The continued rise in cases in Victoria comes on top of the 208 cases recorded on Friday, as a harsh sixth lockdown continues.Premier Daniel Andrews said earlier this week “we will not see these numbers go down and revealed on Friday that those vaccinated will be given additional freedoms once the double jab rated in the garden state reaches 70 to 80 per cent.Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the deal offered hope and he owed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson “a beer” for the deal between “mates”.“On a difficult day like this, it’s important to bring hope. And I can assure you, there is hope. There are 4 million reasons to be hopeful today. Because the government has been able to secure, with the government of the United Kingdom, a Pfizer swap deal which will see four million doses of Pfizer come to Australia this month.”“This means from Downing Street to down under, we are doubling down on what the Pfizer doses are here in Australia this month. This will enable us to bring forward significantly the opportunity for Australia to open up again under the national plan. The bring forward of these doses I think should be a great cause for hope right around the country.’He said the doses will be distributed across the states and territories on a per capita basis.The first batch of 4 million Pfizer doses Australia has secured from the UK will depart from London on a Qantas freight flight tomorrow.Qantas is scheduled to fly two planes out of the UK on Saturday – one a repatriation flight and one for freight, including the Pfizer doses.The national carrier will also transport the remaining Pfizer doses Australia has secured from the UK under a vaccine swap deal.“There’s been some very late-night discussions and negotiations and legal work taking place, especially over the course of the past week, to bring this to conclusion, but it has been a real commitment to Australia from Prime Minister Johnson,” Mr Morrison said. He also said the deal would speed up the rate of the vaccine rollout nationwide, but would not set a date on when he now expected 70 per cent of the population to be double dosed.“Initial estimates had not seen us doing it until late in this year. Obviously, I think we will get to it a lot closer than that,” he said.“This will enable us to bring forward significantly the opportunity for Australia to open up again under the national plan.”The PM said it was still crucial for eligible Australians to keep getting jabbed with both Pfizer and AstraZeneca. “We will only get there if people get going and get vaccinated … we cannot take off any sense of urgency to keep pressing towards that,” he said.“If you are booked for AstraZeneca today, go and get it … whether it is Pfizer or AstraZeneca.National – 2021 – Covid Vaccination StatsONE NEW CASE IN QLDA new case of coronavirus has been confirmed in southeast Queensland.A four-year-old girl tested positive to the virus on Friday, the state’s health officials said.The girl attended childcare in Mt Warren Park in Logan on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.Queensland Health says more information on the case will be available on Saturday.Children, staff and visitors to the Boulevard Early Learning Centre should immediately come forward and get tested, then quarantine at home with their household members for 14 days regardless of a negative result.The childcare centre is also used for after school care by children who attend Windaroo State School.All students, staff and visitors who attended Windaroo State School from Tuesday, August 31 to Friday, September 3 and their household members should quarantine for 14 days.DEADLIEST DAY FOR NSWNSW has recorded another 1431 new Covid-19 cases and 12 deaths – but the worst is yet to come, warned NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.But there was some signs of hope, with Ms Berejiklian revealing at least 120,000 more people got vaccinated in the last 24 hours.One of the deaths was a woman in her 30s, who died at her home.“The next fortnight is likely to be our worst in terms of the number of cases, but as I have said it is not the number of cases we need to be focusing on, but how many of those cases and up in our intensive care wards and hospitals and how many people we have vaccinated,’ she said. There were 979 people in NSW hospitals battling Covid-19, 160 in ICU and 63 patients on ventilators.Ms Berejiklian said modelling about how NSW’s hospitals would cope will be released next week; she believed October would be the worst month for hospitalisations.“I want to make very clear that every day there are models that are presented from within the experts we have a New South Wales but also externally from non-government organisations. And nobody is going to get the exact figure right, no-one is going to get the exact day right, but I have been very open with the information I have, and the best information I have is at the worst number of cases is likely to occur in the next fortnight because after that time the number of vaccinations were put into the community especially in those Local Government Area of concern will start to have an effect.”