LIVE: Government speaks about helping Australians return home from overseas
Acting Foreign Affairs Simon Birmingham is holding a doorstop on helping Australians return home from overseas.
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Two new cases in South Australian hotel quarantine
South Australian health authorities have announced two new cases of coronavirus in the state, both reported from a medi-hotel.
Saturday's cases are a man in his 40s and a child who recently returned from overseas and have been in a medi-hotel since their arrival. There have been a total of 593 cases notified in South Australia.
Health authorities in the state carried out 4164 tests in the 24 hours before the announcement, bringing the total number of tests to 915,555.
There are 12 active cases in the state.
One of the world’s biggest vaccine campaigns starts in India
By Chris Kay
New Delhi: India is launching one of the world’s largest coronavirus vaccination drives on Saturday, setting in motion a complex deployment plan aimed at stemming the widespread of infections across a nation of more than 1.3 billion people.
At hospitals and vaccination centres across major Indian cities - from Mumbai to New Delhi - tens of thousands of key front-line workers are expected to line up to receive and administer the first vaccines.
A cold storage haulage truck containing Covid-19 vaccines stops while being escorted by police from the cargo section of the Indira Gandhi International Airport to Haryana, in New Delhi, India.Credit:Bloomberg
The inoculation campaign across the world’s second-most populous country will be a crash course over whether COVID-19 can be swiftly tamed in nations with disjointed health and transportation networks. Officially more than 10.5 million people in India have been infected with the disease that has also killed at least 150,000 in its borders.
The effort comes as more-developed nations have struggled in trying to rush out inoculations. Although the U.S. and other countries have stockpiled hundreds of millions of doses, the pace of vaccinations has been challenged by unexpected glitches and logistical problems.
A man participates in a farmers protest in Singhu, bordering Delhi, India. Farmers are demanding the repeal of efforts to liberalide the agriculture market. Credit:Saumya Khandelwal/The New York Times
India’s rollout is one of the earliest and most ambitious in Asia, where many nations are taking a slower approach in inoculating their populations. That’s partly because those countries are facing less severe virus outbreaks than India, which has the second-highest number of infections in the world.
India has initially granted emergency licenses to the two-dose vaccines manufactured by Bharat Biotech International Ltd. and the Serum Institute of India Ltd. The latter has partnered with AstraZeneca Plc to make at least 1 billion doses of their shot.
New Delhi has already made its first purchase of 11 million Astra shots, as well as 5.5 million vials of Covaxin, the indigenous inoculation produced by Bharat Biotech.
Bloomberg
Update: More information emerges on Australian Open quarantine program hit by two positive tests
By Scott Spits
A group of players and officials on one of the chartered flights that arrived in Australia for the tennis are facing 14 days of quarantine after two people on their flight tested positive to COVID-19.
The two cases are the first positive cases for the 1200-strong contingent of tennis players and officials since arriving in Australia. Separately, American Tennys Sandgren was allowed to travel to Australia after his positive test was deemed to be a case of "viral shedding".
The tennis players were granted the opportunity for a daily five-hour training period during their mandatory quarantine as part of the conditions which allowed the Australian Open to go ahead. But as close contacts of the positive cases they will now be confined to their hotel rooms.
A leaked letter from one of the passengers on a flight that arrived from Los Angeles on Friday morning revealed the positive tests.
"Unfortunately we have been informed by the health authorities that two people on your flight AR7493 from LAX that arrived at 5.15am on Friday 15 January have returned positive COVID-19 PCR tests on arrival in Melbourne," the letter, which The Age has seen, read.
"The Chief Health Officer has reviewed the flight and has determined that everyone on board needs to isolate and will be confined to their rooms for the 14 day quarantine."
"We know this is not how your imagined your preparations for the AO would start but our entire team is here to support you and do everything that we can to get you through this."
More NBA games off, as league continues struggles with virus
By Tim Reyonds
Another three NBA games were postponed Friday, including one in Minnesota only a couple hours before game time, as the league's struggle with increasing coronavirus numbers continued.
Among the revelations Friday: Timberwolves centre Karl-Anthony Towns , whose mother and six other relatives have died from COVID-19, said he has tested positive. The Washington Wizards said that they have six players who are positive as well, and another three players out because contact tracing data suggested they could have been exposed.
NBA star Karl-Anthony Towns' mother Jacqueline has died after contracting COVID-19.Credit:AP
“I pray every day that this nightmare of a virus will subside and I beg everyone to take it seriously by taking all of the necessary precautions," Towns wrote on social media.
The Timberwolves' game with the Memphis Grizzlies was called off, as were what would have been Wizards' home games Sunday and Monday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“The NBA’s been pointing to this period for quite some time, that this was going to be very difficult,” Wizards general manager Tommy Sheppard said. “And they weren’t kidding.”
The current tally of postponements: 13 since the start of the season, 12 of them — involving 16 of the NBA's 30 teams — since Sunday alone. Washington has seen four of its games pushed back, Boston and Phoenix have had three postponements. The Celtics returned to the floor Friday night against Orlando, Boston's first game in a week.
