Authorities say the new cases are genomically linked to the 17-year-old Indooroopilly State High school student. The state’s lockdown has now been extended until at least Sunday.Deputy Premier Stephen Miles said the three-day snap lockdown would “not be sufficient” after recording six cases, nine and then 13 in the past three days.“We’re advising southeast Queenslanders in the 11 local government areas that the lockdown will be extended until 4pm on Sunday,” he said on Monday.“That will make it an eight-day lockdown. And we desperately hope that that will be sufficient for our contact tracers to get (on top of the outbreak).”The 11 local government areas of southeast Queensland were plunged into lockdown on Saturday. Dozens of new exposure sites are expected to be listed by Queensland Health later on Monday. NED-4289 Who is Qld’s Missing Link?‘WE CAN TURN THIS AROUND’Sydney could see a relaxation of lockdown restrictions by September with the state on track to reach 70 per cent of vaccination in five weeks.Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the government had a plan to “break records”.“Once you get to 50 per cent vaccination, 60 per cent, 70 per cent, that triggers more freedoms. We can turn this around in four weeks,” she said after the state recorded 239 locally acquired cases on Sunday.“We have the month of August to get the vaccination rates as high as possible. Let August be the month where we break records with the vaccination.”With more than 82,000 doses distributed in 24 hours, federal health officials believe that weekly vaccinations in NSW could rise to 650,000, allowing for the 70 per cent trigger by September.NSW Covid Exposure SitesNED-4088-NSW-Locally-acquired-Covid-19-graphVICTORIA RECORDS TWO NEW CASESVictoria has recorded two new locally acquired cases on Monday, as the state continues its cautious path out of a two-week lockdown. Both infections were linked to existing clusters and had been in quarantine during their entire infectious period, Victorian Department of Health officials said.More than 21,417 tests were carried out in the past 24 hours, and 15,030 vaccine doses administered.Victoria has recorded more than 200 cases linked to the two outbreaks that jumped the border from Sydney’s deadly Delta cluster – one from a team of Sydney removalists who transited through the state and the other from a family who returned to Melbourne’s north from a NSW red zone.HOW QLD COMPARES TO NSWQueensland’s Covid outbreak could become a “significant event” that will likely see numbers rise in the coming days, an infectious diseases expert has warned.Associate Professor Paul Griffin, director of Infectious Diseases at Mater Health Services in Brisbane, said the state had been in the “enviable position” of avoiding widespread outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant so far.But he said the current outbreak that has shut down southeast Queensland in a strict three-day lockdown had the potential to escalate rapidly.“I don’t think it will get as bad as it is in Sydney, and we already had a mask mandate at the outset,” Dr Griffin said.“We have gone hard and gone early with the lockdown, but there’s always a lag. We strongly expect our numbers will climb in the next two days.“We are probably going to do quite well but it has the potential to be a significant event.”His comments came after Queensland recorded nine new locally acquired Covid-19 infections – the highest number of new cases the state has reported all year, and its worst day since August 22 last year.Deputy Premier Steven Miles confirmed the new local cases brought Queensland’s total number of cases to 18. All of the nine cases are linked to the Indooroopilly State School cluster in Brisbane.“They are the Delta strain. This is the most number of new community infections we have reported in Queensland in almost 12 months,” he said. “The last time we were at this level was August 22.”Another concern was the rate of testing in Queensland. Mr Miles said it was vital more Queenslanders came forward to get tested after 11,468 tests were conducted in the 24 hours to August 1.“That is not enough tests,” he said.By comparison, there were 87,712 tests completed in the same period for Sydney, with 239 locally acquired cases identified. In the past week more than 570,000 people in NSW have turned out for testing. Of these, 1330 cases have been detected. Of these, 16 were overseas-acquired and the remainder identified as locally acquired.Dr Griffin said it was imperative that testing numbers rose significantly, as there were likely more undetected cases in the community.