Australia COVID LIVE updates NSW records 319 new cases Victoria records 29 and Queensland records 13
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Victorian government sources and epidemiologists say the state’s lockdown will almost certainly last for more than seven days because it could take weeks for all people to be in isolation for their infectious period.
Premier Daniel Andrews said Saturday’s 29 recorded cases, the highest daily total since September, made for a “concerning dayâ€. Two senior Victorian government sources, speaking anonymously to make predictions about the outbreak, said it could take weeks for a ring to be put around the clusters.
Premier Daniel Andrews and COVID-19 commander Jeroen Weimar on Saturday.Credit:Scott McNaughton
However, the Premier insisted it was achievable to drive local cases to zero despite the new outbreak penetrating western suburbs communities with greater language barriers, bigger family groups and an increased proportion of essential workers who can’t work from home.
Prominent epidemiologists Nancy Baxter and Catherine Bennett predicted an extended lockdown, with both concerned the new clusters, one centred in Hobsons Bay and the other linked to the city of Maribyrnong, either emerged from chains of transmission that have been running for weeks in Victoria or new NSW incursions.
Read the full story here.
The NSW town of Armidale is officially in its first night of lockdown after the virus arrived in the Northern Tableland towns after a six-hour journey on a regional NSW train.
More than 25,000 residents from the Armidale local government area, including the neighbouring township of Guyra, are affected by the stay-at-home orders which took effect at 5pm.
It appears the virus may have hitched a ride there on a train, with authorities issuing a close contact alert for people who caught an XPT service from Newcastle to Armidale on Thursday, July 29.
The XPT train stops at more than a dozen stations during its 333-kilometre journey, including Tamworth and Werris Creek.
At today’s press conference NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said it is likely a young person with COVID-19 brought the disease into the Armidale region from Newcastle.
NSW Minister for Health Brad Hazzard at today’s press conference.Credit:Rhett Wyman
Of the two cases diagnosed in Armidale yesterday, one was a close contact of a known case from the Newcastle area.
The lockdown will be in place until at least Sunday, August 15.
Restrictions will be identical to those already in place in Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, Newcastle and the Hunter - everyone in these areas must stay at home unless they have a reasonable excuse to leave.
There are two exemptions for Armidale. Weddings and funerals can take place until the beginning of Tuesday, August 10. After that, weddings will not be permitted and funerals will be limited to 10 mourners.
People staying in a caravan park or camping ground on a booking made before Saturday can continue their stay, provided it is not extended.
People are encouraged to get tested at the Armidale Hospital drive-through clinic, the Laverty Pathology drive-through or the Douglass Hanly Moir Pathology walk-in clinic.
Victorian’s COVID-19 exposure sites have reached 140, with at least 61 added today.
Nearly two dozen new sites were listed on Saturday evening; among them, six new tier 1 sites, which require anyone who has visited them to get tested for COVID-19, and quarantine for 14 days regardless of the result. The new tier 1 exposure sites are:
The remaining new sites are tier 2, meaning anyone who visited them during the specified timeframes has to get tested and isolate until they receive a negative test result. The new tier 2 sites are:
The new exposure sites come with the announcement of new COVID-19 detections in wastewater in regional Victoria.
The Chief Health Officer’s update, issued on Saturday evening, reiterated that new wastewater detections had been made in Benalla and Healesville, and the Healesville detection impacts the towns of Badger Creek, Coldstream and Healesville.
Meantime, there had been more wastewater detections to indicate “strong and increasing levels of COVID-19 fragments in the Glenroy-Broadmeadows area and surrounding suburbsâ€.
“The number of repeat detections and the strength of these detections in the Glenroy-Broadmeadows area indicate that it is likely there are as yet undetected positive cases of COVID-19 in that catchment,†the chief health officer’s update said.
“This catchment includes the following suburbs: Attwood, Broadmeadows, Campbellfield, Coolaroo, Essendon Fields, Gladstone Park, Glenroy, Gowanbrae, Greenvale, Jacana, Meadows “Heights, Oak Park, Pascoe Vale, Roxburgh Park, Somerton, Strathmore, Strathmore Heights, Tullamarine and Westmeadows.â€
Five patients have now died after catching COVID-19 in Liverpool Hospital’s geriatric and neurology wards; among them, 80-year-old Bossley Park grandfather Kat Ditthavong.
Mr Ditthavong caught COVID-19 in the geriatric ward, where he had been admitted for dehydration caused by one of his medications, his son, photographer Sitthixay Ditthavong, said.
Kat Ditthavong died at Liverpool Hospital on Saturday morning after catching COVID-19 in his ward.Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong
A former Laos diplomat who spoke six languages, Mr Ditthavong came to Australia as a political refugee in the 1970s. The father of six and grandfather of eight, who had Parkinson’s, had mostly stayed home since March 2020. He was not vaccinated on the advice of his GP due to his health conditions.
“I want people to know that he wasn’t just a number, and he wasn’t irresponsible,†Sitthixay said. “He had a great love of life and he did all the right things.
“I feel like there’s this overarching blame of people who get infected and are not vaccinated, but there are many reasons why people have been unable to be vaccinated and they have been let down by the state and federal governments’ slow rollout.â€
Read the full story here.
Construction workers will be able to return to unoccupied worksites across NSW from Wednesday on the condition they remain at half capacity and workers from COVID hot spots are vaccinated.
