Albanese said the outbreak marked the 17th coronavirus outbreak linked to hotel quarantine.
“The federal government should have fixed quarantine many months ago,” he said.
“It’s beyond my comprehension that the experts have been ignored.”
Remy Varga1.00pm:Victoria’s Covid-19 hotline crashes
Victoria’s COVID-19 hotline crashed as the state announced it would enter a snap seven day lockdown at 11.59pm.
The hotline is the number given to Victorians who want to book a vaccination appointment. The Victorian government’s website suggests people try booking online through the Victorian or federal government’s website.
Acting Premier James Merlino suggested people call the number when he announced the snap lockdown on Thursday morning.
The Health Department said there was a high volume of calls to the hotline and the hotline was experiencing connection difficulties or delays.
“Callers are currently having difficulty accessing the Victorian Coronavirus Hotline,” the department said in a tweet.
“We are working with the service provider and will advise as soon as this issue has been rectified.”
Callers are currently having difficulty accessing the Victorian Coronavirus Hotline.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) May 27, 2021
We are working with the service provider and will advise as soon as this issue has been rectified. pic.twitter.com/AlTyZPcbgJ
Remy Varga12.50pm:Restrictions Victorians face from midnight
With Victoria entering its fourth lockdown of the Covid pandemic, residents across the state face a suite of new restrictions from 11.59pm Thursday night.
More than six million people will only be allowed to leave their homes to purchase food and essential supplies such as medicine, authorised work and permitted education and to exercise for a maximum of two-hours.
As well, acting Premier James Merlino included a new fifth reason: to get vaccinated against the virus.
The 5km limit, introduced during the 2020 stage four lockdown, will return but Victorians are allowed to travel beyond their bubble if there are no shops within 5km. Only one person per household will be allowed to go shopping.
Face masks must be worn everywhere but your home and all public and private gatherings will be banned.
Victorians are allowed to visit their intimate partners and single person bubbles can be established.
Remote learning will return as schools close for everyone but the children of authorised workers and vulnerable kids. Childcare and kinder will remain open.
Shops like supermarkets, food stores, bottle shops, banks, petrol stations and pharmacies will remain open.
Cafes and restaurants will be restricted to takeaway service but gyms, hairdressers, community facilities and entertainment venues will close. Non-essential retail may only open for click and collect.
No new bookings for hotels and accommodation will be allowed, with only guests already onsite permitted to stay. Authorised workers are exempted.
Advice on who can open, and who can’t, will be made available online ahead of directions coming into place – as will the full list of authorised workers and workplaces.
Adeshola Ore12.26pm:Lockdown a ‘devastating blow’ retail
The Australian Retailers Association says Victoria’s lockdown is a “devastating blow” for the retail sector and wider consumer confidence.
Victoria will enter a snap seven-day lockdown from midnight on Thursday after it was revealed contact tracers had identified 10,000 primary and secondary contacts linked to the coronavirus outbreak which is now at 26 cases.
The association’s chief executive Paul Zahra said the seven-day lockdown was anticipated to cost over $1bn from lost retail trade.
“This isn’t just a financial cost – it’s a social one as well. This lockdown will have an enormous impact on people’s health and wellbeing and will shatter fragile confidence levels for the second half of the year,” he said.
“Businesses no longer have JobKeeper support payments available to them and Victorian small businesses in particular will be under significant stress – this is a huge blow to their confidence.”
Mr Zahra said the association supported the Victorian government keeping the community safe but stressed the “significant impact” of the lockdown on retailers, particularly small businesses, could not be ignored.
“Victorians have been to hell and back over the past year or so, and just when we thought the worst of Covid was behind us, it reared its head again mid-year,” he said.
READ MORE:Trading Day – Lockdown hits ASX
Joseph Lam12.22pm:‘Not a criticism, but fact: SA to blame’
Victoria’s lockdown originated from a hotel breach in South Australia, one of several which have posed significant risks to the state, says Acting Premier James Merlino.
“Across the country, we have had breaches out of hotel quarantine. We have had community transmission across the world,” Mr Merlino said.
“The reason why we are dealing with this outbreak today is because of a hotel breach in South Australia, that is not a criticism, it is just a fact, we have had breaches in hotel quarantine right around our country.
“We need to deal with the reality of this outbreak that originated out of a hotel breach in SA.”
Mr Merlino added that he believed the only way forward was to get as many people vaccinated as possible.
“We need to deal with a reality that a vast majority of our community in this country are not vaccinated, and that means that we need to have these circuit breaker lockdowns.
“The only way through this pandemic is everyone getting vaccinated as quickly as you are eligible, and for the commonwealth to agree to an alternative quarantine arrangement, particularly for high risk individuals and in this case, we’re talking about a variant of concern.
“If we had an alternative to hotel for this particular variant of concern, we would not be here today.
