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Watch live: Queensland Premier provides COVID-19 update
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will provide a COVID-19 update at 9am AEST.
You can watch the press conference live here.
Home quarantine could be on the cards before Christmas
By Daniella White
Former top bureaucrat Jane Halton, who is leading the second review of Australia’s quarantine program, says Australians returning from overseas may be able to complete quarantine in their homes by Christmas.
But she said there was still a lot of work to do before international borders could reopen.
“We want to make sure that the current quarantine system is working well and to look to ensure that all the recommendations from last year have been implemented,” Ms Halton said on ABC radio.
“I’m pleased to say that the state and territories have really lifted their game on the existing quarantine system so that’s really good news.
“But we know that we will want a variety of quarantine going forward and home quarantine for those people who can quarantine at home.
“That won’t be an option for everyone but for many people the possibility of quarantining at home will be real.”
Ms Halton, a former health department secretary, said she hoped systems to allow home quarantine would be up and running before Christmas, with trials able to be well underway within the next month.
Home quarantine is already being trialled in South Australia and will also be trialled in NSW.
Extended lockdown in WA ‘unavoidable’ even with 90 per cent vaccinated: modelling
By Heather McNeill and Michaela Whitbourn
As NSW prepares to ease some coronavirus restrictions for fully vaccinated people once 70 per cent of people aged 16 and over have received both jabs, a very different story is playing out in Western Australia.
WA Premier Mark McGowan has been advised that an extended lockdown in Western Australia will be unavoidable even if the state reaches 90 per cent vaccination rates while COVID-free.
Modelling by University of Western Australia professor George Milne is being used to inform WA’s pathway to living with COVID-19, and was presented to WA Health officials a fortnight ago.
WA Premier Mark McGowan.Credit:Matt Jelonek
Professor Milne predicts that if 90 per cent of the population aged 12 and above (not the 16 and above target used by national cabinet) gets vaccinated, lifting the border and letting the virus in without restrictions would lead to an average of 2000 cases a day – or, over a five-month period, 300,000 cases, 1750 hospitalisations and 255 deaths.
The figures assume each person infected with the virus would pass it on to six others.
“The holy grail of vaccination is, ‘Can you get up to a threshold that means vaccination alone can contain any future outbreaks?’ well with Delta, our modelling is showing you cannot,” Professor Milne said.
“The simple answer is that we will have to have an early lockdown at 80 or 90 per cent coverage to prevent a burst of cases.”
WA Premier Mark McGowan has previously said the state’s border would likely remain closed to COVID-infected states until vaccination rates exceeded 80 per cent, at which point he would set a date six to eight weeks later for reopening.
The deviation from the National Plan (opening up at 80 per cent vaccination rates for people aged 16 and over) means WA will likely remain shut off from much of the country and the rest of the world until at least February, assuming it can fend off any COVID outbreaks in the interim.
Western Sydney community ‘furious’ after Kristina Keneally parachuted into seat
By Daniella White
South-west Sydney lawyer Tu Le says her community is furious and feels pushed aside, after the Labor Party backed Senator Kristina Keneally to contest the seat of Fowler at the next federal election.
Ms Le, who is the daughter of Vietnamese migrants and has lived in the area all her life, says people in the south-west Sydney seat feel they don’t have a say in who represents them.
Labor frontbencher Kristina Keneally, who the party will move into the seat of Fowler, over a local, Tu Le.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Ms Keneally, who lives on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, is attempting to switch from the Senate to the seat of Fowler after months of tensions over whether she or fellow senator Deb O’Neill would take the top spot on Labor’s Senate ticket.
Lawyer Tu Le, who had been the successor favoured by Fowler’s incumbent MP, Chris Hayes.Credit:
“I don’t think it’s about a particular individual,” Ms Le said on ABC radio.
“It’s about the optics of having someone swooped in and imposed on our local community.
“People in my community see their own story reflected in mine. The public commentary on this clearly shows their rage.
“These people who weren’t engaged are becoming furious and feel like if they don’t raise their voices and are not heard by their leaders then we’ll constantly be taken for granted and pushed aside.”
Asked whether the decision to parachute the former NSW premier into the seat would cost Labor votes, Ms Le said the party needed to be very careful.
“Our party right now doesn’t reflect the community we seek to represent,” she said.
Outgoing MP Chris Hayes has publicly backed Ms Le to replace him in the electorate, where per cent of residents are of Vietnamese descent.
Ms Le said she found out through a media article Ms Keneally was being backed for the seat.
Teen charged after woman stabbed while sunbathing in north Queensland
By Jocelyn Garcia and Toby Crockford
A 16-year-old teenager has been charged after allegedly stabbing a woman multiple times in the neck and body while she was sunbathing on a north Queensland beach.
Emergency services were called to an area off Blacks Beach Road about 12.20pm on Monday at Black Beach when the 25-year-old woman, not known to the teenager, managed to seek help at a nearby construction site.
Police believe the woman was stabbed with a knife before the offender fled the scene.
She was rushed to Mackay Hospital with serious injuries.
Later that day, the teenager surrendered himself to police and was charged with acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm.
He was refused bail and will appear at the Mackay Children’s Court on Tuesday.
