Covid-19 News Updates

ATAGI sets earlier second dose AstraZeneca benchmark in outbreak areas

Australia's advisory body on vaccines is calling on people in outbreak areas to get their second jab as soon as possible, and has strongly reinforced its recommendation that the benefits of vaccination with AstraZeneca outweigh the risks of adverse effects in over 60s.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) has reiterated that vaccinating this older age group is essential in the context of the highly infectious Delta variant outbreak, as is the case right now in Greater Sydney.

As such, ATAGI is urging those who received their first dose of AstraZeneca to contact their vaccine provider and receive a second dose as soon as possible.

The advisory group has also called for a shorter interval between the first and second doses of AstraZeneca when outbreaks occur, from the standard guidance of 4-12 weeks, down to 4-8 weeks.

In circumstances where the supply of Comirnaty (Pfizer) is constrained, adults younger than 60 who do not have immediate access to the vaccine should re-assess the benefits of being vaccinated against the rare risk of serious side effects.

The advisory group also reinforces that any person who receives the vaccine should be provided with information about the common and rare side effects, including symptoms and signs of the thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS).

It has also been recommended that any additional unallocated supplies of both vaccines (AstraZeneca and Pfizer) should be prioritized to populations and areas of greatest risk of COVID-19.

Currently, recommendations around the use of Pfizer in non-outbreak settings remain unchanged.

Updated at 4.00pm AEST on 13 July 2021.

SA reopening to all of Queensland from Friday

Travellers arriving from anywhere in Queensland will be permitted to enter South Australia from this coming Friday without having to go into isolation as border restrictions ease.

Previously, a hard border was in place with Brisbane, Moreton Bay, Sunshine Coast, Noosa, Gold Coast, Logan, Redland, Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim and Somersert, but that will be removed at 12.01am on Friday 16 July.

Those regions will instead move to Level 3 restrictions, in line with Townsville, meaning testing is required on days one, three and 13 from arrival in SA.

In addition, people who have been in home quarantine in SA on arrival from southeast Queensland over the last 14 days will be allowed to leave isolation from 12.01am on Friday.

Today the SA Premier Steven Marshall also gave an update about the COVID-positive removalist who spent some time in SA while infectious.

The Premier says a new exposure site in SA has been identified - the Shell service station in Tailem Bend on 9 July from 5.20-7pm.

Anybody who was at that service station on 9 July at the time listed will need to go into quarantine, get tested, and make themselves known to SA Health.

SA recorded two new cases of COVID-19 yesterday: a man in his 40s and a boy who both acquired their infection overseas and have been in a medi-hotel since their arrival.

Updated at 2.28pm AEST on 13 July 2021.

Testing blitz for Fairfield as NSW reports 89 locally acquired COVID-19 cases

Residents of the Fairfield local government area (LGA) who leave the zone for work will be required to get tested every three days as part of the New South Wales government's latest efforts to stamp out a COVID-19 outbreak in southwest Sydney.

The new health order comes as NSW reports 89 new cases of local transmission today, with 21 of those cases in the community while infectious.

With the majority of today's new cases reported in southwest Sydney, the NSW Government has introduced a new health order requiring residents of Fairfield who leave the area for work to get tested every three days even if no symptoms are present.

In addition to Fairfield, health authorities have also called upon increased testing for residents of Roselands, Rosebery, Canterbury, Belmore, Sutherland Shire, St George, West Hoxton, Glenfield and Green Valley.

"In addition to Fairfield local government area they're the areas we want increased testing," NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said.

"This reflects past risk. Every time anyone leaves their home, they should assume that anyone they're interacting with has COVID and act accordingly to protect themselves and their loved ones."

Of the new cases, the majority were acquired by household and close contacts, with only a few unlinked, which Dr Chant says highlights the importance of only interacting with those in the same household.

"It is essential that we stay at home and only leave home for the most essential reasons," Dr Chant said.

"Do not visit other family members in other households. The unit we want to keep together is the household. We do not want you inadvertently spreading it to other family members by visiting them."

