As it happened: Doncaster supermarket listed as tier 1 exposure site; PM unveils plan to end lockdowns

Victorian health authorities have announced a new tier 1 exposure site, in a late night alert on Friday.

The Department of Health said Woolworths Doncaster in Devon Plaza had been added to the list, after a COVID-19 positive case visited the store on Wednesday morning.

It’s not immediately clear whether this is a new community case or linked to a known outbreak.

Anyone who visited Woolworths Doncaster in Devon Plaza between 10.20 and 11.25 on Wednesday morning must get tested immediately and quarantine for 14 days.

Earlier, five other exposure sites were added in Victoria, but the good news on that front was that they were all from a known apartment complex.

The exposure dates for the Balmoral Apartment Complex in Hawthorn have been extended after a positive case stayed at the Robinson Road building from Monday to Friday last week.

That part of the complex is listed as a tier-2 location, but some individual residents received a letter on Tuesday telling them to go into quarantine until August 6.

The Department of Health confirmed on Thursday that a high-risk part of the Balmoral Apartment Complex has been designated a tier-1 site and residents who were in those areas needed to quarantine for 14 days.

Other areas in the complex, including the Riversdale Road and Inverleigh Road buildings, have been listed as tier-3 sites on the same dates, those were added to the exposure list last Friday.

People who have attended a tier-2 site at the specified times need to isolate until they test negative for COVID-19, while anyone who was at a tier-3 site should monitor for symptoms but is not required to isolate.

There are now 109 active exposure sites on the Department of Health’s site, a sharp drop from the over 400 listed last weekend.

The Prime Minister has outlined key details of nation’s four-phase pathway out of COVID-19. Here is a summary of the key points.

Phase A (current phase): Continue to strongly suppress the virus for the purpose of minimising community transmission

• Accelerate vaccination rates, close international borders to keep COVID-19 out, early, stringent and short lockdowns if outbreaks occur;
• Trial and pilot the introduction of alternative quarantine options, including home quarantine for returning vaccinated travellers; expand commercial trials for limited entry of student and economic visa holders;
• Establish digital vaccination authentication at international borders; Undertake a further review of the national hotel quarantine network.

Phase B (70 per cent of the population vaccinated): Seek to minimise serious illness, hospitalisation and fatality as a result of COVID-19 with low level restrictions

• Lockdowns less likely but possible; international border caps and low-level international arrivals, with safe and proportionate quarantine to minimisethe risk of COVID entering; ease restrictions on vaccinated residents.
• Restore inbound passenger caps at previous levels for unvaccinated returning travellers and larger caps for vaccinated returning travellers; allow capped entry of student and economic visa holders subject to quarantine arrangements and availability;
• Prepare/implement vaccine booster programme (depending on timing).

Phase C: Seek to minimise serious illness, hospitalisations and fatalities as a result of COVID-19 with baseline restrictions

• Highly targeted lockdowns only; exempt vaccinated residents from all domestic restrictions;
• Abolish caps on returning vaccinated Australians; allow increased capped entry of student, economic, and humanitarian visa holders;
• Lift all restrictions on outbound travel for vaccinated Australians; extend travel bubble for unrestricted travel to new candidate countries (Singapore, Pacific); gradual reopening of inward and outward international travel with safe countries.

Phase D: Manage COVID-19 consistent with public health management of other infectious diseases

• Open international borders; minimise cases in the community without ongoing restrictions or lockdowns;
• Allow uncapped inbound arrivals for all vaccinated persons, without quarantine; allow uncapped arrivals of non-vaccinated travellers subject to pre-flight and on arrival testing.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is due to speak at the Lodge following a meeting of the national cabinet this afternoon.

Non-urgent surgery will be suspended in public hospitals in Greater Sydney from Monday, NSW Health announced this afternoon.

The move will not affect surgery in the Illawarra and Central Coast Local Health Districts.

“All emergency surgery and urgent elective surgery will continue unaffected,” the ministry said in a statement, noting people with booked procedures would be contacted.

“There is currently sufficient ICU capacity for all patients who require intensive care, with more than 500 beds available throughout the system,” the ministry added.

It said it had the ability to triple this capacity if required.

Earlier this week, non-urgent surgery was suspended at three major Sydney hospitals – RPA, St Vincent’s and Liverpool – in response to staff COVID-19 exposures and to reserve resources needed for a surge in virus infections.

“Postponing non-urgent surgery will support the state’s healthcare workers as they manage the demands of the COVID-19 response, providing increased capacity to support health services for the people of Greater Sydney,” the ministry said.

NSW Labor has called for the federal government to reinstate funding for elective surgery for public patients to occur in private hospitals.

The funding, provided after there was a national pause on elective surgery in early 2020, expired in June.

“It needs to be a priority now because with around 90 000 people on the elective survey waiting list we simply cannot afford that number to grow,” NSW Labor health spokesperson Ryan Park said.

The Delta variant is much more contagious, more likely to break through protections afforded by the vaccines and may cause more severe disease than all other known versions of the virus, according to an internal presentation circulated within the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the agency, acknowledged on Tuesday that vaccinated people with so-called breakthrough infections of the Delta variant carry just as much virus in their nose and throat as unvaccinated people. But the internal document lays out a broader and grimmer view of the variant.

The Delta variant is more transmissible than the viruses that cause MERS, SARS, Ebola, the common cold, the seasonal flu and smallpox, and it is as contagious as chickenpox, according to the document, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.

The immediate next step for the agency is to “acknowledge the war has changed”, the document said.

Read the full story here

Thank you for following our national coverage this Friday July 30, Abbir Dib here to close off the blog and revisit today’s top stories.

