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Watch LIVE: NSW and Victorian press conferences
Tune in for the NSW press conference at 11am, which you can watch below.
Victorian authorities are also due to speak at 11.10am. A video will appear below closer to that time.
NSW Police issue fines at gatherings in Wolli Creek, Chipping Norton, CBD
By Natassia Chrysanthos
NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Mick Willing said there had been 516 infringement notices issued and 38 people arrested for breaches of the public health order in the past 24 hours.
“Police responded to almost 1800 COVID related jobs, almost 1100 web reports from Crime Stoppers,” he said.
There were several illegal gatherings across Sydney, including in Wolli Creek, Chipping Norton and a hotel in the CBD. “That is simply not on. I cannot stress and ask that those breaches, we will not tolerate them,” Mr Willing said.
NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Willing said neighbours were reporting illegal gatherings.Credit:Edwina Pickles
“What you need to know is that if you are intending to attend a gathering like that, your neighbours are picking up the phone and they are telling police and we are taking action.”
NSW Police also deployed 1300 officers and checked 70,000 cars to prevent anti-lockdown protests yesterday. Eight people were arrested and 250 infringement notices issued, “mainly for people who are outside of the LGA without a reasonable excuse”.
“I can indicate that that operation is ongoing across greater Sydney today,” he said.
Mr Willing also said police would be enforcing compliance around QR codes and face maks in shopping centres and large retail stores in the coming days.
Breakdown of today’s new cases in NSW
By Natassia Chrysanthos
Here is some further detail on the 239 new cases reported in Sydney today:
- 115 are linked to a known case (92 are household contacts and 23 are close contacts); the source of 124 infections is under investigation
- 80 cases were in isolation for their entire infectious period, 35 were in isolation for part, 26 were infectious in the community, and the status of 98 cases is under investigation
- 110 are from south western Sydney local health district, 51 are from western Sydney local health district, 69 are from Sydney local health district, three are from south eastern Sydney local health district, four are from Northern Sydney local health district, and two are from the Napean Blue Mountains local health district
Dr Jeremy McAnulty said there are 222 COVID-19 cases admitted to hospital, with 54 people in intensive care including 25 who require ventilation. Of those people in ICU:
- Seven are in their 20s, five are in their 30s, two are in their 40s, six are in their 50s, 14 are in their 60s and 10 are in their 70s
- Forty-nine per cent are not vaccinated. One person had the first dose of Pfizer, and four people had the first dose of AstraZeneca.
“We are concerned young people, particularly 18-39 -year-olds, are driving a lot of the epidemic. We are seeing cases at high rates in those age groups,” Dr McAnulty said.
“This is the age group that tends to be a link between kids, younger people, and older, elderly relatives. They are working, they have big social networks, if you are in that age group it is important that you be aware that you are very vulnerable to the infection.”
Dr McAnulty said there were stories of people mixing with their neighbours or grandparents for babysitting purposes. “You must not have visitors your household. Even to babysit your children for example,” he said.
He also said there had been several outbreaks among adults in childcare centres. “It is a reminder, please reserve childcare centres if you really need to have your child in child care. Otherwise, keep them at home to minimise the spread through childcare.”
Health authorities are regularly detecting cases in hospital, aged care and disability settings, including nine cases at an aged care facility in Summer Hill. “Fortunately, many of those have been vaccinated. As I understand it, the ones with vaccination are doing relatively well,” Dr McAnulty said.
‘Let’s make August the month we get vaccinated’: NSW Premier
By Natassia Chrysanthos
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has urged the community to make the month of August - which will be spent almost entirely in lockdown - the time they get vaccinated.
“Today is 1 August and I am calling upon the people of greater Sydney, greater NSW to come forward and get vaccinated. To get to the 70 per cent target we need 9.2 million jabs. To get the 80 per cent target we need 10 million jabs,” she said.
“Pleasingly, in the last 24 hours we had over 82,000 people get vaccinated in one day alone in NSW. At that rate we are vaccinating 500,000 people per week. We want to do more.”