“We have to appreciate that when you have the vast majority of you adult population vaccinated, the way you do things automatically changes because the case numbers will be up, will be higher, but the rate of hospitalisation will be much lower and it means you focus your attention on different parts of the system. You focus on keeping people out of hospital. Therefore the way you do things changes. Obviously, if you are a fully vaccinated Australian coming back home, there is no reason why when the vast majority of us are vaccinated in the community, there is no reason why you cannot home quarantining, why we can’t do things differently.”The Premier said the current situation was not sustainable.“We can’t be in lockdown forever, we can’t have the number of people dedicated to the hotel quarantine system in that way forever. So things are shifting in a good way because we can see what life looks like when we’re living with Delta. It is not the way we are living now.”NSW Covid Exposure SitesMORE MYSTERY CASES IN VICTORIA Victoria has recorded 208 new locally acquired Covid-19 cases on Friday as the state’s outbreak continues to spiral out of control despite a sixth lockdown.The health department confirmed one person had also died from the virus overnight, taking the state’s total lives lost since the start of the pandemic to 823.Victoria’s new daily infections have soared above 200 for the first time since August 22, 2020 – 366 days ago during Victoria’s deadly second wave.The health department confirmed the new local Covid-19 cases about 8.30am, with another with another 102 new mystery infections announced within the cases.It revealed only 96 of the new cases could be linked to existing outbreaks and not say how many cases were in isolation during their infectious period.Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has flagged a number of measures that will allow schools to reopen for onsite learning in term four.The progress to reopen schools across the state will no doubt be a relief to thousands of parents due to the strain of remote learning and social isolation suffered by many children during the various lockdowns.Mr Andrews said he could not provide a definitive set of dates when schools would reopen, but the government was putting the “finishing touches” on a plan of what school looks like for term four.He said the road map to reopen schools would be part of the measures undertaken when the state reaches certain vaccination targets.The Premier said installing ventilators in classrooms with poor air flow and more outdoor learning spaces would be part of the solution in getting kids back to school.“The way in which you ventilate schools, the way in which airflow works in school spaces, is incredibly important in terms of containing and hopefully limiting the number of infections in a school-based environment,” Mr Andrews said.“Ventilation assessments using literally thousands and thousands of CO2 monitors is going to be underway very soon so that we can test which rooms have sufficient air flow and which don’t.Mr Andrews said some form of restrictions would need to remain in place in Victoria until the state reached the national threshold of 70 and 80 per cent of the population double dosed vaccinated.The Premier said authorities would work on “some pilots to get it right” but could allow for fully vaccinated Victorians to be able to move freely in outdoor venues as the state nears its 70 per cent target, reported The Herald Sun.“We will have a situation where the economy is operating for the vaccinated, not everywhere and not at full capacity, but some outdoor drinking and dining, things like that will be absolutely possible and the preference will be it may only be for those who are double dosed vaccinated,” Mr Andrews said.There are now 1180 active cases across the state, up from 1029 on Thursday, with more than 13,800 people in isolation across the state.Deputy chief health officer Ben Cowie said 192 of the 1029 active cases on Thursday were aged nine and under, 157 were aged between 10 and 19, and 243 were aged in their 20s.One new case were recorded in hotel quarantine on Friday.NED-3869-Covid-19-Exposure-Sites-VictoriaQUEENSLAND BORDER CHANGEQueensland has recorded no new locally acquired Covid-19 cases as hundreds of quarantine rooms are made available and a family that sneaked back from Victoria returns negative tests.Premier Annastacia Palaszcuk said 680 hotel quarantine rooms would be available from Monday after she abruptly shut-out all arrivals to Queensland on August 25.“I’ve just been advised by Queenlsand Health and Queensland police that from Monday we will make available 680 rooms.” she said.She also urged Queensland residents to get vaccinated a in a calm-before-storm styled messaging following a “double doughnut” day.