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WA Premier tight-lipped on international travel
By Heather McNeill
WA Premier Mark McGowan has refused to say whether he will opt out of international travel options scheduled to resume in Australia once 80 per cent of the adult population is vaccinated.
Known as “phase C” under Australia’s national reopening plan, the international travel milestone will likely be reached in December but directly clashes with Mr McGowan’s intention to keep WA COVID-free until “phase D”, the fourth and final stage of the plan.
WA Premier Mark McGowan is on a collision course with the national reopening plan.
Asked if he would prevent WA from reopening with the rest of the country, Mr McGowan said he “hadn’t considered that”.
“Obviously it would be tightly managed and [international travel under phase C] would only go to certain countries, hopefully that are largely COVID-free. But, again, these are issues for December or January. Right now we are still in August.”
More on this story here.
NSW ‘can manage through’ health system stress: Deputy Premier
By Sarah McPhee
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro says the health system is stressed but the state “can manage through it”, even though COVID-19 cases are expected to rise into October.
Appearing on ABC News Breakfast earlier this morning, Mr Barilaro said his team had invested billions of dollars in preparing intensive care units and bought more than 2000 extra ventilators.
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro.Credit:James Brickwood
“We are doing that all over again, preparing for what will change at [the] 70 per cent and 80 per cent targets as we start lifting restrictions,” he said.
“We are not denying that the system is under stress, but at some point you re-pivot and we’re confident with the vaccine and the vaccine rollout, as we get to the higher number of the vaccination program, that we can mitigate how many people end up in ICU hospitalisation and that’s the key.”
He said the public system is an “integrated, connected network” with the ability to “tap into the private sector”.
“We can manage through it.”
Mr Barilaro was also asked whether western NSW had received the attention it deserved, after a man in his 50s with underlying conditions died at Dubbo Hospital. That man is believed to be the first Indigenous person with COVID-19 to die in Australia since the beginning of the pandemic.
The Deputy Premier said the vaccination of vulnerable communities, including Indigenous communities, was something the federal government had “lost attention of”.
“Should they have been vaccinated earlier? Yes. It was all part of the federal government’s rollout of the vaccination program at the start of the year. It didn’t occur,” he said.
“And now we’re really having to go in hard and we’re reprioritising the way we’re actually managing [cases and vaccination] not just out [in] the [NSW] Far West, but the Central West.
“With Delta, we’re struggling to contain it.”
Victoria records 76 new cases of COVID-19
By Broede Carmody
Victoria’s daily coronavirus numbers are in.
The state has recorded 76 new, locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and zero in hotel quarantine.
The Department of Health says 45 cases are linked to known outbreaks. This means there are, at this stage, 31 mystery cases.
Authorities have not yet said how many cases were in isolation for their entire infectious period.
There are now 841 active cases of coronavirus across the state.
Today’s numbers are off the back of yesterday’s 50,848 coronavirus tests.
COVID-19 vaccines don’t affect fertility: infectious diseases expert
By Broede Carmody
Professor Robert Booy, an infectious diseases paediatrician, was on Sunrise earlier answering viewers’ questions about coronavirus.
He was asked whether getting a COVID jab has any impact on women’s fertility. As you’re probably aware, there is a lot of misinformation being thrown around on social media by anti-vaccination groups.
Infectious diseases pediatrician Professor Robert Booy.
Here’s what Professor Booy had to say about fertility, pregnancy, breastfeeding and COVID-19 vaccines:
We have data now from North America and Europe on literally millions of pregnant women who have been vaccinated and people who are not pregnant but getting pregnant, and there is no evidence whatsoever of a fertility problem.
The woman is not affected and the baby is not affected. Breastfeeding women are not affected in any serious or worrying way.
The Royal College of Obstetricians recommends that pregnant women and breastfeeding women get the COVID vaccine for their own and their family’s protection.
‘Families are at breaking point’: Western Sydney mayor
By Broede Carmody
Cumberland mayor Steve Christou, who represents one of the local government areas of concern in Sydney’s west, was on the Today show earlier this morning.
He’s calling on the NSW state government to provide a clearer roadmap out of lockdown. As you might recall, over the past few weeks there has been some talk about fully vaccinated people being able to soon visit their hairdresser in NSW, among other freedoms.
Cumberland mayor Steve Christou. Credit:Cumberland City Council
While fully vaccinated people will soon be able to gather outside in small groups for short picnics, indoor haircuts have remained off the table – for now.
Here’s what Mr Christou had to say about the easing of restrictions:
As of late the message seems to have drifted and now we’re getting mixed signals.
Give us a clear light at the end of the tunnel. Have a proper roadmap.
