It came as 415 new cases of Covid were announced in NSW on Sunday and four more deaths were recorded in the state.Mr Morrison said Australia would receive one million extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine from Poland, targeted at those aged 20 to 39.He said the vaccines were arriving “later tonight” and throughout the week. “In days, these jabs will start going into the arms of Australians,” Mr Morrison said at a press conference in Canberra on Sunday. Mr Morrison said the new one million Pfizer doses will be targeted at Australians aged 20 to 39 years of age as they were identified in the Doherty modelling as peak transmitters for Covid-19. The PM said some of the new Pfizer doses will be prioritised for “express delivery” to the 12 local government areas in NSW where the outbreak continues to grow.“This allocation is based directly on the advice I received from the chief medical officer, Professor Kelly, his advice is based on the Doherty modelling and other work they have done about the transmissibility of the virus in those most affected areas and how they can be addressed through these additional doses,” Mr Morrison said.“This will give everybody aged 20 to 39 in the 12 LGAs the opportunity to be vaccinated. “The doses will be administered to the New South Wales government system, and they will be arriving late tonight, and the process of delivery will be conducted over the course of next week.”’NO NEED TO BE OUT FOR HOURS’Mr Morrison directly addressed the lockdown in NSW, urging residents not to socialise outside bluntly saying “do not do it”.“My plea to fellow Sydneysiders is to stay at home. Stay at home. Only leave any absolute you have to,” the Prime Minister said. “There is no need to be out for hours and hours per day. I know the rules provide for it, but please do not do it,” he added.“We have been seeing the case numbers rise in Sydney and in New South Wales each day, and that is totally concerning.“I need you to stay at home, and you needed more vaccines from us. More vaccines are underway, they will be that next week. So I need Sydneysiders to stay home.”Mr Morrison insisted the lockdown was the key to containing NSW’s Covid crisis. “Lockdown has to work. It must work and is why I implore people across Sydney, stay at home,” Mr Morrison said.“Don’t get down to the beach for hours or meet up with others walking in pairs apart and catching up anyway.“We all know what we’re talking about. Don’t do it. Please don’t do it. It is up to all of us … to make this lockdown work.”VICTORIA The state recorded 25 locally acquired cases of coronavirus on Sunday, with four new mystery cases emerging.“Of the 25 locally acquired cases, 21 are linked to known outbreaks and 12 have been in isolation throughout their infectious period,” Victorian Department of Health officials said.Contact tracers are scrambling to find links between a cluster of mystery cases where infections across the City of Melbourne, Glenroy, Melton South, Middle Park, Newport, West Footscray, West Brunswick and Wyndham Vale were yet to be identified.Melbourne’s lockdown will be extended by yet another week unless the number of mystery cases decreases.Lockdown rules are in force until 11.59pm on Thursday. ‘EXTREMELY CONCERNED’NSW recorded 466 infections on Saturday leaving the entire state in lockdown and strict new limits for exercise, travel and real estate.Premier Gladys Berejiklian gave powers to police to launch “Operation Stay At Home” which starts on Sunday.It is understood the lockdown will last for seven days and apply to all regional areas across the state.“Reasonable excuses to leave your home include shopping for essentials, medical care, caregiving, outdoor exercise with a member of your household or one other person, and work, if you cannot work from home,” NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro confirmed in a statement. Ms Berejiklian called the Covid infection surge “staggering”, describing it as the most concerning day of the pandemic so far. She said she was “extremely concerned” with how the virus is trending. Of the total, 121 were linked to a known case or cluster while there was no known source for the remaining 345 cases. 68 people had been in the community while infectious. “The nature of Delta is something we haven’t seen before and is spreading in a way we haven’t seen before,” Ms Berejiklian said. “If we want to stop the spread, we need to get vaccinated. Vaccination is key. Don‘t wait.”The premier also announced four deaths on Saturday, including a woman in her 40s, a man and woman in their 70s, and a man in his 80s.It brings the total number of Covid-related deaths related to the current outbreak to 43. NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Willing warned “some of the strongest laws, some of the strongest police action coming. I am not apologetic.”