Of the total number of new cases, so far only 75 have been linked to known cases and outbreaks. No deaths were recorded. A total of 39,148 vaccines were administered and 42,765 test results were received over the past 24 hours.It came after Victoria recorded 334 new locally acquired infections on Friday and a man in his 70s from Coburg also died from the virus. Just 149 of those infections were linked.On Monday and Tuesday this week, the number of new cases sat between 220 to 250 cases. It was revealed yesterday that about 100 regional train services would be disrupted after a Victorian V/Line driver tested was one of the hundreds of people found to be infected. The train driver had travelled to Gippsland and had been in the staffroom at V/Line headquarters at Southern Cross Station where many other employees gathered.QLD RECORDS 5 NEW CASESQueensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has resisted ordering the state’s southeast into lockdown, despite recording five new locally acquired cases of Covid-19.Ms Palaszczuk said the new cases were “contained to the family”, meaning there was no evidence yet of community transmission.The announcement comes after a staff member at the Griffith University was revealed as a new infection on Friday night and connected to the original case, a 13-year-old girl from a South Brisbane school.The source of her infection is not yet confirmed, but the St Thomas More College in Sunnybank, was closed on Friday with the student infectious at school for three days during the week.Chief health officer Jeannette Young said the young girl had alerted her mother to a headache, prompting the family to come forward for testing.The case is not linked to a known cluster in Queensland but the top doctor said it was the highly infectious Delta strain, likely originating from NSW.“The father, who these children saw on Fathers’ Day, actually had a visitor from New South Wales stay with him overnight on Fathers’ Day,” Dr Young said.“So we’re urgently working with New South Wales colleagues, because this gentleman who was visiting has gone back to New South Wales, to get him tested. “That’s the most likely source for this outbreak this with this family of five.”GLADYS’ SHOCK MOVE NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian will ditch her daily Covid-19 update from next week as the state’s outbreak nears its peak.The state recorded 1542 new locally acquired Covid-19 infections and nine deaths on Friday, and case numbers are expected to reach their highest “in the next week or so.”But despite the worst of the outbreak approaching, Ms Berejiklian said she would no longer hold daily Covid-19 press conferences from Monday.Instead, an update will be provided by NSW Health staff via video link.“Myself and [Health Minister Brad Hazzard] or any other relevant Minister will present to the community on a needs basis,” Ms Berejiklian said.Ms Berejiklian said delivering an update every day meant “I am not doing my job properly”.“I need to make sure we have a good balance and we live with Covid, and I am accountable every day,” she said.“So if there are any important messages, or any surge or issue we need to communicate … we will do that.”A man in his 30s was among the nine Covid-related deaths recorded on Wednesday.Others who tragically lost their lives included a woman in her 40s and another in her 50s, a man in his 50s, two men in their 60s, two men in their 70s, and a woman in her 80s.Ms Berejiklian also announced a slight easing of restrictions for fully-vaccinated individuals from Monday.Up to five fully vaccinated people will be able to go out for a picnic or outdoor recreation within their LGA, or five kilometres of their home. Children under 12 are not included in the total. For residents in local government areas or concern, a household where all adults are vaccinated will be allowed to go outside for recreation for up to two hours within existing curfew rules. This is in addition to outdoor exercise.People who live alone in the LGAs of concern may meet with one other person for outdoor activity.VICTORIAN OUTBREAK GROWSAbout 100 regional train services will be disrupted on Friday after a Victorian V/Line driver tested positive for coronavirus. It comes as regional Victoria experiences its first day of freedom on Friday after the lockdown was lifted. Road Safety Minister Ben Carroll said a train driver who had travelled to Gippsland – and been in the staffroom at V/Line headquarters at Southern Cross Station – had contracted coronavirus. He said the staffroom was the space where many drivers gathered to check rosters.They have all been contacted to isolate and get tested.As a result, 20 services were disrupted on Friday morning, with that figure expected to hit 100 services later in the day as more drivers isolate.“This has had an impact on our V/Line driver network as you can imagine,” Mr Carroll said.