“This is our window of opportunity to go and get vaccinated before we see another issue arise here,” Ms Palszczul said. “It‘s really important that Queenslanders go and get vaccinated.”The call to arms for Covid jabs comes after a tense stand-off between authorities and the Gold Coast family of five, with three children all aged under 10.The family had refused to be tested, forcing an entire school into isolation, until agreeing to be swabbed late on Thursday.Queensland Health has announced the tests returned negative.However, concerns remain for a number of exposure sites following two separate truck drivers visiting a number venues while infectious.Overall there are 18 active cases, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said on Friday. NED-3869-Covid-19-Exposure-Sites-QldCovid CASE SURGE PLANPrivate hospitals would be used to bolster state and territory health systems to help them deal with high Covid-19 case numbers when lockdowns end and restrictions ease under the national reopening plan, according to a report prepared for national cabinet.Health Department Secretary Dr Brendan Murphy and counterparts across the country will on Friday address the concerns of governments about health workers being furloughed during outbreaks and strains on public hospitals, The Australian reports.National cabinet leaders will be told state and territory public health networks can cope with higher caseloads with the assistance of private hospitals, which would add another 30,000 beds and 57,000 nurses.PFIZER BOOST: WHERE THE 500K DOSES ARE GOINGThe latest shipment of 500,000 Pfizer doses have touched down in Sydney as part of a vaccine swap deal made between Australia and Singapore, announced by the Prime Minister on Tuesday.The half a million extra doses are set to expire soon, so have been sent to Aussie shores to help boost our low vaccination rate.Under the agreement, the federal government will send 500,000 Pfizer doses back to Singapore in December, when Australia is expected to have a more plentiful supply.Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the extra vaccines will be distributed on a “per capita” basis around the country.This is what that distribution will look like:New South Wales – 159,236 dosesVictoria – 131,149 Queensland – 99,745Western Australia – 51,294South Australia – 34,934Tasmania – 10,675Australian Capital Territory – 8,344Northern Territory – 4,622The government hopes the deal will bolster supplies for younger people who are new to the vaccine rollout, most of whom have only recently become eligible for Pfizer.“This deal gives us the further supplies we need as we bring new groups into the program for Pfizer, including 12 to 15 year olds from September 13, and the 16 to 39 year old age group that has already commenced,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.Mr Morrison thanked the Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his government for their support.As of Thursday, 12,480,413 people in Australia – including 60.5 per cent of those aged over 16 – have had at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine..TWO MORE BLOOD CLOTS DEATHSAustralia has recorded two more deaths following nine blood clots linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine in the past week.A 59-year-old woman from Queensland and a 54-year-old man from NSW died after suffering blood clots following their first dose of the Covid vaccine.The Therapeutic Goods Administration confirmed the deaths in its weekly safety report on Thursday afternoon.The Queenslander’s case was confirmed as TTS, a rare event involving serious blood clots with a low blood platelet count. It is triggered by the immune system’s response to AstraZeneca and is different from other clotting conditions. The NSW case was considered ‘probable’.“The TGA extends its sincerest condolences to her family and loved ones. We are in close communication with the Queensland and NSW authorities who are undertaking further investigation of these cases,” the TGA said in the report.A second ‘confirmed’ case of TTS involved a 23-year-old man from NSW.The remainder were probable cases and affected 51 and 62-year-old men from NSW; 60 and 71-year-old women from NSW; a 66-year-old man from Western Australia; and a 95-year-old woman from Victoria.These take the total Australian reports assessed as TTS following the AstraZeneca vaccine to 125 cases (69 confirmed, 56 probable) from about 9.6 million vaccine doses. Eight people have now died as a result of TTS – six of these were women. NED-3619-AstraZeneca blood clots-What we knowThe TGA says in Australia, the risk of dying from TTS after vaccination is less than one in a million in people receiving a first dose. It advises people should seek immediate medical attention if they develop any of the following symptoms after vaccination:severe or persistent headache, blurred vision, confusion or seizuresshortness of breath, chest pain, leg swelling or persistent abdominal painunusual skin bruising and/or pinpoint round spots beyond the site of vaccination.The most common time period for onset of TTS symptoms is 4–30 days after vaccination. – Jack Paynter, David Aidone
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