Ms Berejiklian said one dose would reduce your chance of spreading the virus and help keep you out of hospital. “And we know that vaccination is working against this terrible Delta strain, we know it is effective,” she said.
“We don’t want to be in a situation where we are going in and out of lockdown and certainly in NSW our aim is to get out of this one as quickly as we can. We have the month of August to get our vaccination rates as high as possible.”
Ms Berejiklian said she, Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant and Health Minister Brad Hazzard had all had the AstraZeneca vaccine. “Many people in my family have had the AstraZeneca vaccine, it is a safe vaccine and it works,” she said.
“Let’s make August the month where all of us who haven’t had the vaccine, come forward to get vaccination.
“We know that the more people get vaccinated the closer we are to living life as normally as we can with the Delta strain. We know that the more people get vaccinated the closer we are to living life as normally as we can with the Delta strain.”
NSW records 239 new cases
By Natassia Chrysanthos
There were 239 new cases detected in NSW yesterday, from 87,000 tests.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the virus was still circulating in workplaces and households.
“The one positive take-out is at the virus has not in the main, or outside those eight Local Government Area is of concern,” she said.
“Having said that, we don’t want to see the virus spread further and households, whole households, become infected because one person has brought virus into the home.”
Up next: NSW Premier to address media at 11am
By Natassia Chrysanthos
Premier Gladys Berejiklian, NSW Health’s Dr Jeremy McAnulty and NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Mick Willing will give their COVID-19 update at 11am. We’ll bring that to you when it’s ready.
Here’s the latest chart of case numbers in Sydney’s outbreak. As Health Minister Brad Hazzard said earlier: “We are quite concerned at the numbers continuing to remain relatively high. They’re bouncing around. What is positive, of course, is that they’re not going up in a rapid way, they’re staying around about the same figures.”
Mr Hazzard also said the government would be looking to increase COVID-safe compliance across smaller businesses to reduce further transmission.
“The larger logistics companies, the larger distribution centres - so, the Woolworths, the Coles, the Aldis, the major food providers for the whole state - those distribution centres have COVID-safe plans and they’re complying and they’re doing an extremely good job,” he said this morning.
“It’s the smaller facilities that are challenging... There was a particular freight company that had cases that we announced yesterday. There was also a pizza shop that had eight cases - all staff.
“What we’re seeing is, in some of the smaller facilities, they don’t seem to comply as well as the bigger facilities. So, we’re looking at how we can try and strengthen the surveillance and the messaging to get those companies to understand you must comply with the COVID-safe plans.”
Five Brisbane schools caught up in latest Queensland cluster
By Toby Crockford
Five Brisbane schools have been identified by contact tracers as at-risk as a result of Queensland’s latest outbreak.
Acting Premier Steven Miles said these were in addition to the thousands of Queenslanders who are in quarantine at home due to the latest Delta-variant cluster.
The schools are Indooroopilly State High School, Ironside State School and St Peters Lutheran College in Brisbane’s inner-south, as well as Brisbane Grammar School and Brisbane Girls Grammar School in the inner-city.
“The advice to students and families will vary depending on the risks at that school,” Mr Miles said.
“We would urge everyone who has been at those schools to heed the advice that the schools are providing to their school communities and the advice being provided by the public health units that are working as quickly as they can to get those directions to people so that they know exactly how that they apply to their households.”
Queensland records nine new cases, highest spike in almost 12 months
By Toby Crockford
Queensland has recorded nine new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, the biggest daily spike in almost a year.
Acting Premier Steven Miles said all new cases were linked to the Indooroopilly cluster, which triggered a three-day snap lockdown that began at 4pm on Saturday.
“That brings to 18 the number of genomically-linked cases in the cluster. They are the Delta strain,” he said.
“This is the most number of new community cases we have reported in Queensland in almost 12 months. The last time we were at this level was August 2020.”
Will Sydney return to zero? Will the lockdown persist? Hazzard’s answers to key questions
By Natassia Chrysanthos
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard says whether Sydney returns to zero cases or emerges from lockdown in four weeks is “entirely dependent on the response of the community”.
