Australia COVID LIVE updates Cases continue to grow across the nation as states ramp up vaccination measures

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Good Morning, my name is Nigel Gladstone, and I’ll be blogging today’s coronavirus-related news.

Here are the major headlines from yesterday and this morning:

NSW recorded 1533 new cases and four new deaths yesterday. While western Sydney continues to see the majority of cases, regional parts of the state are also seeing increasing COVID-19 numbers. Of Saturday’s 1,041 COVID-19 cases admitted to hospital, 173 people were in intensive care, and 62 required ventilation.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard during the COVID-19 vaccination update.Credit:Kate Geraghty

Victoria has recorded 190 new local coronavirus cases on Saturday as health data revealed 40 per cent of the state’s recent infections have stemmed from schools and childcare centres. There are 76 people with COVID-19 in Victorian hospitals, 23 in UCU and 14 are on ventilators.

Sydney firefighters and more paramedic graduates are on standby to bolster the NSW COVID-19 response as the state prepares for the biggest surge in cases since the start of the pandemic, with Premier Gladys Berejiklian expecting a peak in the next fortnight.

Three children with COVID-19 are being treated in intensive care, these children also have underlying health conditions, Sydney Children’s Hospital Network is supporting more than 2,000 children with COVID-19.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has reassured Australian parents vaccinating 12- to 15-year-olds is based on the best health advice and will get kids back to school sooner, after a British expert group recommended against vaccinating healthy adolescents.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) provisionally approved the use of the Moderna vaccine for people aged between 12 and 17.

The COVID-19 hospitalisation rate for US children has rapidly increased, but vaccination rates are making a difference.

The Logie Awards, slated to take place on November 28, have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the NSW Upper House will not sit next week to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Parliament House and regional areas, despite a push from Labor to restart sittings in a COVID-safe way.

Melbourne influencer and former AFL WAG Nadia Bartel is assisting police with their investigation into a video of her purportedly breaching COVID-19 restrictions and allegedly taking an illegal drug.

Pubs and restaurants in regional Victoria where COVID-19 cases remain low could open by mid-September under a trial for fully vaccinated customers.

Health experts say the Delta variant of COVID-19 will eventually take hold in Queensland, but whether a handful of recent cases are the ones to do it depends on the actions of Queenslanders.

The Victorian CHO says it’s still possible COVID-19 cases can plateau.

London: Britain has reported 37,578 new cases of COVID-19, government data showed on Saturday, meaning cases reported between August 29 and September 4 were up 2.4 per cent compared with the previous seven days.

A further 120 people were reported as having died within 28 days of a positive test for COVID-19, leaving the seven-day total unchanged from the previous week.

A total of 48.21 million people had received the first dose of a vaccine against coronavirus by the end of September 3 and 43.25 million people had received a second dose.

Read more here.

A coalition of health experts, architecture experts and the federal opposition are backing a national plan to improve ventilation in classrooms and lay out a road map for booster doses for the most at- risk to suppress the spread of COVID-19.

A newly formed network of public health and other experts including Professor Lidia Morawska, a respected global authority on ventilation, called for Australia to be more ambitious with its coronavirus suppression strategy.

Air filtration will be a focus of safely reopening state schools in Victoria, Premier Daniel Andrews said. Credit:Darrian Traynor

Recent RMIT University investigations into air quality at five schools in Victoria found that carbon dioxide climbed to levels indicative of “very poor ventilation” â€" up to 5000 parts per million (ppm) in classrooms.

Read more here.

The NSW government is under pressure from its own MPs to further loosen restrictions on outdoor activities ahead of the school holidays as vaccination rates climb, the weather warms up and constituents grow impatient with the long lockdown.

Several Liberal MPs told The Sun-Herald they wanted faster easing of restrictions outside, citing community fatigue, mental wellbeing and repeated assurances from NSW Health that the risk of catching COVID-19 outdoors was very low.

Locals exercise near Bridgewater Park, Rozelle.Credit:Wolter Peeters

It follows Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s decision last week to scrap the one-hour limit on exercise within the local government areas of concern, and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ pledge to expand the 5km limit on shopping and exercise to 10km when his state reaches 70 per cent first dose coverage, which NSW has already achieved.

Read more here.

A motorcade of caravans to help vulnerable people in overcrowded housing isolate safely has arrived in Wilcannia, where more than 13 per cent of the total population has contracted COVID-19.

The number of cases in the remote far western NSW town has climbed to 97. There are only 745 people living in the community in total, and more than 60 per cent of them are Indigenous.

The motorhomes will be used to isolate people away from their homes to avoid household spread of the virus.Credit:Rhett Wyman

As case numbers in the town continue to climb, 30 motorhomes will open at the local caravan park on Monday.

Read more here.

Victoria’s expanding COVID-19 outbreak will soon dwarf the state’s second wave if more residents don’t get vaccinated and follow coronavirus restrictions.

As 190 new cases were reported on Saturday, concerned public health officials and epidemiologists said Victoria still had a chance to bring the third wave to heel, and protect the regions from uncontrolled spread, but that will require people to “follow the rules”.

Professor Brett Sutton provides a coronavirus update on SaturdayCredit:Joe Armao

“There’s no question that it’s hard [but] the alternative is too awful to contemplate,” Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said. “Tens of thousands of cases could be our reality if we don’t maintain those really tricky constraints on our life.”

Click here to read the story.

Good Morning, my name is Nigel Gladstone, and I’ll be blogging today’s coronavirus-related news.

Here are the major headlines from yesterday and this morning:

NSW recorded 1533 new cases and four new deaths yesterday. While western Sydney continues to see the majority of cases, regional parts of the state are also seeing increasing COVID-19 numbers. Of Saturday’s 1,041 COVID-19 cases admitted to hospital, 173 people were in intensive care, and 62 required ventilation.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard during the COVID-19 vaccination update.Credit:Kate Geraghty

Victoria has recorded 190 new local coronavirus cases on Saturday as health data revealed 40 per cent of the state’s recent infections have stemmed from schools and childcare centres. There are 76 people with COVID-19 in Victorian hospitals, 23 in UCU and 14 are on ventilators.

Sydney firefighters and more paramedic graduates are on standby to bolster the NSW COVID-19 response as the state prepares for the biggest surge in cases since the start of the pandemic, with Premier Gladys Berejiklian expecting a peak in the next fortnight.

Three children with COVID-19 are being treated in intensive care, these children also have underlying health conditions, Sydney Children’s Hospital Network is supporting more than 2,000 children with COVID-19.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has reassured Australian parents vaccinating 12- to 15-year-olds is based on the best health advice and will get kids back to school sooner, after a British expert group recommended against vaccinating healthy adolescents.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) provisionally approved the use of the Moderna vaccine for people aged between 12 and 17.

The COVID-19 hospitalisation rate for US children has rapidly increased, but vaccination rates are making a difference.

The Logie Awards, slated to take place on November 28, have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the NSW Upper House will not sit next week to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Parliament House and regional areas, despite a push from Labor to restart sittings in a COVID-safe way.

Melbourne influencer and former AFL WAG Nadia Bartel is assisting police with their investigation into a video of her purportedly breaching COVID-19 restrictions and allegedly taking an illegal drug.

Pubs and restaurants in regional Victoria where COVID-19 cases remain low could open by mid-September under a trial for fully vaccinated customers.

Health experts say the Delta variant of COVID-19 will eventually take hold in Queensland, but whether a handful of recent cases are the ones to do it depends on the actions of Queenslanders.

The Victorian CHO says it’s still possible COVID-19 cases can plateau.

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