It’s a slight decrease from two consecutive days of 246 daily cases on Monday and Tuesday.Of the 221 cases reported on Wednesday, only 98 were linked to known cases and outbreaks, with the remainder under investigation.It brings the total number of active cases across the state to 1920.A total of 42,419 Victorians got tested in the past 24 hours and more than 36,700 vaccine doses were administered.It comes as Premier Daniel Andrews demanded 340,000 more vaccine doses from the federal government, saying there needs to be a “reckoning”.Mr Andrews fired up after learning New South Wales received doses that were initially allocated to Victoria, which in turn would bring the state closer to ending lockdowns.“Something like 340,000 doses that haven’t come to Victoria that ought to have,” he said on Tuesday.“We have seen hundreds of thousands of vaccines that should have come and should now be in the arms of Victorians going into Sydney into GP practices and into New South Wales.”About 61.59 per cent of Victorians have received the first dose of the vaccine.State officials have flagged Covid-19 restrictions could ease once that figure reaches 70 per cent, which could be as soon as September 19.Regional Victoria is set to come out of lockdown first, with the Premier flagging that could happen this week.But Mr Andrews said no concrete decision had been made, with meetings set to continue over until a final call was made.Health Minister Martin Foley said the path out of lockdown would not be a “snapback” to the freedoms the state experienced in April or May.“The regions may continue to be at risk, as we have seen with a combination of importing the virus particularly from NSW and making sure that the metropolitan Melbourne leaks don’t get into our regions,” he said.NED-3869-Covid-19-Exposure-Sites-VictoriaQUEENSLAND SAYS MORRISON ‘PLAYING GAMES’Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath says she they were kept in the dark about being able to order an additonal 60,000 vaccines.Ms D’Ath says they have ordered all the vaccines they believed were apportioned to Queensland and did not know there was tens of thousands on offer sitting idle.“We werent told there 60,000 available to us to order,” Ms D’Ath said.“So this is the game being played right now.“So to find out there were 60,000 available for us to order. We’ll take them and hoping that they arrive tomorrow.”She said the Morrison Government needs to stop playing games.“I’m a bit tired of the rhetoric … if there’s a vaccine give it to the states,” she said. The news of more vaccines being available comes as Queensland recorded zero new Covid cases, allaying fears from several recent scares, including an infected truck driver that led to a four-year-old contracting the virus,Ms D’Ath said more than 13,000 tests were conducted overnight and because all close contacts were in quarantine, all visiting rights for local hospitals and aged-care facilities in Logan have been lifted.She said there had been more than 23,000 vaccinations with 53.76 per cent of Queenslanders receiving their first dose and 35 per cent having had two doses.HUNT HITS BACK AT ANDREWS OVER VACCINE STOUSHHealth Minister Greg Hunt has claimed that the federal government has prioritised vaccines for areas with outbreaks “to save lives”, after Daniel Andrews lashed reports that NSW has received additional supplies at the expense of other states.It comes as Mr Andrews suggested that a “reckoning” should follow, according to a report in The Australian. NSW has recorded 1220 new cases and eight deaths. Victoria has recorded 246 new Covid-19 cases, with just 90 linked.Mr Andrews joined West Australian Premier Mark McGowan in calling for greater transparency, arguing there had been “secret allocations” to NSW.Mr Hunt dismissed the criticism, saying Victoria had received a higher per capita vaccine allocation than NSW and that “some people are looking for a fight”.“The critical thing here is to save lives and protect lives,” Mr Hunt said. “It would be almost unimaginable not to be providing the support … to those most in need at their time of greatest need.”“As we have had outbreaks, we have prioritised those areas to save lives. In particular, we started with prioritising Victoria when there was a Victorian outbreak.”Mr Hunt said an “abundance of doses” of the Pfizer vaccine were arriving, thanks to swap deals with Singapore and the UK totalling 4.5 million doses.National – 2021 – Covid Vaccination StatsMeanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has accused Bill Shorten of launching a “cheap shot” against him for his recent weekend trip home to Sydney to see his children for Father’s Day. Mr Morrison said Mr Shorten “knows the Prime Minister needs to go backwards and forwards” from Canberra to Sydney for work. The Prime Minister claimed there had been misinformation about his trip, saying all members of parliament have gone back and forth from Canberra to their homes. He said he did not need an exemption to go to Sydney, and he did not request any special treament to bring his family to Canberra.