Summary
- Victoria’s five-day, hard lockdown has ended and greater Melbourne is no longer considered a COVID hotspot. Residents are now free to travel more than five kilometres from their homes and the four reasons for leaving home have been revoked, but some restrictions on public and private gatherings remain.
- Victoria has recorded no new local COVID-19 cases for the second day in a row, although one new case has emerged in hotel quarantine. NSW has achieved its 32nd day in a row without a local case. Queensland recorded its 41st straight day of zero cases on Wednesday.
- Debate rages among scientists over whether a nebuliser really was the source of Victoria’s Holiday Inn outbreak, as the Andrews government has suggested. Meanwhile, the man blamed for spreading the virus by using the nebuliser is pushing for an independent review of his case.
- More than 35,000 of Sydney’s frontline workers will roll up their sleeves to receive a COVID-19 vaccine within just three weeks from Monday.
- Visit our new vaccine tracker, which shows how many people around the world have been vaccinated so far and which countries are leading the charge.
Watch live: Victorian COVID-19 update
Victoria’s Health Minister Martin Foley and COVID-response commander Jeroen Weimar are providing an update this morning as the state emerges from its five-day lockdown.
You can watch their press conference live, below:
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NSW achieves 32 days without a local COVID case
By Mary Ward
NSW has reported no new COVID cases today, making it a record 32 days since the state had an instance of local community transmission.
It’s what Victorians would call a “double doughnut” day.
There were 20,906 tests carried out during the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday, a slight drop on 23,463 the previous day.
“We would like to thank the community for getting tested and being vigilant with social distancing and mask-wearing,” NSW Health’s Dr Jeremy McAnulty said.
With the easing of Victoria’s lockdown on Thursday, people who have recently been in Victoria no longer need to isolate in NSW.
However, people who have visited venues of concern identified by Victorian health authorities should continue to follow the relevant health advice and people entering NSW from Victoria by air or rail still need to complete a travel declaration card.
Three close contacts found breaching isolation instructions
By Erin Pearson and Marissa Calligeros
Three Victorians, who should be self-isolating, were not at home when authorities knocked on their doors this week.
Authorities have door-knocked more than 1000 close contacts in the past four days who have been instructed to stay home after potentially being exposed to COVID-19 as a result of the Holiday Inn outbreak.
“They’re now back in the right place,” the state’s COVID-response commander Jeroen Weimar said, who added the people had provided “legitimate explanations” for not being at home.
He said authorities were now most concerned with two exposure sites – the psychiatric units at The Alfred and the Northern Hospital.
He said more than 90 staff and 30 patients identified as close contacts had returned negative test results so far.
“We can now be confident of no transmission inside those environments,” he said.
Testing of more than 70 people at a Ballarat school this week had also returned 64 negative test results, with more results expected to come back negative today.
Mr Weimar also announced that the Health Department has closed its drive-through testing site the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre at Albert Park. A new one has opened on nearby Aughtie Drive, which usually houses pit lane for the F1 Grand Prix each year.
Thousands of close contacts linked to hotel, airport exposure sites still isolating
Of the 3400 Victorians still isolating as a result of the Holiday Inn outbreak, about 59 are close household and primary contacts, the state’s COVID-response commander Jeroen Weimar says.
“There are around 1341 primary close contacts link to the various exposure sites that we’ve spoken about over the last week or so, and over 2000 others linked either to the Holiday Inn as workers ... and the airport exposure site at Terminal Four,” he said.
Melbourne Airport’s Holiday Inn cluster stands at 19 cases.Credit:Getty
No outliers: Almost all cases in Holiday Inn cluster genomically linked to hotel
By Erin Pearson
Fifteen of the 19 coronavirus cases associated with Melbourne’s Holiday Inn cluster have so far been genomically linked to the hotel outbreak.
Health Minister Martin Foley has praised Victorians for a job well done in getting tested with more than 30,000 people turning up for a test on Wednesday.
While no new local cases have emerged in the past two days, Mr Foley warned more positive cases were a possibility in the coming week as close contacts of confirmed cases continue to be tested.
