The current cluster, which was first detected at Indooroopilly State High School last week, now stands at 47. All 16 new cases have been linked to the high school. Of the new cases, one case is a student from Indooroopilly State High School, two are students at Brisbane Girls Grammar, three cases are from Ironside State School, and five new cases are family contacts of previously confirmed cases. Dozens of new exposure sites were listed late on Monday, with health authorities urging all southeast Queensland residents to regularly check the list and get tested. Queensland came close to a record day of testing on Monday, with 34,718 swabs received. Currently 4089 Queenslanders are in home quarantine. PM’S VACCINE PUSH Scott Morrison will offer Australians non-cash incentives for the jab under the national cabinet’s four-phase reopening plan, it’s been revealed.Research commissioned by the federal government found cash payments and lotteries have had “little to no impact on longer-term vaccination rates”, according to The Australian.Based on the advice received by the government last week, the government is more likely to partner with businesses to give discounts and frequent flyer point bonuses.It comes as Labor leader Anthony Albanese put forward a plan to give every Australian fully vaccinated by December 1 a $300 cash payment to boost vaccination rates.Mr Albanese will unveil the $6bn plan on Tuesday. If an election is held before December 1, a new Labor government would deliver the payments, but Labor would not send out the cash if elected at the poll that is more likely to be held next year.“The government has failed on its two jobs this year, the rollout of the vaccine and fixing quarantine,” the Opposition Leader said.“It needs to use every measure at its disposal to protect Australians and our economy.”It comes as new modelling predicts daily cases in New South Wales will more than double by the end of the week.The Burnet Institute forecasts that under the current restrictions, there will be about 570 new cases in a single day by Friday.“This is the result of stable or falling daily cases in south west Sydney Local Health District (LHD) being exceeded by rising cases elsewhere,” the research concludes.“It takes about a week before new controls have an effect, so we don’t expect new restrictions announced on 30 July to kick in until at least 7 August.”FOUR NEW CASES IN VICVictoria has recorded four new locally acquired Covid-19 infections on Tuesday.The state’s health department announced the new local cases about 8.30am, and said both were linked to existing outbreaks.In another positive sign as Victoria emerges from its fifth lockdown, the health department said all new cases were in isolation for their entire infectious period.Just 3750 of more than 20,000 primary close contacts from the state’s latest outbreak remain in isolation as hundreds are freed back into the community each day.The health department said about 1300 people were cleared as primary close contacts on Monday as the number of exposure sites also continues to dwindle, and had fallen to 56 on Tuesday morning.No new exposure sites have been added since Saturday.It comes as chief health officer Brett Sutton tweaked the coronavirus restrictions.From 11.59pm on Tuesday, group limits will be removed from food and drink facilities, physical recreation and sport, including gym classes, and from tours and tour transport.An overall venue cap of 100 people and density limits will continue to apply to food and drink facilities, with a cap of 25 and no density limit for those that are less than 100sq m.Limits of 100 people per indoor space and 300 per outdoor space will continue to apply to physical recreation facilities, as will density requirements.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.One new case was also recorded in hotel quarantine, with the number for active infections in the state falling to 124 – down from 134 on Monday.HALF-PRICE PLANE SEATS EXTENDEDThe federal government has thrown a lifeline to the aviation sector as it struggles with the impact of worsening lockdowns, with the popular half-price fares initiative extended until the end of November.The government will also enable airlines to access $750 weekly payments for 50 per cent of their pilots and cabin attendants, if the business has taken a hit of more than 30 per cent since the Sydney hotspot declaration was made.The Domestic Aviation Network Support (DANS) and Regional Airline Network Support (RANS) programs would also be extended until the end of the year, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce announced.The half price seats initiative, which prompted a huge flurry of sales when it was announced in March, was being extended “to ensure travellers impacted by lockdowns or border closures can access these tickets and benefit key tourism regions as soon as possible,” Mr Joyce said.Initially 800,000 half-price seats were offered to 15 destinations most impacted by the downturn in tourism.Mr Joyce, who is also Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, described the aviation sector as “absolutely seminal,” especially for the tourism industry.