“I have met with and spoken over the phone with the staff at V/Line management, the CEO, and we’re working very hard throughout today to do everything we can to minimise disruptions, particularly as many Victorians get back to their working week.”It comes as Victoria recorded 334 new locally acquired Covid-19 infections on Friday.One person – a man in his 70s from Coburg – also died from the virus overnight.It is the fourth death in the latest outbreak, after three Victorians died from coronavirus a fortnight ago.Just 149 of Friday’s new infections were linked to known cases and outbreaks.Thursday’s figure was the highest since August 14 last year when Victoria recorded 372 new daily cases.Victoria recorded 246 new cases on Monday and Tuesday, 221 on Wednesday and 324 on Thursday.A total of 42,998 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours, and 39,027 vaccine doses administered.About 63.54 per cent of the state’s population has received one dose of the vaccine.Four cases were reported in regional local government areas but Victoria’s Covid-19 commander Jeroen Weimar confirmed all cases had clear links back to metropolitan Melbourne.A construction worker in Mitchell Shire, a call centre worker in Kinglake and the V/Line worker in Gippsland had been identified as cases. Mr Weimar said a further case, believed to be in Bacchus Marsh, was being investigated by authorities. It comes as restrictions across regional Victoria eased as of midnight last night. Mr Weimar urged Melburnians to not travel into regional Victoria. “With the level of community transmission we’re now seeing, particularly in the northwest of our city, it’s our job as Melburnians to stand our ground here, fight this fire here, and get it down as quickly as we can and look to better days ahead,” he told reporters. Mr Weimar said 8000 people each day were applying for the test isolation payment, and he urged others to make use of it if needed.“Anybody who is concerned about losing work, anybody who needs to miss a shift, anybody who is concerned about not getting paid for the time they’re going to miss while they’re waiting for that 24 hour turnaround on the Covid test, you are eligible for a $450 test isolation payment,” he said.“It is easy to do, details are on our website … it is far more important that we enable you to miss a day’s work and to still get paid to ensure that you get tested and you isolate so we can contain the positive cases that are out there in our community.”Premier Daniel Andrews flagged Victorians would get some freedoms back once this figure reached 70 per cent, which could be on September 19.National – 2021 – Covid Vaccination StatsSCHOOL EVACUATED AS QLD GIRL TESTS POSITIVEA school in Brisbane’s south has been ordered to close immediately after a student tested positive to Covid-19.The new local case is being investigated and was so far not linked to a current infection.A 13-year-old girl from the St Thomas More College in Sunnybank triggered authorities to ask parents to collect students immediately as the scramble to trace the source of the exposure begins.The new infection is so far not linked to a truck driver who visited several venues in Brisbane emerged as a new infection on Thursday.Health authorities are contact-tracing people who visited venues in Archerfield and Westfield Garden City in Upper Mount Gravatt on Sunday and Monday.Queensland Health said the truck driver has returned to NSW, where he has since tested positive.Earlier on Thursday, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk confirmed a child from southeast Queensland had tested positive to Covid-19.The 10-year-old boy is the brother of a four-year-old who tested positive last week, linked to a Beenleigh childcare centre.The Beenleigh cluster originated after a truck driver, who contracted the virus in NSW, spent time in the Logan/Beenleigh community while infectious.The driver spread it to a co-worker and her four-year-old daughter, prompting hundreds of people linked to the childcare centre into isolation.AUSTRALIA ‘FAR FROM READY’ FOR NEW Covid NORMALTwo leading doctors have described the “false sense of security” of Australia’s former Covid zero strategy, saying the country was “far from ready” to live with the virus. Dr Edward Cliff and Dr Brian Fernandes – who have worked in Covid-19 wards in Melbourne and Sydney – said Australia needed a “new approach” as it was unable “to quash the Delta variant with previously effective tactics”, per the New York Times. “Vaccinations are increasing, yet hopes of a meaningful easing of restrictions may still be months away,” the pair wrote in a joint editorial. “It’s unclear whether the draconian restrictions will continue to be effective against Delta.”Dr Cliff and Dr Fernandes said Covid zero was “increasingly out of reach” despite restrictions. “At some point, Australia’s political and health leaders must acknowledge that the country cannot escape Covid forever and must prepare the community to live with Covid,” they said, in the New York Times. Dr Cliff and Dr Fernandes said vaccination incentives were needed to “add fuel to its … rollout”, and there should be immunisation “stations in accessible locations such as shopping centres”.They supported the introduction of “vaccine passports at venues, for events and for travel; and a targeted marketing campaign to get more people vaccinated”, concluding that Australia was “far from ready to embrace the Covid normal of tomorrow”.MORE BLOOD CLOTS LINKED TO AZAustralia has recorded seven more blood clots linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine in the past week.Four were ‘confirmed’ cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) and