“There is still a way to go, but so far so good,” he said.
“We know it’s been tough, we know it’s been a big impact on families and on businesses, on schools and on the wider community.”
Premier Daniel Andrews has not joined Mr Foley for today’s press conference.
Negotiations continue on extending Victoria’s ‘state of emergency’
By Michael Fowler
Premier Daniel Andrews says negotiations with crossbenchers are continuing on extending Victoria’s state of emergency legislation that gives the government powers to enforce rules such as hotel quarantine and compulsory mask-wearing.
The Labor government wants to extend the laws, due to expire on March 15, for a further nine months until December, when the large majority - if not all Australians - will be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Victoria is able to enforce mandatory mask-wearing in public places under the state of emergency laws, which are due to expire next month.Credit:Getty
The Liberals believe this is an overreach and leader Michael O’Brien said this morning that he would be willing to negotiate a month-by-month extension, overseen by members of Parliament based on evidence at the time.
That leaves the government needing to negotiate with crossbenchers including Reason Party MP Fiona Patten, who met the Premier yesterday, Greens leader Samantha Ratnam and Animal Justice Party MP Andy Meddick - the three crossbenchers who voted in favour of extending the state of emergency for six further months in September.
Mr Andrews said “good faith” negotiations were ongoing.
“As the Chief Health Officer has said, as I’ve said a number of times now, we’re just now entering the beginning of this - not the end of this,” the Premier said.
“That can’t come fast enough, and we’re all working as hard as we can to deliver that outcome. But none of us has the luxury of pretending it’s over because we desperately want it to be.”
Ms Patten has repeatedly called for coronavirus-specific legislation, rather than the sweeping public health provisions that the current state of emergency laws provide for.
An agreement must be reached by March 15 to avoid actions such as asking positive cases to isolate, Victoria’s traffic light permit system and hotel quarantine becoming illegal.
Victorian government mulls lockdown compensation for businesses
By Michael Fowler
Turning our attention back home ... support for Victorian businesses will be announced by early next week as the state government mulls over how much compensation for the five-day lockdown will be available or how it should be delivered.
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas said this morning that his government needed to wait to ensure the lockdown would not extend beyond five days before finalising business support.
Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas. Credit:Paul Jeffers
Business groups have estimated the stage four restrictions cost Victorian businesses up to $1 billion as they lost large-revenue events including Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year, with multiple business leaders calling for clarity on the triggers for any future lockdowns.
“I think firstly business wanted the certainty that the government was able to snap back,” Mr Pallas said.
“Now we know effectively the full implications to business for this event, we can assess the impact upon industry and put in place appropriate mechanisms to assist them through this event.”
Jobs Minister Martin Pakula refused to be drawn on whether the support would be a one-off payment, needs-adjusted payment or another scheme
Premier Daniel Andrews later confirmed that announcements would be made by early next week, following criticism from Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien that small businesses, in particular, were already on “life support”.
“It needs to happen now,” Mr O’Brien said.
“There are businesses really wondering whether they can even reopen their doors. There are bills that are not being paid today, Premier.
“Small business is the beating heart of jobs in this state. It’s on life support at the moment, and it needs urgent, urgent compensation.”
The Opposition Leader suggested the government should start with covering hospitality businesses for the food they were forced to throw out over the weekend due to the snap imposition of the five-day lockdown on Friday.
France reports 25,018 new coronavirus cases as Parisians flock to the beach
More than 25,000 new coronavirus cases emerged in France overnight, up from 19, 590 reported on Tuesday.
Another 310 people lost their lives to the virus after 586 people died on Tuesday.
The country’s death toll now stands at 83,122.
Government spokesman Gabriel Attal said earlier on Wednesday the health situation in France remained fragile and that the vaccination pace in the country was not in line with French people’s expectations.
More than 3.3 million COVID-19 vaccination shots have been administered and Mr Attal said three-quarters of the people in nursing homes had received their first dose of the vaccine.
