Australia news LIVE: Canberra signals new sanctions for Russia; Dylan Alcott named Australian of the Year

• Tennis star Ash Barty has paid tribute to Paralympic champion and tennis golden grand slam winner Dylan Alcott after he was named the 2022 Australian of the Year. “An incredible athlete second, but an absolutely incredible man first. The way he has impacted the whole nation has been remarkable, and I couldn’t be more rapt for him to be Australian of the Year. Remarkable,” she said.

• Alcott said today that his purpose “ten years ago, yesterday, today, and as Australian of the Year, it’s never changed”. “It’s not to win tennis tournaments. It’s to change perceptions so that people with disability can live the lives they deserve to live. And to be given that honour, to be able to hold that platform to go and do that, it’s huge. I’m just so grateful and thankful. It’s unbelievable. We need greater representation everywhere. In our boardrooms, in our classrooms, in our universities, mainstream schools. On our dating apps. Absolutely everywhere. You cannot be what you cannot see.”

• Alcott called for free, daily rapid antigen tests for disabled people as he vowed to spend his year in the role fighting for the nation’s 4.4 million people with disabilities, Dana Daniel reports. “If somebody needs a free daily rapid test for them and their family and their carers, so they can feel confident to get out and live their life, then we’ve got to give them that,” Alcott told ABC radio. Fewer than one in five National Disability Insurance Scheme participants are eligible for the federal government scheme to give up to 10 free rapid tests to concession card holders through pharmacies, and only half a million Australians with a disability are on the NDIS. Read the full story here.

• For the first time in nearly two years, Queensland has overtaken Victoria in its daily total of new COVID-19 cases, Cassandra Morgan reports. Queensland reported 13,551 new coronavirus cases today, while Victoria recorded 44 fewer, at 13,507. Nationwide, the country recorded another 52,613 new COVID-19 cases. NSW reported the most at 21,030, while South Australia reported 2401, the ACT 896, Tasmania 712, the Northern Territory 492, and Western Australia 24. A total of 87 COVID-related deaths were reported across the country, taking the total number of deaths since the pandemic began to 3312. Victoria recorded the most deaths (35), followed by NSW (29). Some of the deaths were historical but first reported today.

• Russia’s ambassador to Australia, Alexey Pavlovsky, has claimed Russia isn’t intending to invade Ukraine despite amassing more than 100,000 troops along its border. “We don’t intend to invade at all,” Dr Pavlovsky told ABC’s RN Breakfast. “It’s very regrettable that [it] is portrayed the other way here and by our Western partners. “There is no intention, no decision at all to go to war with Ukraine. As to the sanctions. I think that, by now, everybody should understand ... the sanctions just don’t work.” Asked why Russia would amass so many troops along Ukraine’s borders if it isn’t intending to invade, Dr Pavlovsky said everyone should use their “critical thinking”.

• Dr Pavlovsky said the troops were “not a threat” but “a warning”. “A warning to Ukraine’s rulers not to attempt any reckless military adventures,” he said. During his response, Dr Pavlovsky appeared to reference NATO’s 2011 military intervention in Libya (aimed at stopping the Qadhafi regime’s attacks on citizens) and action undertaken by NATO in Yugoslavia in the 1990s. NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, did carry out an aerial bombing campaign in Yugoslavia in 1999. This was done to pressure armed forces to withdraw from Kosovo and put a stop to ethnic cleansing. The bombing was followed by a UN peacekeeping mission.

• NSW has exceeded 1 million COVID-19 cases as an expert warned about a potential spike in infections following today’s public holiday, Daniella White reports. The state recorded 21,030 new COVID-19 infections and 29 deaths today. It brings the total number of cases in the state since the pandemic began to 1,015,495. More than half a million of those infections have been recorded in the past 15 days. Professor Jane Halton, chairwoman of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness, says she is worried about a potential spike in COVID-19 cases from Australia Day gatherings and events.
• “The truth is we know it’s highly infectious and the closer everyone gets together, the more the likelihood that you’ll be close to someone who’s got COVID at the moment and therefore the greater the likelihood that you’ll contract it,” Professor Halton said.
• COVID-19 commander Jeroen Weimar says Victorians aged in their 20s and 30s no longer make up the majority of coronavirus infections in the state, Marta Pascual Juanola reports. Mr Weimar said the outbreak was now affecting most Victorians evenly, regardless of their age or geographical location. But he warned the return to work and school in coming weeks would likely see infections surge.

• “We’re now seeing [the virus] ... running through different parts of the community, but it’s still very much within all of our controls,” Mr Weimar said, referring to the government’s measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. At the height of the Omicron outbreak in December and early January, Victorians aged in their 20s made up about 40 per cent of new infections, leading health authorities to believe one in 20 young Victorians was sick with the virus.

This is Michaela Whitbourn signing off on the blog for today. My colleague Broede Carmody will be back with you tomorrow morning.

“It is really good to see that change is coming.”

As the Koomurri dancers held their WugulOra - or “one mob” - ceremony at Barangaroo, the sails of the Opera House sails lit up with a spectacular artwork by Pitjantjatjara artist David Miller depicting the giant perentie lizard that prowls the desert in central Australia.

It was the second consecutive year in which a painting by a distinguished Aboriginal artist was projected onto the nation’s most famous building to mark the start of Australia Day.

Mr Daniels regards January 26 as a day of invasion and genocide, a view shared by the crowd that gathered later in the morning at the steps of Town Hall steps for an Invasion Day rally and march.

NSW Police estimated that 4000 people participated in the march, which proceeded peacefully through the city centre before ending at Victoria Park next to the University of Sydney’s Camperdown campus.

Read the full story here.

Though infection does seem to provide some immunity, it is unclear how long that lasts and how strong that protection is. It may also vary from person to person, and variant to variant. According to NSW Health: “People who have recovered from COVID-19 have a low risk of getting it again in the 28 days after you are released [from isolation] as most people develop some immunity.”

“We really don’t have the timeline to establish how long immunity, induced by Omicron infection, lasts,” Tangye says.

Several large studies around the world have shown that infection with other variants of COVID reduces our chance of reinfection by over 90 per cent, at least initially.

“Infection does not produce long-lasting immunity,” says Dr Cassandra Berry, a professor of Viral Immunology at Murdoch University. “Antibodies will wane after a few months and are unreliable in neutralising the virus.”

The good news is that, if you do get reinfected with the same or a new variant it is much less likely to be severe.

Read the full story here.

It was a thought shared by world No.1 tennis player Ashleigh Barty on Tuesday night when, after defeating American Jessica Pegula at the Australian Open, she said: “This isn’t Melbourne, this is Brisbane weather.”

Temperatures were originally forecast to hit 35 degrees on Wednesday afternoon and hover above 30 degrees for most of the evening, but Melbourne Airport reached 36.9 degrees at 3.24pm.

Read the full story here.