Watch: Premier Daniel Andrews press conference
Watch Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews' daily press conference from 10.30am here. We'll bring you text updates in the blog too.
Latest updates
Andrews has provided additional evidence to hotel quarantine inquiry
By Melissa Cunningham
Premier Daniel Andrews has confirmed he has provided additional information requested of him to the Hotel Quarantine inquiry.
Earlier this month, Mr Andrews said he and his senior staff were asked to provide additional information, including text messages and telephone records.
"All the questions submitted to me were about completeness sake," Mr Andrews said.
"But if there is anything else they need, that is a matter for them. We would be only too happy to give it to them."
He said he had not been told by retired judge Jennifer Coate, who is running the inquiry, that the scheduled reporting date of November 6 needed to be extended after Ms Coate raised the prospect last week because of new evidence primarily related to Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton.
When asked about his thoughts on former health minister Jenny Mikakos, who resigned from the ministry and the Victorian parliament last month after Mr Andrews told the inquiry he believed she was responsible for overseeing the hotel quarantine program, the Premier declined to comment.
Ms Mikakos has been critical of the premier's handling of the pandemic in recent weeks and said on Sunday a decision to delay the reopening of the state suggested a "paralysis in decision-making" in the Victorian government.
"I'm not interested in making reflections on things that can't be altered or changed, that is in the past," he said. "I'm focused on making sure we can open up safely. With the greatest of respect to those families who are grieving, today is the day where we can be optimistic and positive."
NSW to expand sewage testing, still backs COVIDSafe app
By Mary Ward
NSW is set to invest further in sewage testing, to localise community transmission concerns.
NSW Health issued an alert for a number of western Sydney suburbs yesterday after COVID-19 fragments were found in at a treatment facility at Glenfield.
Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said health authorities would be expanding their program, working with smaller and more precise sewage catchments, and also depicting findings in a map on their website.
"Obviously, sewage testing works best where you don't have much disease," Dr Chant admitted, noting, while it gives assurance in regional areas, the process was more complicated in Sydney because people who have recovered from the disease in hotel quarantine can return to diverse locations and shed the virus in stool samples even once no longer infectious.
Victoria operates a similar sewage program, which has sparked alerts for residents of regional towns Apollo Bay, Anglesea and Ararat to get tested in recent weeks. While no positive cases were detected, indicating the COVID-19 traces in sewage were either old infections or from cases passing through the towns, authorities believe the method will become increasingly useful as case numbers lower.
Still on the tools we are using to trace the virus, Health Minister Brad Hazzard defended the COVIDsafe app at Wednesday's press conference, saying the app was developed "with the right intent" and was useful even if it had only helped "on occasions".
"I think anybody who is lying in an ICU on a ventilator would tell you that any step that the government takes is well worthwhile," he said.
NSW to charge other states for processing returned travellers
By Mary Ward
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she hopes for a "positive announcement" on the reopening of the Queensland border on Friday, as she flagged plans to charge other states who have been largely processing their returned residents through NSW's hotel quarantine program.
"I say to Queensland: I appreciate you making an announcement on the eve of the election; I hope it's a positive announcement because residents in your state and NSW and across the nation are suffering as a consequence," the Premier told reporters on Wednesday.
"And I also urge the West Australian Premier to do likewise because there is no reason why NSW residents shouldn't be welcome to other states."
The Premier said she felt an "acute sense of frustration" about the closure of state borders and was disappointed to have her state treated the same as Victoria, particularly as 45 per cent of the returned Australians being processed in Sydney hotels are from out of state – and now form the bulk of her state's cases.
She added that plans were in place for Treasurer Dominic Perrottet to issue invoices to his interstate counterparts at a meeting next week to cover NSW's costs, noting: "it's not so much the dollars, it's the principle".
"I get really frustrated and annoyed when WA and Queensland expect us to process all of their citizens, which we do gladly, but then just think of all these excuses as to why NSW residents can't move freely: I say to the states, you can't have it both ways."
No active cases remain in regional Victoria
By Craig Butt
The number of active COVID-19 cases in regional Victoria has dropped to zero, Premier Daniel Andrews has said.
It is the first time the area has been free of any known active cases since the Department of Health and Human Services started publishing figures on active cases on May 7.
The previous record for the area was one active case, on June 21. When the second wave took hold in the state, regional Victoria hit a peak of 518 active cases on August 11.
Watch: NSW Health Minister says COVIDSafe app not as useful as hoped
Remember the COVIDSafe app? Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it would be our "sunscreen" to protect us against coronavirus.
Today, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the app has “not worked as well as we had hoped” but was still “well worthwhile”. Watch it here:
Negative tests invaluable: Victorian testing boss
By Melissa Cunningham
Testing chief Jeroen Weimar said that there was a 48 per cent increase in testing in the last two weeks and only three tests in regional Victoria had returned positive results.
“But every negative test result tells us something more. It tells us where the virus isn’t, and gives us a good understanding of who is coming forward, the geographic spread, and where we need to keep searching to detect and control the virus," Mr Weimar said.
"It is that kind of performance we need to maintain as we go forward and as restrictions ease up."
The northern suburbs will continue to get tested in huge numbers, with almost 4700 tests results in the area returned in the past 24 hours.
When asked when Victorian hospitals will be allowed to move away from stage four restrictions, which means there are strict rules on hospital visits for those who are critically ill, the Premier said discussions were underway to determine when it was safe to wind back restrictions.
