Australia COVID LIVE updates Cases grow across the nation as demonstrations poised to continue in Victoria

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Digital COVID-19 vaccine exemption certificates will be available for those with a legitimate medical reason from next month, the federal government has revealed.

But the national body for GPs has flagged concerns about patients demanding vaccine exemptions when they don’t qualify, amid ever expanding vaccine mandates for workplaces and flagged “no vax, no entry” policies.

Legitimate exemptions for COVID-19 vaccines can only be assessed and lodged to the Australian Immunisation Register by GPs, paediatricians and infectious disease physicians on behalf of a patient. Patients can’t access the register themselves.

The federal Department of Health said digital exemption certificates would be available through Services Australia next month as vaccine certificates are already.

Both NSW and Victoria have said Services Australia vaccine data will be added to state check-in apps, with a two-week pilot program starting on October 6 in NSW and similar trials flagged for regional Victoria.

However, Karen Price, president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, said many people with chronic illnesses or auto-immune conditions still incorrectly believed they couldn’t get a COVID-19 vaccine.

Read the full story here.

The Matildas will play on home soil for the first time in more than 19 months after the NSW government approved Football Australia’s landmark biosecurity measures and accepted hosting rights of a two-game friendly series against Brazil in October.

The decision by the state government to host the games means football will be a test case for the gradual reopening of Australian borders to major international sporting events after the COVID-19 outbreak that has put much of Australia into lockdown in recent months.

The Matildas played in Tokyo in August.Credit:Getty

It will begin with the Matildas two-match series against Brazil on October 23 and 26 at Commbank Stadium in Parramatta and opens the door for the Socceroos to also return home for November’s World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia.

Football Australia is understood to have been given the green light by the federal government to by-pass the mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine after proposing unprecedented biosecurity measures, including the requirement for all travelling players, staff and coaches to wear proximity tracking wristbands.

Read the full story here.

Isabella and Nicola Christou, 15-year-old twins going stir crazy in their Guildford home these school holidays, can’t wait until Monday, when they can have a dip at their local pool, the Granville Swimming Centre.

“Like most teen girls in strict lockdown they have been going berserk in their bedrooms, mainly doing online activities for fun or walking our dog as their only form of recreation,” says their father, Cumberland mayor Steve Christou.

Cathy Chianese enjoys a swim at Granville Swimming Centre which she would normally swim in everyday. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

As of 7am Monday, they will be able to make the five-minute trip to the 1936-built Granville Pool, the state’s fourth oldest Olympic-sized pool, formerly known as the “Wimbledon of diving”, where Paul Hogan once worked as an attendant.

“Lockdown has been hard on everyone here but especially the kids and families, who don’t live close to the coast … it is a 45- to 55-minute drive to the nearest beach for us, so to have a place to swim five minutes away will be magic,” Cr Christou said.

“Most of the people here can’t take their laptop and work from home; they’re in retail, hospitality or manufacturing and have to still travel to work, so to have a pool to go to again will be a real treat.”

When Cr Christou, along with other western Sydney mayors, met Premier Gladys Berejiklian earlier this month, along with the request for curfews to be lifted they asked for local pools to be reopened.

Granville, along with a host of other outdoor pools across NSW, will reopen on Monday, a reward for the fully vaccinated, especially those in local government areas (LGAs) of concern.

Read the full story here.

Victoria has recorded 779 new locally-acquired cases and two deaths in the 24 hours to midnight.

There were 46,322 tests conducted in that period.

About 77 per cent of Victorians have received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 47 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has pushed for states and territories to reopen when 80 per cent of Australians are fully vaccinated, saying “that’s the gift” he wants to give the country for Christmas.

“We’ve been very successful in saving lives but we’ve got to give people their lives back,” Mr Morrison said on Sunday morning.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is in the US for discussions with President Joe Biden.Credit:AP/Evan Vucci

“Once we get to 80 per cent [vaccination rates] ... we have to move forward.

“That’s a challenge for the premiers ... there comes a time when you’ve got to honour the arrangement you’ve made with the Australian people.

“Of course, there’s common sense there’ll be the QR code logins, perhaps occasionally, wearing masks, in particular settings [but] ... we can’t stay in second gear in living with the virus, we’ve got to get to top gear.”

Mr Morrison, who is currently in the US, told Channel 7 that Australia has been far more successful than some countries in saving lives throughout the pandemic.

“Here in the United States, sadly, more lives have been lost in one day ... than we have had over the entire pandemic,” he said.

However, Mr Morrison said he wants lockdowns and restrictions to be eased by Christmas.

“My message is that for Christmas, what I’d like [Australians] to have is their lives back and that’s the gift I’d like to give them.”

Victoria’s latest tier-one exposure sites include the head office of a grain supply business in Ballarat, a pizza and pasta restaurant in Melbourne’s north-east and a chemist in the northern suburbs.

A positive case visited Da Vinci Pizza & Pasta Gallery in Watsonia on the evening of September 19, with the business now considered a tier-1 by the Department of Health, while Chemist Warehouse at the Merrifield City Shopping Centre in Mickleham was visited by a positive case on September 21.

CHS Broadbent’s office in the Ballarat suburb of Wendouree has been listed as an exposure site at various times on September 20 and 21, with staff who visited the site expected to isolate for 14 days and get tested immediately.

Some patrons and staff at Ballarat’s Arch View Cafe may have to quarantine for 14 days, after a positive case attended the business every day between September 18 and September 25.

The cafe is considered a tier-2 exposure site across eight days, but the Department of Health will be directly contacting some attendees to advise them that they are primary close contacts of the positive case.

Other tier-2 exposure sites listed late on Saturday night span across Roxburgh Park, White Hills, Epsom, Bendigo and RMIT University’s City Campus.

Masks and limits on household gatherings may remain in place to help reduce COVID-19 peaks after Victoria exits lockdowns, with the state government warning its road map isn’t a “set and forget” plan amid a surge in case numbers in countries with high-vaccination rates.

A week after promising most restrictions would be lifted once 80 per cent of the population is vaccinated, Health Minister Martin Foley said it would be “a challenge in Victoria” to keep case numbers down after the vaccination target was met, citing Singapore and South Korea as “comparable countries” facing similar challenges.

Victoria recorded a record-high 847 new cases on Saturday and one death, with health authorities worried illegal grand final celebrations could cause a sharp spike in coronavirus cases in the weeks ahead.

In Singapore, where about 80 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated, limits on gatherings will be reintroduced and residents will return to working from home from Monday to try to slow the exponential rise in COVID-19 cases.

Read the full story here.

Sporting events, regional travel, pubs, restaurants and other functions will likely remain off limits to unvaccinated people until as many as 90 per cent of NSW adults are double jabbed, with crisis cabinet ministers poised to indefinitely limit their freedom.

The state government is due to finalise its road map for 80 per cent vaccination this week amid debate over when to reopen community activities to the unvaccinated.

Picnics are allowed in groups of five in Sydney.Credit:Rhett Wyman

Treasurer Dominic Perrottet argued last week NSW should “open up for everyone” once all adults had been given a chance to get the jab.

However, other ministers indicated resolve in cabinet had hardened against giving freedoms to the unvaccinated at the 80 per cent threshold. Instead, a saturation point of more than 90 per cent was being considered.

Read the full story here.

Good morning and thanks for joining our live COVID-19 coverage today. I’m Pallavi Singhal.

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