Summary
- A hotel in Melbourne housing COVID-positive patients is being evacuated today, after a sprinkler system caused damage to four floors. Thirty-one residents at the Holiday Inn on Flinders Lane are being transferred to the Pullman Hotel, while repairs for water damage to four floors of the Holiday Inn are completed.
- Two new locally acquired COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Victoria, both of them linked with the Holiday Inn Melbourne Airport outbreak. There were also two new cases among returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
- New South Wales has recorded no new local COVID-19 cases for the 30th day in a row, while Queensland has now gone 40 straight days without any local transmission of the virus.
- A federal expansion of hotel quarantine could be delayed until April as cyclone season disrupts plans for the Howard Springs camp in the Northern Territory.
- The World Health Organisation has listed AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use.
Watch live: Victorian coronavirus update with Premier Daniel Andrews
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, testing commander Jeroen Weimar and hotel quarantine chief Emma Cassar will be providing a coronavirus update at 11.15am.
You can watch it live below:
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Talks are under way to build purpose-built quarantine facility in Victoria: Andrews
By Kate Lahey and Craig Butt
Talks are well under way to build a new purpose-built quarantine facility in Victoria to take the strain off city hotels, Premier Daniel Andrews has announced.
Mr Andrews said the new quarantine centre would be based on the Howard Springs model in the Northern Territory, which is more akin to an open-air camp.
“It would be a cabin-style, village-style environment, where there would be fresh air, where there would be not zero risk but lower risk,” he said.
He said a delegation of senior officials would head up to the Northern Territory as soon as practical to see firsthand how the Howard Springs facility was set up.
He said senior officials were well advanced in the planning work, which will include investigating parcels of land near Melbourne and Avalon Airports.
“It’s more than just scoping it, we are going to get on and build a facility,” Mr Andrews said.
Call won’t be made on ending Victorian lockdown until tomorrow: Andrews
By Melissa Cunningham and Craig Butt
The Premier has again said it is too early to determine if the state’s hard lockdown will end on Wednesday night as planned. He said he will not be making an annoncement on the easing of restrictions until tomorrow.
“As I said yesterday, I’m not in a position to definitively commit to that, because these next 24 hours will, of course, will be crucial,” Mr Andrews said.
“However, with a relatively small number of new cases, the excellent work that our contact tracing teams have done, the work of lab technicians and so many other people, we are very well placed, but we won’t know and we won’t be able to make a final call on that until some time tomorrow.”
The two new local cases confirmed in Victoria on Tuesday are linked to the Holiday Inn outbreak and have been self-isolating so are “not unexpected positives”, Premier Daniel Andrews has said.
He said the two cases returned negative tests a few days ago, but subsequently tested positive once they developed symptoms.
You can watch the press conference live in the pinned post on this blog.
Melbourne quarantine hotel residents moved to another hotel due to water damage
Recap: A total of 31 residents and staff at the Holiday Inn ‘hot hotel’ on Flinders Lane in Melbourne are being transferred to another hotel this morning because of extensive water damage caused to the building after sprinklers were triggered on Saturday.
Some of those being moved wore garbage bags on their heads as they walked from the hotel, which had been used to house COVID patients, to an awaiting SkyBus. This may have been to hide their identities given the throng of photographers outside the building.
Hotel guests at the Holiday Inn in Flinders Line are transferred to the Pullman Hotel on Tuesday morning. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui
Staff in protective gear at the Holiday Inn in Flinders Lane on Tuesday.Credit:Luis Ascui
The SkyBus being used to transport people from the Holiday Inn to the Pullman Hotel. Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui
NSW records 30th straight day of zero community transmission of COVID-19
By Josh Dye
NSW has recorded its 30th consecutive day without a local case of COVID-19.
There was one positive case among a returning overseas traveller in hotel quarantine.
There were 12,336 tests recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday night.
NSW Health is only treating 23 cases of COVID-19. Twenty-two of these cases are being treated in non-acute, out-of-hospital care.
Queensland records no new local COVID-19 cases for 40th day in a row
By Stuart Layt
Queensland has recorded no new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, as the state’s testing rate remains strong.
There were 7451 tests carried out on Monday, resulting in no positive results.
Queensland has long established an aspirational target of at least 5000 tests a day to ensure any cases of community transmission are caught early.