Deputy Premier John Barilaro has announced construction workers from Sydney’s eight worst-hit local government areas will be able to pick up the tools from Wednesday, for the first time since a snap ban took effect on July 17.
Some construction workers will be able to return to sites across NSW from Wednesday. Credit:Rhett Wyman
However, a strict vaccination and testing regime will be in place for the workers from the affected local government areas, including Blacktown, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool and Parramatta.
“We want workers back on the tools, but we need to continue to keep this virus at bay, and so by opening unoccupied worksites at 50 per cent capacity and vaccinating workers from within those affected LGAs, we can achieve both,†Mr Barilaro said on Saturday.
From Wednesday workers from those LGAs will have to provide evidence that they have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine before attending a worksite, or one dose of a vaccine at least three weeks beforehand.
If it is less than three weeks since they received their first vaccine dose, the workers must be tested and produce a negative result in the 72 hours before attending a worksite.
NSW Health is currently trialling rapid antigen testing, which if approved will be offered to the workers as an alternative to pathology tests, which can have wait times of over 48 hours for results.
Unoccupied construction sites across Greater Sydney, including at the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour, will also have to operate at 50 per cent capacity from Wednesday.
A mass vaccination day targeted at construction workers has been announced for next weekend.
“We hope to vaccinate about 8000 workers at Sydney Olympic Park on Sunday 15 August, with vaccines also available at some GPs and pharmacies,†Jobs Minister Stuart Ayres said.
Exemptions will be in place for construction workers with medical or other conditions that make vaccination unsuitable.
About one-fifth fewer jabs are being administered in Victoria compared with NSW over the past week.
Victoria is administering an average of 17,600 jabs per day over the past week compared with 23,300 in NSW. Queensland is tracking at 11,500 per day.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews described himself on Saturday as a “spruiker†for the AstraZeneca vaccine.Credit:Scott McNaughton
NSW, off the back of updated advice from Australia’s immunisation advisory group, is now allowing under-60s to receive the AstraZeneca jab at state-run hubs.
The Victorian government will follow suit next week and hopes the change will increase the rate of vaccination in the state.
Premier Daniel Andrews described himself today as a “spruiker†for the AstraZeneca shot which causes an extremely rare blood clotting syndrome that kills approximately one in a million people. The contraceptive pill and other heavily-used medications carry a far greater risk.
“Go and talk to your doctor, and for the vast majority of people the advice will be AstraZeneca is safe - go and get it,†Mr Andrews said.
“There’ll be many, many people who will be able to get AstraZeneca in state clinics who can’t now.â€
About 150,000 Pfizer doses are being fast-tracked to Victoria in response to the latest outbreak.
Cricket Victoria is in discussion with the department of health after the Junction Oval indoor centre was named as a tier 1 exposure site.
A positive case was at the facility on Wednesday night from 7.30pm to 11pm as players from numerous clubs trained.
The positive case was a grade cricketer from Melbourne’s north-west, meaning a considerable number of players who trained that evening will need to go into isolation.
However, it is unlikely that the Victorian senior state squad will be heavily affected, as they had trained at the ground on Wednesday morning and most left Junction Oval by mid-afternoon.
The squad is scheduled to depart Melbourne for the start of the domestic season in three weeks’ time.
Before COVID-19, no-one thought anything could stop the HSC.
When the epidemic began last year and the state locked down in March, concerns about social distancing led to delays â€" the written exams were postponed by five days â€" and the cancellation of some group examinations, but abandoning exams, which have run like clockwork since 1967, was never on the cards.
Nathan Khoury has mixed feelings about the plan to get year 12 back into class.Credit:Janie Barrett
This year, it’s different. The tactics that tamed the Alpha variant of COVID-19 are not working for Delta. Case numbers are stubbornly high and inching upwards. It’s making teenagers sick.
When COVID-19 hit last year the HSC examining body, the NSW Education Standards Authority had almost six months before the written exams; this year, the outbreak came just as year 12 was about to hit the final stretch. Student stress went through the roof. The sector began asking itself; what happens if NSW is still battling COVID-19 when HSC exams begin in October?
After a few weeks, Sydney Catholic Schools boss Tony Farley publicly articulated what a lot of people were already thinking; maybe, he suggested, it’s time to cancel?
Read the full story here.
NSW Health has issued an alert after a COVID-positive patient travelled on an XPT throughout regional NSW over the course of a week ago.
The train travelled from Newcastle to Armidale via Werris Creek on Thursday, July 29.
Anyone who was on the train service is considered a close contact and must get tested and isolate for 14 days since they were on the train, regardless of the test result.
The train departed Broadmeadow station at 11.40am on July 29 and arrived at Armidale at 5.30pm. Two further close contact venues have been identified in Sydney where the same rules apply:
NSW Health has also identified a number of new casual contact venues. Anyone who attended them during the specified timeframes must get tested and self-isolate until they receive a negative result. If you visited the venue within the last four days, you must get another test on day five from the date of exposure.
The new casual contact venues are:
A full list of NSW exposure sites can be found here.
Victorian health authorities have identified more than a dozen new exposure sites, bringing the state’s total to 117.
Several of the new exposure sites added on Saturday afternoon are “tier 1â€, meaning anyone who visited it during the specified timeframe has to immediately get tested for COVID-19 and quarantine for 14 days, regardless of the result. The new tier 1 sites are:
The remaining exposure sites are “tier 2â€, meaning anyone who attended those during the specified timeframes has to get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result. The new tier 2 sites are:
A full list of Victorian exposure sites can be found here.
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