Outbreak school principal insists face-to-face learning is best
By Clay Lucas and Adam Carey
The principal of a Victorian school at the centre of a COVID-19 outbreak remains adamant that face-to-face learning is best for his students.
Tim Berryman, principal of the small, alternative Fitzroy Community School, said that until his school was forced to close by health authorities last week it was in his students’ interests that it continued to teach them in person.
Tim Berryman, principal of the Fitzroy Community School. Credit:Justin McManus
When the Victorian and federal governments found themselves in a tug-of-war in term two last year over home schooling, Mr Berryman was the first to say he would open up to students. “There is no evidence,” he said in April 2020, “to suggest that children being at school contributes to this pandemic at all.”
Since the latest lockdown began in August, the school has continued teaching children of both essential workers and those considered vulnerable on site, as have all Victorian schools. But while 4 per cent of students on average are attending the state’s public schools, Fitzroy Community School has had more than 50 per cent on site. Families whose children attend the school but who are critical of Mr Berryman say on some days as many as 81 children are in the terraces that make up the school, and that masks are rarely if ever worn.
Mr Berryman insists mask rules are followed, but he says teachers are entitled not to wear one while supervising children. Asked how things were since the outbreak, he says, “the kids are all fine. A couple are a bit fluey. Most of them, if you weren’t going to test for something, you would have never known anything”
Mandatory jabs being considered for Victorian construction workers
By Sumeyya Ilanbey and Aisha Dow
The Victorian government is considering mandating vaccinations for construction workers after building sites emerged as coronavirus hotspots.
Victorian Treasurer and Industrial Relations Minister Tim Pallas issued a stern warning to the sector on Monday, saying its permitted worker status was not guaranteed, following reports of people working maskless or dropping their guard on meal or drink breaks.
The Victorian government is considering mandating COVID-19 vaccination for the construction industry. Credit:Rhett Wyman
In August the NSW government moved to mandate vaccinations for construction workers in 12 local government areas at the epicentre of Greater Sydney’s COVID-19 outbreak.
The Victorian government will open 20,000 priority Pfizer and unlimited AstraZeneca bookings for the state’s 320,000 construction workers over the coming week and send teams of officials to crack down on compliance with public-health rules at worksites.
More than 100 childcare, early learning centres shut a week in NSW amid potential COVID-19 exposures
By Lucy Carroll and Mary Ward
More than 100 childcare and early learning centres are being shut in NSW each week due to potential coronavirus exposures, data from the national childcare authority shows, while warehouses and distribution centres are among the critical workplaces being hit hard by COVID-19 cases.
There have been more than 150 COVID-19 cases among food logistics and distribution employees during NSW’s outbreak, affecting 98 facilities, according to the union representing these workers.
Childcare centres are appearing regularly as potential COVID-19 exposure sites in NSW.Credit:Ryan Stuart
United Workers Union estimated at least 3000 people employed in warehouses that supply stock to supermarkets in NSW and related logistics operations had been required to isolate for a fortnight following a virus exposure over the course of the state’s outbreak.
Britain’s young teens to be vaccinated against COVID-19 with a single dose
By Latika Bourke
London: Britain’s chief medical officers have said that vaccinating young teenagers against COVID-19 is justified when their mental health and education are taken into account.
Minors aged between 12 and 15 in England will be offered a single dose of Pfizer or Moderna beginning next week, with more research ordered into whether a second dose should be given, as is currently administered to those aged 16 and above.
Lucas, 12, has his first vaccination at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital, Melbourne. Britain’s decision brings the UK partly into line with countries like Australia.Credit:Eddie Jim
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been approved for 12 to 15-year-olds in Australia, who will receive both doses. Parents and guardians can now make a booking online for adolescents.
No vaccine is approved for children aged under 12.
NSW Premier to meet mayors of Sydney LGAs at centre of COVID-19 outbreak
By Alexandra Smith and Lucy Cormack
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian will meet the mayors of the Sydney local government areas hit hardest by COVID-19 today after being widely criticised for initially refusing their request.
Ms Berejiklian’s office extended the invitation to the 12 mayors on Monday after the local leaders accused the Premier of “snubbing” them after she declined their pleas for a virtual meeting.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Monday.Credit:Nick Moir
Canterbury-Bankstown mayor Khal Asfour said he was contacted by the Premier’s office shortly after appearing on breakfast television on Monday.
“Some pleasing news this morning that NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has agreed to meet myself and other mayors to discuss the current COVID crisis,” Cr Asfour posted on social media.
“As you all know I have been trying for weeks to meet with her to raise issues ranging from curfews, to more vaccines and financial support.”
Ms Berejiklian said there were “glimmers of hope” that increased vaccination rates over the past few weeks were leading to a stabilisation of cases in some hotspots.
Most cases continue to be concentrated in south-west and western Sydney, but health authorities remain concerned about rising numbers among vulnerable communities in inner-city suburbs such as Redfern, Glebe and Waterloo, which are not classified as areas of concern.
The LGAs of concern are as follows: Bayside, Blacktown, Burwood, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool, Parramatta and Strathfield.
Penrith is also an LGA of concern in the following suburbs: Caddens, Claremont Meadows, Colyton, Erskine Park, Kemps Creek, Kingswood, Mount Vernon, North St Marys, Orchard Hills, Oxley Park, St Clair and St Marys.
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2021-09-13 22:55:39Z
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