The number of tests has been above the figure for nearly the last fortnight, dipping to 3782 on Monday, February 8.
It comes as another wastewater test gives a positive indication for a catchment including 35 suburbs in Logan and Brisbane’s south (see 9.26am post for the full list).
Queensland Health has urged more testing as a result, with anyone with any symptoms at all urged to get tested.
Health Minister Greg Hunt calls for investigation into Holiday Inn nebuliser use
By Melissa Cunningham
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has called for a full and independent investigation into a claim from a man at the centre of Victoria’s Holiday Inn outbreak that he declared and was given permission to use a nebuliser at two separate hotel quarantine facilities.
The returned traveller has previously told The Age and Sydney Morning Herald he felt he had been blamed for spreading coronavirus through the Holiday Inn quarantine hotel by using a nebuliser, despite saying he was twice given permission from Victorian health authorities to use the medical device while in quarantine.
Health Minister Greg HuntCredit:Alex Ellinghausen
Mr Hunt said the patient had put forward a “compelling case”
“The individual has put forward a clear, categorical case and a very compelling case,” Mr Hunt told radio station 3AW.
“Clearly that needs to be assessed independently so we know the facts.”
The head of Victoria’s hotel quarantine system, Emma Cassar, has rejected the man’s allegations, saying there was no record of him declaring the medical device.
Meanwhile, the federal government has signed up to buy 51 million doses of Novavax’s two-shot vaccine and Mr Hunt said the vaccine will be made available in Australia as early as the middle of this year.
“The important thing is all around the world we are seeing outstanding safety and outstanding results,” he said.
Mexico begins rocky rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations for elderly
Mexico on Monday began the task of vaccinating millions of senior citizens against the coronavirus, with dozens of Mexicans over 60 years old waiting in line for hours because of delays in administering shots.
Mexico began vaccinating healthcare workers in late December, and is starting a second phase for the elderly, even as it waits for more vaccine shipments.
By the end of April, the government aims to have inoculated everyone over 60, or 12% of the population of about 128 million, who are among the most vulnerable to complications from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Reuters
Australians won’t be able to ‘vaccine shop’ for preferred vaccine: Health Minister
By Melissa Cunningham
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has warned Australians will not be able to ‘vaccine shop’ and the coronavirus jab they receive will likely be determined by the medical supply of where they decide to go.
When asked about whether Australians would be able to request the Pfizer vaccine, which has a higher efficacy rate of 95 per cent, Mr Hunt responded “no”.
“It will be where you go and what’s being distributed there,” Mr Hunt told radio station 3AW on Tuesday morning.
He said it was likely much of the population would be vaccinated with AstraZeneca, describing it as “the backbone” of the global vaccine program.
“These vaccines are showing outstanding outcomes around the world,” he said.
“All of the initial vaccines, in particular the Pfizer and AstraZeneca, are offering immense protection against serious illness and hospitalisation and loss of life.“
Mr Hunt refused to put a figure on what percentage of Australians needed to get vaccinated against the virus to achieve herd immunity, telling the radio station the government’s goal was to get as many people vaccinated as possible.
“It’s safe, it is effective and it will protect not just yourself, but also protect your community particularly the elderly, our grandparents, our parents and older Australians,” Mr Hunt said.
“You’re helping yourself and your family, but you’re also helping protect the community and helping build up our resistance which will help us avoid these sorts of lockdowns and get back our way of life.”
UK opens quarantine hotels, pushes on with vaccine drive
Britain’s newly established quarantine hotels received their first guests on Monday as the government tries to prevent new coronavirus variants from derailing a fast-moving vaccination drive that has delivered more than 15 million shots in ten weeks.
Passengers arriving at London’s Heathrow Airport were escorted by security guards to buses that took them to nearby hotels.
Under the new rules, residents of the UK and Ireland arriving in England from 33 high-risk countries must stay in designated hotels for 10 days at their own expense, with meals delivered to their door. In Scotland the rule applies to arrivals from any country.
Zari Tadayon, who flew to Heathrow from Dubai and was taken to the Radisson Blu Edwardian hotel near the airport, said she had hoped she would be allowed to quarantine at her home in London. She said she felt “horrible” about the enforced 10-day hotel stay.
“How I’m going to cope I don’t know. It’s going to be tough,” she said.
AP
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2021-02-16 00:36:00Z
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