PoliticsNow: Extra 20m Pfizer doses not guaranteed: Murphy; NZ airport worker tests positive to virus, bubble stays open
Australia’s top health bureaucrat can’t provide vaccine timetable, and says ‘supply with certainty’ of extra Pfizer jabs is ‘limited’ and subject to ‘ongoing reassessment’.
- Pfizer supply not guaranteed, no timetable on rollout
- Economy at pre-Covid levels: RBA
- NZ airport worker infected with virus
- Rethink to put over-50s in line for jabs
- Mystery of 2.7m ‘missing’ doses
Welcome to PoliticsNow, our rolling coverage of the latest in federal politics and the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Australia’s top health bureaucrat says he can’t provide a vaccine timetable, and ‘supply with certainty’ of 20m extra international Pfizer jab ‘limited’.
A border worker at Auckland Airport in New Zealand has tested positive to COVID a day after the two-way travel bubble with Australia began.
Meanhile, Australians over 50 could be vaccinated within weeks as national cabinet considers bringing forward the rollout and Scott Morrison flags a ‘12-week sprint’ to get younger people immunised by the end of the year.
Stephen Lunn 11.30pm:Aged care ‘an opportunity, not a money pit’
Far from being a multi-billion-dollar money pit for the federal government, delivering better aged care could be the next big economic opportunity for the nation, Labor’s Clare O’Neil argues.
And given population ageing will increase demand for jobs in care services, the opposition spokeswoman for senior Australians and aged care services says the government should “kick with the wind” and back in higher pay.
This investment would help address underemployment, support greater workforce participation for women, and quickly flow back through the economy, Ms O’Neil adds.
Jess Malcolm, Agencies10.45pm: Nations tighten restrictions on India
A number of countries have imposed travel restrictions to India, where local authorities have imposed a week-long lockdown to combat an explosion of COVID-19 cases.
The US has updated its travel advisory guidelines for India, which has recorded more than three million new infections and 18,000 deaths this month.
Singapore also boosted restrictions on arrivals from India on Tuesday, adding an extra week to the previously required 14-day quarantine period.
The moves follow Britain’s decision on Monday to add India to its “red list” of countries, and Hong Kong’s ban on all flights from the country.
India’s capital city, New Delhi, entered a week-long lockdown on Monday, with parks, cinemas and shopping centres closed.
The lockdown announcement prompted tens of thousands of migrant workers to flee Delhi, in scenes reminiscent of the national shutdown a year ago that inflicted economic and human misery.
READ MORE:Variant shuts Indians out of UK
Jess Malcolm 10pm:Agency kept victims in dark after hack
The NSW government has deliberately failed to inform tens of thousands of people that their personal information was stolen in a cyber security attack on Service NSW employee emails, as the agency says it has no obligation to notify affected customers.
Documents obtained by The Australian show Service NSW decided not to inform many victims whose data was stolen by criminals during a phishing attack on the department in April 2020, despite acknowledging the theft of their personal information could cause them serious harm.
In response to questions from The Australian, Service NSW admitted it did not try to count the number of victims it designated as “Category Five” customers, even though a confidential cabinet briefing states “the risk of serious harm cannot be excluded because of the size and unstructured nature of the data set”.
AFP9.15pm:EU will have vaccine doses for 70pc of adults by July
The EU will have enough COVID-19 vaccine doses to cover 70 per cent of its adult population by mid-July due to higher production within the bloc, a senior official said Tuesday.
“Fifty-three factories are producing vaccines in the EU. Our continent is now the largest producer in the world after the United States,” internal markets commissioner Thierry Breton told French daily Le Figaro in an interview.
“I am now certain of how many doses are currently in production and I know how many millions will be delivered each week,” he said.
“This allows me to assure you that we well have by mid-July the number of doses necessary for vaccinating 70 per cent of the European Union’s adult population,” he said, citing the threshold many health experts say is necessary to achieve “herd immunity”.
EU governments have faced fierce criticism over the bloc’s joint vaccine procurement efforts, which saw a slow start to its innoculation drive even as programmes raced ahead in Britain and the US.
Already half of American adults have had at least one dose, and as of Monday anyone over 18 can sign up for a shot.
In the EU, by contrast, just over 20 per cent of adults have received at least one jab, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Mr Breton insisted that Europe would catch up in the coming months, with production capacity “that will reach 200 million doses a month by this summer”.
But he poured cold water on the idea of using Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine anytime soon, after Germany opened discussions with Moscow this month without waiting for co-ordinated EU action.
READ MORE:Bubble not burst by Kiwi positive
Will Glasgow8.40pm:Ardern eases tension ahead of Payne talks
The Ardern government has scrambled to ease concerns about a gap between New Zealand and its other Five Eyes intelligence partners on handling China, as Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne flies into Wellington.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern sought to calm unease among fellow members about her government’s approach to the group after her Foreign Minister, Nanaia Mahuta, on Monday said New Zealand was “uncomfortable” with “expanding the remit of the Five Eyes relationship”.
“We should be banding together where we see issues globally that don’t align with our shared values,” Ms Ardern said on Tuesday. “But the point our Foreign Minister has rightly raised is, Is this best done under the banner of a grouping of countries around a security intelligence platform? Or is it best done under the banner of a group of countries with shared values, some of which may not belong to the Five Eyes partnership?
“We should be collectively raising issues, be it Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada, or the US (the Five Eyes members) … those collective voices are important. But let’s just make sure we do it with the appropriate platform.”
Jess Malcolm, Agencies8.20pm:Osaka calls for state of emergency
Japan’s third-most-populated region, Osaka, is urging the central government to impose a state of emergency as infection rates rise three months ahead of the Olympics.
Osaka is already under virus restrictions, with tougher rules expected to involve store and shopping centre closures.
Tokyo and several other areas are expected to follow, hoping to avoid the crisis facing Osaka’s healthcare system, where beds for severe COVID-19 patients have run out.
“Osaka is in a very tough situation in terms of the number of cases and the situation of the medical system,” Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura said, adding existing measures were “not enough”.
“Considering that, I decided to request that the central government declare a state of emergency,” he said.
Official government approval of the measures was expected to follow later.
Japan declared a virus state of emergency in early January for several areas, lifting it on March 1 in Osaka and three weeks later in Tokyo.
But infections have ticked back up, driven by more infectious variants, and vaccinations are moving slowly.
READ MORE: Gabba’s Games rebuild a test for cricket
Jess Malcolm7.40pm:Canavan pans emission target
Matt Canavan says he is opposed to the target of net zero emissions, flagging concern for its impact on the economy.
Speaking to Sky News ahead of Joe Biden’s two-day climate summit this week, the Queensland Nationals senator said the government must conduct modelling on what a net zero target would do to the economy.
“Our wealth comes from activities that generate large amounts of carbon emissions,” Senator Canavan said.
“We have to be realistic here, if we get bullied into this it will come at a large cost.”
Australia should be careful signing up to an agreement with China, Senator Canavan added.
“Whatever lip service they give it, we know they’re not going to live up to it,” he said.
“We cannot trust China right now, why would we sign another agreement with them?”
