Australia news LIVE Medical regulator considers COVID-19 rapid antigen testing in workplaces homes ACT lockdown extended as infections rise in NSW Victoria
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Victoria Police Chief Commissioner, Shane Patton, said there will be more than 2000 police patrolling Melbourne’s CBD on Saturday, making it one of the biggest operations in decades.
“This will be one of our largest operations we’ve conducted I think since the World Economic Forum many years ago,†he said.
“This is a significant operation … this is the biggest game in town for us to stop this occur.â€
Protesters were sprayed with capsicum spray during Melbourne’s anti-lockdown rally in August. Credit:Justin McManus
In August, six police officers were hospitalised and more than 200 people were arrested during anti-lockdown protests that brought chaos to Melbourne’s CBD.
At the time, the Victorian government derided the protests as a “slap in the faceâ€, with police claiming more than 4000 people turned up in contravention of the state’s COVID-19 restrictions.
Commissioner Patton said tracking protester movements can sometimes be challenging because organisers use encrypted messaging services to coordinate their movements.
“It’s made very difficult through encrypted applications used by the organisers,†he said.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner, Shane Patton, says protesters planning on attending Saturday’s freedom rally in Melbourne’s CBD will be met with a police presence willing to arrest and fine people who are not complying with COVID-19 directions.
Commissioner Patton also said the public transport network will be temporarily suspended to prevent people from travelling into the city.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton.Credit:Paul Jeffers
“It is an illegal gathering, and we’ll be doing everything we can to prevent that gathering,†he said.
“If people do get to make it into the CBD for that gathering, we will be enforcing that anyone who makes it enable will be subject to a $5500 fine.â€
He said that police had previously clashed with violent protesters in August when authorities deployed capsicum spray in an attempt to quell non-compliance with COVID-19 directions.
“For those who do get through, we will have significant police numbers in here to make sure that we are dealing with them that we are holding them to account, and we will arrest those people and issuing for instance where we can,†he said.
“We saw certainly in the last demonstration there was significant levels of violence - that is a concern to me as well here. We will make sure we are prepared to deal with that.
“It’s really interesting that this whole cohort of people who are about freedom don’t and seem to respect the freedoms of others.â€
Commissioner Patton said police did not take the decision to close public transport lightly.
“We did not take this lightly, we did not do it last time,†he said.
“But given the circumstances of where we are with the spread of the Delta variant with COVID … we can’t afford to allow the transmission of the virus.
“We will do everything Victoria Police can to support the Chief Health Officer in the directions.â€
December 18 is set to be a big day for travel from Australia, with Qantas planning to resume six international routes on that date, with a further five the next day.
Qantas plans to restart flights to several of its most popular destinations, based on the belief that the federal government will relax border restrictions before Christmas.
Qantas will resume six international flight routes on December 18. Credit:James Brickwood
Flights to the UK, the US, Japan and Singapore are all on the cards.
The full list of routes for December are:
Read the full story here.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton gave an update from 3.30pm AEST about planned anti-lockdown protests that are expected to be held this weekend.
We will have a playback video for you here shortly.
Victorian health authorities have identified a number of new COVID-19 exposure sites, including a Melbourne supermarket and restaurant.
The only tier-1 or close contact site among early additions on Wednesday was Hektik Automotive Group at Tullamarine in Melbourne’s north-west. It was declared a tier-1 site on Thursday, September 9, between 8am and 5pm, and on Friday, September 10, between 8.30am and 5pm.
Anyone who attended the site during those time frames has to immediately get tested for COVID-19 and quarantine for 14 days from the exposure, regardless of whether they receive a negative test result.
The remainder of new sites are tier-2, although authorities warned there would be some close contacts at the otherwise casual contact sites of the restaurant Who is Bunker Spreckels at Elwood in Melbourne’s south, and at Woolworths at Highett Shopping Centre in the city’s south-east.
The Elwood restaurant was declared a casual contact site over four days, while the supermarket was declared tier 2 over three days.
A full list of Victorian exposure sites can be found here.
As we reported earlier, the curfew in Sydney’s 12 local government areas of concern will lift tonight, following a recommendation from health authorities and police.
However, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said during this morning’s COVID-19 press conference it is “too risky†to ease other coronavirus restrictions in these areas, such as the authorised worker list and the two-hour cap on outdoor recreation time for the fully vaccinated.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian at Wednesday’s COVID-19 press conference. Credit:Janie Barrett
“The best advice we have is that it’s too early and too risky to do anything further today,†she said, adding that the lifting of the curfew was a “token of our appreciation†for the state hitting 80 per cent first-dose vaccination for people aged 16 and over â€" largely off the back of very high rates of vaccination in those areas.
