As it happened: Victoria records 1003 new COVID-19 cases, 14 deaths; NSW records 216 new local cases, three deaths as state surpasses 90 per cent full vaccination rate

• “We urgently need to ramp up vaccine access and education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, particularly for younger community members and certain jurisdictions, including Western Australia, Queensland, South Australia, and the Northern Territory, which we know are really lagging behind,” RACGP Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Chair, Professor Peter O’Mara, said.

• The Bureau of Meteorology has issued severe weather warnings for heavy rain in southern Queensland and north-east NSW, and heavy rain and damaging winds in South Australia. NSW State Emergency Service Assistant Commissioner Dean Storey said on Wednesday afternoon that authorities were very concerned about riverine and flash flooding that could potentially impact “a very large portion” of the state. “We’re in for a few days of pretty intense weather, rain and potential storm events,” he said.
• Victoria is also bracing for rain, but it won’t be as severe as in southern Queensland and north-east NSW. Forecasters are expecting an additional 10 to 30 millimetres of rain across Victoria’s central and eastern districts on Saturday and, with catchments in the east already saturated, riverine flooding is quite likely tomorrow.

• NSW recorded 216 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and three deaths, all of whom were men from south-west Sydney: an unvaccinated man in his 30s with underlying health conditions, an otherwise healthy but unvaccinated man in his 40s, and a partially vaccinated man in his 80s. There are 235 coronavirus patients in the state’s hospitals, of whom 41 are in intensive care. Seventeen people are on ventilators.

• More than 90 per cent of people aged 16 and over are now fully vaccinated against coronavirus in NSW, a milestone that was announced officially on Tuesday. As at 11.59pm on Monday, 90.1 per cent of people in that age group were fully vaccinated and 94 per cent had received a first jab. Of course, people who received their second jab at least six months ago are now eligible for a booster shot and some immunocompromised people are receiving a third shot now as part of their primary course. In the 12 to 15-year-old age group, 70.4 per cent of kids are fully vaccinated and 80.2 per cent have had a first jab.

• NSW Treasurer Matt Kean took aim at the federal government over its electric vehicles policy, saying it doesn’t go far enough to encourage consumers to make the switch to cleaner technologies. “The last thing we want is Australia or NSW to be dumping ground for the vehicles the rest of the world [doesn’t want],” Mr Kean told the ABC this afternoon. In addition to investing in charging stations, NSW is already offering incentives to consumers such as waiving stamp duty for eligible electric vehicles under $78,000, and $3000 rebates on the first 25,000 eligible vehicles sold after September 1 this year.
• As we reported yesterday, the federal government’s new electric vehicle policy has been criticised by the Labor Opposition and questioned by industry. At the centre of the policy is a plan for the government to join with the private sector to help fund electric vehicle charging infrastructure in homes, businesses and public places, to help manage the transition towards an anticipated 1.7 million electric cars on the road by 2030.
• The Morrison government’s policy does not offer more tangible incentives to consumers to switch to electric cars. In Norway, which leads the world in ownership of electric vehicles, consumers are offered incentives including waived sales tax and registration fees. Britain, Japan, France and Germany are set to ban sales of combustion engines between 2025 and 2030.

• Victoria has recorded 1003 new cases of COVID-19 and 14 deaths. Today’s total is down from yesterday’s 1069 cases. There are 471 coronavirus patients in Victorian hospitals, of whom 84 are in intensive care. Forty-six are on a ventilator. Vaccination rates continue to rise: 84 per cent of Victorian residents aged 12 and over (not 16 and over, as is measured in NSW) have had two jabs of a coronavirus vaccine.

• Queensland has recorded two new local cases of COVID-19, including a mystery case on the Gold Coast, as the state scraps a mandatory mask rule for indoor premises including schools, cafes and hairdressers. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said a 32-year-old man living at Pacific Pines on the Gold Coast had tested positive to the virus and was potentially infectious in the community for six days. A second case was reported in Warwick, where the person was potentially infectious in the community for 10 days. The Warwick case is likely linked to a cluster in the northern NSW town of Moree.
• Ms Palaszczuk confirmed “masks will come off” when the state hits an 80 per cent first-dose vaccination milestone for people aged 16 and up, which happened this afternoon.

• The ACT has recorded nine new cases of COVID-19 in the community, but there are no patients in hospital and there have been no further deaths. The territory recorded 1910 negative test results in the past 24 hours. Canberra leads the nation in vaccination rates: 95.6 per cent of people aged 12 and up in the territory are fully vaccinated against the virus.

• Australia is awaiting safety data from at least several hundred thousand young children in the US who will be vaccinated against COVID-19 in coming weeks before giving the green light locally to inoculating 5- to 11-year-olds. A trial of Pfizer’s paediatric COVID-19 vaccine in 1500 children was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday. The trial found the vaccine was safe and effective.

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

As of Tuesday, a total of 10,252,230 COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered in Victoria.

Of the population aged over 16, 92.4 per cent had received a first dose, while 85.7 per cent were double-dosed.

In the 12-and-up age group, 84.6 per cent were double-dosed, while 91.9 per cent had received a first dose.

Residents should keep an eye on warnings and those in flood-prone areas are encouraged to “plan now” where they would go if required to evacuate, what they would take and considerations for pets and animals.

Assistant Commissioner Storey said the potential impact area is quite extensive, stretching from the state’s northern to southern borders.

He said SES units are at a “heightened state of readiness” and extra teams have been pre-deployed to areas such as the northern NSW town of Moree, impacted by floods in March this year.

A total of 30 millimetres of rain landed within half an hour in Moree this afternoon and the bureau has forecast 60 to 100mm there on Thursday.

In Narrabri, 100 kilometres south of Moree, 37mm landed between 3pm and 5.30pm today.

The Transport Management Centre this afternoon reported Macquarie Street at Brabyn Street in Windsor, in the Hawkesbury, and Oxford Falls Road between Wakehurst Parkway and Aroona Road, in northern Sydney, were closed due to flooding.

At the centre of the Morrison government’s electric vehicles policy, announced yesterday, is a plan for the government to join with the private sector to help fund electric vehicle charging infrastructure in homes, businesses and public places, to help manage the transition towards an anticipated 1.7 million electric cars on the road by 2030.

The plan has been criticised by the Labor Opposition and questioned by industry, in part because it does not offer more tangible incentives to consumers to switch to electric cars. In Norway, which leads the world in ownership of electric vehicles, consumers are offered incentives including waived sales tax and registration fees.

NSW is already going much further, and offering incentives to consumers such as waiving stamp duty for eligible electric vehicles under $78,000, and paying $3000 rebates on the first 25,000 eligible vehicles sold after September 1 this year.

Mr Minns said he welcomed the NSW government’s policy but “we need to keep going further; states have obviously led the way in NSW in particular, [and] we want these changes embedded into law”.

Britain, Japan, France and Germany are set to ban sales of combustion engines between 2025 and 2030.