The comments come a day after Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia would not meet its climate change targets through “punishing taxes” and the country was on track to reduce emissions by 70 per cent per unit of GDP on 2005 levels and halve per capita emissions.
READ MORE:Bubble not burst by Kiwi positive
Chris Smyth, Graeme Paton7.10pm: Variant shuts Indians out of UK
British ministers have been accused of waiting too long to impose a travel ban on India after it was disclosed that thousands of people had arrived from the country since a coronavirus variant emerged.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Tuesday AEST that the government had taken the “difficult but vital decision” to put India on the travel red list after the number of confirmed cases of the variant in Britain rose to 103, with some catching it in the UK.
It will mean that from Friday returning UK residents will have to quarantine in a government hotel for 10 days while other travellers will be refused entry.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson cancelled a trip to India next week on which he had hoped to set out plans for a post-Brexit free-trade deal and secure millions of vaccine doses for Britain.
It is estimated that about 900 people a day arrive in Britain from India, with five flights from the country on Monday.
Hong Kong also introduced an emergency ban on all flights from India after at least 49 passengers on a flight from Delhi tested positive for coronavirus.
Authorities imposed a two-week ban on all flights from India, Pakistan and The Philippines, categorising the countries as “extremely high risk” after detecting the N501Y mutation for the first time.
Jess Malcolm 6.25pm: Three cases admitted to hospital
Three positive cases of COVID-19 have been moved to an Adelaide Hospital, South Australian health authorities have confirmed.
Two men in their 40s and a woman in her 20s are in a stable condition at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
SA Health said no COVID-19 patients were in the ICU.
Three new cases were reported on Tuesday, all in hotel quarantine. The cases include a man in his 50s, a man in his 20s and a teenager.
South Australian COVID-19 update 20/4/21. For more information, go to https://t.co/e4B14lR2Vd or contact the South Australian COVID-19 Information Line on 1800 253 787. pic.twitter.com/HipVzYLpyi
— SA Health (@SAHealth) April 20, 2021
READ MORE: First dose of Chinese vaccine fails in Chile
Jess Malcolm6.10pm: ‘No value’ in revealing vaccine timelines: Murphy
Brendan Murphy has revealed the federal government does have vaccine timeline targets for the rollout, but that it is choosing not to share the modelling publicly.
In answer to questioning by Labor senator Katy Gallagher, the health secretary said the government believes there is no value in putting out revised timelines, as they are subject to change and still need to be reviewed by national cabinet.
“The only timelines we are in a position to share are those where we have them publicly,” he said.
“We are looking at a range of areas, but there’s no certainty or in any of those outcomes.”
Professor Murphy also confirmed the Department of Health, responsible for vaccinating aged-care residents, does not know the exact number of the number of staff in aged-care facilities who have received the shot.
The number of border and quarantine workers vaccinated is also unknown, as it is still awaiting figures from the states and territories.
Jess Malcolm5.40pm: Majority of aged care disability staff unvaccinated
The federal government has revealed a very small number of aged care disability staff have received a vaccine, vowing it needs to do better.
The health department secretary Caroline Edwards was unable to give an exact figure to a COVID hearing committee, but admitted it was a small number and that authorities are ready to “ramp it up”.
“That’s why we need to work harder and we’ve found the inreach into aged care much more difficult,” Ms Edwards said.
“We had some initial problems ... in the meantime, we’re not going to prevent anybody who can’t have an incident to outreach to a GP.”
Rosie Lewis5.20pm: Pfizer not guaranteed, no timetable on rollout: Murphy
Top health bureaucrat Brendan Murphy has conceded he can’t tell the vast majority of Australians when they’ll be vaccinated as national cabinet recalibrates the delayed vaccine rollout.
Pfizer has become the preferred vaccine for people aged under 50 after AstraZeneca — which was meant to be the backbone of Australia’s vaccination program because it can be locally manufactured — was linked to a rare blood clot disorder.
“The international supply of Pfizer, which is an even more important vaccine to our rollout now, is subject to ongoing reassessment with Pfizer,” Professor Murphy told the Senate’s COVID committee.
“They’re doing their best as a company to increase their supply but the forward view they can give us of supply with certainty is limited.
“It’s going to be hard without a clear reliance on domestic supply to be absolutely certain about targets but we will share targets when we have them. I can’t give you an exact prediction at the moment.”
Australia is due to receive 20 million extra Pfizer doses in the final few months of the year but Professor Murphy’s comments confirm the supply is not guaranteed.
The Health secretary, who was the nation’s chief medical officer when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit Australia, also revealed the government had unofficial advice that Moderna would be “unable to meet supply before quarter four this year”.
“At the moment we’re not in a position to give an updated time on when vaccination will be completed but I can assure you all the first ministers want it done as quickly as possible and that’s what we’re working to,” he said.
The government has a contract with Novavax for 51 million doses, which was originally meant to deliver 10 million vaccines by the middle of the year.
The company has now advised Australia it will get “some doses” between July and September but it was unclear exactly how many.
The Senate also heard that just 6.5 per cent of the 25,000 Australians living with a disability in residential facilities had been vaccinated, with 1448 people receiving their first dose and 192 having been given their second dose.
Department of Health associate secretary Caroline Edwards said disabled people in residential care were the government’s “highest priority” and their vaccinations were being ramped up.
The vaccination of aged care residents would be completed in May, Professor Murphy said.
Jess Malcolm5.15pm: TGA warns of unathorised vaccines on dark web
Therapeutic Goods Administration chief says the border force is monitoring a small amount of unauthorised vaccines being imported by individuals on the dark web.
“There’s been a small amount of activity, where individuals have paid a certain number of Bitcoin and magically two doses of Pfizer turn up in an esky on a doorstep,” he told a COVID senate hearing.
“It turns out in many of those cases, people send their money and get nothing.”
Jess Malcolm5.10pm: Murphy defends Australian vaccine manufacture capabilities
Brendan Murphy has dismissed claims that Australia has been left vulnerable in its ability to manufacture pharmaceuticals onshore, saying Australia is one of the only countries with these capabilities.
In a COVID senate hearing, the health secretary was asked by Senator Jacquie Lambie: “Are you telling me that the government of the day is still not talking about manufacturing?”
Professor Murphy refuted these claims, suggesting Australia is in a fortunate position to have CSL as a major vaccine manufacturer.
“We are one of a small number of countries that have sovereign vaccine manufacturing capability. CSL has been supported and subsidised by the government to make vaccines for a long time, it makes flu vaccines, it is making AstraZeneca ... there are not many countries in the world that have this capability.”
But Professor Murphy said the federal government is “actively exploring” onshore manufacturing of vaccines, but that it could be some time before it gets off the ground.
Jess Malcolm4.50pm: No decision on immunity level needed for borders to open
Paul Kelly says the government has not yet decided on the level of immunity needed in the population before international borders can open, flagging the topic will be under discussion for National Cabinet next month.
Australia’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Mr Kelly said the government is considering what kind of threat COVID could have on hospital capacity, as well as the effectiveness of vaccines on new variants.
“We are doing a series of modelling projects, particularly looking at that at the right range of endpoints, which includes the type of cases that may come, if COVID was introduced into the community through borders reopening, and what effect that might have on hospitalisations, ICU admissions and the vaccine rollout,” he said.