“If we had … the commonwealth’s vaccine program effectively rolled out, we may well not be here today, talking about these circuit breaker restrictions that we must impose to keep our community safe.”
READ MORE:Five reasons Victorians can leave home
Matthew Denholm12.17pm:Tasmania shuts border to Victoria
Tasmania has shut its borders to Victoria, from 2pm on Thursday.
“The state of Victoria has been declared high-risk by Public Health Services from 2pm Thursday 27 May,” public health advised. “From this time travellers who have spent time in Victoria in the 14 days prior to their arrival in Tasmania, are not permitted to travel to Tasmania unless approved as an essential traveller,” Tasmania’s travel alert said.
READ MORE:Melbourne residents flee ahead of lockdown
Joseph Lam12.14pm:No new cases in NSW, testing vans sent south
NSW has recorded no new Covid cases overnight despite concerns over members of a regional sporting club coming into contact with a positive case when crossing the Victoria border to attend an event last weekend.
NSW Health has increased capacity for testing in the Western Riverina region, with a mobile testing van operating at the Tooleybuc Community Health Service on Friday 28 May from 8am to 1pm.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) May 27, 2021
The health department is scrambling to track those from Tooleybuc who travelled to Cohuna, 275km north of Melbourne, as well as set up more resources in the area.
“NSW Health has increased capacity for testing in the Western Riverina region, with a mobile testing van operating at the Tooleybuc Community Health Service on Friday 28 May from 8am to 1pm,” a statement from the department read.
READ MORE: Lambie’s Qantas ban: ‘I deserve it’
Adeshola Ore12.08pm:We’ll stand by Victoria through lockdown: Frydenberg
Josh Frydenberg has sought to assure Victoria it has the support of the federal government as the state prepares to enter its fourth Covid-19 lockdown.
Victoria will enter a snap seven-day lockdown from midnight tonight after it was revealed contact tracers had identified 10,000 primary and secondary contacts connected to the outbreak.
Today’s announcement of another lockdown is difficult for Victorians.
— Josh Frydenberg (@JoshFrydenberg) May 27, 2021
We have got through this before & we will do so again.
Please continue to follow the medical advice & if eligible to get vaccinated, I strongly encourage you to do so.
Stay safe & look out for one another. pic.twitter.com/LQ0fXYp0lr
“The announcement today of another lockdown will be difficult for Victorians. But we have got through this before and we will do so again,” the Treasurer said in a video posted to Twitter.
“Victorians have been magnificent throughout the pandemic in supporting one another.
“Our government will continue to stand with Victorians as we have done every day of this crisis. Please stay safe.”
Mr Frydenberg urged eligible Victorians to get vaccinated against coronavirus and said anyone with symptoms of the virus should get tested.
READ MORE:Kmart among exposure sites
Wally Mason12.06pm:Supercars event postponed due to outbreak
Victoria’s Covid-19 outbreak continues to wreak havoc in Australian sport with Supercars postponing this weekend’s Winton SuperSprint.
The Supercars series was due to head to the country Victorian circuit near Benalla for the fifth round of the championship, but the state’s lockdown has put the round on hold.
The SuperSprint could be shifted to the weekend of July 31-August 1, with organisers to confirm the new date in the next seven days.
Supercars said in a statement on Thursday morning that ticketholders could either apply for a full refund or hold on to their tickets until the new date.
“While regrettable, today’s decision has been made to ensure the health and safety of all Supercars fans, staff and teams,” the statement said.
READ MORE:Friday AFL blockbuster in doubt
Adeshola Ore11.53am:Unions call on JobKeeper for Victorian businesses
The ACTU has called on the Morrison government to reinstate JobKeeper for some Victorian businesses, as the state faces its first lockdown without the wage subsidy.
Victoria will enter a snap seven-day lockdown from midnight on Thursday after it was revealed contact tracers had identified 10,000 primary and secondary contacts.
The union’s president Michele O’Neil said the federal government’s “lack of action” on national quarantine standards and issues with distributing vaccines was to blame for the state’s lockdown.
“This lockdown is the direct result of policy failures from the Morrison government. A vaccine rollout which is months behind the rest of the developed world and a refusal to provide central co-ordination on quarantine,” she said.
“It will be made worse by the decision to pull support out from under workers in the middle of the recovery. People will lose work during this lockdown thanks to the federal government’s decision to completely end JobKeeper early.”
Ms O’Neil said the absence of JobKeeper in this lockdown meant workers in sectors like hospitality and retail had no employment security.
“While the vaccine rollout continues to flounder there will be thousands of businesses and millions of workers who continue to need support,” she said.
READ MORE:Business ups pressure for quicker jab rollout
Joseph Lam11.46am:Vaccine rollout expands to over-40s in Victoria
Victorians aged between 40 to 49 will be eligible to receive a Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine from Friday.
