Australia news LIVE Victoria hit by earthquake protests continue as state records 628 new local COVID-19 cases NSW records 1035 new cases five deaths

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Victorian Deputy Premier James Merlino and Deputy Chief Health Officer Deb Friedman will provide a COVID-19 update shortly.

Watch live below.

Ballarat, in regional Victoria, will end its seven-day lockdown from midnight tonight.

Deputy Premier James Merlino made the announcement this afternoon, declaring that health authorities felt confident they had the outbreak there contained.

“My thanks to the entire community of Ballarat, the five reasons to leave your home will no longer apply,” he said during the state’s health update.

“And the settings in Ballarat will align with the areas of regional Victoria, not in lockdown.”

Con Houndalas, who runs coffee shop One Thirty Two on Melbourne’s Chapel Street, was outside on the footpath talking to some customers when he felt his body vibrate. He looked across the road to see part of Betty’s Burgers crumbling.

“It happened so quickly. First I heard the ripple effect, then I heard the noise, then I looked across and saw the bricks spitting out.

A section of a roof that collapsed in Melbourne’s inner south after this morning’s earthquake. Credit:Eddie Jim

“I heard this crash, I thought it was explosion but it wasn’t, because of everything that was landing from the building,” he said.

“I looked around the corner ... and saw a couple of people there, and I rushed around and saw the side of the parapet off the building had come down on the footpath. I saw a few girls who are customers they were in shock, teary.”

He added that there was a “massive ball of dust” when the bricks fell.

“It was a solid crashing,” he said. “I got the impression when it happened that they kind of flicked out, that’s why I thought it was an explosion. It didn’t actually just collapse down it … popped out.

“Welcome to Melbourne. What else is going to happen?”

He said at the time it happened there were only few people around, but within 15 seconds people were starting to walk towards the building.

COVID-19 vaccination will be mandatory for all staff at schools and early childhood centres and they must have a first dose by October 18, or a booking within one week, Victorian Education Minister and Deputy Premier James Merlino has announced.

Staff must be fully vaccinated by November 29, unless they have a medical exemption, under the government’s mandatory vaccination rule for schools.

Deputy Premier and Education Minister James MerlinoCredit:

The rule applies to all government and non-government schools and all types of early childhood and care settings.

The Andrews government also announced a $190 million package to boost ventilation and air purification in schools, to help stem transmission of COVID-19.

Mr Merlino told reporters at today’s COVID-19 update that in an “Australian first” the government has signed a contract to deliver 51,000 air purification devices to Victorian schools.

“The first load arrives via air next week, air purification devices, they remove the nasty particles in the air, including coronavirus. We will have a focus on higher-risk settings, places like sick bays, canteens, staff rooms, music rooms, and more.”

Mr Merlino said the first arrivals of equipment would be in week one of term four.

Victoria recorded 628 new local cases of COVID-19 today, and three deaths: a woman in her 50s from Wyndham, a man in his 70s from Wyndham and a man in his 80s from Darebin.

There are 257 people in the state’s hospitals with COVID-19, 58 of whom are in ICU and 37 on ventilators.

Of the cases who were in hospital yesterday, 81 per cent were not vaccinated, 15 per cent were partially vaccinated and 3 per cent of people were fully vaccinated.

Ballarat will end its seven day lockdown at midnight tonight, Mr Merlino confirmed.

Fire Rescue Victoria says it has attended a house in the Melbourne suburb of Kensington this morning after it was damaged during today’s earthquake.

As previously reported, the inner north-western suburb is among those with the most State Emergency Service callouts.

Fire Rescue Victoria says all occupants managed to self-evacuate. It appears the chimney has partially collapsed.

“Thankfully, there were no injuries,” a FRV spokesperson said in a statement.

Meanwhile, in regional Victoria, Wangaratta resident Wayne Poole said he was in a Woolworths supermarket in the north-east Victorian town when the earthquake hit.

“It shook pretty violently and a lot of stock fell off the shelves. People didn’t know what was going on. The last thing anybody expected at that time of the morning was an earthquake.

“Everyone that was in there looked at each other and thought, ‘What’s going on here?’ No one knew what was going on. Most people just stopped and waited, probably about 30 seconds and it was all over.

“You could feel the ground actually moving.”

Mr Poole said the hotel he has owned for 14 years, the remote 159-year-old Kevington Hotel, 43km south of Mansfield was “still standing” although the quake “shook the place up a fair bit” and a few photos fell off the wall.