He also flagged a concern about the effectiveness of a vaccine after a year.
“We still don’t know about the duration of effectiveness of the vaccines, recognising that no one in the world has received a vaccine,” he said.
“Particularly with the new technologies of mRNA vaccines, how long they last,” he said. “We know they’re very effective after six months … but beyond that it is speculation and so we’re putting that into the model as well.”
READ MORE:Vaccine question health boss can’t answer
Jess Malcolm4.35pm: On time, efficient: TGA head’s high praise for Pfizer
Therapeutic Goods Association chief John Skerrit has praised Pfizer on its ability to deliver vaccines on time and efficiently.
Professor Skerrit has told a federal government COVID hearing committee that he thinks this is due to Pfizer’s size and experience as a company, in comparison to Moderna which is relatively new.
“Moderna is a relatively new company as far as having a global presence,” he said. “I would argue that five years ago most people in our game knew about Pfizer but have never heard of Moderna because it was a small company, just getting into the area.”
“When you have very significant infrastructure for a company like Pfizer, their ability to deliver, and how they have always been very focused on delivery times, is because they have done the documentation over and over.”
READ MORE:Vaccines worth the gamble as odds firmly on your side
Jess Malcolm3.30pm: Vaccinations top 1.6 million nationally
A total of 1,653,286 vaccines have been administered as part of the federal government vaccination rollout, with 67,034 doses given in the past 24 hours.
The commonwealth has administered 990,382 with 50,756 given in the past 24 hours up to Monday night.
The states and territories have given 662,904 with 16,278 completed in the past 24 hours.
NSW has administered the most with 177,733 followed by Victoria with 168,250, Queensland with 126,011, WA with 78,215, Tasmania with 29,417, South Australia with 48,115, ACT with 22,056, and the Northern Territory with 13,107.
A total of 812,862 have been administered in primary care clinics by the commonwealth, and 177,520 given in aged and disability facilities.
The figures are part of a commitment by the commonwealth to release daily numbers in a bid to increase transparency in its rollout.
Nicholas Jensen3.25pm: Government pulls ‘bizarre’ milkshake consent video
The federal government has removed two controversial videos from its new $3.7m “Respect Matters” campaign after they were lambasted by critics as boneheaded, bizarre and deeply trivialising representations of modern consent among schoolchildren.
The two videos were removed this afternoon when the Department of Education released a statement, saying “community and stakeholder feedback” had caused the department to reconsider the quality of some of its educational material.
Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge and Minister for Women’s Safety Anne Ruston this month launched The Good Society website, containing 350 videos, stories, and other materials aimed at teachers, students and families in a bid to improve the way consent is taught in schools.
Some of the videos include a woman wiping a milkshake over a man’s face, a woman concerned about swimming in a beach for fear of sharks, a woman compromising eating pizza for dinner and another man eating tacos to explain sexual assault.
READ the full story here.
Adeshola Ore2.37pm: Olympic athletes won’t take places of returning Aussies
Health Minister Greg Hunt says Australia’s Olympic Committee is trying to ensure that if the Tokyo event goes ahead athletes will not take the hotel quarantine places of stranded Australians.
Mr Hunt said he was “very confident” Australian athletes would attend the Olympics that are due to kick off in July.
“The Australian Olympic Committee is currently working on proposals to ensure that there’s both the safe passage out and the safe passage in without imposing or without taking away places available for Australians,” he said.
“We want to see them go safely, we want to see them come back but they have to come back safely.”
READ MORE: Tokyo venues fail Covid test
Adeshola Ore 1.58pm:Hunt has ‘full confidence’ in NZ health system
Health Minister Greg Hunt says Australia has “full confidence” in New Zealand’s health system after a border worker at Auckland Airport tested positive to COVID
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today said movement would continue along the two-way trans-Tasman corridor. She confirmed the border worker was vaccinated and had been participating in routine COVID tests.
Mr Hunt has been briefed by his New Zealand counterpart Chris Hipkins.
He said the advice from Australia’s Chief Medical Officer aligned with “everything” that Ms Ardern had said.
“They’re on to this. We have full confidence in New Zealand’s system. We’ve seen them deal with the inevitable outbreaks,” he said.
Mr Hunt said there would be days in the future when there were COVID cases in Australia.
“We saw the outbreak recently in Queensland and NSW — two states — and yet we were able to deal with it. So we know how to deal with this.”
Mr Hunt said the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee was watching the situation in New Zealand but had full confidence in the country’s system.
“The worker has been vaccinated, that will play into how they assess the case and the transmission capability,” he said.
“But the worker has done everything right. The New Zealand system has picked up a case and we know that we have a highly infectious disease, but highly developed containment systems in both New Zealand and Australia.”
READ MORE: Super powering ahead as market gains
Adeshola Ore 1.41pm: Australian Covid vaccinations to hit 1.7m
Health Minister Greg Hunt more than 1.7 million COVID vaccinations will have been administered across Australia by the end of the day.
Mr Hunt said it was “six-fold increase” in vaccines administered in the four weeks since GP’s began rolling out the vaccines as part of phase 1B.
“That acceleration which has predicted has occurred,” he said.
“When you think of 1.7 million Australians having been vaccinated, that is an extraordinary achievement. More to come. More to do.”
Mr Hunt said speeding up the inoculation of Australians aged over 50 with the AstraZeneca jab would be an “important step” for the nation’s vaccine rollout.
The vaccination of up to 15.8 million 50- to 69-year-olds was due to begin mid-year but Scott Morrison flagged it could happen sooner to address the concern of not available doses being administered.
Vaccinations have now been administered in 1341 residential aged-care facilities including 749 with a second dose.
He said of the 330,000 doses issued last week there was a strong uptake in the age cohort of over 50s, but a reduction in those aged under 50 due to the federal government’s changed advice on the AstraZeneca shot.
Commodore Eric Young, who has been appointed to manage the logistics of distribution of the nation’s vaccines, said last week 600,000 doses were delivered across Australia last week.
He said the country was “on track” to increase the number of delivered doses.
Commodore Young said Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration would conduct batch testing on about 173,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 468,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
He said the government was expecting a “steady increase” in the onshore production of the AstraZeneca jab and the shipping of the Pfizer vaccines over the coming months.
READ MORE: Biden ready to defy Beijing with Taiwan arms sale
Stephen Lunn 1.31pm:Are you an ‘older worker’ at the age of 51?
The age at which a person is considered an “older worker” is getting younger, new research shows.
And almost half of Australian businesses admit to a cut-off age beyond which they are reluctant to recruit.
Yet there are more older workers in the workplace now than even three years ago, and employees increasingly expect to retire later, a study by the Australian HR Institute and Australian Human Rights Commission, has found.
The survey of 604 business leaders, academics and HR leaders conducted in February found that while 28 per cent of respondents defined an “older worker” as 61-65 years old, making it the most commonly nominated age range, that proportion had fallen eight percentage points since 2018.
Almost 17 per cent now classified older workers as 51-54 years old, a six-percentage-point jump in three years.