“This is a crucial sector of the economy,” he said.“It is crucial to keep a sovereign airline capacity, crucial that as soon as the economy opens up, this sector of the economy is up and running and able to deliver.”“We are laser-focused on keeping the nation connected and supporting economically critical freight movements as we continue to manage the ongoing challenges of this global pandemic and move into a recovery phase.”A spokesperson for Mr Joyce confirmed that while the half-price seats program was being extended, it was not an increase on the initial allocation of 800,000 seats, and the 15 destinations within the program were not being changed.Tourism and Transport Forum CEO Margy Osmond welcomed the extended support measures, but said the tourism industry’s biggest challenges were the “devastating impacts of ongoing lockdowns and border uncertainty”.She also called for timelines to be set against national vaccination targets, saying they would restore confidence to the industry. Parts of the industry dependent on international arrivals had “effectively been in lockdown for 16 months,” Ms Osmond said, and the domestic sector “continues to be decimated by these extended lockdowns and border restrictions.”PFIZER OPEN TO TEENSHealth Minister Greg Hunt has announced more PPE will be sent to southeast Queensland after it was declared a Commonwealth hotspot, and the Pfizer vaccine will be made available to children aged between 12 and 15 who are immunocompromised.This change in the vaccine rollout will occur on August 9. “ … for 12-year-olds to 15-year-olds, as foreshadowed just over a week ago, the Pfizer vaccine will now be made available on ATAGI’s advice for immunocompromised children, or children with underlying medical conditions, indigenous children, and children in remote communities aged 12-15,” he said.“Although, if any GP wishes to administer before then, then it is free for them, or states, to do so. “But that’s the commencement of that program. They will be included under phase 1B, which means that they will have access as part of that program going forward. It includes approximately 220,000 children who will be given access now as a consequence of that decision.”Mr Hunt said this last week saw a record vaccination week with 1.18 million Australians coming forward, taking us to almost 12.4 million vaccinations.NSW RECORDS 207 Covid CASES AS MAN DIESAnother 207 new cases of Covid-19 have been diagnosed in NSW, including at least 50 who were in the community for their entire infectious period.The state has also recorded another death with a man in his 90s dying from Covid at Liverpool hospital. He had received one does of the AstraZeneca vaccine in April. This is the 15th death linked to the current outbreak.NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said more than 107,000 people were tested in the latest 24-hour reporting period but has concerns over two key areas of transmission.“The main form of transmission remains workplaces and also households,” she said, speaking to the media on Monday.“That is being consistent and that is what we are trying to break the back of moving forward.”The premier also reiterated a previous warning about young people being impacted with many forced to seek hospital care.“Unlike the flu, with Covid, it’s people in their 20s, 30s and 40s that are most mobile,” she said.Of the new cases, only 89 were confirmed to be in isolation for their entire infectious period.Sydney’s southwest and western suburbs remain areas of serious concern as the virus continues to spread through households.Eighty-three of today’s cases were from the southwest, 53 were from the west, 48 from inner Sydney, 17 are from the southwest and six from northern Sydney. The new figures come as about 300 army personnel join police to help crackdown on those breaking strict lockdown measures.NSW Covid Exposure SitesNED-4088-NSW-Locally-acquired-Covid-19-graphQLD LOCKDOWN EXTENDED Queensland has recorded 13 new locally acquired Covid-19 cases on Monday, on the second day of the southeast corner’s snap lockdown. 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-3869-Covid-19-Exposure-Sites-QldNED-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.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.”NED-4196-QLD-Restrictions-liftingNED-4109-Qld-restrictionsHANSON 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.”– with James Hall, Nadia Salemme, Amanda Sheppeard, Anthony Piovesan, Jack Paynter, Shoba Rao
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