Sadly, a man in his 70s who was a confirmed COVID-19 case died yesterday - the second casualty of Sydney's latest outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus.

The outbreak has also spread to regional NSW, with one of today's new cases reported in Goulburn - about 200km from Sydney. 

As such, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was keeping a "very close eye on what's happening in NSW".

"I just want to reassure Queenslanders that if it gets to the stage that we have to close we will," she said.

"But at this stage we are monitoring it every single day."

Updated at 11.30am AEST on 13 July 2021.

NSW records 112 cases as more young people infected in Sutherland Shire, Bayside, Georges River

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian's prediction that daily case numbers would surpass 100 today has come true, after 112 people tested positive to COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night including at least 34 who were in the community while infectious.

The Premier said it was that the daily number of cases with exposure to the public which would need to be reduced to "as close to zero as possible" before NSW Health would be able to advise the government to end the lockdown, now in its third week for Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, the Blue Mountains,  Shellharbour and Wollongong.

"I want to stress the vast majority of these cases are family members or very, very close contacts," Premier Berejiklian said.

"If you put yourself at risk, you're putting your entire family and that means extended family as well as your closest friends and associates at risk, and the numbers are telling in that regard."

The daily cases are still concentrated in the three local government areas of Fairfield, Canterbury Bankstown and Liverpool.

Three in every four new cases were from the South Western Sydney Local Health District (LHD), but the second-largest source of cases was South Eastern Sydney with 16.

"I just want to highlight that we are also seeing cases emerge among young adults in the 18 to 20-year-old age group in the Georges River, Bayside and Sutherland local government areas," chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant added.

"And they are largely spreading it, again to echo the Premier's words, to their closest friends and family, so it's crucial that young adults also limit their social interactions at this time and also come forward for testing.

"NSW Health is also working with an apartment block in the eastern suburbs where we have eight cases of COVID, and they've been identified in recent days across five households in a block of 29 units."

There are currently 63 COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital in NSW with 18 people are intensive care of whom four are ventilated.

Of the hospitalised COVID patients, 14 are under the age of 35, including one person in their 20s and another in their 30s in intensive care, further "dispelling the notion that you are not going to get sick from COVID if you're young".

The Premier also urged people not to go to the pharmacist or GP if they have symptoms, but rather go straight to a COVID-19 testing centre.

"We're seeing people unfortunately turn up to waiting rooms of medical centres or GP clinics or else going into pharmacies when they've got symptoms and unintentionally passing the virus on to other people in the waiting area or the GPs or the pharmacists," Berejiklian said.

"We need to make sure that if you have symptoms your first stop should be to the COVID test. Stay home until you get the results and you get the health advice.

"If you have symptoms and you need medical attention, please call and that medical attention will arrive."

NSW Police Commissioner Mike Fuller said there were 105 infringements written overnight for non-compliance with health orders across the greater metro Sydney.

"[This] brings the total to 376 since Friday [where] the police operation intensified," Fuller said.

"We also saw the same in cautions, nearly 400 in cautions showing the police will continue to work with communities but there are still some who are not taking the message seriously.

"Over the weekend we saw 3,000 calls alone from members of the community who were concerned about COVID breaches."

The NSW Government has also announced it will now accept anyone over 40 who wants to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine. This is provided they sign the appropriate consent forms and are willing to take on the risk of potential side effects such as blood clotting, which is extremely rare but can be fatal.

There have been 678 locally acquired cases reported since 16 June 2021, when the first case in the Bondi cluster was reported.

Updated at 11:45am AEST on 12 July 2021

Queensland to ease restrictions from Friday as Victoria shuts border to NSW, ACT

It has now been an entire week since Queensland last recorded a locally acquired case of COVID-19, encouraging the state's health authorities to wind back some restrictions on gatherings and hospitality from this Friday.

However, unlike Victoria, Queensland will not be closing its border to the entirety of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory after the outbreak of COVID-19 in Sydney grew rapidly over the weekend.

