A high school principal is warning families to stick to COVID-19 rules after an illegal 16th birthday party resulted in a number of teenagers catching the virus, including one who is believed to be in intensive care.
Victoria recorded 1638 new local coronavirus cases on Thursday – the nation’s second-highest daily case number for a state since the start of the pandemic – and two deaths.
The two people who died were a woman in her 60s from Wyndham, and a woman in her 70s from Hume.
Victoria’s total number of active coronavirus cases stood at 15,074 after NSW and the ACT were downgraded under the state’s traffic light travel permit system from 11.59pm on Wednesday.
The state recorded the nation’s highest daily case number on Tuesday – 1763 cases.
Teenagers test positive after 16th birthday party
St Columba’s College Essendon principal Rita Grima wrote to families on Wednesday saying she was aware of “a number of student gatherings taking place to celebrate events, such as 16th birthdays”.
“I have been informed that one such event involved year 10 students from St Columba’s College as well as two other local schools, and that a number of young people from that party have now tested positive to COVID-19,” she said.
“I am given to understand that one of the young people that attended this party is in ICU.”
Ms Grima reminded families about restrictions on social gatherings. She said, although she understood young people were frustrated at not being allowed to celebrate milestones, it was important to “make plans for a time when celebrations can occur safely, and focus on gratitude”.
Boost for disability vaccination program
Minister for Disability and Ageing Luke Donnellan said almost a quarter of Victoria’s new 1638 COVID-19 cases were aged in their 20s as he announced a dedicated push to vaccinate people living with disabilities.
Vaccination rates for people with disabilities in Victoria were still lower than for the broader population.
However, the rate in Victoria was higher than the national rate. As of September 30, more than 71 per cent of Victorian NDIS participants aged 16 and over had received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, compared to 67 per cent nationally.
NSW and the ACT were downgraded under Victoria’s traffic-light travel permit system at 11.59pm on Wednesday. Credit:Jason Robins
Mr Donnellan said 10 pop-up vaccination hubs would be set up in local government areas of concern as part of a $5 million program that will also fund 16 additional disability liaison officers to help arrange in-home vaccination, group bookings, and advice.
“We’re going to go out, we need to keep pushing, harassing and just non-stop getting this vaccination rate up for our community living with disabilities,” he said. “It’s just not acceptable where it is at the moment.
“We can’t open up when we’ve got people living with disabilities, with vulnerabilities, if they’re not at a higher rate of vaccinations, and that’s what we’re pushing to do today.”
Martin, a travel writer who was left quadriplegic 10 years ago after an accident, said it was “everybody’s social and moral obligation to get vaccinated”.
He said he relied on professional support workers who had many other high-risk clients, and those relationships showed how each member of the disability community had a responsibility to each other to be vaccinated.
“I would be devastated to think that I was part of a transmission chain that led to somebody else who was in a high-risk category either being hospitalised or, even worse, dying. I could never live with myself if that was the case,” Martin said.
“So I think everybody has a real moral duty, and particularly people with disability have an imperative, to get vaccinated.”
More than 96,240 Victorians received a COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, including 36,672 at state-run clinics, while more than 77,238 test for the virus were processed.
More than 40 per cent of active cases in Melbourne’s north
Victoria’s Acting Chief Health Officer Ben Cowie said Thursday’s new 1638 coronavirus cases included:
- In Melbourne’s northern suburbs, 566 cases;
- In the western suburbs, 485;
- In the south-eastern suburbs, 351 cases;
- In the eastern suburbs, 114 cases;
- In regional Victoria, 115 cases, including 11 in Shepparton, eight in Ballarat, 16 in Geelong, 17 in Mitchell, 11 in Mount Alexander, four in Mildura, 15 in Latrobe, and 11 in Baw Baw;
- Another seven cases elsewhere.
Professor Cowie said there were now more than 6500 cases in Melbourne’s northern suburbs; about 43 per cent of the state’s active cases.
COVID-19 transmission had happened at 10 Victorian abattoirs or meatworks in a little more than a week, and more than 30 active cases were so far associated to those sites.
Professor Cowie defended the Moderna vaccine after Sweden and Denmark paused its use by young people.
The data underlying those decisions was yet to be published, and the Therapeutic Goods Administration and Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation would work through possible implications, he said.
“It’s a bit premature to draw a conclusion on those decisions,” Professor Cowie said. “What I would say is, certainly from the United States’ experience, [and] to my knowledge, there was no increase relative to, for instance, the Pfizer vaccine in these side effects in the American experience that’s been reported to date.
“These side effects are incredibly rare. If we’re looking at the incidence of myocarditis or inflammation around the heart – most of which is actually quite mild and settles within days with simple management – the incidence of that was something like one in 30,000.
“It’s much more likely [you will] actually get that side effect if you get COVID-19.”
The numbers on Thursday showed there were 707 active COVID-19 cases outside metropolitan Melbourne, but the majority of those were linked to existing cases. In the previous seven days, Victoria had about 10,000 new cases of COVID-19. Professor Cowie said 79 per cent of those cases were unvaccinated, 15 per cent partially vaccinated, and 7 per cent were fully vaccinated.
Mr Donnellan said there were 564 people in hospital in Victoria with COVID-19, 115 of them in intensive care. Seventy-four were on ventilators.
As of Wednesday, 66 per cent of Victoria’s COVID-19 hospital patients were unvaccinated, 27 per cent were partially vaccinated, and 7 per cent were fully vaccinated.
NSW, ACT downgraded under travel permit system
From 11.59pm on Wednesday, locked-down areas of NSW and the ACT were downgraded from “extreme risk zones” to “red zones” under Victoria’s travel permit system.
Only Victorians are eligible for red-zone permits. The downgrading means a person travelling from one of those zones would no longer have to be fully vaccinated to be allowed back into the state, and would no longer need to produce a negative COVID test in the 72 hours before they entered Victoria.
However, they would still have to quarantine at home for 14 days on their return, and would be required to have two COVID tests during that quarantine period.
Previous red zones – parts of regional NSW and the ACT that were not in lockdown – became “orange zones” at 11.59pm.
That meant both residents and non-residents of Victoria in those areas could come into the state on an orange zone travel permit.
The permit requires them to isolate on arrival, get tested for COVID-19 within 72 hours, and stay isolated until they return a negative test result.
Child cancer patients wake up in quarantine
Child cancer patients and their families woke up in quarantine on Thursday morning after part of the Royal Melbourne Children’s Hospital was declared a tier-1 coronavirus exposure site.
Children receiving treatment in the Kookaburra cancer ward and their parents were ordered to isolate for 14 days in their child’s hospital room, or at home if they were due to be discharged, after the oncology unit was deemed a tier-1 exposure site.
Hospital chief executive Bernadette McDonald said a parent who had stayed in the cancer ward tested positive to the virus.
With Melissa Cunningham and Timna Jacks
Stay across the most crucial developments related to the pandemic with the Coronavirus Update. Sign up to receive the weekly newsletter.
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2021-10-07 01:36:12Z
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