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Health authorities have found a genomic match between the Delta variant circulating in Melbourne and hotel quarantine.
Acting Premier James Merlino told reporters on Tuesday the Doherty Institute had linked the Delta strain to a case.
Acting Premier James Merlino.Credit:Nine
“I can confirm today that we have now found a match between a return traveller who entered hotel quarantine in Melbourne on the 8th of May and this cluster,” he said.
“We’ve been checking all known positive cases against the genomic sequencing for the cases in this cluster.”
With only two new cases recorded Melbourne on Tuesday, he said the city is still on track for eased restrictions by Friday.
“We all know that hotel quarantine cannot be risk-free,” he said. “There have been at least 21 breaches in hotel quarantine right around this country, just in the last month.
“Despite all the protections that we put in place ... we cannot eliminate risk in this environment.”
West Australians aged over 30 will be able to get their COVID-19 vaccine from Thursday as the state goes further in its vaccine rollout than what the Prime Minister indicated last week.
Premier Mark McGowan said it had been agreed at national cabinet on Friday that people aged 40 to 49 would be able to get their jab from Tuesday, but WA had decided to go harder.
Australian Premier Mark McGowan.Credit:Getty
“West Australians aged between 30 and 49 will be able to get the COVID-19 vaccination with bookings opening today,” he said.
People aged under 50 will be able to get the Pfizer vaccine.
Mr McGowan said the federal government needed to do its bit and deliver more vaccines to GPs and allow pharmacies to join the effort.
Almost 130,000 vaccine doses were administered nationwide yesterday, and it looks like Victoria is on track to overtake NSW later this week when it comes to total doses administered.
This graph shows the running totals for doses administered in the two states since the start of last month. Both lines were running pretty much parallel for most of May, but the current outbreak in Melbourne means Victorians are heading out to get vaccinated in larger numbers, and the gap between the two is closing:
When it comes to total doses administered, if both states continue at their current pace, Victoria will likely overtake NSW later this week.
You can check out how your state/territory is progressing with its vaccine rollout using the interactive table below:
G’day readers, Rachael Dexter here to drive the blog to the days end. If you’re in Victoria, I hope you’re somewhere warm and dry amid this bleak weather. Let’s hope the skies eventually clear, and we get out of lockdown as planned on Thursday.
Always keen to hear from you if you’re out and about as an essential worker, or in line to get tested or get a vaccine. Even if you’re working in the home office and something has caught your attention that we should be aware of, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can email me directly here, or direct message on Twitter if that’s more your thing.
Good afternoon and thanks for reading our free live coverage of the latest COVID crisis in Victoria.
I’m Daniella Miletic and I’m signing off, my colleague Rachael Dexter will bring you the latest news and updates to the exposure site list this afternoon.
If you are just catching up, here are some of today’s headlines:
- The Victorian outbreak of the Delta coronavirus strain has been linked to a returned traveller from Sri Lanka who entered Melbourne’s hotel quarantine on May 8
- Authorities are still investigating how the case escaped the quarantine system
- The state recorded two new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, all linked to current outbreaks
- The number of active COVID-19 cases in Victoria has dropped for the first time in more than two weeks
- Melbourne is still on track for eased restrictions by Friday
- Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he wanted to see Melbourne restrictions lifted “as quickly as possible”
- The mass vaccination hub at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre was listed as a tier 3 exposure site
Geelong, St Kilda and North Melbourne have all received exemptions to travel interstate from Victoria for their round 13 matches, but must adhere to strict health protocols to play their games.
The Cats will fly in and out of South Australia on Thursday in a charter plane to play Port Adelaide at the Adelaide Oval that night.
The Saints have been granted an exemption to play in Queensland. Credit:Getty Images
The SCG had been on standby to host the game, but instead, St Kilda will fly into Queensland on Friday for their Saturday game against Adelaide in Cairns, and will only be able to leave hotel quarantine to play.
The Kangaroos will fly in and out of Tasmania on Sunday for their game against GWS that day at Blundstone Arena.
These arrangements are in addition to previously announced changes for the round. The West Coast and Richmond match at Optus Stadium was brought forward to round 13 (they will have their byes in round 14), and the Queen’s Birthday match between Collingwood and Melbourne will be played at the SCG.
Read the full story here.
Our bureaucratic systems are built for the predictable needs of a population, but this won’t help us when it comes to volatile situations such as a pandemic.
The implementation this week of vaccination hubs specifically designed by and for those living with disability and their carers shows what we can achieve when we think outside the bureaucracy box.
In contrast, successfully responding to volatile situations such as we are facing now requires adaptive leadership and an openness to real reform.
Read the full opinion piece by Anna Peeters here.
NSW has reported no new local coronavirus cases, as the state passed 1.5 million COVID-19 vaccinations.
Five cases were reported in recently returned overseas travellers in quarantine, bringing the total number of infections in the state since the start of the pandemic to 5414.
A former Bunnings site in Belmont, near Lake Macquarie in NSW, will be turned into a new mass vaccine hub.Credit:Nick Moir
The state passed 1.5 million COVID-19 vaccinations on Monday, as it was announced a second state-run mass vaccination hub would open at Lake Macquarie, north of Sydney, in a converted Bunnings Warehouse.
The first mass vaccination hub, at Sydney Olympic Park, regularly administers more than 5000 doses of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines in a day.
There have been 514,412 doses administered by NSW Health and 1,001,073 administered by GPs and Commonwealth respiratory clinics in the state.
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Children in Victoria have now lived through 18 months of disrupted schooling.
Months of lockdowns have seen camps cancelled, home-learning and empty sports stadiums.
What has your experience been? We would love to hear from young people, parents, teachers and researchers.
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Around Melbourne, the history of the present moment is filling diary entries with details of altered everyday life in these strange, anxious days.
‘I am really upset because today we were supposed to go to camp,’ writes Kali.
For The Age’s lockdown diaries series, we’ve had five Melburnians from different walks of life keep us up to date on how they are spending their days (and nights) in the second week of lockdown.
Today, Kali has written about how she was supposed to be off at school camp, on the bus at 9.30am.
Read more diary entries here.
Victoria COVID LIVE updates: State records only two new local cases as exposure site list swells to over 300 - The Age
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