Queensland health authorities have decided from 6am Friday 16 July masks will only be required to be worn on airports and on planes, there will be no more restrictions on hospitals and aged care facilities, and dancing is once again permitted.

Further, homes gatherings can have unrestricted numbers of attendees on the condition that details be kept if numbers exceed 100, and pubs, clubs and cafes can increase patron numbers to three per four square metres.

"We can't say we're totally free of any risk going forward," QLD chief health officer Dr Jeanette Young said.

"As long as everyone who is out there in home quarantine remains in home quarantine and has an exit test on day 12, then we can be very confident that we don't have any transmission in the community."

Deputy Premier Steven Miles has urged Queenslanders still in New South Wales to return home, noting that a total border closure to all of NSW and the ACT is unnecessary now as cases remain contained to Greater Sydney.

"Sydney continues to be the greatest national concern and we will monitor the border situation day by day while Greater Sydney remains locked down," QLD Deputy Premier Steven Miles said.

"[While] cases remain within that locked down area, we don't need to close the border just yet.

"For the sake of the nation, we all need NSW to get on top of these outbreaks."

Victoria shuts out all of NSW and ACT as Sydney case numbers spike

After the number of locally acquired COVID-19 cases hit a new daily high for Sydney's latest outbreak over the weekend, Victoria has moved to close its border to all travellers coming from both NSW and the ACT.

Under VIC's travel permit system, all of NSW and the ACT are now red zones, meaning the border is effectively closed to all travellers except to returning residents who must quarantine for 14 days from arrival and those living in border communities.

"With case numbers continuing to increase in New South Wales, Victorian public health authorities are concerned about the risks of transmission beyond current red zones in Greater Sydney and surrounds, and the potential risks this poses to the Victorian community from people entering our state," the Victorian government said.

It comes after NSW reported 77 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 yesterday, of which 33 were in the community while infectious.

Yesterday also marked the first death from COVID-19 resulting from this latest outbreak of the infectious disease - a woman in her 90s from southwest Sydney.

Because of the large number of new cases who were in the community while infectious, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she expected cases to continue surging today.

"I'm anticipating the numbers in New South Wales will be greater than 100 tomorrow. Now, that's what I'm anticipating," Berejiklian said yesterday.

"And I'll be shocked if it's less than 100 this time tomorrow, of additional new cases."

As such, it is expected Sydney's lockdown will continue past Friday 16 June.

"Given where we're at and given the lockdown was supposed to be lifted on Friday, everybody can tell it's highly unlikely at this stage, given where the numbers are," the Premier said.

"We've always been up-front about that."

WA returns to COVID-normal

As of midnight, all remaining COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted in Western Australia, with Perth and Peel returning to business as usual. All mask requirements are gone and crowd limits are no more. 

Restrictions on hospital and aged care facilities are gone, dancing is back in venues, and major events can return. However, businesses are still required to maintain a COVID safety plan and events with 500 or more patrons will need to create a COVID Event Checklist.

WA will also open its borders to the Northern Territory, but NSW and QLD remain blocked off. Travel to and from New Zealand is also permitted. 

Currently, 8.8 per cent of the WA population are fully vaccinated making them the fourth most vaccinated state in the nation. 

Updated 10.39am AEST on 12 July 2021.

Further restrictions for Greater Sydney as daily cases hit 44

"Unless there's a dramatic turnaround in the numbers, I can't see how we'd be in a position to ease restrictions by next Friday," NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

The NSW Government will be further tightening stay-at-home restrictions in Greater Sydney and four surrounding regions after reporting 44 new COVID-19 cases for the 24 hours to 8pm last night, while the number of close contacts of infected people has doubled to 14,000.

This large spike in the net of people who may have been infected is due to numerous large venues listed as exposure sites including the Ikea in Tempe, an Aldi and a Kmart in Merrylands, and two grocery stores in Auburn.