“While the vast majority of people are doing the right thing, too many are not and that will have devastating consequences because the Delta variant leaves no room for error.“We are doing everything we can to reduce your stress but we are also asking you more than ever before to protect yourself and your loved ones. “These high rates of cases day-on-day in the last week have demonstrated that the virus is circulating in higher numbers than we have ever seen in Australia before.”NSW Covid Exposure SitesGreater Sydney residents and those in other lockdown areas will now only be able to travel 5km for shopping and exercise.Fines for breaching public health orders, including lying to contact tracers, will be raised from $1000 to $5000. A $3000 on the spot fine will be issued to people who breach the two person exercise rule. A permit will be required for anyone leaving Greater Sydney to enter regional NSW and it will be active from Friday August 20 next week and in general will allow only one person to travel for what is deemed essential business.Exemptions will be granted for those leaving to visit holiday homes for urgent repairs, but only one person will be permitted to go. People in singles bubbles in the 12 “areas of concern” within Sydney’s west and southwest must register their bubble, and those involved must live within five kilometres of each other.The areas of concern are the councils of Bayside, Blacktown, Burwood, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool, Parramatta, Strathfield, and parts of Penrith.NED-3760-NSW’s new Covid restrictionsPeople in those areas are also now not allowed to leave the house for recreation – they must be exercising or supervising children.From Monday, there will be enhanced random checkpoints at key roads. Ms Berejiklian said members of the riot squad and highway patrol would be deployed to key local government areas. An additional 500 Australian Defence Force members will hit the ground in Sydney, after NSW Police requested additional support. A total of 1400 men and women involved in the New South Wales Highway Patrol will be dedicated to COVID-19 compliance duties on the road.NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Willing said the permit system was “essential in terms of protecting” regional New South Wales.See how far you can travel in NSW now under the lockdown:Lockdown Distance Map“You would have seen roadblocks both south and north over the last couple of days and across greater Sydney and into regional New South Wales … Expect to see more roadblocks”.A stay at home payment of $320 will be brought in for residents of hotspot areas who are asked to isolate while waiting for Covid test results, similar to a $450 payment available in Victoria. Currently, 378 cases are admitted in hospital, with 64 of them in intensive care; 29 of whom require ventilation.There were also about 130,000 tests conducted yesterday. On Friday, the state recorded what was its highest ever daily number of locally acquired cases, reporting 390 infections and two deaths.Despite the stay at home orders for Greater Sydney, the virus has spread to regional areas of the state. It was also announced yesterday that there were fears for the Dubbo community after eight new infections were recorded as well as two in Walgett.VIC LOCKDOWN ‘TO BE EXTENDED’Lockdown is almost certain to be extended in Melbourne and restrictions are likely to remain in place into September.On Saturday, there were eight mystery virus cases, leaving health officials “very concerned”. Victoria recorded 21 locally acquired cases with all cases linked to recent outbreaks. 11 were in quarantine during their entire infectious periods.“We are very concerned about what we’re seeing across Melbourne,” Victoria’s coronavirus Response Deputy Secretary Kate Matson said. Health Minister Martin Foley announced more drive-through vaccination hubs would be opened in the city’s north, west and southeast. “We will be establishing more drive-through sites, particularly in the north, in the Wyndham area, in Melbourne’s southeast,” Mr Foley said. “While we’ve been averaging more than 40,000 tests per week, we really do need to get that 33,000 number back up to that 40,000 number to help us track down those chains of transmission,” Mr Foley said. There were 15 local cases recorded on Friday and zero infections from international arrivals. NED-3869-Covid-19-Exposure-Sites-VictoriaCHILD AMONG QLD’S CASESA one-year-old child is one of six new locally acquired Covid-19 cases recorded in Queensland.There was also one infection reported in returned travellers on Saturday. It brings the state’s total