Australia news LIVE NSW records 136 new local COVID-19 cases as Victoria records 14 cases TGA approves Pfizer vaccine for children
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Victorian health authorities have identified several more COVID-19 exposure sites, bringing the state’s total to nearly 420.
All of the new exposure sites are “tier 2″, meaning anyone who has visited them during the specified timeframes must urgently get tested for COVID-19, and isolate until they receive a negative result.
The new exposure sites include a tram route, which health authorities explained on Friday was exposed to the virus when a person who was infectious travelled on the tram to a COVID testing station.
Victoria’s COVID commander Jeroen Weimar said on Friday: “We’re very keen to make sure that the other, we believe half a dozen or so passengers around him on the tram, come forward to get tested immediatelyâ€.
The new exposure sites are:
Melbourne Storm and NSW Blues winger Josh Addo-Carr has sent a message to those in his home city and his adopted home after scoring the opening try in the NRL tonight.
Addo-Carr scored the first try for the Storm against North Queensland Cowboys and while walking back to position showed the camera his wrist tape which had “Sydney†on one side and “VIC†on the other.
The Storm are currently based in Noosa and spent over 100 days on the Sunshine Coast last year due to lockdown in Melbourne.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian today declared the state’s Delta outbreak a national emergency.
She said a new mass vaccination strategy is needed to stem the spread of cases through essential workplaces.
Despite Greater Sydney being weeks into a lockdown, cases remain stubbornly high with 136 new locally acquired cases, the highest daily figure of the current outbreak, reported on Friday. Of the new cases, 70 were in the community for at least part of their infectious period.
Herald journalists Daniella White and Pallavi Singhal looked at how Syndey’s outbreak came to be a national emergency, as well as the question - where to from here?
The Delta outbreak began in Bondi on June 16, initially spreading mainly in the eastern suburbs.
But within a few weeks, the virus had taken hold in Sydney’s south-western suburbs and case numbers grew quickly. There are now 1782 total cases associated with the outbreak.
Authorities say people travelling to attend work and visiting family members in other households are key drivers of the increasing case numbers.
You can read the full story here.
More than 125 staff from Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital south-west of Sydney are in isolation after two student nurses who worked at the hospital tested positive to COVID-19.
The two cases are not linked.
“Twenty-five staff were identified as close contacts of the first student nurse and have been isolating,†a South Western Sydney Local Health District spokesperson said in a statement.
Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital.Credit:Kate Geraghty
Five patients and more than 100 staff were identified as potential contacts of the second case with extensive contact tracing underway, the spokesperson said.
“We take every measure to protect staff, patients and visitors from COVID-19. We have conducted extensive cleaning of the clinical areas in which the staff members worked, including the cleaning of all equipment and high-touch areas. There has been no impact on the hospital’s services or the delivery of care.â€
The Herald understands potential contacts are able to obtain a rapid 20-minute test via designated testing clinics in Fairfield.
Earlier this month more than 600 nurses and healthcare staff at Royal North Shore and Fairfield hospitals were placed in isolation after an unvaccinated student nurse who worked across multiple wards tested positive.
While some state leaders have urged NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to introduce even tougher measures to stamp out Greater Sydney’s growing outbreak of COVID-19 cases, Sydney Morning Herald photographer Brook Mitchell has captured near-abandoned streets in lockdown today (with the exception of busy COVID testing spots).
Here are some of his arresting shots.
An empty shopping strip in Sydney’s Blacktown.Credit:Brook Mitchell
A drive-through COVID-19 testing location in Blacktown as cases spike in the region.Credit:Brook Mitchell
Social distancing is easy at Prospect Reservoir in Wetherill Park.Credit:Brook Mitchell
A desolate Blacktown Station.Credit:Brook Mitchell
In case you missed it earlier today, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has advocated a shift in NSW’s vaccination strategy to delay second doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 jab to allow more people to receive a first dose of the vaccine as quickly as possible.