three were considered ‘probable’ TTS.The confirmed cases involved a 25-year-old man from Victoria, a 48-year-old woman from NSW, a 58-year-old man from NSW and an 89-year-old man from Queensland.The probable cases affected 44 and 50-year-old men from NSW and a 65-year-old woman from Victoria.The figures were revealed on Thursday afternoon in the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) Covid-19 vaccine weekly safety report for August 30-September 5.The latest cases raise the total number of TTS cases in Australia related to the AstraZeneca vaccine to 132 from about 10.2 million doses. Most blood clots occurred nearly two weeks after vaccination with almost all after a first dose of the vaccine.Eight deaths have been linked to TTS that occurred after the AstraZeneca vaccine and a ninth was a case of immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) or low levels of the blood cells that prevent bleeding. The overwhelming majority of deaths reported to the TGA following vaccination occurred in people aged 65 years and older.The TGA 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 seizures– shortness of breath, chest pain, leg swelling or persistent abdominal pain– unusual 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.NED-3736-Vaccine-benefit-vs-harmAUSTRALIA’S VAX MILESTONEScott Morrison has announced Australia has gone past the halfway mark in its vaccination rollout, with 40 per cent of the population double vaccinated who are over 16 The prime minister said 90 per cent of Australians aged over 70 have had their first dose. And this week two in three Australians, right around the country aged over 16, would have had their first dose. Mr Morrison said he had been advised by Covid-19 task force commander Lieutenant General John Frewen that by mid-October we will have had sufficient supplies delivered to Australia that would have enabled first and second doses for the Australian eligible population.He went on to welcome the New South Wales plan to reopen. “This plan keeps the deal, keeps the faith with the people of Australia and the people of NSW set out in the national plan,” he said. “This plan supports the initiatives that are there being driven by the safe process of opening underwritten by the Doherty modelling and supported by the national plan. It is a careful and a safe plan and consistent with everything set out in the national plan, and I commend the NSW government for following through. “The discussions I have been having with the Victorian Premier and others over some weeks now, both states in strong lockdowns, moving forward on the basis of the national plan and increasing levels of vaccination in both states.”When asked about the Pfizer email scandal leaked by Labor, he said Health Minister Greg Hunt followed the normal processes.He said there were many different vaccine options at the time and none of them had any guarantee of certainty. “We pursued sovereign manufacturing vaccine options for Australia,” he said.“That was the priority that was recommended to us, of course, by our health advisers and they were the opportunities that we pursued. And having that homegrown advantage, we believe, would give us greater protection.”He said it was one of many vaccine engagements Australia had at the time. “So we went to the arrangements that we entered into with AstraZeneca to make it here in Australia, well over 10 million of those vaccines have now been administered here,” he said.“Had we not done that, then you would have seen the vaccination rates in Australia half what they are today.“And you would have seen those particularly elderly Australians not as protected as they have been – have been, particularly as we’ve gone into these latest waves of the Delta strain of the virus. Those other countries went through emergency approval procedures for their vaccines. “Australia didn’t do that. We followed the normal process because we wanted to ensure Australians that the vaccines that we were asking them to take were safe in accordance with all the other vaccine programs that the country runs. “So we had been engaging with them at the time but what is very clear is that what was necessary was for us to establish our own sovereign vaccine manufacturing capability, which we did.”He said after getting extra doses from Poland, the UK and Singapore, he has “some irons in the fire” that he is working on. Mr Morrison said he thought WA Premier Mark McGowan’s threat to leave his state shut for Christmas while others reopen was “underselling West Australians”. “I mean I think they’ll get vaccinated sooner than that. He’s making assumptions that Western Australians won’t get vaccinated until some time in January. “I don’t think Western Australians will be that complacent. I have a bigger thinking that they want to engage with the rest of the country and the world. “Western Australians log out, they don’t log in. And I know Western Australians will be keen to move on and get on.“I can understand the premier would be having a conservative still, I can understand that, that’s prudent, but at the same time I believe they’ll be able to achieve well beyond that and it’s very important that our country lives with this virus.”
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