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This morning’s earthquake was Victoria’s largest ever recorded on land
By Liam Mannix
Geosciences Australia has confirmed this morning was the largest earthquake ever recorded on land in Victoria.
The largest earthquake ever recorded in Australia was in 1968, a 6.5-magnitude in Meckering, Western Australia.
The largest earthquake ever recorded off-shore near Australia was a 6.6, in July 2019, 100km off the coast of Broome.
Melbourne Coles evacuated after earthquake
By Dominic Powell
A Coles supermarket on Chapel St in Prahran, in Melbourne’s south, has been evacuated and remains closed after a partial collapse of the building’s facade earlier today.
The store is 600 metres away from the Betty’s Burger location which also partially collapsed in this morning’s earthquake.
A spokesman for the supermarket chain said no one was hurt at the incident and that the store was awaiting emergency services and structural engineers to assess the damage before reopening.
Majority of Victoria’s new COVID cases in northern suburbs: Deputy CHO
By Carolyn Webb
Victoria’s Deputy Chief Health Officer Deb Friedman says 57 per cent of today’s new COVID-19 cases are based in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
Dr Friedman said there were 194 cases in Hume, 80 cases in which Whittlesea, 47 cases in Moreland and 23 cases in Darebin. There were 27 cases in Melton, 52 in Wyndham and 34 cases in Brimbank.
The Deputy CHO said 11 of the new COVID-19 cases could be attributed to a construction warehouse in Craigieburn. And there were 15 cases linked to a wholesale food and supermarket site in Somerton (both Craigieburn and Somerton are in Melbourne’s north).
“The store is closed while staff are isolating,” Dr Friedman said, adding that she was pleased with the “construction blitz” of worker vaccinations.
“Although there was minimal uptake last week, we’re now seeing significant demand.”
In the south-east of Melbourne, there were 26 cases in Casey, 14 in Cardinia, seven in Stonnington and 18 in Port Phillip.
In regional Victoria, Dr Friedman said there are 11 cases in total and that one case in Wangaratta is believed to have been acquired in Melbourne. In East Gippsland, there was one case, however this is the residential address of this case, “but they are in New South Wales and acquired their infection in NSW”.
There were four cases in Mitchell Shire, north of Melbourne.
“Two of these are household contacts of known cases, and the other two cases are still under investigation,” Dr Friedman said.
In Moorabool Shire, in Victoria’s west, there were two new cases which were household contacts of known cases. There was one new case in Macedon Ranges Shire in regional Victoria.
“The source of acquisition of these cases unclear and is still being investigated.”
Regional Victorian city out of lockdown
By Daniella Miletic
Ballarat, in regional Victoria, will end its seven-day lockdown from midnight tonight.
Deputy Premier James Merlino made the announcement this afternoon, declaring that health authorities felt confident they had the outbreak there contained.
“My thanks to the entire community of Ballarat, the five reasons to leave your home will no longer apply,” he said during the state’s health update.
“And the settings in Ballarat will align with the areas of regional Victoria, not in lockdown.”
‘What else is going to happen?’ Melbourne residents left shocked after quake
By Simone Fox Koob
Con Houndalas, who runs coffee shop One Thirty Two on Melbourne’s Chapel Street, was outside on the footpath talking to some customers when he felt his body vibrate. He looked across the road to see part of Betty’s Burgers crumbling.
“It happened so quickly. First I felt the ripple effect, then I heard the noise, then I looked across and saw the bricks spitting out.
A section of a roof that collapsed in Melbourne’s inner south after this morning’s earthquake. Credit:Eddie Jim
“I heard this crash, I thought it was explosion but it wasn’t, because of everything that was landing from the building,” he said.
“I looked around the corner ... and saw a couple of people there, and I rushed around and saw the side of the parapet off the building had come down on the footpath. I saw a few girls who are customers they were in shock, teary.”
He added that there was a “massive ball of dust” when the bricks fell.
“It was a solid crashing,” he said. “I got the impression when it happened that they kind of flicked out, that’s why I thought it was an explosion. It didn’t actually just collapse down it … popped out.
“Welcome to Melbourne. What else is going to happen?”
He said at the time it happened there were only few people around, but within 15 seconds people were starting to walk towards the building.
Vaccination to be mandatory for all staff at Victorian schools, early childhood centres
By Kate Lahey and Carolyn Webb
COVID-19 vaccination will be mandatory for all staff at schools and early childhood centres and they must have a first dose by October 18, or a booking within one week, Victorian Education Minister and Deputy Premier James Merlino has announced.