Robyn Ironside1.22pm: NZ infection not result of leaky border: Ardern
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has denied an Auckland Airport worker infected with COVID-19 shows the country has a “leaky border”.
Ms Ardern said the case was clearly connected to the worker’s job cleaning aircraft that had been carrying COVID-positive travellers from red zones, or countries where the virus remains rife.
She said the worker was fully vaccinated but still subject to routine COVID testing which had picked up the infection.
“I wouldn’t characterise it as a leaky border if someone who cleans planes that carry people with COVID gets infected,” Ms Ardern said.
“We’ve seen cases before that show how tricky this virus is. It’s why we have all these measures in place.”
News of the case had been conveyed to the Australian government, and Ms Ardern was not expecting it to have any impact on the two-way travel bubble which only began a day ago.
“Everyone knows the case we have and that it’s connected to the border and these are the types of scenarios that we anticipate movement continuing,” she said.
“When we opened up on both sides we knew there would still be cases connected to the border. We accept that’s going to be part of our journey together, and we’re always looking for a clear connection.”
The case highlighted the shortcomings of the COVID vaccine, which was capable of minimising the severity of the virus and preventing death but was not able to stop someone contracting the virus.
Ms Ardern said that was the reason border workers continued to be regularly tested for COVID-19 despite high vaccination rates.
Qantas, Jetstar and Air New Zealand dramatically increased flights between Australia and New Zealand on Monday, with up to 10,000 people a day expected to fly between the two countries.
Qantas has reported strong demand for travel into New Zealand but more modest numbers heading in the other direction.
New Zealanders have been able to fly into Australia without the need to quarantine since last October.
Ms Ardern has previously warned people planning to visit New Zealand that it was a case of flyer beware, with borders likely to close in the event of unlinked COVID cases in Australia, where vaccination rates remain low.
READ MORE:Hugs, tears as bubble opens
David Penberthy 1.18pm:Magistrate imagined lawyer ‘kneeling between his legs’
A female lawyer was sexually harassed while appearing in court by an Adelaide magistrate who sent her texts during a trial saying he was imagining her “kneeling between his legs” while he was sitting on the bench.
Another female legal professional who approached a judge about serious harassment by a barrister says the judge responded by saying he wanted to throw her to the floor and “f***” her because he loved “strong women”.
These are among the damning findings of a major report into sexual misconduct within the South Australian legal profession which found just over half of women working in the law in SA have been harassed, with 285 cases of harassment identified.
READ the full story here
Patrick Commins12.48pm:Economy already back to pre-Covid levels: RBA
The Reserve Bank believes the national economy likely recovered all its COVID losses by the end of the March, minutes from the most recent meeting have revealed.
The lifting of restrictions and tens of billions in emergency government support drove the fastest six months of growth on record over the back half of last year, and the RBA members noted that “the strong recovery in the Australian economy had continued into 2021”.
“Overall, preliminary data suggested that GDP in the March quarter was likely to have recovered further to around its pre-pandemic level, earlier than previously expected,” the minutes from the April 6 meeting read.
The RBA will release its new set of economic forecasts on May 7, four days before the federal budget.
Economic activity may have returned to pre-pandemic levels much earlier than anticipated, but monetary policymakers remained committed to keeping rates pinned to 0.1 per cent until 2024 “at the earliest”.
Adeshola Ore 12.43pm:Travel bubble to remain open, Ardern says
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says movement will continue along the two-way trans-Tasman corridor after a border worker at Auckland Airport tested positive to COVID.
Ms Ardern confirmed the border worker was vaccinated and had been participating in routine COVID tests.
“It was there the most recent test was picked up,” she said.
Ms Ardern said the worker was involved in cleaning planes that land at Auckland airport who arrive from “red red zones” or high-risk countries.
She said there was always going to be a risk when the travel bubble kicked off, which saw close to 10,000 people take to the sky between Australia and New Zealand on Monday.
“When we opened on both sides we knew we of course knew we would continue to have cases connected to our borders,” she said.
“When we announced the date for opening the trans-Tasman bubble, Queensland was dealing with cases linked to its border. We expect this will be part of our journey together with Australia.”
Ms Arden said it was positive that the case had been picked up in the routine screening for border workers.
She said the worker was tested on April 12 and tested again and was positive to COVID yesterday.
Contract tracing is underway to identify close contacts of the positive case.
Ms Ardern said she had not spoken to Scott Morrison yet but noted New Zealand’s Health Minister had been in touch with his Australian counterpart Greg Hunt.
Adeshola Ore12.24pm: NZ airport worker tests positive to virus
A border worker at Auckland Airport in New Zealand has tested positive to COVID a day after the two-way travel bubble with Australia began.
New Zealand’s health department said the contact tracing for the positive case was underway.
Kiwis and Australians can now travel between the two countries without a two-week stint in hotel quarantine at either end. A one-way bubble allowing New Zealanders to enter some Australia states without undertaking hotel quarantine had been in place since mid-October.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told the ABC this morning if there was a case detected in a border worker the travel arrangements in the corridor would not change.
But she said if there was a hotspot, mystery case or statewide lockdown, the travel corridor could be temporarily paused.
READ MORE: Pleas for more travel bubbles
John McCormick 11.39am: Former US Vice-President Walter Mondale dies aged 93
Former Vice President Walter Mondale, a civil rights champion who lost a 1984 White House bid in one of the largest Electoral College landslides in US history, has died. He was 93.
Mondale, the 42nd vice president, was credited with boosting the status of the office with his deep involvement in shaping policy, influencing administration appointments and conducting foreign policy negotiations.
“I was the first vice president to be in the White House working daily with the president,” Mondale said in a 2008 documentary about his life.
David Charter11.33am: Racial tensions high as jury deliberates Floyd decision
Racial tensions are high across the USA as jurors in trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin for murder of George Floyd start deliberations.
The jury was told to “believe your eyes” and find the police officer guilty of murdering the black father of five as the prosecution summed up its case on Monday.
“What you saw, you saw … the defendant pressed down on George Floyd so his lungs did not have room to breathe,” Steve Schleicher said, emphasising the nine minutes and 29 seconds that Floyd was restrained under Chauvin’s knee.
Nicholas Jensen11.30am:NSW records zero local virus cases
NSW has recorded no new local cases of COVID-19, with three cases detected in hotel quarantine.
There were 5785 tests received yesterday, with NSW Health treating 71 cases, one of whom is in ICU.
More than 92 per cent of these cases are being treated in non-acute, out-of-hospital care, including returned travellers in the Special Health Accommodation.
NSW Health say investigations are continuing into how COVID-19 transmission occurred between two families of returned travellers in adjoining rooms during hotel quarantine at the Adina Apartment Hotel, Town Hall.
NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases of #COVID19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) April 20, 2021
Three new cases were acquired overseas to 8pm last night, bringing the total number of cases in NSW since the beginning of the pandemic to 5,198. pic.twitter.com/lDG5WMPk9J
There has been no further transmission identified to date.
3881 vaccines were administered across the state in the 24 hours to 8pm.
The total number of vaccines administered by NSW Health is now 177,733.
