As it happened Australia news: NSW records 1029 new local COVID-19 cases; three deaths; restrictions eased for fully vaccinated people; Victoria records 80 new cases

• As NSW recorded a record number of daily cases, the Premier also announced a modest easing of restrictions from September 13 for some fully vaccinated people. Those changes are as follows: (1) Fully vaccinated households in the local government areas of concern can gather outside for recreation for one hour within 5km of home between 5am and 9pm. This is in addition to the hour of exercise. Only the adults in the household need to be vaccinated. (2) Groups of five fully vaccinated people who live outside of the local government areas of concern can gather outdoors within their local government areas or 5km from home.
• Victoria recorded 80 locally acquired cases of COVID-19, 41 of whom were not in isolation for their entire infectious period. Yesterday, the state recorded 45 new cases and 50 the day before that. There are now 600 active cases of COVID-19 across Victoria, 240 of whom are under the age of 20.

• Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said it was still too early to say whether the state’s lockdown will lift on schedule on September 2. He also took a swipe at people criticising the closure of schools in the state, saying people were entitled to their views but “thousands of kids getting quite sick” and infecting other members of their family was not an option. “If there was another way, of course we would.”
• Mr Andrews urged people not to act in a “selfish and irresponsible” way and to get tested for COVID-19 at the first sign of symptoms.
• West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has called for an “urgent national plan about what to do to assist NSW during this very, very difficult period. We’re all Australians and we all need to help one another.” WA recorded no new COVID-19 cases on Thursday as Mr McGowan said NSW should have locked down earlier to stem the number of coronavirus infections.
• The ACT recorded 14 new coronavirus cases overnight, all linked to previous clusters. Thirteen were in quarantine for their entire infectious time and the other person was “unknowingly infectious in the community for a short period of time,” Chief Minister Andrew Barr said.
• New Zealand recorded 68 new COVID-19 cases in the community on Thursday, a slight increase from the day before.
• Australia has evacuated 4000 people from Afghanistan but others still seeking to flee the Taliban-controlled country have been warned of credible threats of a terrorist attack on Kabul airport.

That’s all for tonight. We’ll be back from 6am tomorrow.

Shops in Mount Waverley, Port Melbourne and Wheelers Hill have also been listed as tier two sites while a number of Shepparton businesses are also on the list.

Meanwhile, Victorian Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton has approved a new permit for people travelling directly to Victoria after completing hotel quarantine interstate. The new permit is known as a “departing hotel quarantine permit” and replaces the “green zone permit”, with the new form requiring a mandatory day 17 test.

Tier one sites

Get tested immediately and quarantine for 14 days from exposure. Anyone who has visited this location during these times must get tested immediately and quarantine for 14 days from the exposure.

• Catch Distribution Centre Truganina: August 23, 2pm - 10.30pm, August 24, 2pm - 10.30pm.
• Fernwood Fitness Shepparton - Konga Class: August 20, 9am-10.15am.
• Borgcraft Pty Ltd, 31-33 Slough Road, Altona: August 23 and August 24 5.30am to 4pm.

Tier two sites

Get tested urgently and isolate until you have a negative result. Anyone who has visited this location during these times should urgently get tested, then isolate until confirmation of a negative result. Continue to monitor for symptoms, get tested again if symptoms appear.

• Wheelers Hill, 7-Eleven Brandon Park: August 22, 8.50am - 9.09am.
• Mount Waverley, Boost Juice - The Glen Shopping Centre: August 22, 2.45pm - 3.03pm.
• Port Melbourne, Woolworths Fishermans Bend: August 23, 12.45pm - 1.06pm.
  
• Fernwood Fitness Shepparton: August 20, 9am - 10.15am.
  
• Coles Kilsyth, August 23, 10am - 11am.

The new site will sit within the 1000-hectare Bullsbrook training area, where groundwater has been contaminated with PFAS fire retardant chemicals that were used at RAAF Pearce from the 1970s to 2004.

Senator Birmingham said an independent feasibility study was conducted on the site, which had found it could be used safely.

“Their advice to us was certainly that it is a suitable site to proceed,” he said. “We won’t be using groundwater for drinking purposes at the quarantine facility and obviously all safety precautions will appropriately be taken.

“We will look at the construction of if need be, in a temporary sense, [a] dedicated potable water system, including storage tanks, pumps and distribution on site. Obviously, ideally, [in] the long term we’d see connection to nearby mains, at Pearce or elsewhere.”

Construction giant Multiplex, which was also awarded the contract to build the Centre for National Resilience in Victoria, will build the Bullsbrook facility.

The rooms housing the first 500 beds of the facility are expected to be built by the end of the first quarter of 2022.

“If people get early testing and early diagnosis then they get early help. There is hospital-in-the-home [treatment] that is operating across NSW, and they have a range of infectious diseases doctors who reach out using the technology like we are using and speaking to people and doing health checks. And in some cases they are doing it three or four times a day.

“There are issues of language, but they are working through those issues as well. And if they think there is a risk of these patients deteriorating, they get them into hospital earlier.

“But if you have symptoms of COVID, get tested so you can be diagnosed and you can be managed at home, then we can recognise if you are deteriorating and get you into hospital.

“The other thing I find is that, when people present in extremis at the door of hospitals, they are putting themselves at great risk because, if people come gradually through the hospital system, gradually to intensive care, we keep a close eye on them.

“We are finding that we are not needing to use a ventilator as much as we are able to use the high flow nasal oxygen and the drug combinations. The other thing I have to say is that I am impressed with SBS. They are doing multilingual translations of the Premier’s message and reaching out to people.”

“So, living locked down with the hope of zero and openness, or leaving lockdown with lots of COVID [around]. They’re the only two choices.”

But he is concerned Sydney may have too many cases to return to zero.

“Unfortunately for the moment, Sydney is going down that second path,” Professor Crabb said.

“I’m very hopeful NSW can eliminate it from the regions but from Sydney, it will be incredibly tough, now they’re really living in lockdown until vaccination rates are high and even then, as the roadmap says, it’s an easing away from that.

“There’s no COVID zero life for NSW for the foreseeable future. Just less and less lockdown.

“But for us if we do get back to zero, then we will have a more open life like South Australia and Queensland and Tasmania and Western Australia have.

“So that’s why we’ve got to give it a go. We’ve kind of got no choice, but the beauty of it is with very low numbers, we still have a chance, you have a good chance and we shouldn’t let that opportunity go when the only alternative is locked down anyway.”

In a statement this week, Mr Hill drew attention to the plight of Afghan Australians in his electorate, including an Australian citizen he called Razia.

“Razia is a citizen from my electorate. She’s lovely and kind. She and her husband fled the Taliban 14 years ago. Her sister and mother are alone in Kabul, unable to even leave the house now and get food,” he said.

“The Taliban are back, driving around their district looking for women. Razia’s Mum and sister are only in Afghanistan as they’ve been waiting over four years for the Morrison government to process their visas.

“Abdul is an Australian citizen from my electorate. He’s in Kabul with his pregnant wife and his two-year-old Australian child. He’s only in Afghanistan because he’s been waiting for three years for the Morrison government to process his wife’s visa. I shamed the government into granting his visa last week. Abdul then emailed me photos of his bruises, after he was beaten trying to get to the airport. They’ll keep trying.”