Here’s how he responded to some pointed questions about the city’s lockdown and modelling from host David Speers on ABC’s Insiders:
Question: Is there modelling showing you’ll get to zero in four weeks?
Answer: “It’s entirely dependent on the response of the community.”
Question: But what does it show at the moment? Have you got any modelling that says, “This will be over in four weeks”?
Answer: “Obviously, Dr Chant is hopeful that that will occur. But, again, it depends. The modelling depends on the input. The input is how many people are going to have the vaccine, how many people are going to stay at home. And that’s the unknown.”
Question: If it’s not at zero in four weeks, what happens? Do you keep on with the lockdown?
Answer: I’m not going to postulate on that at this stage. We’re focused on getting our vaccines up. And we’re trying to get people to stay at home... We are quite concerned at the numbers continuing to remain relatively high. They’re bouncing around. What is positive, of course, is that they’re not going up in a rapid way, they’re staying around about the same figures.
Question: With the vaccination rate where it’s at, you wouldn’t lift restrictions if you’ve still got a lot of cases in the community, would you?
Answer: I think that that’s probably a position that would be adopted, but let’s face it - we don’t know yet. Let’s just go with what we need to do at the moment.
Mr Hazzard said the state had not delayed in following health advice to introduce a lockdown in June. “There was no delay. On each and every occasion, we respond to our public health team,” he said.
“I think what people don’t understand is that [there’s] the public health team and then there’s the health team, who also look at mental health issues, and the economic team who also look at trying to keep the state’s economy going.
“Like every difficult decision, it’s a balance. But what I would say to the community is we have seen some very positive moves ... This is about the community actually responding and actually getting involved in getting the vaccines.”
He said Victorians had responded well to the mixed messages on vaccines, with the community prepared to receive both AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines. “In NSW, five or six weeks ago we were finding it challenging to get people to have the vaccines. Now we’re finding, as a result of this current circumstance, that a lot more people are now seeking the vaccine,” Mr Hazzard said.
NSW Health Minister outlines challenges facing western Sydney communities
By Natassia Chrysanthos
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard is appearing on the ABC’s Insiders program this morning, where he has defended there being harsher restrictions on west and south-west Sydney than the rest of the city.
“What we do know is that when we locked down the Northern Beaches over Christmas [and] New Year, there was a high level of compliance and it worked. We found a high level of compliance in the eastern suburbs,” he said.
But Mr Hazzard said health authorities were struggling to gain confidence of some communities in south-west and western Sydney, particularly refugee communities which have a higher distrust of government and law enforcement because of their prior experiences.
Brad Hazzard said authorities were struggling to win trust in parts of Sydney.Credit:Sydney Morning Herald
“We are finding it more challenging, for all the reasons [the show] was talking about before. I mean, the community there has an incredible multicultural mix, it’s a very vibrant community, but they do come from countries where they haven’t built up trust in government. So, what we need to be doing in our view, is to focus on that specific area,” he said.
“We are challenged in the south-western suburbs... It’s a very difficult community to gain the confidence of and to have them respond in the way that we need them to respond.”
Mr Hazzard was then asked about the man with COVID-19 whose family took him to hospital but was dead upon arrival. “I’d rather not go into the family’s personal circumstances,” he said.
“But what I will say... What we’re seeing in particular, is refugee family groups are often large families, and often there might only be one or two people in the family who are income earners. And we’re seeing a reluctance for them to come to health authorities and say, ‘We have a problem in our household.’
“They worry that they’ll be treated the way they might have been treated back home in their own countries. They’ve suffered greatly in their own nations, in their own countries. What we are trying to do is tell them, if you have got any symptoms at all or have been in contact with positive cases, please come forward to health. [NSW] Health is only there to look after you. Of course, that’s a very hard message to get through in some circumstances.”
Mr Hazzard said NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant had not suggested that all rules across Sydney needed to be uniform. “We already have requirements that everybody stay at home,” he said. “But certainly in these eight local government areas, it’s very challenging. So, we’re trying to strike the balance, and I think the balance is appropriate.”
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2021-08-01 01:25:57Z
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