Victoria has recorded one new local case of COVID-19 in a primary close contact who was in quarantine throughout their infectious period.
Key points:
- There were 29,949 test results received yesterday, and 20,067 doses of vaccine were administered at state-run sites
- Areas of Western Australia and Queensland where outbreaks have occurred are now designated red zones
- GPs said they were overwhelmed with enquiries about the AstraZeneca jab yesterday
There were 29,949 test results received yesterday, and 20,067 doses of vaccine were administered at state-run sites.
The new local case is a family member of a nurse who tested positive to the Kappa strain after working shifts at Epping Private Hospital.
Mr Weimar said the latest case returned a positive result towards the end of her quarantine period and would now be isolating for another 14 days.
The state government's plan to increase capacity at stadiums and theatres, which was announced last week, will now be postponed and settings will remain at their current levels.
Health Minister Martin Foley said the "prudent steps" were being taken to protect Victoria's "hard-won" freedoms.
"It is clear that as a nation things are extremely delicately poised at the moment, we are seeing situations right around the country where 12 million of our fellow Australians are under a form of severe lockdown," he said.
"What we've built here is precious, and is worth protecting at all costs."
There are now just nine active cases related to the community outbreak in Victoria, and fewer than 300 primary close contacts.
Victoria has tightened border restrictions as authorities continue to monitor outbreaks across the country.
Western Australia's Perth and Peel regions, and parts of south-east Queensland and Townsville, have been upgraded from orange to red zones overnight.
Any Victorian returning from those areas will need to quarantine for 14 days.
Mr Foley echoed calls from Queensland's Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, for a cut to the number of international arrivals into the country, to prevent further outbreaks arising from hotel quarantine.
Ms Palaszczuk said the country should be using facilities like Howard Springs to quarantine international arrivals, rather than quarantine hotels, and urged the Prime Minister to reduce caps on arrivals.
Victoria's Premier, Daniel Andrews, yesterday suggested reducing caps by up to 80 per cent.
"Do we want to lock down the entire country or do we want to scale back our hotel quarantine system until such time as we have vaccinated enough Australians so we can safely go about responding to this situation?" Mr Foley said.
Mr Foley said returning Australians should be the priority, rather than people who may be flying in and out of the country for business or other reasons.
"We know that there are people who are coming and going consistently from our hotel quarantine system, sometimes at the expense of Australians who are desperate to get home," he said.
Victorian GP waiting for more detail on AstraZeneca indemnity
Meanwhile, the body representing GPs said clinics were not prepared for the increase in enquiries about the AstraZeneca vaccine after the Prime Minister Scott Morrison highlighted its availability to those under 40 on Monday night.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) president Karen Price said clinics were not expecting the announcement.
"It's confused the public so we were not prepared for that confusion, we were not prepared to manage that confusion and were saying that advice hadn't changed," she told Channel Seven.
ABC News: Daniel Fermer
)Melbourne GP and former national president of the AMA, Mukesh Haikerwal, said he would not administer AstraZeneca to people under 60 until he was given appropriate legal protection.
Scott Morrison's announcement on Monday night regarding AstraZeneca came with assurances that GPs would have indemnity against prosecution if patients suffered an adverse reaction.
Dr Haikerwal said a verbal assurance was not enough to satisfy him.
"At this stage we are not allowing our staff to vaccinate anyone under 60 with AstraZeneca because the legislation regulation is not in place," he said.
"It may have been announced, we need to see the details and also make sure it is looking after the citizen and looking after the vaccinator so that there's a proper no fault vaccination scheme that we can rely on."
Health Minister Martin Foley accused the Commonwealth of muddying the water around medical advice regarding the AstraZeneca vaccine.
"I think this is an unfortunate reflection on the rushed conversation that the Prime Minister kicked off late on Monday night without talking to anyone," he said.
"The last thing we need is confusion around vaccines.What we need is certainty and consistency and confidence in the vaccination program."
Victoria records one new local COVID-19 case as new border restrictions come into effect - ABC News
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