But the underlying message is that any suburb under lockdown is at risk after it was reported 29 people were out in the community in some way while infectious in recent days. Under half of the new cases were in the key area of concern in Southwestern Sydney, seven were from Western Sydney and eight were from Southeastern Sydney.

People in all the NSW capital's suburbs have been urged to follow orders if the city is to get out of this mess, but a call was made for vigilance - such as coming forward for testing - in numerous areas including Sutherland Shire and suburbs outside of recent focal points such as Maroubra and Hurstville.

"Please assume that every time you leave your home you are at risk of getting the virus and bringing it home to the family you are at risk at of spreading the virus to those closest to you," Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

Tightened restrictions including a new 10km radius limit for exercise, limiting the number of people who can exercise together to two, and a limit of 10 people at funerals from Sunday.

The Premier emphasised nobody from outside a household is allowed to make a private visit except to receive care from one person, such as dropping off essential items, for health reasons or exceptional circumstances.

"New South Wales is facing the biggest challenge we have faced since the pandemic started, and I don't say that lightly," the Premier said.

"Unless there's a dramatic turnaround in the numbers, I can't see how we'd be in a position to ease restrictions by next Friday.

"This is not the time for complacency, not the time to cut corners. Compliance is so important."

Both the Premier and Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant sought to remove any idea from people's minds that NSW could simply 'live with the virus' given the very low vaccine rates in the state.

"When we had the lockdown in March, people were seeing images from overseas which sort of reinforce the fear and concern about COVID, and now people are looking at countries overseas where they're seeing people go about their work and pleasure in a sort of semi-normal way," Dr Chant said.

"That's because those countries have got vaccination coverages for their adult population, and in some cases down in the child population.

"We have only got 9 per cent vaccination coverage. We cannot let this virus take further foothold and lead to an exponential rise in cases. It will have significant impacts in terms of health and wellbeing of our community."

Dr Chant reiterated yesterday's calls for people to reconsider their need to shop at retail and to buy online wherever possible. Yesterday she also urged young people to step up and take an active role of raising awareness about testing and restrictions with their extended families and on social media.

"COVID cannot affect people if you do not come in contact with them, and therefore that is the basis of the stay-at-home orders," Dr Chant said.

There are now almost as many people in hospital (43) with COVID-19 as the latest daily case rate, including a person in their 20s on a ventilator. There are currently four people on ventilators, out of 10 who are in ICU. 

Seven of the 43 people hospitalised with COVID-19 in NSW right now are aged under 35. 

There are currently 37 cases that have not been directly linked to a known case or cluster, with a further 117 who are linked to these 37 unlinked cases.

Updated at 12:13pm AEST on 9 July 2021.

Image via WikiMedia Commons.

PM waives liquid asset test for disaster payments ahead of Sydney's third week in lockdown

The requirement for lockdown-affected workers to prove they have less than $10,000 in liquid assets to receive the Federal Government's COVID disaster payment will be waived for the third week of Sydney's stay-at-home orders, according to Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The asset test will be removed, giving more Sydneysiders access to the $325 and $500 payments depending on their work status.

"It doesn't matter what funds you've got available to you, you can access those payments," the PM said.

"[We are] recognising that we're not just dealing with a one-week period or a two-week period, that this is now going into a third week with further decisions to be taken."

Previously, workers had to self-declare they had less than $10,000 in liquid assets to receive the payments, effectively locking out aspirational homeowners who are saving for their deposits or those who have invested in the share market from receiving the support.

The payment will still be made on a week-by-week basis, granting $500 to those who would ordinarily work more than 20 hours per week, or $325 for those who would work less than 20 hours in a seven-day period.

In addition, they must also self-declare that they would have worked during the relevant period of lockdown, that they have lost income during the period, and have insufficient leave entitlements to cover them. Applicants will not be required to take annual leave.

The change has been welcomed by Australian Retailers Association CEO Paul Zahra.

"Casual workers in particular are the forgotten faces of COVID lockdowns, with many forced out of work and left struggling to pay their bills and rent with no proper safety net in place," Zahra said.