Acting Premier James Merlino made known the next step in the vaccine rollout on Thursday as a seven-day circuit breaker lockdown was announced.
“From tomorrow morning, vaccinations at state sites will be expanded to include those in the 40 to 49-year-old age group, for the Pfizer vaccine, so that means now, at our state sites, if you’re over 40, you will be eligible for a vaccine,” Mr Merlino said.
“In terms of GPs, that will be a decision of the commonwealth, but in terms of the state sites that we run, we’ll be expanding it to 40 to 49, so I really encourage everyone, if you’re eligible, get vaccinated.”
The vaccine booking website and phone line have reportedly been down.
Health Minister Martin Foley said walk-in appointments will not be available.
READ MORE:Getting to the pointy end of vaccine hesitancy
Joseph Lam11.34am:Five reasons to leave home in Victoria
When Victorians enter lockdown at 11.59pm on Thursday, there will be just five reasons they can leave their homes.
As in the previous three lockdowns exercise, essential shopping, caregiving and permitted work or education are all reasons one can leave their house.
However this time, Acting Premier James Merlino has introduced a new exception.
“There’s a fifth reason why you can leave your home, and that’s to get vaccinated,” Mr Merlino announced on Thursday.
“I can’t stress this enough: the only pathway through the pandemic is for people to get vaccinated as soon as they’re eligible, and for our state and our nation to have an alternative to quarantine in terms of high risk.”
READ MORE:Five reasons Victorians can leave home
Victoria Laurie11.31am:WA reintroduces hard border to Victoria
Western Australia will put up a hard border to Victorians from 10am WST on Thursday after the eastern state’s latest outbreak of Covid-19 and the announcement of a seven-day lockdown starting at midnight.
WA Premier Mark McGowan says the fast developing situation means that WA will strengthen border controls, and travellers from Victoria will no longer be permitted to enter the state, except West Australians wanting to return.
However, anyone who has been in Victoria since May 15 must now be tested within 48 hours and self-quarantine until results come back.
He says around 500 people are due to enter the state by plane, but numbers are likely to fall away. “I understand it will be difficult for those people (who arrive in Perth).”
He said that as of 6.30am, all members of the Essendon AFL team arriving in WA had returned negative results.
“We take no pleasure in reimposing the hard border,” he said.
READ MORE:‘Crazy’ wait times at Covid clinics
Joseph Lam11.28am:Contagious period ‘tighter than ever’
Victorian authorities say the Covid-19 Indian variant, at the heart of the current Melbourne cluster, is spreading faster than ever seen before.
Acting Premier James Merlino said the sheer speed of the virus had seen contact tracers in Victoria working around the clock to track and trace its spread.
“Our public health experts’ primary concern is how fast this variant is moving,” Mr Merlino said.
‘We’ve seen overseas how difficult that movement can be to control. Here in Victoria, we’re seeing not only how quick it is, but how contagious it is as well.”
Mr Merlino warned that the time in between contracting the virus and passing it on was “tighter than ever”.
“For some of those cases I mentioned, how long it takes between the onset of symptoms in the first and secondary case is averaging just over a day,” he said.
“Now, to put that in some perspective, the usual transmission is about five to six days.
“Unless something drastic happens, this will become increasingly uncontrollable.”
READ MORE:Panicked residents flee ahead of lockdown
Joseph Lam11.19am:Victorian case in ICU ‘not in a good way’
A Victorian resident who tested positive with Covid-19 after coming into contact with a case in the Melbourne cluster is in intensive care.
Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino confirmed the person was being treated in hospital under
“Sadly, we have one of those people in an ICU, on a ventilator, in not a very good way,” he said.
Health Minister Martin Foley confirmed the patient is “an elderly person”.
Asked if they were eligible for the vaccine, Mr Foley said: “clearly yes, being over 50.”
READ MORE: Covid patient in ICU
Joseph Lam11.15am:Victoria’s seven-day lockdown announced
Victoria will enter a snap seven-day lockdown from midnight on Thursday after it was revealed contact tracers had identified 10,000 primary and secondary contacts.
Acting Premier James Merlino on Thursday announced the lockdown decision saying “we need to act now” as 150 exposure sites were listed around the state.
“From 11.59pm tonight, Victoria will enter a seven-day circuit breaker lockdown,” Mr Merlino announced.
“If we can ease those restrictions earlier, we will. But this is a seven-day circuit breaker lockdown.”
Under the new restrictions, there are five reasons to leave home: food and supplies, authorised work, care and caregiving, exercise (for up to two hours and with one other person) and getting vaccinated.
READ MORE:Airlines start cutting Melbourne flights
Adeshola Ore11.00am:Australia can’t function with state closures: Dutton
Defence Minister Peter Dutton says Australia cannot function with state border closures and lockdowns, as he points to NSW as the star model of managing coronavirus outbreaks.