Quite frankly, families are at breaking point. People can no longer afford to pay mortgage, rent, their bills or put food on the table for their children.
US completes Afghanistan withdrawal
By Matthew Knott
The United States has completed the frantic and deadly withdrawal of its forces from Kabul a day ahead of schedule, marking the official end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan.
General Kenneth McKenzie, who leads the US Central Command, announced on Tuesday (AEST) that the last C-17 American military aircraft had departed the international airport in Kabul.
McKenzie said that more than122,000 people have been airlifted out of Kabul since August 14, making the effort the biggest non-combatant evacuation in US history.
Victoria now has more than 1000 exposure sites
By Cassandra Morgan
Victorian health authorities identified nearly 150 new COVID-19 exposure sites yesterday, with 40 listed after 8pm.
The state’s exposure site total now stands at 1030.
In case you missed the late additions, they include two tier-1 or close contact sites:
- Monash Ultrasound for Women at Mulgrave, in Melbourne’s south east; and
- The law firm Alpass & Associates in Kilsyth, in the city’s east.
Anyone who attended those sites during the specified timeframes has to immediately get tested for COVID-19 and quarantine for 14 days, regardless of whether they receive a negative test result.
Authorities warned there would also be some close contacts associated with a construction site in Fishermans Bend Primary School in Port Melbourne, Woolworths Northland in Preston and the GEOX apartment complex at Brunswick in the inner north.
The remainder of the new exposure sites added late on Monday are tier-2 sites. They include train and tram routes, chemists, a medical centre and a VicRoads service centre.
A full list of Victorian exposure sites can be found here.
COVID-positive Sydney men fined $25,000 after gathering during isolation
By Sarah McPhee
Five men, who police say were stopped in rural NSW last week, have been fined after allegedly breaching COVID-19 self-isolation rules and gathering outdoors in Sydney’s south west.
Police were patrolling Optimism Street in Leppington, on the edge of the Liverpool local government area of concern, about 11.30am yesterday when they saw five men allegedly sitting at a table on the footpath and not wearing face masks.
“Officers stopped and spoke to the men, who revealed they had tested positive to COVID-19 in rural NSW and had been ordered to self-isolate for 14 days after being escorted back to Sydney last Monday (August 23),” NSW Police said in a statement.
All five men – aged 23, 25, 26, 31 and 32 – were issued $5000 infringement notices for failing to comply with COVID-19 directions.
They were escorted back to the premises to complete their mandatory isolation.
Masks are mandatory outdoors across NSW, except for when exercising, and outdoor recreation in LGAs of concern is not allowed.
The fine for breaching self-isolation rules under the public health order was increased to $5000 on August 16.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian yesterday said more than 80 per cent of the state’s cases continue to be reported in Sydney’s south west and west. Of the 1290 new, locally acquired COVID-19 cases announced yesterday, 449 were from Western Sydney Local Health District and 434 from South Western Sydney LHD.
Three Sydney hospitals carrying the load of NSW’s COVID-19 outbreak
By Mary Ward, Lucy Carroll, Lucy Cormack and Alexandra Smith
Three Sydney hospitals are bearing the brunt of NSW’s COVID-19 outbreak with Westmead Hospital’s intensive care unit treating only people infected with the virus and other patients moved into a makeshift ICU.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian is forewarning that October will be the worst month for hospitalisations and new figures show the rising number of COVID-19 patients at each NSW hospital, including in ICU, and the stress it is putting on the state’s health system.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned October would be the hardest month for NSW’s hospitals.Credit:Kate Geraghty
Data obtained by this masthead reveals the number of coronavirus cases in NSW hospital wards and ICUs as of last Friday shows of the patients hospitalised, about 120 are being treated at each of Westmead and Liverpool hospitals. There are almost 100 cases at Nepean.
Two of Sydney’s largest hospitals, Royal North Shore and Royal Prince Alfred, are treating fewer than 40 cases each.
More on this story here.
‘We have to do what is feasible’: Victorian CHO unsure on zero-COVID chances
By Clay Lucas and Craig Butt
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton is unsure if Victoria can achieve zero COVID-19 cases in the short term, despite Premier Daniel Andrews saying on the weekend the state was still aiming for “very low numbers”.
“We have to do what is feasible,” Professor Sutton said on Monday after the state reported 73 new coronavirus cases. It brought the number of Victorians with an active case to 805 as Melbourne entered the 25th day of its sixth lockdown.
“We are not going to achieve the impossible if it becomes impossible.”
Victorian Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton on Monday.Credit:Getty
On Sunday, Mr Andrews said the state’s case numbers were too high to open up but that “we are still a chance to drive this down to very low numbers ... no one has given up on that.”
Read the full story here.
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2021-08-30 23:34:08Z
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