Australia news LIVE Melbourne lockdown extension likely as Victoria records 20 new local COVID-19 cases Queensland records four new cases
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NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is due to hold her daily press conference at the usual time of 11am AEST.
Watch live below.
Meanwhile, Victorian Premier Dan Andrews is due to front the press around the same time.
Watch that press conference here.
Latest postsAustralia Post has confirmed a worker at its Seven Hills facility in Sydney’s north west has tested positive for COVID-19.
A spokesperson this morning said all staff at the site were “fully updated†on the situation at 7am.
“The individual, who is vaccinated and asymptomatic, was tested on Sunday and has been self-isolating since that time,†the spokesperson said.
“Deep cleaning was conducted immediately after the individual advised of a positive test result on Monday afternoon.
“As a precaution workers in the same area have been advised to go for testing and we are continuing to work with NSW Health to ensure any additional contacts are identified.â€
Close contacts have been identified and are isolating for 14 days. The spokesperson said there was no impact to Australia Post parcel or processing delivery.
Member for Dubbo Dugald Saunders says stay-at-home orders will likely be implemented in the regional NSW city from early this afternoon after a COVID-19 case, linked to two schools, was detected.
Dubbo West Public School will be closed today after a member of the school community tested positive for COVID-19.
Mr Saunders said the case had not travelled outside the Dubbo area in recent weeks, and that it was not known where transmission originated.
“Testing sites have expanded capacity, we will now have an additional pathology team arriving today,†he said, noting that Dubbo Showground testing clinic will have four lanes operating and capacity to process up to 2000 tests each day.
“People have been expecting for something like this to happen. It is a real worry. The message for the community now is to get tested.â€
The Committee for Sydney says the NSW government should immediately give more freedoms to fully vaccinated residents while setting a date in the near future for the introduction of vaccine passports.
The committee, which represents prominent organisations and businesses, also wants the state government to make vaccinations mandatory for all 400,000 NSW public servants.
An urban think tank is calling on the government to set a date for the introduction of vaccine passports. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Deputy chief executive Ehssan Veiszadeh says introducing a passport system would significantly boost vaccine uptake, saying the government should move away from its COVID-zero goal.
“We can’t just be held back by states that want to keep things closed forever, we need to start opening things up here,†he said.
More on this story here.
One floor of an apartment building in Melbourne’s CBD has been put into lockdown and testing crews are expected on-site this morning after a resident on level 28 tested positive.
The resident is believed to be a staff member at the Royal Children’s Hospital who worked on August 9. Investigations at the hospital yesterday evening determined the employee was unlikely to have been infectious while working, limiting the impact of the case on wards and any possible furloughing of staff.
Victorian health authorities are expected to arrive at Vision Apartments, located at 500 Elizabeth Street, from about 10.30am where they will ask every resident to get tested.
A source with knowledge of the situation, who was unauthorised to speak publicly, questioned why there had not been more urgency in deploying testing staff considering the resident tested positive yesterday afternoon.
“I can’t imagine many things at the moment that would be more important than acting immediately,†the person said.
Vision Apartments stretches 70 floors with 500 apartments and in 2018 was the second-tallest residential building in the CBD.
A Victorian health department spokesman declined to answer questions about Vision Apartments and deferred questions to today’s press conference, which we have just learned will take place around 11am.
It’s expected Premier Daniel Andrews will prolong the state’s lockdown today with a seven-day extension among the options being discussed.
Queensland has recorded four new cases of COVID-19.
All of today’s new cases are linked to the Indooroopilly cluster and were detected in home quarantine, meaning they spent no time in the community while infectious.
“Who would have thought a week ago we would have been in this position today?†Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said at this morning’s coronavirus briefing.
Ms Palaszczuk said a snap three-day lockdown in Cairns, which was sparked after a taxi driver was infectious in the community for 10 days, would lift at 4pm today as planned.
Restrictions will continue in Cairns, similar to those currently in place in south-east Queensland (such as mandatory mask-wearing indoors).
There are now 156 active cases in Queensland. Of those, 120 are linked to the Indooroopilly cluster.
There were 23,099 tests performed in the past 24 hours.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has just finished holding her daily coronavirus update.
We should have the playback version with you shortly.
Police have released images of a man they would like to speak to after a female COVID-19 testing site worker was allegedly verbally abused and punched in the head in Sydney’s north-west.
The woman was working at the testing clinic on Kissing Point Road, Dundas, about 4pm on Monday when police say she was approached by an unknown man who was not wearing a face mask.
“Police have been told the man began filming the 31-year-old worker on his mobile phone, before verbally abusing her about vaccinations,†police said in a statement.
More on this story here.
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has directed Bacchus Marsh Grammar to return to remote learning today due to fears the Caroline Springs COVID-19 cluster could spread around the large school community.
The main campus of the non-government school sits just outside Melbourne’s metropolitan boundary, however most of the school’s 3000-odd students live in Melbourne’s western suburbs, where the Delta outbreak is of most concern.
Bacchus Marsh Grammar principal Andrew Neal.Credit:Justin McManus
The school’s Maddingley campus reopened yesterday along with all other Victorian regional schools, but will close again today to all but the children of essential workers and vulnerable children after the Chief Health Officer asked the school to return to remote learning on Tuesday night.
“This is to manage the increasing risk of a student inadvertently attending while infectious, given the risk of undetected cases in and around Caroline Springs in particular,†the school community was told in an email sent at 8pm last night.
Bacchus Marsh Grammar was hit with about 20 positive cases, including teachers and students, last month. No member of the school community has tested positive in the current outbreak.
Principal Andrew Neal said the school community was tired and frustrated about the new directive but accepted the health advice.
About a dozen schools in Melbourne have closed in recent days due to positive cases, including St Albans North Primary School, Christ the Priest Catholic School in Caroline Springs and St Michael’s Primary School in North Melbourne.
Further on George Christensen’s views on masks and lockdowns, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce says he spoke with the Nationals MP last night.
But the party leader doesn’t believe he can stop Mr Christensen from saying what he wants to.
Mr Joyce â€" who is in lockdown in Armidale after returning home from Canberra for the weekend â€" said he didn’t share Mr Christensen’s views.
“I respect his right to his opinion, it’s not my opinion,†he told Radio National’s Fran Kelly.
“I’ve had a conversation with him. That doesn’t mean he’s the slave of anybody.
“You’re suggesting, Fran, that I can demand his silence and he will therefore oblige. If you have had George on your program and met George, as you have, you would know the likelihood of that is near zero.â€
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