Australia COVID LIVE updates Cases continue to grow across the nation as states and territories set sights on vaccination targets

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New Zealand’s health ministry recorded 20 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday and one death from the virus.
There was no media conference today.

In a statement, the Health Ministry said a woman in her 90s who was a confirmed case of COVID-19 died in North Shore Hospital in Auckland last night.

On Friday 28 cases in the community were confirmed, 27 of which were in Auckland and one was in Wellington. On Thursday the total was 49, while on Wednesday it was 75.

The city of Auckland remains under strict stage 4 lockdown, but the rest of the country is on slightly relaxed level three restrictions, which allow some childcare and the purchase of take-away food.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern defended New Zealand’s approach to combating coronavirus against criticism from Australia that trying to eliminate the fast-spreading Delta variant was “absurd”.

Asked during a daily update on coronavirus, what she thought of criticism from Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg that the Delta variant can’t be “eliminated”, Ardern insisted elimination was the most sensible strategy until New Zealand is fully vaccinated.

Victorian year 12 students, along with their teachers and examiners, can from Monday start booking priority COVID-19 vaccine appointments at state-run clinics.

The state’s Health Department said in a tweet on Saturday there would be 50,000 appointments on offer for people in that cohort.

Authorities announced earlier this week a vaccination “blitz” for final year students in Victoria would run from Tuesday, September 7 through to Sunday, September 17.

Professor John Skerritt from the TGA says the approval of the Moderna vaccine for children aged 12 and older was based on “evidence of strong ability for these vaccines to raise just as good if not stronger immunological responses as it does in young adults and older groups”.

He added that doses from Singapore were undergoing testing to ensure they were of the highest quality and safe to roll out.

He added that the vaccines from the UK were part of a vaccine swap because the country had more doses than it currently needed. Later on, when Australia has an abundance of vaccines, the country will return the favour.

“Having 4 million extra vaccines from the UK and half a million extra vaccines from Singapore is absolutely fantastic news,” he said.

The first doses of Moderna will be arriving later this month in Australia.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd said the federal government was now waiting on the advice ATAGI about how the approval of the vaccine for 12 to 17 -year-olds should be incorporated in the national vaccine rollout.

The advice is expected to come this week.

“We have now had more than 20.6 million vaccine doses administered to people right across Australia, more than 62per cent of the eligible population aged 16 and above is now protected with a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and over 37 per cent of the eligible population have had a second dose,” he said.

“In the last seven days we have had more than 1.9 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered to people right across Australia.”

“The one thing we can all do right across the country to tackle COVID-19 is to go out and receive the vaccine.”

We’re also expecting to hear from Victoria’s minister Martin Pakula and Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton at 12.15pm.

The ACT has recorded 32 new local coronavirus cases.

Twenty-four of the cases are linked to current exposure sites or close contacts, however, only eight were in quarantine throughout their entire infectious period.

“Nineteen spent part of their infectious period in the community, and we have five cases under investigation,” the territory’s Chief Minister Andrew Barr said during Saturday’s COVID-19 update.

Mr Barr said 10 people are in hospital with COVID-19 in the ACT, with two of those in intensive care, and one on a ventilator.

He said while half of Saturday’s new cases were close household contacts, the number of people in the community while infectious was very concerning.

“Our contact tracers are now going to have a very busy weekend,” Mr Barr said.

“There are walk-in AstraZeneca appointments available. Please come forward for testing immediately if you see any symptoms.”

Minister for Health Brad Hazzard says the majority of cases spreading to regional NSW are coming from Sydneysiders travelling across the state.

“I would just say again to everyone you should not be travelling outside Sydney, except the designated reasons, and if you require a permit, make sure you get one because the police are on the roads and they are enforcing it,” he said. “You owe it to the rest of our community not to spread the virus.”

Mr Hazzard said although people want more freedoms, it was unlikely any restrictions would be eased anytime soon.

“We are constantly asking [NSW Health] whether or not there are any more opportunities to give people back more steps to a more normal way of life,” he said.

“We will have to wait for her advice on that, but this stage obviously, while we are enthusiastic and keen to see more freedoms back, we do have to rely on the health advice.

“At the moment it is not the perfect time, perhaps, to be expecting too many changes because we are today at another very high level of cases

“But hopefully in the near future we will be able to get some more positive advice from [NSW Health] and head down that path.”

Minister for Health Brad Hazzard said he is aware that some people are still in self-isolation after their 14 days had concluded, but that the health system was doing all it could to manage people.

“It’s a sign of the stressed health system we are currently in, the world is in massive stress, the entire world, the NSW system is still doing far better than almost anywhere else in the world and we have a rising number of cases,” he said.

He added local health districts were working with the private sector to help manage patients at home.

“We will make sure that there are far less of those issues in the future but I can’t guarantee that they will not be any of those cases in the future and I don’t think that is possible in the pandemic, but the health system is doing all it can to manage people in a safe way,” Mr Hazzard added.

The man in his 60s from western Sydney who died at home overnight had not been tested for COVID until after he died.

“They had not been tested for COVID until after they had died, so they had not been in care with NSW. Our condolences go to the family of that patient,” NSW Health Executive Director COVID-19 Public Health Response Branch Dr Jeremy McAnulty said.

Health authorities said earlier this morning the man was not vaccinated.

Chairman of Lifeline Australia John Brogden says it is important for people to look after themselves and has urged those going through tough times to speak up.

“What we have seen is a significant increase children and adolescents in their mental health illness, in their suicidality, and in stress and depression and anxiety,” he said.

That is a matter of enormous concern, however, at the same time, we at Lifeline are very pleased that people are reaching out in the sort of numbers that we have never seen before.”

“I know it is hard. It is incredibly difficult. No child, no adolescent, has ever lived to a time like this. In fact, most of us have never lived to a time like this. And this is affecting everybody. This is affecting us all in very different ways. So please look after yourself, please be kind to yourself.”

Crisis support can be found at Lifeline: (13 11 14 and lifeline.org.au), the Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467 and suicidecallbackservice.org.au) and beyondblue (1300 22 4636 and beyondblue.org.au).

Minister for Health Brad Hazzard has urged people to come forward to get vaccinated, with about 72 per cent of people over 16-years-old already jabbed.

“Just shy of 40 per cent are fully vaccinated,” he said. “I want to thank the community more broadly across NSW for getting out and being part of what is a great journey to beat the virus, to get vaccinated - it’s the way forward.”

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has urged people to come forward to get vaccinated,Credit:Anna Kucera

Mr Hazzard said the majority of the positive cases continue to be in south-west and western Sydney.

Regional NSW continues to see growing case numbers, recording 38 new cases overnight. The majority of these cases are in the Dubbo region.

NSW Health Executive Director COVID-19 Public Health Response Branch Dr Jeremy McAnulty authorities are concerned about positive sewage detections in areas where there are no cases.

These areas include Tamworth, Glen Innes and Port Stephens, Cooma, and Kempsey on the Mid North Coast.

He has urged residents in these areas to come forward for testing.

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