• The Prime Minister has outlined key details of nation’s four-phase pathway out of COVID-19, including vaccinating 70 per cent of the population.
• A protester will face court after he allegedly assaulted a mounted branch police officer at the anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne’s CBD last Saturday. Another anti-lockdown protest is planned for Sunday.
• NSW has recorded 170 new cases of COVID-19, down from yesterday’s record high. However at least 52 cases were in the community while infectious. Victoria records three cases.
• A CDC interal report said the Delta variant is much more contagious, more likely to break through protections afforded by the vaccines and may cause more severe disease than all other known versions of the virus.

We’ll be back tomorrow with national coverage, farewell until then.

Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has shared vaccine statistics in tweet earlier tonight.

“Good news out of Victoria,” Professor Sutton said.

“58% of Aboriginal Victorians have had one dose of COVID vaccine. 22% [of those are] fully immunised.”

“98% of people completing their Pfizer schedule. Good signs!”

Professor Sutton said 34% of the total Victorian population have received their first dose of the vaccine and 14% of those are fully vaccinated.

A late night tweet from the Victorian Department of Health has announced that both South Australia and Norfolk island have been downgraded from red zones to orange zones.

Those who arrived from South Australia and Norfolk Island on a red zone permit, who have since tested negative, have been released from quarantine.

Travellers from both areas need to apply for an orange zone permit from midnight tonight.

Orange zone permit holders are required to isolate on arrival to Victoria, get tested within 72 hours and stay isolated until they receive a negative result.

Victorian health authorities have announced a new tier 1 exposure site, in a late night alert on Friday.

The Department of Health said Woolworths Doncaster in Devon Plaza had been added to the list, after a COVID-19 positive case visited the store on Wednesday morning.

It’s not immediately clear whether this is a new community case or linked to a known outbreak.

Anyone who visited Woolworths Doncaster in Devon Plaza between 10.20 and 11.25 on Wednesday morning must get tested immediately and quarantine for 14 days.

Earlier, five other exposure sites were added in Victoria, but the good news on that front was that they were all from a known apartment complex.

The exposure dates for the Balmoral Apartment Complex in Hawthorn have been extended after a positive case stayed at the Robinson Road building from Monday to Friday last week.

That part of the complex is listed as a tier-2 location, but some individual residents received a letter on Tuesday telling them to go into quarantine until August 6.

The Department of Health confirmed on Thursday that a high-risk part of the Balmoral Apartment Complex has been designated a tier-1 site and residents who were in those areas needed to quarantine for 14 days.

Other areas in the complex, including the Riversdale Road and Inverleigh Road buildings, have been listed as tier-3 sites on the same dates, those were added to the exposure list last Friday.

People who have attended a tier-2 site at the specified times need to isolate until they test negative for COVID-19, while anyone who was at a tier-3 site should monitor for symptoms but is not required to isolate.

There are now 109 active exposure sites on the Department of Health’s site, a sharp drop from the over 400 listed last weekend.

Thanks for following our national blog once again, here’s a quick summary of today’s major stories:

• Prime Minister Scott Morrison has outlined key details of the nation’s four-phase plan to get the country out of the grips of COVID-19, 70 per cent of the population needing to be vaccinated before we can move to the next phase.
• COVID-19 positive patients are delaying medical treatment, leading to tragic consequences, with some people “presenting to hospital severely unwell and sometimes dead”, NSW Health officials have warned.
• The Delta variant is much more contagious, more likely to break through protections afforded by the vaccines and may cause more severe disease than all other known versions of the virus, according to an internal presentation circulated within the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
• The NSW government has revealed plans to turn Qudos Bank Arena into a mass vaccination hub as the state reported 170 new local coronavirus cases on Friday.

We’ll continue to bring you the news as it comes.

The Prime Minister has outlined key details of nation’s four-phase pathway out of COVID-19. Here is a summary of the key points.

Phase A (current phase): Continue to strongly suppress the virus for the purpose of minimising community transmission

• Accelerate vaccination rates, close international borders to keep COVID-19 out, early, stringent and short lockdowns if outbreaks occur;
• Trial and pilot the introduction of alternative quarantine options, including home quarantine for returning vaccinated travellers; expand commercial trials for limited entry of student and economic visa holders;
• Establish digital vaccination authentication at international borders; Undertake a further review of the national hotel quarantine network.

Phase B (70 per cent of the population vaccinated): Seek to minimise serious illness, hospitalisation and fatality as a result of COVID-19 with low level restrictions

• Lockdowns less likely but possible; international border caps and low-level international arrivals, with safe and proportionate quarantine to minimisethe risk of COVID entering; ease restrictions on vaccinated residents.
• Restore inbound passenger caps at previous levels for unvaccinated returning travellers and larger caps for vaccinated returning travellers; allow capped entry of student and economic visa holders subject to quarantine arrangements and availability;
• Prepare/implement vaccine booster programme (depending on timing).

Phase C: Seek to minimise serious illness, hospitalisations and fatalities as a result of COVID-19 with baseline restrictions

• Highly targeted lockdowns only; exempt vaccinated residents from all domestic restrictions;
• Abolish caps on returning vaccinated Australians; allow increased capped entry of student, economic, and humanitarian visa holders;
• Lift all restrictions on outbound travel for vaccinated Australians; extend travel bubble for unrestricted travel to new candidate countries (Singapore, Pacific); gradual reopening of inward and outward international travel with safe countries.

Phase D: Manage COVID-19 consistent with public health management of other infectious diseases

• Open international borders; minimise cases in the community without ongoing restrictions or lockdowns;
• Allow uncapped inbound arrivals for all vaccinated persons, without quarantine; allow uncapped arrivals of non-vaccinated travellers subject to pre-flight and on arrival testing.