“We need to ensure that everyone has access to testing,” he said.The southeast Queensland lockdown is due to end at 4pm on Tuesday.NSW RECORDS 239 CASES, QLD’S WORST VIRUS DAY IN A YEAR NSW has recorded 239 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, with the source of 124 of those cases under investigation. Concerningly, 35 were active in the community while infectious, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said. NSW Health officials have put young residents on notice as the group who is driving the state’s Covid-19 outbreak.NSW Ministry of Health’s Dr Jeremy McAnulty said residents younger than 30 were contributing heavily to the growing numbers, citing the fact there are seven people aged in their 20s in intensive care with Covid-19.“Of the 55 in ICU, seven are in their 20s, five are in their 30s, two in their 40s, six in their 50s, 14 in that 60s and 10 in their 70s,” he said.“It shows that the disease can be very serious in younger people as well is older people.“We are concerned about young people, particularly 18 to 39-year-olds are driving a lot of the epidemic.“We are seeing cases at high rates in those age group. This is the age group that tends to be a link between kids, younger people, and older, elderly relatives.“They are working, they have big social networks, if you are in that age group it is important that you be aware that you are very vulnerable to the infection, as we have seen in ICU numbers, you can get serious disease.”Ms Berejiklian called on Sydneysiders to get vaccinated as soon as possible.“Today is August 1 and I am calling upon the people of Greater Sydney and greater NSW to come forward and get vaccinated,” she said.“To get to the 70 per cent target we need 9.2 million jabs, to get the 80 per cent target we need 10 million jabs.”It comes after Queensland recorded nine new locally acquired Covid-19 infections. It is the highest number of new cases that Queensland has reported all year, and its worst day since August 22 last year.Deputy Premier Steven Miles confirmed the new local cases about 10am, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 18.“They are the Delta strain. This is the most number of new community infections we have reported in Queensland in almost 12 months,” he said.“The last time we were at this level was August 22.”Queensland went into a snap three-day lockdown on Saturday afternoon after the state recorded six locally acquired cases of the Delta variant.The lockdown is expected to end at 4pm on Tuesday.Residents in the 11 affected LGAs in southeast Queensland can only leave home for essential tasks including buying groceries, essential work if they can’t work from home, exercise within 10km of home, healthcare, including vaccinations.NED-4196-QLD-Restrictions-liftingNED-4109-Qld-restrictionsVICTORIA CONFIRMS FOUR NEW CASES Victoria has recorded four new locally acquired Covid-19 infections on Sunday.The state’s health department confirmed the new local cases about 8.30am, and said they were all linked to existing outbreaks. In another positive sign, the health department said the new cases were in isolation for their entire infectious period.Victoria has recorded more than 200 cases linked to the two outbreaks that jumped the border from Sydney’s deadly Delta cluster – one from a team of Sydney removalists who transited through the state and the other from a family who returned to Melbourne’s north from a NSW red zone.The state recorded no new cases in hotel quarantine on Sunday, with the number of active cases in Victoria at 161 – down from 180 on Saturday.In comes as chief health officer Brett Sutton slammed the border shut with southeast Queensland following their local outbreak.Professor Sutton declared the 11 local government areas of Brisbane, Moreton Bay, Gold Coast, Ipswich, Lockyer Valley, Logan, Noosa, Redland, Scenic Rim, Somerset and Sunshine Coast as red zones.It means people in those regions, other than Victorian residents returning home, cannot enter the state from 8pm on Saturday.Returning Victorians will need to obtain a red zone permit and then quarantine for 14 days when they arrive.It come as a Brisbane infectious diseases expert said it was unlikely Queensland’s snap lockdown would be lifted in just three days.“I would think, with the number of additional cases overnight, the additional schools, that the chance of this ending after three days is fairly low,” Paul Griffin, Director of Infectious Diseases as Brisbane’s Mater Hospital, told the ABC.“But, of course, we need everyone to do the right thing so that we can get on top of it as quickly as possible and be out of lockdown as soon as it’s appropriate.”HANSON SLAMS QLD LOCKDOWN Senator Pauline Hanson has criticised Prime Minister Scott Morrison claiming he had “lost control of Australia” as part of Queensland went into a three-day snap lockdown.In a video posted online on Saturday, Ms Hanson described the lockdown as “bloody ridiculous”.