National cabinet hopes to confirm within the next 24 hours a change that will push the delivery of second doses of Pfizer out from three weeks to six weeks in NSW state clinics. This comes after ATAGI recommended the wait between doses of AstraZeneca be shortened from 12 weeks to four.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Interestingly, a study just published by Oxford University suggests Pfizer provides more effective immunity if the doses are spaced out by eight to 10 weeks rather than a shorter three-week period.
Read more on that study here.
A Bunnings in Goulburn and a KFC in Marulan are among the latest COVID-19 exposure sites in NSW, sparking concerns the state’s growing coronavirus outbreak is spreading further outside Greater Sydney.
Anyone who attended the following venues at the times listed is a close contact and must get tested and isolate for 14 days, regardless of the result:
NSW Health has also listed a raft of new casual contact venues this evening, which are shown in the tweet above. People who were at the venues and times listed must immediately get tested and isolate until a negative result is received. If their date of exposure at the venue occurred in the past four days, they must get another test on day 5 from the date of exposure.
Most of the times listed are short, but the exposure times for the Savoy Hotel at Double Bay are all day Thursday July 15 and all day Friday July 16.
A staff member of the Sydney Dental School at Westmead has tested positive for COVID-19, the University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott has confirmed.
The staff member is “relatively well and receiving appropriate care, and we wish them a speedy recoveryâ€, Mr Scott said in an email to students on Friday.
University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott.Credit:James Brickwood
The university “supported NSW Health to identify and notify known close and casual contactsâ€, and as a result 13 staff and 130 students are now self-isolating while access is restricted to the impacted site, the school’s training facility on Mons Road, for deep cleaning.
The case will be included in tomorrow’s numbers.
NSW declined an early July offer of Defence Force assistance in an operation targeting the COVID-19 outbreak in south-west Sydney, NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said on Friday evening.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian passed on the offer made on July 7, Mr Fuller said, as the police force was already planning an operation that was launched on July 9.
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller.Credit:Wolter Peeters
In a statement, Mr Fuller said he supported the close relationship NSW Police and the Defence Force had formed during joint operations on bushfires and the COVID-19 response.
“However, it was determined the police operational response didn’t require external assistance in the south western Sydney operation given the transmission of the virus was between household contacts, not primarily occurring on the streets,†the statement said.
“Commissioner Fuller thanks the Prime Minister for his continued supportâ€.
NSW Police Minister David Elliott backed the Commissioner’s position and praised police for their “tireless efforts throughout these operationsâ€.
Many readers have asked why NSW has not adopted harsher restrictions such as those adopted by Victoria.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has ruled out implementing tougher “symbolic†restrictions, such as night curfews and preventing outdoor exercise, saying there was no science behind such measures.
Two leading epidemiologists have backed that approach, saying blunt tools such as installing a “ring of steel†around Sydney as advocated by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews are not necessarily useful and come with major consequences. (A ring of steel would involve roadblocks around Greater Sydney’s perimeter, patrolled by police).
Deakin University epidemiologist Catherine Bennett said all restrictions must be targeted and contextual.
“We just have to be really mindful â€" all these interventions come with a cost, and we don’t always think through what the consequences are,†Professor Bennett said.
Punitive restrictions “can make people more anxious, and they’re already the people complyingâ€, while simultaneously “make people more rebellious who aren’t complying†anyway.
Mobility data shows Sydneysiders are driving, commuting and walking less than at any time since the first lockdown in April last year.
Quiet streets in Blacktown today.Credit:Brook Mitchell
Professor Bennett urged authorities to constantly review the effectiveness of each restriction, rejecting the notion that restrictions are “part of a package†and therefore could not be individually unwound if they weren’t useful.
University of Melbourne clinical epidemiologist Nancy Baxter said it was vital that all restrictions were contextual.
“If you’re strolling around a park and there’s no one around you, masks don’t make much sense,†she said.
Read more here.
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