The Victorian government will announce the state’s fourth Covid-19 lockdown this morning, after up to 11 new cases were confirmed overnight, bringing the cluster total to up to 26.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she had no plans to close the NSW-Victorian border.
“I think the NSW model is the model we’ve got to go with. They’ve got a great established model of being able to contact trace people, which we know is important, so they can quickly lock a family down if that’s the issue,” Mr Dutton said.
“That’s the way we’ve got to do it. We can’t have the closure of state borders. Businesses can’t bring in perishable foods into a restaurant and then be advised after they’ve done that, that nobody can come into their restaurant for five days.”
“We need to be able to have confidence in contact tracing.”
Mr Dutton also said the federal government would provide “whatever assistance is required” to Victoria.
Rachel Baxendale10.40am:Victorian government press conference set for 11am
Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino, Health Minister Martin Foley and chief health officer Brett Sutton are due to address the media at 11am. You can watch the press conference live in the video player at the top of the page.
Rachel Baxendale10.36am:Victoria fast-tracks mRNA manufacturing project
The Andrews government is announcing the fast-tracking of Victoria’s future supply of coronavirus vaccines as the state braces for its fourth lockdown.
The government issued a statement on Thursday morning, saying it has established a new body to build Victoria’s mRNA manufacturing capability.
“mRNA Victoria will lead mRNA manufacturing in the state and deliver on the Andrews Labor government’s $50 million investment in securing local supply,” Innovation and Medical Research Minister Jaala Pulford and Treasurer Tim Pallas said in a joint statement.
“The new body will be led by Michael Kapel, who has been appointed the inaugural CEO and will oversee the establishment of commercial-scale mRNA manufacturing capability in Victoria within the next 12 months.
“Mr Kapel is the former Commissioner to the Americas for the Government of Victoria, where he oversaw a network of trade and investment offices across the United States, Canada and South America.”
mRNA Victoria will be led by Mr Kapel and supported by a science advisory group of industry and technical experts, with Victoria’s Chief Scientist Amanda Caples appointed to convene the advisory group.
“mRNA has not only created a new frontier for vaccine development, but become a promising new weapon in the fight against cancer and other diseases,” Ms Pulford and Mr Pallas said.
“Developing mRNA capability in Victoria will provide vaccine security, support local manufacturing and create a more robust defence against future pandemics.
“The Labor government will continue to work collaboratively with the federal government given its recently announced investment in end-to-end mRNA manufacturing in Australia.”
Joseph Lam10.34am:Melbourne, Bendigo declared hot spots by NT
The Northern Territory has declared greater Melbourne and Bendigo hot spots, requiring anyone travelling in from either city to go into mandatory hotel quarantine.
From 12.01am Thursday incoming passengers from those areas will be transported to either the Alice Springs or Howard Springs quarantine facilities for 14 days upon arrival.
Those who arrived between May 12 and Thursday are required to get tested and isolate immediately until receiving a negative Covid-19 result.
Health Minister Natasha Fyles said flights had already entered the territory since the new rules came into place.
“Anyone arriving from greater metropolitan Melbourne and Bendigo will go into mandatory quarantine. We had 100 people enter quarantine last night, into Howard Springs, there’s a couple of late flights that do come in from Melbourne,” she said.
READ MORE:Airline cuts flights due to virus
Remy Varga10.31am:IBAC postpones transport inquiry amid outbreak
Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog has cancelled all public hearings for an inquiry into alleged corrupt conduct within the state’s transport bureaucracy.
A spokesperson for the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission said all public hearings had been adjourned until further notice due to the state’s escalating coronavirus crisis.
“IBAC Commissioner The Honourable Robert Redlich AM, QC said today he has decided to defer the public hearings until further notice as a precautionary measure in consideration of public health,” the spokesperson said.
“IBAC will make a public announcement once it is appropriate to recommence the hearings.”
READ MORE: Ex-quarantine boss hired gym buddies
Remy Varga10.20am:Look after our businesses, Lord Mayor urges
Lord Mayor of Melbourne Sally Capp said she’d encourage the Victorian government to take into account the impact on business and offer support that matched the length of the imminent lockdown.
“Businesses have gone through the toughest trading conditions in living memory and many are just starting to recover,” she said.
“JobKeeper has ended so a lockdown now will have potentially even greater impacts on our city businesses.
“I urge everyone in the community to do the right thing every day to stop the spread of this virus.”
READ MORE: Panicked residents flee ahead of lockdown
Rachel Baxendale10.08am:Statewide lockdown to last seven days
The Victorian government is set to announce a seven-day statewide lockdown from midnight.
The move comes after 11 new coronavirus cases were confirmed overnight, bringing the Whittlesea cluster total to 26.
Cabinet crisis talks were held late into Wednesday night and have continued on Thursday morning, with a time for a press conference yet to be confirmed but likely to be known within an hour.