"The existing Covid disaster payments prevent people with liquid assets of $10,000 from accessing payments of either $325 or $500. Pleasingly, that asset test will be removed for people out of work and about to enter their third week of a Covid lockdown in Greater Sydney.

"Lockdowns not only have a financial cost - they have a social one as well. They take an enormous toll on people's health and wellbeing and we need to ensure adequate support measures are in place to support people and businesses."

The PM also announced today that an additional 300,00 doses of COVID-19 vaccines will be delivered to NSW next week, half of which will be Pfizer and the other half AstraZeneca.

The announcement comes as NSW reported 38 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 today, including 11 who were infectious in the community for several days.

Of the new cases 21 are from southwestern Sydney where the outbreak continues to be of great concern for authorities, while transmissions within and between households continue to be the major sources of infection.

Updated at 3.03pm AEST on 8 July 2021.

"Those numbers are too high": NSW records 38 new cases

NSW has reported 38 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, including 11 who were infectious in the community for a number of days.

The number of people in intensive care has risen to 11 from seven yesterday, and while the local government areas of Fairfield, Canterbury, Bankstown and Liverpool remain focal points, more cases are popping up in other places.

Of the new cases 21 are from southwestern Sydney where the outbreak continues to be of great concern for authorities, while transmissions within and between households continue to be the major sources of infection.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian notes nine people out of the latest cases were only in isolation for part of their infected period, which means more than half of the new cases were out and about in the community.

"Those numbers are too high. We need to get those numbers down, and I want to say in the strongest possible terms - please avoid contacts with other households, please avoid visiting family and friends because you're not allowed to," she said.

Chief health officer (CHO) Dr Kerry Chant notes a 'redefinition' of family needs to take place in order to minimise the spread throughout the Greater Sydney community and surrounds.

"In terms of our caring responsibilities that should be one person that has to care, and it's not a discretionary visit, it's not because the person wants to see you, it's because you absolutely need to be there to either deliver food, to check something, to fix something," she says.

"What we're asking people to do redefine the sense of family - the family unit is the household, people you live directly with.

"It's important to know that we've had 40 COVID patients delivered to hospital. There are 11 people in ICU [intensive care unit], three of whom are ventilated. 17 people admitted to hospital at the moment with COVID are under the age of 55, and of those 10 are under the age of 35."

The CHO is calling on young people in particular to encourage COVID-19 testing via social media networks, as well as educating family members about restrictions.

"They can do that quicker than our contact tracers can. Make sure that they're really encouraging high rates of testing among their social groups, and they can play a part in reinforcing these messages," Dr Chant said.

"We know that young people care deeply about their loved ones and wouldn't want to put them at risk, so if granny says that they want to have a visit, please do it on the phone or FaceTime, and please explain to others why it's so important that we don't have that connectivity across outside at this time."

Whilst it is permitted for people to shop for essentials, the CHO is urging people to consider what they "absolutely need" before leaving the house.

"This is not the time for browsing," she says.

"This is not the time for 'what I might need'. We're asking the community to only shop for those essential goods - now, the reason we haven't defined essential is because people may need blankets, rugs, school shoes, these are the sorts of things that are defined essential.

"Whenever you can, shop online."

There have now been 395 locally acquired cases reported since 16 June 2021 when the first case of the Bondi cluster was reported.

Shrinking percentage of NSW cases in iso / quarantine for full infectious period

17 / 37 today in full iso = 46%

% who were in full iso

Jun 29 - 37%
Jun 30 - 50%
Jul 1 - 38%
Jul 2 - 42%
Jul 3 - 66%
Jul 4 - 81%
Jul 5 - 69%
Jul 6 - 61%
Jul 7 - 48%
Jul 8 - 46%#COVID19nsw

Juliette O'Brien (@juliette_io) July 8, 2021

Today's #COVID19nsw LGA's to watch: Canterbury-Bankstown. Fairfield, Liverpool.
14-day testing coverage are low as % of pop.
Next charts show testing for Northern Beaches and Crossroads Outbreaks (see @juliette_io's great work on comparisons of these outbreaks). pic.twitter.com/xGNiTDeiSM

Citizen Science (@DeadInLongRun) July 7, 2021

Thank you @GladysB for making it clear that there is no "living with Delta." We cannot negotiate with Delta nor stipulate how much community transmission we would like. Delta will sweep through the population if we let it.