Earlier this month, cancer and palliative care support groups said it was deeply troubling that many Victorian hospitals are enforcing much tougher visiting rules than required by the government, effectively going into lockdown to protect patients against coronavirus.
They say children are prevented from seeing parents who are being treated for terminal cancers, and that there are visitor bans at regional hospitals in areas where there are no active coronavirus cases.
"Those restrictions will remain in place for as long as it is safe to do so," Mr Andrews said.
"With so few COVID patients in hospital now and to have no one in ICU, that has been the theme of recent days, that is very encouraging. That means less of the virus in the hospital system, but it is also about visitors, how much more virus is out there in the broader community as those numbers continue to fall.
"I know it is frustrating, but the choices are made for every single patient, and that must be incredibly heartbreaking to not be able to see people that you want to see."
One new local case in NSW
By Mary Ward
NSW has recorded one new local coronavirus case, in a household contact of an existing case linked to the Lakemba GPs cluster.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said, after COVID-19 fragments were detected at a sewage treatment plant at Glenfield in Sydney's west, the government and health authorities remained concerned about the possibility cases were going undetected in the area.
NSW recorded about 14,500 tests during the latest 24-hour reporting period. It is a figure about double the number recorded during the previous two days, although the Premier said numbers could still be higher.
"We are entering the season where festivities and social gatherings increase and we want to make sure we get on top of this before we get into a season where people are mobile," Ms Berejiklian told reporters on Wednesday.
Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant thanked the "thousands" of people who have been identified as contacts of people in the three active clusters in western Sydney - the Lakemba cluster, the Oran Park cluster and the Liverpool private clinic cluster - for self-isolating and encouraged people to continue to come forward for testing, particularly in western Sydney.
The Premier said there was "no excuse" for businesses to not be using a QR code to keep track of people who attended their premises, noting the Service NSW-provided code has now passed 1 million sign-ins across the state.
"We really need businesses to do that because we need to build resilience, ahead of the Christmas season," she said.
NSW also recorded seven new cases in hotel quarantine, bringing the total number of cases in the state since the start of the pandemic to 4209.
Victorian testing boss says 98 per cent of results back in 24 hours
By Melissa Cunningham
Victoria's testing chief Jeroen Weimar said in the last fortnight more than 208,000 Victorians have been tested across Melbourne and regional Victoria.
He said 98 per cent of tests were now being turned around in 24 hours.
Jeroen Weimar, commander of Victoria's COVID testing program Credit:Eddie Jim
"If you get tested today, you will have your result tomorrow. You won't be waiting for days on end," Mr Weimar said.
"You will have a result tomorrow so you can plan ahead. So please don't delay, get tested, we will support you if you are positive, we will support you if you are close contact."
Mr Weimar has said today's two new cases were linked to the northern suburbs cluster, which has swelled from 39 to 41 cases in the last day. The cluster was sparked by an outbreak at the Box Hill Hospital earlier this month.
"We have seen over 23,000 tests in the northern suburbs since the start of this outbreak a week ago," Mr Weimar said.
"We are very encouraged by that, we continue to work hard to support the active cases, we now have 41 positive cases over 12 households, all of those isolating and being supported."
Watch: NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian Press Conference
Watch the NSW Premier's press conference from 11am here:
Andrews praises testing number of almost 25,000 in Victoria yesterday
By Melissa Cunningham
Premier Daniel Andrew has used his daily press conference this morning to implore Victorians to continue to get tested for the virus as an estimated 180,000 Victorians returned to work today in the hospitality and retail industries.
There were 24,673 tests conducted yesterday and Mr Andrews said it was critical as the economy was opened up, Victorians continued to get tested even if they have the mildest symptoms.
"This is critical," Mr Andrews said. "If we have a complete picture, if we know that you have got it we can make sure you do not spread it.
"I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but we want to find the cases that are there so we can wrap support around you and make sure you don't unknowingly give it to anybody, whether it be people you love and live with, or people you have never met."
The Premier said about 16,200 retail stores, 5800 cafes and restaurants and 1000 beauty salons had reopened their doors this morning for the first time in months.
"That is an achievement that every single Victorian should be proud of," he said. "I want to thank everybody in all of these industries for the very productive way in which they have continued to engage with us."
Most Viewed in National
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMimgFodHRwczovL3d3dy5zbWguY29tLmF1L25hdGlvbmFsL2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLXVwZGF0ZXMtbGl2ZS12aWN0b3JpYW4taG9zcGl0YWxpdHktcmV0YWlsLXJlb3Blbi1uc3ctYWltcy1mb3ItbW9yZS1wcm9taXNpbmctY2FzZS1udW1iZXJzLTIwMjAxMDI3LXA1Njk3MS5odG1s0gGaAWh0dHBzOi8vYW1wLnNtaC5jb20uYXUvbmF0aW9uYWwvY29yb25hdmlydXMtdXBkYXRlcy1saXZlLXZpY3Rvcmlhbi1ob3NwaXRhbGl0eS1yZXRhaWwtcmVvcGVuLW5zdy1haW1zLWZvci1tb3JlLXByb21pc2luZy1jYXNlLW51bWJlcnMtMjAyMDEwMjctcDU2OTcxLmh0bWw?oc=5
2020-10-28 00:37:00Z
52781150892223
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Coronavirus updates LIVE: Victoria records two new cases as state's retail, hospitality restrictions lifted; NSW border decision to depend on Qld election as Australian death toll jumps to 907 - The Sydney Morning Herald"
Post a Comment