AP
Biden to mount federal vaccination campaign, breaking with Trump approach
By Janet Hook and Noam N. Levey
President-elect Joe Biden, inheriting responsibility for a pandemic that is unchecked and worsening after nearly a year, Friday detailed his plan to throw the weight of the federal government behind getting Americans vaccinated against COVID-19.
Mr Biden, in a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, five days before his inauguration, described a sweeping initiative that includes funding for community vaccination centres and other ways to expand access to shots, invoking the Defense Production Act to increase manufacturing of vaccines and supplies.
US President-elect Joe Biden.Credit:AP
The all-out federal effort is a departure from the Trump administration’s mostly hands-off approach, which has left it to states and localities to decide how to allocate and administer the vaccines, just as it shirked responsibility for testing Americans for the coronavirus.
“The vaccine rollout in the United States has been a dismal failure so far,” Mr Biden said. “You have my word: We will manage the hell out of this operation.”
President Donald Trump has bequeathed Biden a public health crisis that has been getting worse, with little attention for months from the White House. Combating the pandemic is Biden’s top priority once he is sworn in Wednesday, and he sees ending the virus’ spread as a prerequisite for reviving the economy.
With the nation’s COVID-19 death toll nearing 400,000 and a new, more infectious strain of the virus spreading, Biden said after a briefing with advisers, “Truthfully? We remain in a very dark winter.”
While much hope has been raised by the emergence of multiple vaccines, Biden warned, “Things will get worse before they get better.”
Los Angeles Times
Australian Open quarantine program hit by two positive tests: reports
By Scott Spits
Two passengers on one of the chartered flights that have carried a 1200-strong tennis contingent to Australia for the Australian Open have tested positive to COVID-19, according to various reports.
The two cases are the first positive cases for tennis players or officials since arriving in Australia. Separately, American Tennys Sandgren was allowed to travel to Australia after his positive test was deemed to be a case of "viral shedding".
Two other players, Andy Murray and Madison Keys, were unable to take their spots on the chartered planes after they returned positive tests before flying.
New York Times journalist Karen Crouse reported on Saturday (AEST) that the two new positive cases were on the charter flights from Los Angeles.
"I feel terrible for all the players aboard who now won't be allowed to practice for the next two weeks except on the exercise bikes the Australian Open delivered to their rooms," she tweeted.
Push for higher COVID testing rates across NSW as state records one new local case
By Georgina Mitchell
Health authorities in NSW have urged residents to get tested for COVID-19 due to concerns the virus is still circulating in the community undetected, as the state recorded one new local case on Saturday linked to a western Sydney cluster.
The new case was picked up in the 24 hours to 8pm on Friday, bringing to an end NSW's brief run of no new cases of community transmission. A further 11 cases were detected in returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
The one locally acquired case is a man from western Sydney, who is believed to be linked to the Berala BWS cluster in the city's west.
"Investigations into the source of the infection are under way," NSW Health said on Saturday morning.
"NSW Health is treating 100 COVID-19 cases, one of whom is in intensive care. Most cases (99 per cent) are being treated in non-acute, out-of-hospital care."
Masks, makeover and privacy screens: What jury trials look like after COVID-19
By Tammy Mills
Jurors, judges and lawyers are masked up, court rooms have been reassembled and hand sanitiser is at the ready – welcome to a Victorian jury trial in the time of coronavirus.
The pandemic forced the traditionally archaic justice system to ditch the four walls of the court and run cases online.
The Supreme Court jury sits in the body of the court, while the lawyers have been moved up to the side. Credit:Paul Jeffers
Though plea hearings, bail applications and sentencing were heard over video link, the heads of Victoria's County and Supreme Courts resisted moving jury trials online, suspending those cases in March because of the transmission risk of having so many people in one room.
With some silks struggling with the mute button and judges working from home competing with barking dogs in the middle of a hearing, the profession has welcomed the return of jury trials in court.
The Supreme Court held one trial in December and a murder trial began this week. Over the road in the County Court, 13 trials were initiated in December, another 16 are scheduled this month and five are currently running.
What about farm workers? Victoria's tennis tournament smashed by farmers, minister
By Mike Foley
Victoria is copping criticism from farmers and the federal government over a lack of plans to fill the shortage in farm labourers, despite its commitments to bring overseas tennis players to the Australian Open and to accommodate international students.
The Labor party has returned serve, calling on federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud to stop playing politics and come up with solutions.
Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano has criticised Victoria's lack of plans to bring in farm workers from overseas. Credit:Simon Schluter
Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano said Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews' promises to address farm labour shortages had been "all talk and no cigar".
"After more than six months of requests for assistance we have seen the [state] government disadvantage Victorian growers compared to growers in other states," Ms Germano said.
"Dan Andrews has shown where there's a will there's a way for tennis players, but the same will is lacking for the growers that underpin the rural and regional economy."
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2021-01-16 02:56:00Z
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