“Like a lot of Aussies I was out enjoying my weekend but now we are going to have to be locked down,” she said. “It is bloody ridiculous for only six cases of Delta. I’m sorry this is over the top.”“The prime minister said yesterday it would get no worse than what it is at this point, he’s supposed to guide us through this with the premiers.“As I’ve said all along the prime minister has lost control of the country and the premiers are doing whatever they want to do. I feel sorry for small businesses.”Ms Hanson went on to say lockdowns were being called “at the drop of a hat”.“Give people clear direction and what’s going on,” she said. It came after Mr Morrison explained Australia’s four-step road map out of Covid-19 lockdowns on Friday, where he said Australia had to get to a vaccination target of 70 per cent before restrictions would ease. He also said premiers had agree to this in principle, with international travel to open after the country had achieved a vaccination target of 80 per cent. On Saturday, Mr Morrison delivered a pointed reference to wild conspiracy theories during an interview on talkback radio as he pleaded with Australians to follow scientifically supported medical advice – not fake experts on Facebook.The odd remark comes after the Prime Minister revealed lockdowns would be discouraged and international borders would begin to reopen once 80 per cent of eligible Australians are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.Morrison said he hoped the agreement on the target would encourage the population to get the jab as vaccine hesitancy persists and disenfranchised citizens take to the streets in anti-lockdown protests.“By getting vaccinated, you’re getting a step closer every single day to getting us back to about as normal as you can be when you’re living with Covid-19,” he told 2GB on Saturday morning.When discussing the prevailing rate of vaccine hesitancy across the country, Morrison urged Australians to resist following views of conspiracy theorists and to “go and talk to your doctor”.“If you are concerned, don’t talk to Doctor Google, go talk to your doctor,” the Prime Minister said.“Don’t talk to someone who’s going to tell you you’re going to turn into a magnet or, you know, don’t go on Facebook to listen to people who don’t know what they’re talking about.”The bizarre magnet reference is likely in relation to the unusual theory among alternative communities who fear the substance of the vaccine, with some even believing it will allow the recipient to connect to the internet.The theory originated because some mRNA vaccines, a new type of jab used to protect against infectious diseases, include a material called hydrogel, which is used to help disperse the vaccine slowly into the recipient’s cells.The fear of being a vessel to connect to Wi-Fi is, of course, nonsense and flatly rejected by the federal Health Department.“Bioengineers have used similar hydrogels for many years in different ways,” the health authority said earlier in the year. “For instance, they’ve used them to help stem cells survive after being put inside our bodies.“Because of this, some people believe that hydrogels are needed for electronic implants, which can connect to the internet.”But the Pfizer mRNA vaccine doesn’t even contain hydrogels as a component, instead using a piece of mRNA that is “coated in a lipid (fatty) droplet”.“The lipid helps the vaccine enter our cells, as the membrane holding our cells together is also made mostly of lipid,” the Department of Health said.“The vaccine and the membrane can fuse easily, depositing the mRNA inside the cell.”According to the Centre of Disease Control in the US, no ingredient in any Covid-19 vaccine is capable of producing electromagnetic force – at the injection site or anywhere else in your body.“COVID-19 vaccines do not contain ingredients that can produce an electromagnetic field at the site of your injection,” official advice states. “All COVID-19 vaccines are free from metals.”Morrison said he was ambitious the threshold for vaccinations would be reached by Christmas so the country can attempt to return to normalcy by 2022.“There’ll be enough vaccines,” he said in regards to 80 per cent of the population being vaccinated by the end of the year.