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Olivia Caisley 11.05am:Back to drawing board after milkshake sex ed video
As the Morrison government comes under fire for its treatment of women, a video designed to teach teenagers about consent and respectful relationships has raised a few eyebrows. The resources were announced by Education Minister Alan Tudge last monthfollowing the national outcry sparked by the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins at Parliament House. While the intention behind the Respect Matters program may be good, the clips are confusing at best and condescending at worst. One video shows a teenage girl offering her partner some of her milkshake, before smearing it over his face, in a crude metaphor for forced sex.
Another clip shows a woman being pressured to swim in shark-infested waters as a way of talking about being pressured into sex. Rape prevention advocates unsurprisingly lashed the videos on Monday, declaring they made a mockery of the situation, failed to meet national education standards and would not help to stop sexual violence. Considering the importance of this national conversation, Strewth thinks it’s back to the drawing board on this one.
READ today’s Strewth in full here
Nicholas Jensen 10.47am: UK to launch international pandemic taskforce
The British government says it will launch a new international expert group to help the world prepare for future pandemics in an effort to fast-track the development of vaccines against diseases when they emerge.
Launched through Britain’s membership of the G7, the Pandemic Preparedness Partnership will report to the leader’s summit this June, advising on how to achieve a target of developing vaccines against future diseases within 100 days.
“As G7 President, the UK is determined to work with our partners to build back better from coronavirus and strengthen global preparedness for future pandemics,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.
“This new expert group will drive our efforts in the years ahead to protect people everywhere from new diseases and to save lives.”
The PPP will be chaired by Britain’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, and its steering group includes executives from COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.
The British government said there would also be additional funding for the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation to support global vaccine supply and development in the future.
READ MORE: Michael Sexton — Union on the line as breakaway Scots head to polls
Nicholas Jensen10.35am: More AstraZeneca data ‘needed to build trust’
Annastacia Palaszczuk says more data should be made available to the public regarding the AstraZeneca vaccine to help rebuild trust and confidence in the jab.
“We need to make sure we’ve got confidence and listen to the medical experts,” she told Nine’s Today show. “We were briefed yesterday by some of the medical experts. I think we need to see more data.”
In yesterday’s national cabinet, state and territory leaders agreed to bring forward inoculations for over 50s, as well as accelerate plans for mass vaccination sites.
Ms Palaszczuk was also critical of the Prime Minister’s proposal of home quarantine for vaccinated returned travellers, saying she was “very concerned about the risks, especially in regards to mutant, and potentially vaccine-resistant, strains”.
“The jury’s out on that one,” she said. “I do have concerns … we’ve got the pandemic raging around countries at the moment.”
“The problem is people going overseas vaccinated, but they could come back with a mutant strain. It’s an uncharted world at the moment.”
READ MORE: Let business help in vaccine rollout, BCA says
Ben Wilmot10.23am: Developer rides homes boom with sales surge
The country’s largest residential developer, Stockland, says inquiries are running 40 per cent ahead of normal as it rides the tide of low interest rates and government stimulus.
In a bullish first quarter update, the company said that it was headed to the top end of its earnings guidance and was on track to settle 6300 home lots this year.
Stockland chief executive Mark Steinert said the company had come through the worst of the coronavirus crisis and was now firing.
“Importantly as the economic and business environment has improved towards pre-COVID levels, industry support measures such as the Commercial Code of Conduct and HomeBuilder concluded at the end of the quarter without emerging evidence of material adverse outcomes,” Mr Steinert said.
READ the full story here
Adeshola Ore 10.17am:No ‘mates’ in veterans royal commission: Lambie
Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie says the commissioners who will be appointed to run the veteran suicide royal commission must be “completely independent.”
On Monday, Scott Morrison announced the inquiry which he said could begin to undertake hearings from July. Three national commissioners will be appointed to run the inquiry because of the complex issues involved.
Senator Lambie, who called for a veteran suicide royal commission in her maiden speech in 2014, said she did not want to see “mates” of the government appointed as commissioners for the inquiry.
“We want to make sure the royal commissioner who will be put on that panel is completely independent,’’ she said. “We don’t want an episode with what happened with the interim national commissioner when it was a friend of the Defence Minister.’’
The government’s proposed standing commissioner for veterans’ suicide, which failed to win parliamentary support last year, will be charged with overseeing the implementation of the royal commission’s recommendations.
Ms Lambie said the government’s original proposal for an ongoing commissioner did not satisfy the needs of the veteran community.
“We got a dozen pieces of legal advice saying it wouldn’t match a royal commission. The veterans felt they were getting a second class commission,” she said.
“For them, they wanted nothing less than a royal commission. This is what they want. Finally we’ve got that door open.”
Senator Lambie said Mr Morrison appointing Veterans’ Affairs Minister Darren Chester to lead the inquiry’s consultation process was “astounding” because he would be “under the microscope” during the inquiry.
Mr Morrison said on Monday that Mr Chester would lead the consultation process for developing the royal commission’s terms of reference which will include liaising with states, territories and the veteran community.
“We don’t want him at all out there having a look at those draft terms of reference whatsoever,” she said.
READ MORE: PM to recognise human cost of Diggers’ service
Nicholas Jensen10.14am:Queensland records zero virus cases
Queensland has recorded no cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.
There were 4933 test results received across the state in the past 24 hours, with health authorities monitoring 20 active cases.
Queensland has recorded seven COVID-19 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
Tuesday 20 April – coronavirus cases in Queensland:
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) April 19, 2021
• 0 new cases
• 20 active cases
• 1,518 total cases
• 2,408,709 tests conducted
Sadly, seven people with COVID-19 have died. 1,449 patients have recovered.#covid19pic.twitter.com/Oqqjq0br4u
READ MORE: Raceway a victim of fight over quarantine centre
Peter van Onselen 9.53am:Criticism of PM on vaccines border on hysterical
Wise words this morning on ABC radio from the director of the US National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci. Asked about criticisms being levelled at the Australian government for its vaccine rollout, he made the sobering point that people shouldn’t be too harsh. Australia, he said, is uniquely well placed compared to other nations that have struggled to contain the coronavirus, and it’s to be expected that there are teething problems in the early days of the rollout.
Yes, the US has already rollout a vaccine for nearly half its adult population, but Fauci points out that’s because of the necessity to rush it out given the rampant rate of infections. All rollouts face problems early on before scale takes over. That has been the experience in most countries and likely will be the case here too.
Having witnessed the disaster that transpired under Trump’s presidency in the US first hand Fauci knows how lucky Australia really is.
READPVO’s full commentary here
Nicholas Jensen 9.21am:Vaccine hesitancy ‘now the real challenge’
Australian Medical Association president Omar Khorshid fears the country is facing a new problem with its vaccine rollout, saying “a number of Australians have lost confidence in the jabs”.
Dr Khorshid, who attended yesterday’s national cabinet, told Nine’s Today program there was general agreement that “we needed to bring forward the country’s next stage of the rollout, administering the vaccine to people in their 50s”.
But he warned that a reluctance among some parts of the population to get the vaccine was beginning to take root.
“Our problem in the past was a lack of vaccines, but just in the last week or so, we’ve got a new problem and that is Australians have lost confidence in the vaccines,” Dr Khorshid said.