The Australian understands the restrictions are likely to be closer to the stage 3 level imposed in February than the stage 4 experienced during the 111 day lockdown in 2020.
While children are set to return to home schooling, industry will remain open.
READ MORE:
Joseph Lam9.50am:Two new cases in Queensland quarantine
Queensland has recorded two new cases of Covid-19 among overseas returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
The state is dealing with 13 cases of the virus, all of which are understood to be in hotel quarantine.
Thursday 27 May – coronavirus cases in Queensland:
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) May 26, 2021
• 0 new locally acquired cases
• 2 new overseas acquired cases
• 13 active cases
• 1,613 total cases
• 2,614,542 tests conducted
Sadly, seven people with COVID-19 have died. 1,586 patients have recovered.#covid19pic.twitter.com/Va6HRLGFXP
A total of 9221 tests were recorded in Queensland over the past 24 hours, up more than 1000 from the previous day.
Queensland Health declared Victoria’s Whittlesea a hotspot on Tuesday.
READ MORE:Premier’s swipe at Victoria
Adeshola Ore9.40am:Plan to vaccinate remaining aged care residents
Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck says the 29 Victorian aged-care homes that are completely unvaccinated will have their residents immunised in the “next few days”.
It comes as Victorian authorities prepare to announce the state’s fourth Covid-19 lockdown this morning, after 11 new cases were confirmed overnight, bringing the cluster total to up to 26. On Wednesday Health Minister Greg Hunt said the commonwealth would release an additional 130,000 Covid-19 vaccines to support the state and focus on the 29 unvaccinated centres.
Senator Colbeck said the federal government was focusing on these centres.
“We’ve been working our way obviously across the country. There’s about 600 facilities that the commonwealth has responsibility for in Victoria … 29 of those left to be done. They were programmed to be done. They were programmed to be done this week or next week, so we’ll get those finalised as quickly as we can.” he said
Senator Colbeck also said he was “comfortable” with the pace of the vaccination rollout.
“About 85 per cent of residents across Australia have taken up the vaccine,” he told Channel 9.
“It’s been a significant logistical effort. There’s some providers who have put back their vaccine dates so that the residents can get flu vaccinations. We have worked with the providers to schedule them over the last 12 or 13 weeks to get the vaccines.”
READ MORE:State to make Victorians quarantine
David Ross9.37am:Virgin cancels 10 Melbourne flights
Virgin Australia has cancelled 10 flights in and out of Melbourne on the back of the state’s growing Covid-19 clusters.
The airline said most services in and out of Melbourne were operating as normal, Virgin was adjusting its forward schedule to reflect demand and bookings.
Customers affected by the 10 cancellations will be contacted directly.
READ MORE:Top doc’s backflip on Covid-19 vaccine
Frances Vinall9.29am:Residents flee Melbourne ahead of lockdown
Residents report fleeing Melbourne on Thursday morning with fears the city is about to go into its fourth lockdown since the Covid-19 pandemic began.
Callers to 3AW on Thursday morning said they were hitting the road to get out of the state as the city braces for a possible lockdown.
“I’m heading off to Sydney now, in the car,” one caller said. “I’m going straight right through, no stops. I just want to get to Sydney.
“Yesterday morning I left Melbourne at 3 o’clock – there were so many cars loaded, getting to Sydney,” a second said.
“I know a couple who took off yesterday in a caravan – they were meant to go in a few months,” another said.
“My brother was planning a trip to WA, driving, he was meant to leave this morning but he left yesterday morning instead,” another caller said.
A poll asking if listeners believed the state was about to go into lockdown returned an overwhelming “yes” result.
“Those who have already gotten into their cars have anticipated that result,” host Russel Howcroft said.
READ MORE:Open door in Adelaide led to outbreak
Adeshola Ore9.18am:Inject some urgency into jab rollout: Keneally
Labor is seizing on Victoria’s coronavirus outbreak to draw attention to what the opposition says are commonwealth failures in managing hotel quarantine and the vaccine rollout.
The Victorian government will announce the state’s fourth Covid-19 lockdown this morning, after 11 new cases were confirmed overnight, bringing the cluster total to up to 26.
Opposition home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally said the commonwealth needed to ramp up the urgency of the vaccine rollout.
Outbreaks will keep happening if Scott Morrison doesn’t fix quarantine.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) May 26, 2021
“Right now, half of the people over 70 are not vaccinated in this country. Twenty-nine residential aged care facilities in Melbourne, where they’re having an outbreak right now, haven’t had a jab in their arms. And that’s why I say we need to inject some urgency into the vaccine rollout,” she told the ABC.
“We have vulnerable people in the community, our vulnerable populations, who are not getting the vaccine. Where is the federal government when it comes to rolling out the vaccine?”