“There’ll be enough pharmacies, enough GPs, enough clinics, enough of all of that to achieve that. “So it’s all up to all of us now.”SE QLD GOES INTO LOCKDOWN Brisbane has been plunged into a three-day lockdown which the Deputy Premier Steven Miles has said will be the “strictest” enforced on Queensland throughout the pandemic.From 4pm on Saturday, 11 Local Government Areas in southeast Queensland will be forced to stay home until Tuesday afternoon after six new local cases were reported.Health authorities declared the only four reasons any residents in those areas can leave home after the new infections from the mystery cluster were confirmed to have contracted the highly infectious Delta variant.Those few reasons to leave home include:Buy essentials such as grocery and medications Work if you can’t work from home. No school, except for those children of essential workersExercise within 10km from homeHealthcare, including to get a Covid-19 vaccination or to provide help, care or supportThe affected LGAs are Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan City, Moreton Bay, Redlands, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Somerset, Noosa, Lockyer Valley and Scenic Rim.There will be no visitors to homes in those LGAs, and non-essential businesses will be forced to close down.“Hospitality – pubs, clubs, cafes – will be restricted to takeaway only,” Mr Miles said.“Cinemas, entertainment venues, hairdressers, gyms, places of worship will all be closed.”The lockdown rules will apply to those who have been in the impacted LGAs from 1am on Saturday morning, Mr Miles said as he urged millions of Queenslanders to not wait until 4pm and “please go home” immediately.“So, even if you are no longer in those 11 LGAs, if you were at 1:00am this morning (or after), these restrictions apply no matter where you are now,” he said.“Grocery stores will stay open throughout the lockdown so please don’t think that you need to rush to get essential items. “You will be permitted to leave your homes for essential items. Please don’t rush our grocery stores — that creates a risk of infection that we want to avoid.”The 10km geographic restriction is a tougher layer to this lockdown compared to the many enforced on Queensland over the last 18-months, with health authorities increasingly anxious of a destructive outbreak similar to the current crisis in NSW.The announcement came as the state recorded six new locally acquired Covid-19 cases on Saturday, all linked to the 17-year-old who tested positive to the virus on Friday. Chief health officer Jeannette Young pleaded with those in the southeast to stay at home because she doesn’t “want people going out of their immediate area and then spreading the virus to a broader area”.“At the moment, I don’t know where this virus is in southeast Queensland,” she told reporters on Saturday.“It could be anywhere.”NED-3869-Covid-19-Exposure-Sites-QldNSW RECORDS WHOPPING 210 CASESNew South Wales recorded 210 new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 as of Saturday. It came as the state grapples with a rapidly accelerating outbreak after recording hundreds of new infections throughout the week.NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard told reporters that the majority of the new cases overnight were in southwest Sydney and western Sydney. “We had 81 cases acquired in southwestern Sydney and 72 cases acquired in western Sydney,” he said.“Again, the focus, unfortunately, has been in that area and I’d ask everybody in the local area to do what NSW Health has asked on many occasions and that is a stay-at-home. “Just stay-at-home unless you must go out, unless it is essential that you go out. Stay-at-home. Definitely do not go and visit another household. “I know you want to visit your aunts and uncles and cousins. We all do but unfortunately, that is continuing to be a very dangerous exercise and the virus is continuing to spread.”Mr Hazzard said the Delta strain was circulating among younger people in the community, with 138 of the new cases in people under the age of 40.There are 198 people in hospital, including 53 in intensive care and 27 requiring ventilation. “That tells us that is an extremely serious disease and people are ending up in our hospitals in substantial numbers,” Mr Hazzard said. Six people aged in their 20s are among those in intensive care. NSW also recorded two overseas acquired cases overnight.To 8pm last night, NSW had 105,000,963 tests conducted.On Friday, health authorities issued an alert for nearly 50 additional venues of concern despite the Sydney lockdown, as chemists and other essential business continue to be exposed to positive infections.Meantime, Victoria recorded two new locally acquired cases as of Saturday. Both are linked to existing clusters, however one case was not in quarantine for their infectious period. – with James Hall, Nadia Salemme, Amanda Sheppeard
Powered by WPeMatico