“A real challenge for our governments, for our medical profession, is to actually get Australians to go into their GP, roll up their sleeve and get their vaccine.”
READ MORE: Jab jitters stalling vaccine rollout
Adeshola Ore 9.15am:Labor’s climate war ‘stalling momentum’ on renewables
Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles says the Coalition’s division over climate is stalling the momentum of Australia’s renewable energy policies.
In a speech to the Business Council of Australia on Monday night, Scott Morrison assured regional Australia that its workers would benefit and not be penalised by his government’s climate change policies. He also declared net zero emissions would not be achieved in the “cafes, dinner parties and wine bars of our inner cities’’. Nationals senator Matt Canavan this morning told Sky News that driving down carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 was not the platform he was elected on.
Mr Marles said the government’s party room had been “at war with itself” since 2013.
“The fight then between Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull is now being carried on by Scott Morrison and Matt Canavan,” he told Sky News.
“Until the government party room sorts itself out, you’re not going to have settling energy policy in this country, which is obviously what we need in order to encourage the development and uptake of renewable energy.”
READ MORE: Durie — Nation’s elite raise a toast to recovery
Nick Evans 9.08am: Rio feels pinch of WA labour shortages
Rio Tinto says it is feeling the pinch of labour shortages in WA’s resources sector, saying a fall in production at its Pilbara operations can be partly attributed to difficulty in finding workers to conduct scheduled maintenance.
Rio’s exports for the March quarter lifted substantially on the same period in 2020, with the company shipping 77.8 million tonnes or iron ore, up 7 per cent on the same period a year ago when the global coronavirus pandemic was taking hold and closing borders.
But production levels fell 2 per cent compared to the same period, to 76.4 million tonnes, with the company blaming wet weather and “fixed plant reliability”.
“In the first quarter, labour resource availability and weather challenges disrupted maintenance in the mine processing facilities which will be prioritised for the rest of the year,” the company said.
Last week fellow WA iron ore miner Mineral Resources said a shortage of truck drivers in WA had forced it to cut annual shipment guidance by 2 to 2.5 million tonnes for the year, with the company forced to leave about $120m worth of iron ore unsold in the first quarter because it could not move its iron ore to the ports.
READ MORE: Sloan — PM caved on super and it will hurt workers
Nicholas Jensen9.05am: Victoria records zero local virus cases
Victoria has recorded no local cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, with one new case detected in hotel quarantine.
Victorian health officials received 10,042 test results yesterday and are currently monitoring 14 active cases.
Yesterday there were no new local cases and 1 new case acquired overseas (currently in hotel quarantine).
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) April 19, 2021
- 3,333 vaccine doses were administered
- 10,042 test results were received
Got symptoms? Get tested.
More later: https://t.co/0xmnS54Kvl#COVID19Vic#COVID19VicDatapic.twitter.com/3N2VxvktwS
Yesterday health officials administered 3333 vaccine doses, bringing the state’s total to 168,258 inoculations.
READ MORE: Anzac veterans baulk at toeing sign-up line
Lachlan Moffet Gray8.59am: Sydney airport domestic traffic doubles in a month
Sydney Airport domestic passenger traffic more than doubled in March compared to February, lifting from 596,000 to 1,120,000 as the ability to holiday interstate free of restrictions returned.
International passengers recorded a slight increase over that same time period, from 27,000 to 33,000.
Overall monthly passengers were 1,153,000 - a considerable month on month increase, but a figure still 42.6 per cent below the March of 2020 and 68.4 per cent below March of 2019, before COVID began to impact travel.
“The downturn in international passenger traffic is expected to persist until government travel restrictions are eased,” Sydney Airport said.
READ MORE: Pleas for more travel bubbles
Adeshola Ore 8.53am:Labor’s changed stance on coal ‘laughable’
Nationals Senator Matt Canavan says Labor’s changed stance on coal is “laughable” as the opposition pivots in an attempt to win seats in the mining states of Queensland and Western Australia.
The Australian has reported that opposition resources spokeswoman Madeleine King said Labor would not stand in the way of new mines, as the party attempts to reset its position in the climate change wars. Anthony Albanese will also use a speech today to back the future of coal exports and outline Labor’s vision for a clean energy “jobs revolution”.
Senator Canavan said the Labor Party had cycled through a “multitude” of positions on the issue of coal.
“They’ve only discovered the merits in fighting for other people’s jobs, when their own jobs have been threatened,” he told Sky News.
“I know out here in Central Queensland, where I am today in Rockhampton, there’s a lot of cynicism about these last minute conversions from the Labour Party to the cause of coal jobs.”
READ MORE: Labor ‘needs to seize the day’ on energy use
Charlie Peel8.45am: Gabba upgrade to house Olympic crowds
The Gabba would be refurbished to cater for a crowd of 50,000 in a plan to use Brisbane’s cricket and AFL home ground as the main stadium for the 2032 Olympic Games.
Premier Anastasia Palaszczuk announced the Gabba as the preferred venue at a press conference on Tuesday morning, saying her cabinet had approved the plan.
The upgrade would include linking the stadium with a pedestrian plaza to a New Cross RiverRail train station being built across the road.
The pedestrian plaza would also be used as a venue to host medal ceremonies.
The Premier said using the Gabba as the main stadium for the opening and closing ceremonies was cost-effective because it was already earmarked for an upgrade.
“Every games needs a home,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“The Gabba has been home to our sport since 1895.
“A home for the 2032 Olympic Paralympic Games could be its crowning glory.”
Ms Palaszczuk said the stadium’s proximity to the central business district would give Brisbane an advantage over other Olympics host cities.
Sport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe said the plan would get the most out of existing infrastructure and ensure the Gabba did not become a “white elephant”.
BREAKING: Take a look at what a brand new @gabbabrisbane would look like 👇
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) April 20, 2021
Should Queensland host the 2032 Games, our main stadium would be the Gabba - just three minutes from Brisbane’s CBD via @CrossRiverRail. #olympics2032@stirlhinchliffepic.twitter.com/vupLU7OXsT
“It’s used on average for 40 weeks of the year with major sports played in summer and winter including international sport,” Mr
Hinchliffe said.
READ MORE: Have we picked the wrong Games team?
Jamie Walker8.39am: Abandoned UQ vaccine ‘among best in world’
Clinical trial results show the aborted University of Queensland COVID-19 vaccine would have been among the best in the world, generating an immune response in 99 per cent of patients it was tested on.
The findings of the phase one safety study, reported today in British medical journal The Lancet, underline the opportunity lost when the development program was abandoned four months ago due to a glitch with the vaccine formula.
Sixty seven of the 68 people who received two doses of the promising immuniser produced a “neutralising immune response” to the virus, the study found.
“It means the vaccine basically worked in everybody … to induce the type of immune response we were looking for,” says one of the lead scientists in the UQ team, Trent Munro.
“So that is not only just to make antibodies, but to make antibodies that are effective in killing the virus.”
While the phase one human trial was designed to prove only that the vaccine was safe to give to people, Professor Munro said the result was “fantastic, as good as we could have expected”.
The federal government had ordered 51 million doses of the Australian-made jab before the program was abandoned last December after a sliver of HIV protein used to anchor the “molecular clamp” technology was found to produce false-positive readings to the AIDS virus.