number of active cases to 165 — up from 158.Health Minister Yvette D’Ath confirmed all six local cases were linked to the state’s Indooroopilly cluster — now at 143 cases — and none of them have been infectious while in the community.She thanked those Queenslanders for staying at home. Deputy chief health officer Dr James Smith said the one-year-old was a sibling of a child already infected and was in hospital with the virus in a stable condition. The remaining five cases were adults linked to either the Brisbane Boys‘ Grammar School or the Ironside State School. “The numbers are looking very reassuring,” Dr Smith said. There are currently 8514 people completing required quarantine.The case that presented from hotel quarantine was a four-year-old child who arrived from Cambodia. Chief health officer Jeannette Young on Friday warned more outbreaks were inevitable after seven local cases were identified.“I can’t say if they’ll come out of NSW, if they’ll come out of our international borders, or if they’ll come from the cases they’ve clearly got in the ACT,” she said. “They could come from anywhere.“We will see more cases in our community so we need to be prepared for that.”All of the seven cases were linked to the state’s Delta cluster; one connected to the Japanese language class at St Aidan’s Anglican Girls School while the others were connected to Ironside State School and Brisbane Grammar School.NED-3869-Covid-19-Exposure-Sites-QldVACCINATION iS ‘ESCALATING’Scott Morrison says he is encouraged by how much Australia’s vaccination program is gathering pace.Speaking after national cabinet on Friday, the prime minister said one in four eligible Australians are fully vaccinated compared to just 11.6 per cent one month ago.“What is encouraging is that the vaccination program is continuing to escalate. It is continuing to get higher and higher marks every day and I think that gives all Australians great hope about the path ahead,” Mr Morrison said.In Tasmania and the ACT, first dose vaccinations have gone above 50 per cent; NSW is at more than 50 per cent and other states are expected to achieve the same rate.In Victoria, vaccinations are just shy of 25 per cent on second dose vaccinations. “For the national plan for us to move to 70 per cent, the whole country needs to get to about the 70 per cent mark. And then each and every state needs to move into that. As you can see, Tasmania is really leading the charge. They are now at 52.5 per cent on their first vaccines and they are over 30 per cent now in Tasmania in double dose full vaccinations in that state.”On Thursday, there were more than 270,000 vaccinations in Australia, the “equivalent in per capita terms to the fourth best day they had in the UK ever,” the prime minister said.“So the vaccination rates now being achieved under operation Covid Shield right across the country is now hitting those world-class marks that is necessary to get Australia where we want to get to. One million doses in just four days. That is an extraordinary effort Australians,” he said.Australia is just shy of 15 million of doses delivered around Australia.NED-4292-Percentage-of-eligible-population-fully-vaccinated-by-stateMr Morrison mentioned the work Victoria, Tasmania and NT are doing on vaccine passports but said no decision had been made on whether to use them.“It is looking at the exemption arrangements for vaccinated persons in Australia. This is done on the basis of public health knowledge that if you are vaccinated you present less of a public risk to yourself and to others around you, your work colleagues, your community and so if people present less of a health risk, then it only stands to reason that you would have different arrangements,” he said.“We are continuing to work through that. No decisions on that yet. As you know, they will take place when we reach those 70 per cent marks and we are making great progress towards that but that work will continue to be done, including the tools that will be necessary to support those arrangements by states and territories.”Mr Morrison said $2.256b has been paid out in Covid disaster payments for people in lockdowns.Of these $1b in NSW to 762,879 people; $260m in Victoria to 252,843 people; $98.7m to Queenslanders, and $45m in SA to 80,669 people.National cabinet discussed mandating vaccination in some businesses but not at large, he said.