One new local Covid case, travellers left in limbo as half the country enters lockdown
Health authorities have hit out at the Prime Minister’s plan to rollout AstraZenenca jabs to people under 40, calling for “certainty, consistency and confidence” in vaccine programs.
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Health Minister Martin Foley has blamed vaccine confusion on Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s “rushed conversation” around AstraZeneca eligibility.
Victorian authorities revealed on Wednesday they were still seeking clarification from the Commonwealth as to exactly what the wider rollout would mean, as well as what benefits and risks could arise from allowing people aged under 40 to have the AstraZeneca jab.
“I think this is an unfortunate reflection of the rushed conversation that the Prime Minister kicked off late on Monday night without talking to anyone,” Mr Foley said.
“The last thing we need is confusion around vaccines. What we need is certainty, consistency and confidence in the vaccination program. That’s what I’m on about and I won’t be adding to the confusion.
“Once we have a clear position, jointly with the GPs, jointly with the Commonwealth, we’ll have more to say.”
It comes as Queensland’s chief health officer, Dr Jeanette Young, said she was against under 40s receiving the AstraZeneca jab due to their increased risk of blood clots.
“I don’t want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who, if they got Covid probably wouldn’t die,” she said.
Queensland deputy premier Steven Miles on Wednesday said state-run vaccination centres “will not ignore the health advice”.
“For the prime minister to attempt to overrule the medical advice and provide a vaccine that is not recommended for people under 60 puts Queenslanders at risk,” he said.
Meanwhile, Western Australia’s Premier Mark McGowan also said people under 40 shouldn’t be getting the jab.
“That is the advice we have and that is the national advice from the immunisation experts … Clearly, the Commonwealth has taken a different approach.”
ALICE SPRINGS BECOMES RED ZONE
From 11:59pm on 30 June Alice Springs will become a red zone under Victoria’s travel permit system, meaning an exemption is needed to gain entry into the state.
Alice Springs has also retrospectively been designated as an orange zone, meaning anyone currently in Victoria who has been in Alice Springs at any time since 25 June should isolate, get tested and stay isolated until they return a negative result.
CROWD CAPS UNCHANGED IN VICTORIA
Footy crowds and theatre attendance caps will remain unchanged as the national Covid crisis worsens.
Theatres were supposed to resume 100 per cent capacity from Friday, while outdoor stadiums were set to increase to 85 per cent capacity.
But there will be no increase this week due to the national situation, with Health Minister Martin Foley saying the decision was justified because Victoria’s current situation is “worth protecting at all costs”.
“It is clear that as a nation things are extremely delicately poised … We are seeing situations right around the country, with 12 million Australians and a form of severe lockdown,” Mr Foley said.
There will be no added restrictions, but current restrictions will stay in place for the time being.
One new local Covid infection was recorded overnight, breaking Victoria’s three-day streak.
The case is a primary contact of a known case and has been isolating throughout their infectious period.
Mr Foley said the case was linked to the Epping Private Hospital outbreak, revealing the woman is carrying the Kappa strain.
“She has been in quarantine during her infectious period so there are no exposure sites, there are no further contacts, so that is relatively positive,” he said.
An infection was also recorded in hotel quarantine. Nearly 30,000 swabs were received on a bumper day of testing.
Covid-19 commander Jeroen Weimar said he was confident authorities had managed to contain Melbourne’s latest scare.
“We feel that we’ve got a really good wrap around that,” he said.
“We’re as confident as we can be at this stage … (but) we may well see some more positive cases emerge from that.”
NSW detected another spike, with 22 new local infections announced on Wednesday.
The NT did not record a new local case overnight, but Alice Springs will go into lockdown for 72 hours from 1pm local time after a mine worker travelled from the town to Adelaide.
The man returned a negative Covid-19 test in SA, but has since developed symptoms. Four of his five household contacts also tested positive for the virus.
South Australia’s 211-day streak without a local Covid infection was dashed, with the mine worker and his four family members transferred into hotel quarantine.
Health authorities moved to reassure South Australians that a lockdown would not be announced on Wednesday, but was recommending masks be worn in public.
Western Australia announced one new case, with an investigation underway into the source of transmission.
Meanwhile, Queensland recorded three new local cases on Wednesday, after entering lockdown on Tuesday evening.
Health authorities there revealed that the infected, unvaccinated hospital worker contracted the virus from a patient who had travelled several times to Indonesia.
It prompted Mr Foley to ramp up his government’s calls for the commonwealth to limit the number of international flights into Australia.
“Do we want to lock down the entire country, or do we want to scale back our hotel quarantine system until such a time as we are vaccinated,” he said.
He added: “I share Queensland’s concerns … We know there are people coming and going consistently from our hotel quarantine system.”
Just nine cases associated with the state’s Kappa and Delta outbreaks remain currently active.
Mr Weimar said the Sandringham outbreak remained “stable”, with residents of the Oakleigh complex — where the original case lives — undergoing day six and seven tests.
HOLIDAY-MAKERS’ DASH BACK HOME
Victorian families have been left scrambling to get home from ruined school holidays interstate as half of the nation’s population has been locked down.
And those booked to head interstate this weekend are now in limbo and facing the prospect of having to cancel their long-awaited breaks.
Victorian travellers in southeast Queensland and Townsville, including Magnetic Island and Palm Island, flocked to airports last night to try to fly back before those areas became red zones from 1am on Wednesday.