She said Australia needed a national quarantine system that was “fit-for-purpose”.
“This outbreak that we are now seeing in Victoria started with an outbreak from hotel quarantine in Adelaide. That is the 17th outbreak from hotel quarantine in six months,” she said.
Senator Keneally also urged anyone who was eligible for a vaccine to not delay getting inoculated.
READ MORE:More AFL games moving amid Covid chaos
Joseph Lam8.55am:Melbourne cluster grows to 26
Victoria has recorded 12 locally-acquired cases of Covid-19 in the 24 hours to midnight.
Reported yesterday: 12 new local cases and no new cases acquired overseas.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) May 26, 2021
- 12,677 vaccine doses were administered
- 40,411 test results were received
More later: https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco#COVID19Vic#COVID19VicDatapic.twitter.com/e9rfizWbGp
The 12 new cases include one case which was reported on Wednesday, meaning 11 new cases will bring the cluster total to 26.
There were 40,411 tests processed on Wednesday, compared with 26,180 on Tuesday.
But vaccination numbers were down on Tuesday’s 15,858, at 12,677.
The Victorian government is set to announce a new Melbourne lockdown later on Thursday.
With Rachel Baxendale
READ MORE:Open door in Adelaide led to outbreak
Adeshola Ore8.38am:Labor blames Morrison government for Victoria outbreak
Opposition health spokesman Mark Butler says the Morrison government is responsible for Victoria’s coronavirus outbreak due to their failures in managing quarantine and the vaccine rollout.
The Victorian government will announce the state’s fourth Covid-19 lockdown this morning, after up to 10 new cases were confirmed overnight, bringing the cluster total to up to 25.
An open door at an Adelaide quarantine hotel has been identified as the likely source of Covid-19 transmission from one infected guest to another in a breach which has been blamed for starting the Melbourne outbreak.
“This is the 17th outbreak from hotel quarantine in just the last six months. We’re dealing with these outbreaks almost every week or two at the moment,” Mr Butler told ABC Radio.
“Experts advised the Prime Minister to put in place dedicated fit-for-purpose facilities to take the pressure off hotels that were built for tourism, not medical quarantine.”
Mr Butler also said the commonwealth was to blame for the 29 residential aged care facilities in Victoria that remain completely unvaccinated.
“There’s no shortage of supply. It can only be that the system the government has put into place is falling down.”
Health Minister Greg Hunt on Wednesday said the commonwealth would release an additional 130,000 Covid-19 vaccines to support the state and focus on these 29 centres.
READ MORE:Business ups pressure for quicker jab rollout
Joseph Lam8.33am:Victorian outbreak an ‘enormous concern’ to NSW
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says the Covid-19 outbreak in Victoria is of massive concern to her state as NSW Health scrambles to trace a regional sports team who crossed the NSW-Victoria border.
“The fact that 60 venues are now on the list of concern in Victoria is of enormous concern to us,” Ms Berejiklian said on Sunrise on Thursday.
“Of course we have had their sporting matches along the border which had involved NSW teams, we are extremely concerned.”
Ms Berejiklian speculated that Victoria lacked confidence in its check-in systems which may have prompted a complete lockdown.
“Every state makes decisions based on the confidence they have on their systems and what is going on,” she said.
“If you are not confident that you have everyone’s mark then you do have to consider other options. I assume that is what the Victorian government is doing.”
READ MORE:Urgent virus alert for Macca’s
Rachel Baxendale8.09am:Melbourne to enter lockdown as cluster grows
The Victorian government will announce the state’s fourth coronavirus lockdown this morning, after up to 10 new cases were confirmed overnight, bringing the cluster total to up to 25.
Cabinet met late into Wednesday night, with further meetings being held early on Thursday to determine the length and nature of the lockdown, which is likely to last at least seven days.
More than 70 exposure sites have now been confirmed, with nine new locations listed overnight, from Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula to Cohuna near the NSW border and all over Melbourne.
The new sites include several linked to physical exertion indoors.
Authorities are also concerned that the strain involved is the highly infectious B. 1.617 variant, which is considered by epidemiologists to be twice as infectious as the UK strain.
Premier Daniel Andrews cited the “light speed” at which the UK strain was moving in February when he announced the state’s last lockdown, which lasted for five days.
That lockdown was declared as 13 cases were linked to a cluster which had escaped the Holiday Inn quarantine hotel a week earlier.
Community transmission related to the current cluster is likely to have been occurring for up to three weeks, given it has been genomically linked to the return to Victoria on May 4 of a man who caught the virus in an Adelaide quarantine hotel.
READ MORE:Jobs for quarantine hotel boss’s mates
Joseph Lam7.40am:Quarantine for Melbourne passengers in Darwin
A mid-flight shift has seen a plane full of travellers arriving into Darwin Airport from Melbourne met with a surprise trip to the city’s quarantine facility.