This was purely a matter of “diagnostic interference”, Professor Munro said. There was no possibility of infection or health implications from the false-positive, confirmed by the phase one trial.
READ the full story here
Nicholas Jensen8.35am: Vaccine rollout completely unethical, says Thunberg
Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has condemned the global vaccine rollout, describing it as “completely unethical” and a tragedy that western countries are neglecting the world’s most vulnerable and poorest nations.
“It is completely unethical that high-income countries are now vaccinating young and healthy people if that happens at the expense of people in risk groups and on the front lines in lower and middle-income countries,” she told a WHO briefing on Monday.
The Swedish activist said the pandemic “demonstrated what science could achieve when it was well resourced,” but added it was a “tragedy” that one in four people in high income countries had been vaccinated compared to one in 500 in low and middle income countries.
“This is a moral test … vaccine nationalism is what’s running the vaccine distribution.”
Miss Thunberg’s comments come as the WHO announced 5.2 million new confirmed virus cases during the latest week, the largest weekly count yet, according to the UN health agency.
READ MORE: New wave of Covid cases strikes Asian nations
Nicholas Jensen8.12am:Shared values go beyond Five Eyes: Ardern
Jacinda Ardern has supported comments made by her Foreign Minister who said New Zealand was uncomfortable with expanding the remit of Five Eyes.
“We should be banding together where we see issues globally that don’t align with our shared values,” Ms Ardern told the ABC this morning.
“But the point our Foreign Minister has rightly raised is that is this best done under the banner of a grouping of countries around a security intelligence platform? Or is it best done under the banner of a group of countries with shared values, some of which may not belong to that Five Eyes partnership?”
Asked why western nations should not collectively voice their concerns about China, Ms Adern said: “We should be collectively raising issues, be it Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada, the US … those collective voices are important, but let’s just make sure we do it with the appropriate platform.”
“You’ve seen us from time to time actually with Australia releasing statements together and that won’t always have been with other Five Eye partners.”
Ms Ardern said New Zealand considered itself an important member of Five Eyes.
“The point we’re raising is that there’s a broad community that often will share those same views,’’ she said. “Let’s reach out to them and from time to time.”
Ms Ardern also discussed the opening of the travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand, saying Australians should “consider your travel in the same way that you would travel between states in Australia”.
“If you’re in NSW and you’re considering travelling over to Queensland … that’s no different to considering travelling to New Zealand. We will treat any cases in a very similar way as you see the different states do,” she said.
Asked what would happen if an outbreak occurred, Ms Ardern said: “If there’s a hotspot and it is a case of unknown origin and that state goes into a short lockdown, we may pause travel for a time.”
“But if, for instance, it is a known situation that’s connected to a border worker for instance, then we wouldn’t anticipate changing up travel arrangements.”
READ MORE: Peter Jennings — Biden’s big blunder on Afghanistan
Melissa Yeo7.59am: Bankers branch out on night of nights
Local banking circles have always been tight, evidenced no more so than on corporate Australia’s night of nights on Monday.
The first major event for the Business Council of Australia since the pandemic struck was momentous not just for all the ways described by chief Tim Reed or PM Scott Morrison, but it was a night for the banking top brass to let their (at times somewhat lacking) hair down too.
ANZ’s Shayne Elliott was spied sharing a laugh with Westpac chairman Phil Chronican and chief Phil King — all of whom have at one time worked under their fourth guest, none other than Macquarie director Phillip Coffey.
In an address at the BCA’s annual dinner, the Prime Minister said the government would not “tax the life out’’ of industries as he framed the May budget as a blueprint for the “next phase of Australia’s economic recovery’’, with major reforms to skills training and services to get the unemployed into work.
Speaking before some of the nation’s leading chief executives, Mr Morrison on Monday night also announced a mass deregulation program to slash annual compliance costs by $430m.
Mr Morrison assured workers in the nation’s regions and industrial heartland they would benefit rather than be penalised by his climate change policies, declaring net zero emissions would not be achieved in the “cafes, dinner parties and wine bars of our inner cities’’.
READthe full Margin Call column here
Nicholas Jensen7.32am: Supply shortfalls jeopardise AstraZeneca EU contracts
The European Union is unlikely to renew contracts for the AstraZeneca vaccine because of past disagreements concerning supply shortfalls, EU commissioner Thierry Breton has said.
Mr Breton, who is responsible for vaccine procurement for the bloc, said any EU contract decision would be based on the company’s production and supply record.
While he stressed the rarity of blood-clotting side effects, he also conceded confidence in vaccinations had fallen across Europe.
It comes as people left medical centres across France over the weekend after being told they would receive the AstraZeneca jab. Similarly, in Stockholm, hundreds of doses of AstraZeneca were reportedly thrown away because patients refused the vaccine.
“It is not for an epidemiological or medical reason … When we look at the data, the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh the disease massively,” Mr Breton told France’s BFM TV.
“My priority as head of vaccines is to ensure that companies we have contracts with deliver in and at the right time.”
Mr Breton accused AstraZeneca of failing to deliver a promised 300 million doses by the end of June, with just 30 million supplied in the first quarter.
Last week European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc’s vaccine procurement would focus on jabs that have “proven their worth”
The EU is currently in talks with Pfizer for 1.8 billion additional doses to be delivered over the next two years.
READ MORE: Fear sweeps Indigenous communities as AstraZeneca jabs suspended
Will Glasgow7.15am:Five Eyes running rogue on remit: NZ
New Zealand has told Australia and its other Five Eyes partners the US, Canada and the UK that it is “uncomfortable” about expanding the role of the grouping beyond intelligence sharing, as Wellington tries to avoid a breakdown in its relationship with China.
In an acknowledgment of New Zealand’s difficult strategic environment, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said the Ardern government was becoming “more alert to the values that differentiate” Wellington from Beijing, citing concerns on Hong Kong, the treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang and cyber attacks.
“It’s not getting any easier to be a small country,” she said.
The address was delivered on Monday as Foreign Minister Marise Payne and International Development and the Pacific Minister Zed Seselja prepare to visit New Zealand for three days of talks starting on Wednesday.
READ the full story here
Nicholas Jensen6.58am:Last week worst of entire pandemic: WHO
Last week saw the highest number of recorded COVID-19 cases across the world for the entire pandemic, the World Health Organisation has reported.
At a press conference yesterday, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said infections have been rising consecutively for eight weeks.
“Last week new cases of COVID-19 increased for the eighth week in a row, with more than 5.2 million cases reported,” said Dr Ghebreyesus.
“This marks the most in a single week so far.”
The rise in infections comes as Brazil and India attempt to counter a huge surge in cases and deaths, with new variants continuing to emerge.
“It took nine months to reach one million deaths; four months to reach two million, and three months to reach three million,” Dr Ghebreyesus.
“Big numbers can make us numb but each one of these deaths is a tragedy for families, communities and nations.”
The WHO has also warned that COVID-19 is spreading at an “alarming rate” among people aged 25 to 59, “possibly due to contagious new variants and increased socialising”.