“I understand people’s frustrations, but there’s misniformation,” he said yesterday.“The exemption I require is to go to the ACT to have various meetings.” The comments come after fury erupted after it was revealed by news.com.au on Monday that the ACT government had granted Mr Morrison an exemption to return to Canberra from Sydney. Mr Morrison flew on a taxpayer-funded VIP flight to Sydney on Friday and returned to the capital on Monday morning. It’s understood Mr Morrison is planning to relocate to Sydney for the foreseeable future now that parliament is in recess but was needed back in Canberra for a meeting that could not be held elsewhere. The move has been brandished tasteless while thousands of Australian families remain separated amid strict lockdowns in Victoria, NSW and the ACT. Speaking on the Today show on Tuesday, Labor’s Bill Shorten said it was inexcusable that there was one set of rules for Mr Morrison and another for everyone else. “I think Mr Morrison has exercised poor judgment in this case, I was a bit surprised when I read he had done this to be honest,” Mr Shorten said. “It’s not that he doesn’t deserve to see his kids, but so does every other Australian. And I think when your people are doing it tough, you’ve got to do it tough too. “You can’t have one rule for Mr Morrison and another rule for everyone else. I just think it’s appalling judgment.”NSW HAS 1220 CASES; 8 DEATHSNSW has recorded 1220 new Covid cases and eight deaths on Tuesday from more than 100,000 tests undertaken.There are 192 cases in ICU, 75 of whom require ventilation. NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said the eight deaths include the death of a woman in her 70s which was announced Monday. She was not vaccinated. She had underlying health conditions. “There was a gentleman in his 90s from south-eastern Sydney died at St George hospital, he was not vaccinated and had underlying health conditions. “A man in his 50s from Nepean Blue Mountains, he was not vaccinated,” she said. “A gentleman in his 90s from south-western Sydney died at Campbelltown Hospital and he was a resident of the advantage aged care facility at Prestons Lodge and he had acquired his infection there. He was fully vaccinated. “He had significant underlying conditions. “And there was a woman in her 70s from south-western Sydney died at Nepean hospital, and she was not vaccinated. “Again, she had significant underlying health conditions. “A man in his 70s from south-western Sydney died at Liverpool Hospital and he was also not vaccinated. He had significant underlying health conditions. “A man in his 80s from Western Sydney died at Westmead Hospital and he was not vaccinated. He also had underlying health conditions. “And a man in his 60s from Nepean Blue Mountains died at home and he had one dose of the COVID vaccine. He had underlying conditions and the coroner is looking at the circumstances around that death.”Of the 1,220 new cases reported to 8pm last night, 422 were from western Sydney, 392 were from southwest Sydney, 128 were from Sydney, 89 were from southeast Sydney, 74 were from Nepean Blue Mountains, 27 were from western NSW and 20 were from northern Sydney.But it is the 22 new cases on the Central Coast which have Dr Chant worried.“I want to call out the Central Coast; we’re seeing the number of cases increase on the Central Coast, so please come out and get tested,” she said.Deputy Premier John Barilaro echoed her pleas.“The Central Coast has seen a spike of 22 cases and we’re calling out on that community to be vigilant, to get tested, and make sure we continue to see vaccination rates go up he said.NSW Health administered 28,812 COVID-19 vaccines overnight, bringing the total number of vaccine doses given to 7,587,842.It comes as health officials are bracing for a surge in Covid-19 hospitalisations that is expected to occur in the first half of October.NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she received modelling late last week that showed pressure on intensive care units would peak by “early to mid-October”.She said the current number of Covid-19 patients in ICU was 177 and that the number of people in intensive care without Covid-19 was usually about 400.But surge modelling released on Monday predicts up to 560 admissions from Covid alone by November.The state has capacity to treat a total of 1150 ICU patients at the same time.“So just to give people that reassurance, we certainly don’t want to have to use all those beds and staff, because we know what pressure that would put on the system,” Ms Berejiklian said.“But I want everybody to be reassured that the capacity is there.”NSW Covid Exposure Sites
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