Staff must be fully vaccinated by November 29, unless they have a medical exemption, under the government’s mandatory vaccination rule for schools.
Deputy Premier and Education Minister James MerlinoCredit:
The rule applies to all government and non-government schools and all types of early childhood and care settings.
The Andrews government also announced a $190 million package to boost ventilation and air purification in schools, to help stem transmission of COVID-19.
Mr Merlino told reporters at today’s COVID-19 update that in an “Australian first” the government has signed a contract to deliver 51,000 air purification devices to Victorian schools.
“The first load arrives via air next week, air purification devices, they remove the nasty particles in the air, including coronavirus. We will have a focus on higher-risk settings, places like sick bays, canteens, staff rooms, music rooms, and more.”
Mr Merlino said the first arrivals of equipment would be in week one of term four.
Victoria recorded 628 new local cases of COVID-19 today, and three deaths: a woman in her 50s from Wyndham, a man in his 70s from Wyndham and a man in his 80s from Darebin.
There are 257 people in the state’s hospitals with COVID-19, 58 of whom are in ICU and 37 on ventilators.
Of the cases who were in hospital yesterday, around 81 per cent were not vaccinated, 15 per cent were partially vaccinated and 3 per cent of people were fully vaccinated.
Ballarat will end its seven day lockdown at midnight tonight, Mr Merlino confirmed.
Emergency crews attend Melbourne chimney collapse; supermarket stock falls from shelves in regional Victoria
By Dominic Powell and Carolyn Webb
Fire Rescue Victoria says a State Emergency Service crew has attended a house in the Melbourne suburb of Kensington this morning after it was damaged during today’s earthquake.
As previously reported, the inner north-western suburb is among those with the most SES callouts.
Fire Rescue Victoria says all occupants managed to self-evacuate. It appears the chimney has partially collapsed.
“Thankfully, there were no injuries,” a FRV spokesperson said in a statement.
Meanwhile, in regional Victoria, Wangaratta resident Wayne Poole said he was in a Woolworths supermarket in the north-east Victorian town when the earthquake hit.
“It shook pretty violently and a lot of stock fell off the shelves. People didn’t know what was going on. The last thing anybody expected at that time of the morning was an earthquake.
“Everyone that was in there looked at each other and thought, ‘What’s going on here?’ No one knew what was going on. Most people just stopped and waited, probably about 30 seconds and it was all over.
“You could feel the ground actually moving.”
Mr Poole said the hotel he has owned for 14 years, the remote 159-year-old Kevington Hotel, 43km south of Mansfield was “still standing” although the quake “shook the place up a fair bit” and a few photos fell off the wall.
NSW working on plans for Year 12 end-of-year celebrations
By Mary Ward
Yesterday, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard had little information to give when asked if Year 12 formals would be able to go ahead after students return to school next term.
But today the state’s premier was more optimistic.
“I can foreshadow that this Year 12 cohort more than any other deserves to have a good end-of-year celebration, and they will occur in a safe way,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
She added that Education Minister Sarah Mitchell would be able to make an announcement “about the time it is safe to do that” soon.
“I don’t want anybody to be worried: focus on your studies and do as best as you can in your exams. Please know there will be an opportunity for you to celebrate.”
‘Pleasing’ decline in COVID-19 cases in Sydney’s local government areas of concern
By Mary Ward
With Sydney’s coronavirus cases seemingly having peaked below projected levels, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant has been asked if she think the state’s hospitals could also escape the high number of patients predicted by modelling last month.
Dr Chant said it was not so simple.
“We’re seeing some pleasing declines in the local government areas of concern in general,” she said.
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant on Wednesday.Credit:James Brickwood
“There are still some local government areas where the disease is continuing to bubble along at high levels, but we are seeing a turn in some of those local government areas.”
However, Dr Chant said there were rising cases in the City of Sydney, Randwick, and the Illawarra and Newcastle areas.
“When we look at the case numbers, it reflects basically two different patterns: declining in the local government areas of concern, as a generalisation, and [an] increase in other areas.”
Dr Chant said the outbreaks in areas outside the local government areas of concern were being driven by “different factors in each area” and were requiring a more tailored response, such as Sydney Local Health District’s recent focus on vaccinations in social housing.
Watch: Victoria’s COVID-19 update
By Broede Carmody
Victorian Deputy Premier James Merlino and Deputy Chief Health Officer Deb Friedman provided a COVID-19 update at about 11.45am AEST.
You can watch the playback clip here.
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2021-09-22 02:27:24Z
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