READ MORE:Mystery of 2.7 million ‘missing’ vaccine doses
Nicholas Jensen6.43am:Switzerland expands program with mass jab hubs
Switzerland has expanded its inoculation program this week as it launched mass vaccination centres in cities across Geneva and Lausanne.
While case numbers have continued to rise steadily over the past weeks, the Swiss government announced last Wednesday it would significantly ease its COVID-19 restrictions despite the fact that the pandemic “remains fragile and has even worsened in recent weeks”.
The government claims the move is justified because cases are rising slowly, while the vaccination program is accelerating. Hospitals are not concerned about capacity.
Cases in the country have increased by 4905 since Friday, according to figures published yesterday, taking the total to 637,304, with 16 additional deaths.
A large vaccination centre opened in Geneva, at a convention centre that normally hosts international motor shows.
“The centre opens today with a capacity of 2000 vaccinations per day and as soon as we’re able to increase that, it can quickly go to 3000 or 4000 shots per day … that is huge for us,” a Swiss health official said. .
In Lausanne, in the country’s west, the largest centre opened at Palais de Beaulieu, which aims to vaccinate 14,000 people a week.
READ MORE:First dose of Chinese vaccine fails in China
Nicholas Jensen6.29am:‘We’re encouraged’: US continues to review J&J shot
The US government is continuing to review reports that suggest potential side effects among individuals who have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Last week US health regulators called for a pause in administering the J&J vaccine due to reports of serious blood clots in six women under age 50 who received the shot.
“We are encouraged that it hasn’t been an overwhelming number of cases but we’re looking at what’s come in,” US Centre for Disease Control director Rochelle Walensky said during a news briefing.
While the US Drug Administration is monitoring for additional reports of side effects, Dr Walensky did not indicate the nature of the additional side effects.
An advisory panel for the CDC is meeting to review data on severe side effects and will make a recommendation on whether the US should resume using the J&J vaccine.
Health officials have predicted a resumption, but only after healthcare providers are given clear guidelines for how to treat the blood clots that can emerge.
Earlier this week White House COVID-19 adviser Andy Slavitt assured Americans that vaccine supply remains “robust” and that it has never been easier for Americans to obtain a vaccine.
“More than 3 million COVID-19 jabs are going into arms each day in the US using the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines,” he said.
Over 260 million COVID-19 shots have been shipped in the United States and nearly 210 million people have received doses, according to the CDC’s latest update at the end of last week.
Dr Walensky said that “of the 84 million people who have been fully vaccinated in the US, fewer than 6000 have gotten sick with COVID-19 more than two weeks after … of those, nearly 400 were hospitalised and around 75 died.
“It still makes a really important point. These vaccines are working,” she said.
READ MORE:New wave of cases in Asia
Nicholas Jensen6.15am:India takes dramatic step to counter virus surge
India is preparing to waive its 10 per cent customs duty on imported vaccines, as the country attempts to increase supply and accelerate its inoculation program to counter the dramatic surge in COVID-19 cases.
Delivery of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine is due to arrive within weeks as the government has urged Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson to sell their products to India.
While the Indian government currently regulates the sale and purchase of all COVID-19 jabs, officials have suggested that the government was considering allowing private companies to import approved vaccines for sale on the open market without government intervention and free to set pricing.
As infections and deaths continue to rise, health officials are rushing to combat acute shortages in hospital beds, oxygen and key medicines.
It comes as the city of Delhi, India’s capital, announced a one-week lockdown after a record rise in cases overwhelmed its healthcare system.
Total deaths have swelled to approximately 179,000 and cases have climbed above 15 million, the world’s second highest tally behind the US.
India has been reeling from a deadly second wave since the beginning of April, with the government now deciding to open vaccinations to all adults from May 1.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson cancelled a planned trip to India yesterday, with Health Secretary Matt Hancock saying the country had now been placed on the “travel red list”.
READ MORE:New Delhi reports 24,000 cases in a day
Tom Dusevic6.00am:Mystery of 2.7m ‘missing’ vaccine doses
The Morrison government has taken delivery of 4.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines but as of Sunday just under 1.6 million shots had been administered.
That means about two out of three doses that have been supplied by Pfizer and AstraZeneca, batch tested and released by the regulator, have not been given to people.
Where could those remaining 2.7 million doses be? Are they in transit, storage, in GPs’ fridges, set aside by officials for a second dose, or just not yet recorded on the immunisation log?
The government maintains the picture is brighter, with an “estimated dose utilisation rate of 75 per cent”. Only 861,613 available doses have not been administered, according to Health Department figures released on Monday. A spokesman for Health Minister Greg Hunt told The Australian contingency for second doses and the delivery schedule explained the discrepancy, and that regulators were moving swiftly.
“So far the Therapeutic Goods Administration has cleared every batch on the day it has received the data. We are always delivering future supplies ahead of the coming week,” he said.
How could supplied doses from Big Pharma and unused doses seemingly be 1.8 million apart?
Ben Packham5.50am:PM to recognise human cost of Diggers’ service
Scott Morrison has launched a wide-ranging royal commission into veteran suicides, examining “the human cost” of Defence service, including transition to civilian life, family pressures, welfare services and future employment prospects.
The Prime Minister, who had previously resisted a royal commission in favour of a permanent commissioner for veteran suicides, said the inquiry would mark the beginning of a new healing process for former Defence personnel and their families.
The move follows a concerted campaign by service groups, bereaved families and government MPs with military backgrounds, who argued that only a royal commission could properly tackle surging veteran suicide rates.
More than 500 veterans are believed to have taken their lives in the past two decades.
The inquiry’s terms of reference will be negotiated with the states and territories but will include an examination of systemic problems and risk factors that can lead veteran suicides, together with preventive measures and improvements to services and entitlements.
“We have listened carefully and at all times sought to do what is best for veterans and their families,” Mr Morrison said.
“I hope it will be a process by which veterans and families can find some comfort, but it obviously can’t replace the loss. We understand that.”
Rosie Lewis5.40am:Rethink to put over-50s in line for jabs
Australians over the age of 50 could be vaccinated with AstraZeneca within weeks as national cabinet considers bringing forward the rollout and Scott Morrison plans for a “12-week sprint” to get younger people immunised by the end of the year.
The vaccination of up to 15.8 million 50- to 69-year-olds was due to begin mid-year but the Prime Minister revealed it could happen sooner amid concerns not all available doses were being administered.
There was a drop off in state-administered doses after Australia’s health experts advised that the Pfizer vaccine was preferred for under-50s because of a very rare blood clot disorder associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“There are strong, strong arguments for the bring forward of over-50s with the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is a safe and effective vaccine for those aged over 50,” Mr Morrison said.
“We don’t want to see one vaccine that’s rolling off the line and going through the approval processes and the batch testing sitting in a fridge.
“If there is someone over 50 who is there and wants to take that vaccine, we’ll be looking at how that can be achieved today and in what type of timeframe we might commence that process.
“There’ll be no lessening of effort on focusing on that most important vulnerable group (of over 70s) as well as the key frontline health workers that are part of the 1a and 1b program.”
Government data released on Monday revealed that of the 2.4 million available vaccines, nearly 1.6 million doses had been administered as of Sunday.
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