“If a business feels that they think they need to do it to protect themselves, potentially about an employee who might bring an action against them if they were to become ill, then I am saying that that would happen because a state workplace health and safety law might provide for that. What I have advised the stated territories today is through the workplace health and safety regulators they can take action to prevent that situation,” he said.He later added: “We’re not running a mandatory vaccination program. We are not running one. In specific cases we may seek to do that for public-health reasons but otherwise, that is just not how we do things in Australia.”Vaccine LocatorHe also signalled there will not be a requirement for teachers to be vaccinated.“I would hope that teachers of course are going to get vaccinated,” he said.Australia’s chief health officer Paul Kelly repeated the PM’s sentiment that Australia “is clearly in the middle of its third wave”, following the initial spread and Victoria’s outbreak last year.“This is clearly our third wave in Australia,” Mr Kelly said.“The first wave you would remember right back in the beginning of the pandemic was mostly related to people coming from overseas … and some local cases. “Almost exactly at this time last year we were faced with a terrible situation in Victoria and that wave, which was mostly locally acquired cases in Melbourne. “Now we’re in this wave which is not entirely, but mostly, in New South Wales. “In fact, we have active outbreaks at the moment in four of our eight jurisdictions.”Queensland’s outbreak is now “definitely under control”, while the Victorian outbreak is “coming under control”, he said.In NSW case numbers are still quite high, but the high number of vulnerable people who are vaccinated has saved us from the “terrible death rate” we saw last year.“Because of the success rate of vaccination, the terrible death rate has not been replicated this year, in terms of deaths,” he said.“That is mostly because our oldest population, including those in age get are largely protected by vaccination so a very important point.”Australia’s Covid-19 Task-force Commander Lieutenant General John Frewen agreed the “numbers in the rollout are very encouraging”.“The real sense of momentum is clear,” he added. “The Prime Minister has mentioned we are closing on almost 50 per cent of the nation having received their first dose now, and one in four Australians are now fully vaccination. A million doses delivered in four days.”Gen Frewen thanked the GPs, pharmacists, state hubs and clinics and Aboriginal health services for their work in carrying out the rollout.He also thanked Australians that were getting the jab.“Recent surveys indicate to us that 79 per cent of Australians are prepared to get vaccinated and another 14 per cent are still deciding whether they will,” he said.“So those are also really encouraging numbers and I want to thank all of those Australians who have already come forward and encourage everyone who hasn’t done so to get a booking in and to get that first jab done.”MANDATORY JAB POWERS Australia’s workplace regulator has paved the way for employers to require mandatory vaccinations of workers against Covid-19 where businesses are running in lockdown hot spots.However, in an expected legal guidance on the vaccination regimen, released on Thursday night, the Fair Work Ombudsman cautioned employers might not have the power to require mandatory vaccination where there had not been a Covid-19 transmission for a while, according to a report in The Australian.The ombudsman said that employers could advise employees to be vaccinated if the direction was lawful and reasonable, but whether a direction was lawful and reasonable would be “fact-dependent” and needed to be looked at on a case-by-case basis.The advice will disappoint business groups, which have been pushing for legal certainty around the mandatory vaccinations of workers. Scott Morrison suggested last week that the federal government would not be legislating to aid mandatory vaccinations, saying employers would have to be ready to defend their actions in court.The Fair Work Ombudsman’s advice was released as NSW recorded 345 new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 and two deaths.NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian tightened lockdown restrictions in the local government districts of Burwood, Strathfield and Bayside as infections spread into the these areas.Canberra was also put into a snap seven-day lockdown on Thursday when a Covid case was discovered.The Fair Work Ombudsman’s updated guidance came as the push to vaccinate 70 per cent of eligible Australians passed the halfway point, with 14.48 million doses now given.National cabinet has set 70 per cent as the threshold for the initial easing of Covid restrictions.Based on the current rollout trajectory, the 70 per cent threshold of having 14.43 million Australians aged 16 and over fully vaccinated should be reached during October.– with additional reporting by James Hall and Emily Cosenza
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