Global Biosecurity (@Globalbiosec) July 8, 2021

SA drops hard border with WA, NT

Travellers are now permitted to arrive in South Australia from Western Australia and the Northern Territory from today, however the state's hard border with the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and parts of Queensland will remain in place.

While the hard border has been removed, travellers from WA and the NT will still be required to get tested on days one, five and 13 from arrival, with SA moving border restrictions to the two jurisdictions to 'Level 3'.

It is anticipated that, subject to no further cases of local transmission of COVID-19, all border restrictions to WA and the NT will be able to be eased from this coming Sunday.

Meanwhile, a hard border will remain in place for the entirety of NSW and the ACT as the COVID-19 situation in the former remains of concern to SA health authorities.

This hard border to the ACT will stay despite no cases of COVID-19 being reported in the territory, with SA Premier Steven Marshall saying the lack of local transmission in Canberra "confounds" health authorities.

"We know that there are no cases there, we haven't had community transmission in Canberra for an extended period of time, but this in some ways confounds the epidemiologists because we know there's a very porous border," the Premier said.

"We would like to ease the border restrictions that there are between ACT and South Australia, but because of the Delta variant and because of our concerns there, we won't be doing that today."

The border restrictions with Queensland are now varied, depending on where a traveller has been and is coming from, with the Premier saying SA is taking a "nuanced risk-based stance".

A hard border remains in place with Brisbane, Moreton Bay, Sunshine Coast, Noosa, Gold Coast, Logan, Redland, Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim, and Somerset.

SA has moved to Level 3 restrictions for people arriving from Townsville and those who attended the Big Red Bash at Birdsville, meaning testing is required on days one, three and 13 from arrival.

For the rest of Queensland, the SA border is completely open to travellers.

"As I say, we don't want to have any restrictions in place for one day longer than we need to," Marshall said.

"But these changed border restrictions will keep our state safe."

Updated at 11.48am AEST on 8 July.

Sydney lockdown extension a $3 billion blow for retail

The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) is calling for an expansion of business support measures with lost retail trade set to mount to around $3 billion as the Greater Sydney lockdown is extended for another week.

ARA CEO Paul Zahra said yesterday's announcement was a bitter blow for small businesses in particular, who are hanging on for survival without a JobKeeper safety net.

"Whilst we are supportive of the NSW Government's efforts to keep the community safe, we can't ignore the devastating impacts this lockdown is having on retailers, and small businesses in particular," Zahra said.

"This lockdown is now set to cost around $3 billion in lost retail trade, which is just not sustainable without adequate support measures in place for businesses and their staff.

"We have grave concerns for smaller retailers in the CBD, who were already crippled by the ongoing Covid impacts before this latest outbreak, with low office populations and a lack of tourists contributing to sluggish trade throughout the pandemic.

READ MORE: Business NSW says longer lockdown a "crushing blow"

Zahra said there needed to be an expansion of existing support measures from the Federal and State Governments to help impacted businesses and staff.

"The Federal Government has activated Covid disaster payments, but this is only available for people who live and work in hotspot areas and there are many more in regional areas of NSW that are missing out," Zahra said.

"Whilst we are grateful for the business support grants and payroll tax deferrals from the NSW Government, this doesn't go far enough to compensate the downturn businesses will suffer during a three-week lockdown.

"We certainly hope this lockdown doesn't go on for longer than is absolutely necessary. This once again highlights how important it is to expediate Australia's Covid vaccination program and the retail community stands ready to support this effort in any way it can."

Updated at 11.59am AEST on 8 July 2021.