A number of friends and family awaiting loved ones at the airport on Thursday were shocked to discover they would not meet those they were waiting for another 14 days.
Some family members speaking to Sky News described the decision as “disappointing”.
“Appalling, the fact that you find out through Facebook,” said one woman.
READ MORE:Jobs for quarantine hotel boss’s mates
Joseph Lam7.35am:Melbourne lockdown isn’t necessary: expert
Infectious diseases expert Peter Collignon says Australia is well equipped to handle Melbourne’s latest cluster and a lockdown isn’t necessary.
Professor Collignon appearing on Sunrise on Thursday said he believes restrictions other than a complete lockdown need to be considered.
“I think we have to be careful about closing an entire city or place down. So far our track record is we can handle this without doing that,” Professor Collignon said.
“The numbers are important but the real number that is more important than anything else is the number of unlinked cases.
“We can’t go back to the normal of two years ago until we get a lot of people vaccinated.”
READ MORE:Melbourne outbreak shows flaws in hotel quarantine, vaccine rollout
Joseph Lam7.15am:Panic-buying sets in as Melbourne lockdown looms
Amid speculation of another lockdown in Victoria, many residents have taken early precautions, stripping supermarket shelves of essential items such as toilet paper.
The world moves on to vaccines etc as Melbourne reverts back to toilet paper wars pic.twitter.com/VIDnp5qwny
— Charlotte Fliegner (@CFliegner) May 26, 2021
Across Victoria there are 15 cases linked to the latest cluster, with concerns the virus has spilt over the border after a sporting club in Tooleybuc, NSW, travelled to Cohuna, 275km from Melbourne, attending an event with a positive case.
The Department of Health has confirmed a second person tested positive for Covid-19 after attending an AFL match at Marvel Stadium, in Docklands, on Sunday, 23 May.
Victorian officials met overnight in an emergency cabinet meeting to decide whether a lockdown would take place.
A positive case attended the Essendon/North Melbourne game at Marvel Stadium on Sunday, 23 May.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) May 26, 2021
Individuals sitting on Level 1 between Aisles 5 and 28 or Level 3 in between Aisles 6 and 29 must get tested and stay isolated until they have received a negative result. [1/3] pic.twitter.com/h310WoVtEC
READ MORE:AFL braces for Covid-19 chaos
Rachel Baxendale7am:More exposures sites added to Victorian list
Exposure sites linked to Melbourne’s latest coronavirus cluster now extend from Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula to Cohuna near the NSW border, with nine more added late last night.
The growing list of sites indicates health authorities are likely to announce a significant number of further cases in addition to the 15 known as of Wednesday at a press conference expected later on Thursday.
Victoria’s cabinet met late into Wednesday night, deliberating over further restrictions, with a lockdown which would be the state’s fourth considered a likely course of action.
The government is expected to finalise its decision on Thursday morning before holding a press conference to announce the new restrictions.
The exposure sites added to the list overnight include:
■ McDonalds Bayswater North, in Melbourne’s outer east, last Friday May 21 between 11pm and 12am;
■ Burwood Teppanyaki House, in Burwood East in Melbourne’s east, last Saturday May 22 between 7.30pm and 9.40pm;
■ Bicycle Superstore Carnegie, on Dandenong Road in Melbourne’s southeast, last Sunday May 23 between 3.33pm and 4pm;
■ IGA Coburg, in Melbourne’s north, last Saturday May 22 between 2.30pm and 2.50pm. This is in addition to Ritchies IGA Pentridge in Coburg which was also listed earlier on Wednesday;
■ Degani cafe at the Westfield Plenty Valley shopping centre in Mill Park in Melbourne’s north, last Sunday May 23 between 11.30am and 2pm;
■ The Sporting Globe bar & grill in Mordialloc in Melbourne’s bayside southeast, last Sunday May 23 between 6.17pm and 9.43pm;
■ Melbourne Swordcraft, touted as “Australia’s largest medieval battle game and live action role-play event”, in Parkville in Melbourne’s inner north, last Friday May 21 between 5.45pm and 10pm;
■ Nordie Cafe, Red Hill, on the Mornington Peninsula southeast of Melbourne, last Saturday May 22 between 9.09am and 9.34am; and
■ Insportz Knox indoor sports complex in Wantirna South, in Melbourne’s far east, last Thursday May 20 between 6.30pm and 8.30pm.
Cohuna, in Victoria’s north, 10km south of the Murray River, was listed as an exposure site earlier on Wednesday evening, after an infected case attended matches at the local Cohuna Kangas football/netball club.
The team was playing the Tooleybuc/Manangatang Saints, prompting NSW health authorities to issue its own warning given Tooleybuc is on the northern side of the border.
The full list is available on the health department’s website.