Meanwhile, Parisians have flocked to the French Atlantic coast where sunny weather and a spike in visitor numbers have given beaches an air of summer.
At upmarket La Baule, a five-hour drive west of Paris, hotels and holiday homes saw a flood of last-minute bookings as Parisians left the capital at the start of a two-week school holiday that is normally the height of the skiing season.
La Baule in France, in pre-COVID times.
Ski lifts closed because of COVID-19 restrictions.
“We will go to the mountains later, when we can ski again, but it is so much better here than in Paris. My husband is tele-working from here, with an ocean view,” said Clemence Martin, a school teacher whose in-laws own a house in La Baule.
La Baule, whose winter-time population of about 17,000 swells more than tenfold to 180,000 in summer, saw hotel occupancy rates rise over February last year, its mayor Franck Louvrier said.
“Normally, we are not the number one destination for French people in February, but this year people have traded their ski suits for anoraks,” Louvrier said.
He said more people now were living year-round in La Baule, with lockdowns and curfews making life in cities more stressful. Travellers who cannot do that often extend their stay by working remotely from the coast for a while.
“People want to live and work in holiday land. With home working, that is perfectly possible,” he said.
He added that La Baule was also attracting people from northern Europe, some of them thanks to the region’s advanced cycling infrastructure.
Restaurants remain closed nationwide, but some in the food industry said holidaymakers were compensating losses by preparing lavish dishes at home.
“Since restaurants are closed, people treat themselves to delicacies like lobster and langoustine. There are more people and their food budget is up; for us it is good,” said Sara Grandjean, a fish vendor at the La Baule covered market.
France has recorded 3,514,147 confirmed cases – the sixth-highest tally in the world.
UK gets approval to infect healthy volunteers in world’s first coronavirus ‘challenge trial’
Britain will become the first country to deliberately infect healthy volunteers with the coronavirus, now that the country’s ethics body has approved a “human challenge trial”.
The effort, funded by the British government, aims to accelerate scientific understanding of vaccines and treatments.
The first stage will see up to 90 adults, aged 18 to 30, exposed to the coronavirus “in a safe and controlled environment” to gauge the smallest amount of virus needed to cause infection.
The UK says the human challenge trials could ‘give ourselves the potential to test new vaccines very quickly’.Credit:Getty
Infecting healthy people with a potentially deadly virus - even in small doses and controlled settings - is controversial. And some in Britain have questioned whether there’s still a need, given the rapid authorisation and rollout of highly effective vaccines. More than 15 million people in the UK have already received at least one jab.
Robert Read, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Southampton, said the current vaccines, while very good against most of the strains circulating, “may not actually be the last vaccines that we use globally”.
The human challenge trials could “give ourselves the potential to test new vaccines very quickly, and that’s really the primary purpose of this effort”.
The volunteers in the first study will receive about $6,243 for their participation, which will involve 17 days of quarantining at the Royal Free Hospital in north London and follow-ups over 12 months.
Jacob Hopkins, 23, is hoping to take part in the trials, and is waiting to hear back about his various background health checks. “I’m not ignorant to the real risks, but I’ve gone through rigorous pre-screening, and the risks are very, very minor for someone who is young, fit and healthy,” he said.
His biggest concern is the potential long-term effects, “but that’s still not enough to make me change my mind. I want to help bring an end to this as soon as possible”.
The Washington Post
Crippling weather hampers vaccine distribution in the US
More on vaccine news, but turning our attention overseas, crippling snow storms in the US are hampering the country’s vaccination drive.
The icy blast has injected more confusion and frustration into the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination drive just when it was gathering speed, snarling vaccine deliveries and forcing the cancellation of countless shots around the country.
Across a large swath of the nation, including Deep South states like Georgia and Alabama, the snowy, slippery weather either led to the closing of vaccination sites outright or held up the necessary shipments, with delays expected to continue for days.
In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio said doses expected this week were delayed by weather elsewhere in the country, forcing the city to hold off making 30,000 to 35,000 vaccination appointments.
AP
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2021-02-18 00:09:00Z
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