Yesterday, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard had little information to give when asked if Year 12 formals would be able to go ahead after students return to school next term.

But today the state’s premier was more optimistic.

“I can foreshadow that this Year 12 cohort more than any other deserves to have a good end-of-year celebration, and they will occur in a safe way,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

She added that Education Minister Sarah Mitchell would be able to make an announcement “about the time it is safe to do that” soon.

“I don’t want anybody to be worried: focus on your studies and do as best as you can in your exams. Please know there will be an opportunity for you to celebrate.”

With Sydney’s coronavirus cases seemingly having peaked below projected levels, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant has been asked if she think the state’s hospitals could also escape the high number of patients predicted by modelling last month.

Dr Chant said it was not so simple.

“We’re seeing some pleasing declines in the local government areas of concern in general,” she said.

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant on Wednesday.Credit:James Brickwood

“There are still some local government areas where the disease is continuing to bubble along at high levels, but we are seeing a turn in some of those local government areas.”

However, Dr Chant said there were rising cases in the City of Sydney, Randwick, and the Illawarra and Newcastle areas.

“When we look at the case numbers, it reflects basically two different patterns: declining in the local government areas of concern, as a generalisation, and [an] increase in other areas.”

Dr Chant said the outbreaks in areas outside the local government areas of concern were being driven by “different factors in each area” and were requiring a more tailored response, such as Sydney Local Health District’s recent focus on vaccinations in social housing.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said the case that sparked a lockdown in the Byron, Tweed and Kempsey local government areas yesterday has been charged by police for breaching the public health order.

The case, a crew member on a reality television show who had travelled from Sydney to work, visited a number of shops, restaurants and a health spa in the area, triggering venue alerts.

The Premier said that, while the person was fully vaccinated, their second dose was recent and would be unlikely to have taken effect.

“They were only there to work but what they did is [breach] the health order and ... [go] to multiple venues that they weren’t allowed to go to,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“Police have advised me this morning that the person has been charged.”

Asked about the decision to lock down the areas, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said health authorities were “taking a cautionary approach to regional lockdowns”.

“The types of exposure venues that this individual had been [at, and] for the duration of time, they are high risk â€" and we know that community has got low vaccination coverage,” she added.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says discussions have started about when people not vaccinated against COVID-19 will be exempt from stay-at-home rules, but all easing of restrictions in the near future will focus on those who have received both shots.

When NSW hits 70 per cent full vaccination for people aged 16 and over, those who are double-dosed are able to eat at restaurants, go to the gym, have household gatherings of five people and even attend stadium events with capacity restrictions.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian addresses the media at the COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday.Credit:James Brickwood

“Can I make it very, very clear that the 80 per cent road map will also focus on those who are fully vaccinated,” Ms Berejiklian said.

The Premier said that, while the government was currently considering when people who were not vaccinated could leave lockdown orders, it was likely private businesses â€" including event organisers â€" would choose to introduce their own restrictions.

Ms Berejiklian said it was likely any decision to ease restrictions for the unvaccinated would be “a period of time after we get to 80 per cent vaccination”.

“That’s because we don’t want to have additional pressure on our hospital system,” she said.

Associate Professor Behzad Fatahi, an expert in earthquake engineering at the University of Technology Sydney, said that, generally, Australian multi-storey buildings were designed to withstand earthquakes in or above the region of magnitude 6.

“I can see no major aftershock has been reported. But it’s only one hour. We may see some aftershocks. And during these aftershocks, some of those structures or connections, perhaps they have loosened during the main shock, they may get looser and fall,” he said.

The most at-risk structures would be external extensions and add-ons, like cafe louvres and outdoor dining areas, he said.

“I assume most of the damage I expect to see in regional Victoria, but mainly I expect more reports to come from the Melbourne region â€" these secondary structures, attached to the main buildings, would be damaged.

“And of course these are quite dangerous. People are outside, walking past, they may run out of the building.”

The City of Port Phillip, the local council area that covers the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda, says it has enacted emergency management plans at all of its childcare centres. This has involved evacuating children from buildings.

“The advice we have received is that children and staff should not be in the building until there has been an assessment of the safety of the building,” a message to families and careers said.

“Experts will be checking on council buildings throughout the day. Children are currently outdoors and will need to remain outdoors until such a time as buildings have been assessed to be safe.”

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