“Please remember that we have roughly 2.2 million people in those areas of concern. Even having 20 per cent of them not vaccinated is about 400,000 people; that’s a lot of people,†the Premier added.
In regional NSW, there were 46 cases in Illawarra-Shoalhaven, 27 in the Hunter, 11 on the Central Coast, 10 in far west NSW, six in western NSW, seven in southern NSW and two in the Murrumbidgee district.
Earlier in the press conference, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said there had been sewage detections of fragments of the virus at Young in the state’s south, which had resulted in the identification of a person who had spent time in the community there while infectious.
The LGAs of concern are as follows: Bayside, Blacktown, Burwood, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool, Parramatta and Strathfield.
Penrith is also an LGA of concern in the following suburbs: Caddens, Claremont Meadows, Colyton, Erskine Park, Kemps Creek, Kingswood, Mount Vernon, North St Marys, Orchard Hills, Oxley Park, St Clair and St Marys.
Long queues have formed at testing sites in the regional Victorian city of Ballarat after two popular restaurants and a Big W outlet were listed as tier-1 exposure sites on Tuesday.
Ballarat mayor Daniel Moloney said another testing site would be set up shortly to cater for continued high demand in coming days. A walk-in testing centre has been established at the Ballarat respiratory clinic, and a drive-through site has been set up at Skipton Street.
Ballarat will go into lockdown from 11.59pm tonight until midnight on Wednesday, September 22. Credit:Penny Stephens
Cr Moloney said the Lake View Hotel at Lake Wendouree and the Forge Pizzeria were popular with Ballarat residents, so it was little surprise the city was going back into lockdown after they became exposure sites.
“When people saw those locations on the exposure site list, everyone was fairly resigned to the fact that it will get worse before it gets better,†he said.
In case you missed it, the Lake View Hotel at Lake Wendouree has been declared a tier-2 site on September 9 and 10 between 7.15am and 7.55am. The almost two-hour window between 9.45am and 11.30am on September 10 has been identified as a tier-1 exposure.
The Forge Pizzeria is a tier-1 site, with a case attending the venue from 2.50pm to 3.30pm on September 11. Big W Ballarat, on Greenville and Curtis Street, is also listed as a tier-1 site from 4.45pm to 5.30pm on September 10.
Premier Daniel Andrews says health bureaucrats making decisions about issuing permits to allow Victorians to return home were doing the best they can.
His comments followed an announcement from the Victorian Ombudsman this morning that she was investigating the interstate travel permit system after 80 complaints from Victorians stranded in NSW.
Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass.Credit:Penny Stephens
They include children wanting to come home to be with their parents after their school in NSW closed, and a woman trying to return home to care for her adult daughter after she was permitted to travel to NSW for a funeral.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton declared all of NSW an “extreme risk zone†and Victoria closed its border on July 9.
Mr Andrews said he welcomed the Ombudsman’s investigation, but said the public servants behind the permit system had a difficult job.
“To try and strike that balance is an incredibly emotional and challenging thing,†Mr Andrews said.
“The teams of public servants who make those decisions, they take their responsibilities very seriously. They’re all doing their best.â€
Mr Andrews said “more positive announcements†were to come about getting Victorians home from NSW.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says the state should hit the target of 70 per cent of people receiving one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by tomorrow.
Mr Andrews said there were no announcements yet on outdoor gatherings in the state, and reiterated that any easing of restrictions this week will be modest. He said the rate was currently at 68.3 per cent.
The state was originally expected to reach the vaccine target on September 23. Credit:Eddie Jim
“We should hit 70 tomorrow,†Mr Andrews told the state’s COVID press conference this afternoon.
Mr Andrews said he could announce an easing of restrictions sooner than Sunday, which is when he originally expected to outline a road map for the state. But he said any easing will be modest.
“I’m not overselling this. It’s modest. The notion of extra time and extra distance to be able to travel from home for exercise, if we can go further than that with some social interactions as well...we’ll get those announcements as soon as possible,†he said.
The government committed weeks ago to increasing the travel limit from five kilometres to 10 kilometres and the exercise time limit from two to three hours when the 70 per cent first-dose target was hit.
This was initially forecast to be September 23, but quicker vaccine uptake means it should be reached sooner.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says national cabinet will likely confirm that healthcare workers will be subject to mandatory vaccinations.
Mr Andrews has told the state’s COVID-19 press conference this afternoon that he anticipated national cabinet would confirm health advice for a vaccine mandate.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says healthcare workers will likely be subject to mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations. Credit:Kate Geraghty
NSW, Queensland and Western Australia have already announced compulsory vaccinations for the sector and aged care workers are already required to get fully vaccinated in order to work.
Earlier today, St Vincent’s Health announced it would require its staff in three states, including Victoria, to get the vaccine.
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