Many families had arrived only in recent days after Queensland finally declared its border open last Friday, just in time for the school holidays.
If Victorians did not make it back before the deadline, they would have to apply for a red zone permit to enter the state.
They then would have to travel directly home, get tested, and quarantine at home for 14 days.
It comes as Victoria slammed its border shut to parts of NSW, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory following an explosion of new cases.
Greater Sydney, Shellharbour, Central Coast, Wollongong, as well as the Perth and Peel regions are now red zones under Victoria’s travel permit system, meaning an exemption is needed to gain entry into the state.
All of regional NSW and the ACT, excluding the local government areas along the NSW border, have been deemed orange zones, which means people need to isolate and get tested within 72 hours and stay isolated until they receive negative results after entering Victoria.
The Greater Darwin area was designated a red zone on Sunday night, including the local government areas of Darwin, Palmerston and Litchfield.
Mr Weimar said around 7000 returning red zone permits had been issued since border measures came into effect.
About one-third have so far returned a negative result.
Authorities conducted home visits on 120 people, including existing isolating contacts red zone returnees, with the “vast majority” doing the right thing.
But two people — who were supposed to be at home isolating — have been referred to Victoria Police.
Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton said he was “acutely aware” of the challenges for travellers and urged families to “listen to the advice” of local authorities.
“It’s very difficult for anyone to make predictions about red zone declarations,” Professor Sutton said.
“People need to make their own judgments. It’s fair to say that it’s not much of a holiday if you’re in a red zone (because) you’ll be locked down.”
The local government areas locked down in southeast Queensland include the five LGAs in Greater Brisbane (Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Moreton Bay and Redland) plus Gold Coast, Lockyer Valley, Noosa, Scenic Rim, Somerset and Sunshine Coast.
The chief health officer said six people linked to the Tanami mine, which sparked the NT outbreak, were isolating in Victoria. All had tested negative, but authorities were monitoring whether any other potentially infectious miners were in the community.
All areas in Greater Sydney including Central Coast, Shellharbour, Blue Mountains and Wollongong have also been declared orange zones retrospectively, between June 11 and 1am Friday, June 25, at which time they became red zones.
More than 200 officers have been deployed to the NSW border to prevent anyone unlawfully entering Victoria.
Professor Sutton has also declared the Greater Brisbane area an orange zone, retrospective to June 22.
This means anyone already in Victoria who was in Greater Brisbane between June 22 and 1am on June 30 must get tested and isolate until negative.
If you are a non-Victorian resident and have been in a red zone since current red zones came into effect, other than for transit, you cannot obtain a permit and you cannot enter Victoria unless you have an exemption. If you enter Victoria via a land border from a red zone without a valid permit, you will be sent back.
If you enter Victoria at an airport or seaport from a red zone without a valid permit, you will be fined and stay in hotel quarantine until return transport is arranged.
YOUNG VICTORIANS RUSH FOR ASTRAZENECA JAB
Young Victorians have rushed to get the AstraZeneca jab despite confusion among GPs and mixed messaging on the major shift in the vaccine rollout.
GP clinics were inundated on Tuesday with people under 40 seeking to be vaccinated after Scott Morrison said they were eligible if they consented to receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine.
But while some doctors welcomed the change, the Australian Medical Association recommended younger adults continue to wait for the Pfizer jab.
The advice from Australia’s expert immunisation panel is that AstraZeneca is recommended only for people over 60 because of the extremely rare risk of blood clots in younger adults. Pfizer is preferred for those under 60.
The federal government is now indemnifying GPs who vaccinate patients willing to accept that risk. There have been three clotting cases per 100,000 doses of AstraZeneca administered to Australians under 50 so far.
Industry chiefs were caught off guard by the change, announced by the Prime Minister on Monday night, after they had warned AstraZeneca doses could go to waste. There are 2.6 million doses available.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the AstraZeneca health advice had not changed, only the access to it.
AMA president Omar Khorshid said Australians under 60 who wanted AstraZeneca should discuss the “risks and benefits” with their doctors, but the AMA recommended following the expert panel’s advice and receiving “the recommended vaccine when it’s available”.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Karen Price said phones were “ringing off the hook” at clinics, and “significant support” for GPs was needed.
RECOVERY TO CITY-FOCUSED, BUSINESSES SAY
The state government has been urged to provide greater aid for suburban businesses amid claims recovery support packages have been too CBD-focused.
Industry Support and Recovery Minister Martin Pakula was criticised on Tuesday after telling a parliamentary inquiry some suburban businesses had thrived during the pandemic.
Mr Pakula defended the government’s place-based and targeted recovery settings that prioritised the CBD.
He said a combination of stay-at-home orders and a reduction in international visitation and events had created a unique challenge for the city.
“What you saw in suburban Melbourne was reasonably thriving local businesses because everyone was home, they were shopping locally, they were buying their coffees locally, they were getting takeaway locally,” Mr Pakula said.
“The impacts on the CBD have been unique.”
Mr Pakula told the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearing that the government had invested more than $6bn in business support throughout the pandemic.
This included $2.6bn to 134,000 businesses, and more than $450m under the government’s Hospitality Business Grants Program.
He rejected suggestions suburban Melbourne had been overlooked, and said support to local government had allowed outdoor dining and other urban infrastructure initiatives to be implemented.
— Additional reporting: Olivia Jenkins, Laura Placella
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Originally published as One new local Covid case, travellers left in limbo as half the country enters lockdown
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