READ MORE:John Ferguson — Latest outbreak exposes glaring Covid-19 flaws
Joseph Lam6.45am:NSW border town caught up in Covid-19 outbreak
A NSW border town with 277 people is on high alert after its local sporting club travelled to regional Victoria to attend an event at which a positive case of Covid-19 has been confirmed.
The club from Tooleybuc, 328km northeast of Melbourne, travelled 140km to Cohuna, 275km from Melbourne, on Saturday between 12pm and 5pm.
NSW health will set up testing facilities in Tooleybuc and is urgently trying to track down local residents who attended the event.
“This event was attended by a confirmed case of Covid-19. Anyone who attended is requested to immediately self-isolate and await further advice from NSW Health,” a statement from the health department read.
“People with COVID-19 have visited a number of venues in Greater Melbourne and in and near Bendigo while infectious. This includes the Melbourne Cricket Ground and a number of hospitality venues.
“NSW Health is advising people in NSW to postpone non-urgent travel to Greater Melbourne and Bendigo, as Victorian health authorities continue to investigate the COVID-19 outbreak.”
âš ï¸PUBLIC HEALTH ALERT – NEW EVENT OF CONCERNâš ï¸
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) May 26, 2021
NSW Health is urgently contacting people from a NSW sporting club based in Tooleybuc, in the western Riverina region of NSW, who attended a sporting event in Cohuna, Victoria on Saturday 22 May from 12 to 5pm. pic.twitter.com/5uRdQX2SsR
READ MORE:
Jay Clark6am:AFL forced to scrap Hawks-Suns NT clash
Hawthorn’s clash against Gold Coast in Darwin on Saturday night has been scrapped as the AFL warned clubs that every season-saving measure was back on the table including hubs.
The league organised a snap hook-up with club chiefs at 12.30pm on Wednesday as the fixture was once again thrown into turmoil by Covid-19 uncertainty.
Clubs have been instructed to be on a “war footing” as the league awaits further news on the growing Melbourne outbreak.
Hawthorn was due to fly to Darwin today, but the league is now considering whether to play the game at another venue, such as Metricon Stadium.
Saturday night's clash between Gold Coast and Hawthorn has been postponed.
— AFL (@AFL) May 26, 2021
More details 👇
Read the full story here.
Rachel Baxendale5am:Melbourne braces for yet another strict lockdown
Melbourne was on the brink of a strict lockdown on Wednesday after the number of Covid-19 cases linked to a cluster in the city’s north hit 15 and the number of exposure sites passed 60.
Health officials have warned the results of testing overnight will be crucial to any decision about imposing restrictions, with the Andrews government holding crisis talks late into the evening to contemplate a lockdown.
“I cannot rule out taking some further action,” Acting Premier James Merlino said earlier on Wednesday. “The next 24 hours are going to be critical.”
Possible exposure sites are now spread from Cohuna, in northern Victoria, to Bendigo and across suburban Melbourne.
Read the full story here.
David Penberthy4.45am:Open door in Adelaide led to Covid-19 outbreak
An open door at an Adelaide quarantine hotel has been identified as the likely source of Covid-19 transmission from one infected guest to another in a breach which has been blamed for starting the Melbourne outbreak.
The revelation has prompted an overhaul of the manner in which people in hotel quarantine receive food and other deliveries to prevent airborne transmission of the virus.
In a brief three-page report, SA Health has blamed the opening of a door between two neighbouring rooms at Adelaide’s Playford Hotel for the suspected aerosol transmission of Covid-19 from an infected guest known as Case B to a second guest known as Case A.
The report came as SA slammed shut its border to residents of Melbourne from 6pm and as hundreds of Port Adelaide supporters were ordered to self-isolate for a fortnight after sitting near an infected person at Sunday’s Port-Collingwood game at the MCG.
Read the full story here.
Rosie Lewis4.30am:Business increases pressure for quicker vaccine rollout
Business leaders have seized on the latest coronavirus outbreak in Victoria to urge Australians to get vaccinated, saying all governments must agree at what stage of the rollout borders will remain open and restrictions permanently lifted.
As Scott Morrison defends the country’s “99.9 per cent effective” hotel quarantine system and Health Minister Greg Hunt reveals a record day of 104,000 jabs administered, Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said arguments around whether to get vaccinated or not would remain “far trickier” until a reopening plan was locked in.
While there have been demands for the federal government to be more transparent on how many Australians are fully vaccinated, the West Australian government has begun publishing a state-by-state breakdown of people who have received both coronavirus doses.
Based on commonwealth data provided to the states, it shows the ACT is leading the pack with 5.6 per cent of its population aged 16 years and older fully vaccinated, followed by the Northern Territory (5.5 per cent), Tasmania (4.7 per cent), South Australia (2.7), WA (2.3), NSW (2.2), Queensland (2.1) and Victoria (1.9).
Read the full story here.
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