As the day unfolded: Man charged over abduction of Cleo Smith; Victoria records 1247 new local COVID-19 cases, nine deaths; NSW records 308 local cases, four deaths

NSW and Victoria open their borders to each other for fully vaxxed

• NSW and Victoria will open their borders to one another from 11.59pm tonight, the states’ premiers have announced. A joint media release from Dominic Perrottet and Daniel Andrews said that as “coronavirus (COVID-19) case numbers [are] coming down and ... vaccination rates [are] continuing to rise in both states, NSW and Victoria are normalising living with the virus”.
• Under Victoria’s traffic light travel permit system, the ACT and all remaining “orange zones” in NSW will become “green zones” from 11.59pm. “Travellers, including workers, who are entering Victoria from a green zone face no testing or quarantine requirements, but are still required to obtain a permit from Service Victoria before they arrive, to verify they aren’t COVID-19 positive or required to isolate as a close contact,” the media release said.
• “There are no requirements for fully vaccinated Victorians entering NSW, unless they have been to a place of high concern in Victoria. A Victorian who is over 16 years and not fully vaccinated is not allowed to enter NSW for recreation or a holiday.”

Regional NSW of concern to health authorities

• NSW recorded 308 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19, an increase of 118 on yesterday’s total of 190. There are now 309 people in the state’s hospitals with coronavirus, including 64 in intensive care. Health authorities are concerned about a growing number of infections in parts of regional NSW that have previously had minimal exposure to the virus. The Hunter New England Local Health District accounted for 103 of today’s new cases after recent “super-spreader” events, including a funeral in the northern NSW town of Moree.

• The COVID-19 outbreak in Moree prompted Queensland to change its border bubble arrangements. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Moree would be declared a restricted border zone area from 12.01am tomorrow. “Residents in Moree will no longer have access across the Queensland border, except in exceptional circumstances including essential healthcare,” she said.
• Of NSW’s population aged 16 and older, 93.7 per cent have received a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine and 88.7 per cent are fully vaccinated.
• A further four people died in NSW after contracting COVID-19, including a 38-year-old woman from western Sydney. NSW Health said she was unvaccinated and had underlying health conditions. Of the remaining three people who died, one was an unvaccinated man in his 70s. Two men were fully vaccinated and in their 80s. One of those men was a resident of the Greek Orthodox Community Home for the Aged in Earlwood, where he contracted the virus.

NSW, Victoria hopeful of swift vaccine rollout to 5 to 11-year olds

• Victoria recorded 1247 new cases of COVID-19, up from 941 cases yesterday, and nine deaths. There are now 17,674 active cases of COVID-19 across the state. There are now 660 coronavirus patients in Victorian hospitals. Of those, 114 are in intensive care. Seventy-eight are on a ventilator. Eighty one per cent of Victorians aged 12 and over are fully vaccinated against the virus. As of this morning, Victoria is counting vaccinated residents aged 12 and over, instead of 16 and over, in its vaccination updates. This mirrors the approach taken in the ACT.

• Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said he was hopeful that the vaccination rollout for children aged 5 to 11 could begin before the end of the school year. “It would be great to think that we could make a dent into [vaccinating children under 12] before the school year ended, rather than having them out and about all over summer, hopefully doing what kids do over the summer – having fun – but without the protection of being at least first-dosed.” Mr Andrews said the issue of getting children under 12 vaccinated would be among those on the agenda at Friday’s national cabinet meeting.
• NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard also expressed hope that “game-changing” coronavirus vaccines could be available to children by the end of the year, as paediatric experts said the country was waiting for further safety data before giving the green light for young children to get the jab.

Queensland records three new COVID-19 cases

• Queensland reported three new local cases of COVID-19 in the southern border town of Goondiwindi. One case is considered low risk and is linked to a known cluster in the NSW town of Moree, south of the border. The other two cases are of greater concern to health authorities: an unvaccinated person who was in the community for five days while infectious, and a woman in her 30s who had received one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine who was infectious in the community for four days. The unvaccinated person’s household and close contacts have so far tested negative to the virus.

• Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the “good news” was that Goondiwindi had a highly vaccinated population: 93.1 per cent of residents had received one dose of a coronavirus vaccine and 83.5 per cent had received both doses.“If you are unvaccinated and the virus comes into your community, the virus will hunt you out,” she said.

More COVID-19 cases in Canberra as vaccine rates soar

• The ACT has recorded 13 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19. Six people are in hospital, of whom two are in intensive care. Both of those patients are on ventilators. To date, 94 per cent of Canberrans aged 12 and up have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus.

Man dies in New Zealand while self-isolating

• New Zealand recorded 139 new community COVID-19 cases on Thursday, as the coroner investigates the death of a 40-year-old COVID-positive man who died while isolating at home. The cause of his death is not yet known. There are 64 people in hospital in the country with the virus, five of whom are in intensive care.

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

Travellers entering Victoria from green zones face no quarantine or testing requirements, but still have to obtain a permit before they arrive, the media release said.

“There are no requirements for fully vaccinated Victorians entering New South Wales, unless they have been to a place of high concern in Victoria.

“A Victorian who is over 16 years and not fully vaccinated is not allowed to enter NSW for recreation or a holiday.”

Mr Andrews said the issue of getting children under 12 vaccinated would be among those on the agenda at Friday’s national cabinet meeting.

As we reported earlier, to date, 81 per cent of Victorians aged 12 and above have been fully vaccinated and 92.2 per cent have received their first dose of the vaccine.

Victoria surpassed more than 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered across the state on Wednesday.