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NationalCoronavirus pandemic

This was published 5 years ago

As it happened: US death toll surpasses 500,000 as second Pfizer vaccine shipment arrives in Australia; Anthony Albanese receives COVID shot

Marissa Calligeros and David Estcourt
Updated ,first published

Summary

  • Australia’s coronavirus vaccine rollout is ‘going to plan’, says Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd. Flying squads of nurses are travelling around the country to immunise aged care residents, as healthcare workers and quarantine and border staff roll up their sleeves in hospital hubs. Our online calculator will tell you where you are in the vaccine queue.
  • The second batch of Pfizer vaccines - 166,000 doses - arrived in the country on Monday night. Listen to our latest Please Explain podcast: Is the COVID-19 vaccine the beginning of the end?
  • Victoria has recorded no new COVID-19 cases for the fourth day in a row, while Queensland has achieved 47 days straight without a case of community transmission. New South Wales has reached its 37th day without a local case.
  • The coronavirus death toll in the US has passed 500,000, the highest reported of any nation in the world. The lives lost, as recorded by Johns Hopkins University, match the number of Americans killed in World War II, Korea and Vietnam combined.
  • British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has unveiled a four-step plan to ease England’s lockdown by June and also touted plans for a possible ‘vaccine certificate’ to allow entry into pubs, restaurants and offices. 

Goodbye for today

By

That concludes our live coverage of the coronavirus crisis for the day.

Here’s a summary of the major developments:

  • Unemployed Australians will be given a permanent $50-a-fortnight rise to the JobSeeker payment when the coronavirus supplement ends in March, while employers will have the power to dob in anyone refusing a job offer. The federal government said the dole would be lifted to $615.70 a fortnight, or about $44 a day, after March 31, up from the base rate of $565.70 a fortnight;
  • America has now recorded 500,000 deaths from coronavirus although there is hope the worst days of the pandemic may now be over;
  • Victoria has recorded no new local cases of coronavirus for the fourth day in a row and none in hotel quarantine. NSW recorded no new local cases and four in hotel quarantine; and
  • Anzac Day dawn services and marches will return to Queensland on April 25 after COVID-19 restrictions disrupted last year’s events.

‘Historic infection’ recorded in returned diplomat

By Sarah McPhee

A returned diplomat has returned a positive result to COVID-19 as part of mandatory quarantine exit testing, with ACT Health treating it as “consistent with an historic infection”.

Further precautionary tests will be conducted on the man in his 60s, ACT Health said in a statement.According to the department, the result “reflects prolonged shedding of virus fragments”.

“This is known to happen intermittently for up to several months after a person is no longer infectious,” ACT Health said.“We are confident that the individual is not infectious and poses no risk to the community.

“The case will not be added to ACT or Australian infection numbers as it has been previously reported and managed overseas.

‘I feel really confident’: Greens leader Adam Bandt gets Pfizer jab

By Rachel Clun

Greens leader Adam Bandt said it felt good to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

“I feel fine and tell you what certainly feels a lot better than being under lockdown or ending up in hospital,” he said after receiving his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine in Canberra this morning.

Greens leader Adam Bandt receives a COVID-19 vaccination from registered nurse Felicity Manson at the COVID-19 surge centre in Canberra on Tuesday.Alex Ellinghausen

“I feel really confident in Australia, we’ve had the time to get the vaccine through all the usual processes that every vaccine goes through, I think everyone should be absolutely confident that it’s safe.”

For people who are feeling unsure, Mr Bandt said the best person to talk to was their doctor.

“I reckon that they’re going to tell you it’s fine and safe to do and you should do it when you’re asked to do it.”

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Queensland to ‘rapidly return to normal’ as first 200 jabbed

By

Queensland’s Chief Health Officer said there was probably no community transmission circulating in Australia on Tuesday as more than 200 people received their first COVID jab in the state, allowing life to “rapidly return to normal”.

Anzac Day dawn services and marches will return to Queensland on April 25 after commemorations were disrupted last year because of pandemic restrictions.

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Explaining why she had decided to recommended Anzac Day marches were safe to go ahead this year, Jeannette Young said Queensland had seven active cases, compared with more than 270 on April 25 last year.

“We do not have community transmission here in Queensland today, and we probably do not have community transmission anywhere in the country today,” she said.

Read the full story here.

Plans underway to have ‘close to normal’ Anzac Day

By Rachel Eddie and David Estcourt

Plans are underway to make Anzac Day “as close to normal as possible” despite fears the parade will be cancelled in Melbourne for a second year.

Earlier this month, RSL Victoria chief executive officer Jamie Twidale said a parade through the CBD would not be going ahead as a result of COVID-19 restrictions and safety for elderly veterans.

Residents of Clara Street in Macleod, in Melbourne’s north-east, set up a makeshift stage for a dawn service on Anzac Day, 2020.Eddie Jim

Last year, Victorians celebrated the dawn service in their driveways and front yards.

RSL Victoria has said there will be a dawn service this year, but it is not yet clear in what form, and Victorians would nevertheless be encouraged to “light up the dawn” from their driveways again.

Chaos, panic and hope: Wuhan as COVID-19 took hold

By Karl Quinn

Hao Wu is one of three directors of 76 Days, a film about the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, which has made the shortlist of 15 for this year’s best documentary feature Academy Award. While he spent many months working with the other two, he has never met them.

In fact, while Weixi Chen, a video reporter for Esquire China, was happy to go public, the third co-director isn’t even named. A reporter in Wuhan, “Anonymous” fears being identified might not be a great career move.

Exhausted frontline health workers take a breather in a hospital corridor in Wuhan in a scene from the documentary 76 Days.

“A lot of filmmakers who’ve made politically sensitive films, you know you are being watched, and you know you will sometimes be invited to ‘go and have tea’ with the police,” says Wu over a video link from his home in New York. “I’m pretty sure the government is watching me.”

Despite the government’s desire to control the narrative around its handling of the outbreak, and despite the fact the footage only made it out because Wu’s colleagues were able to circumvent the Great Firewall of China, he doesn’t think there’s too much in 76 Days to warrant a summons when he is finally able to return home to visit his family.

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How many people in Australia received their first COVID-19 vaccine dose yesterday?

By Craig Butt

Now that Australia has started its vaccine rollout, it looks like there will be a new daily number to follow - the number of vaccine doses administered nationwide.

This is what we know so far about how many vaccine doses were administered in each state/territory on Monday:

  • New South Wales: about 1300
  • Victoria: 580
  • Queensland: 203

So far today the vaccination tallies have been put out by the state premiers or health departments, and I’ll update this post later if/when other states and territories put out their daily vaccination tallies. But it is my understanding that the federal government will soon start compiling and publishing nationwide figures.

Once we start getting regular data on Australia’s vaccination numbers, we plan to add a new pane to our vaccine tracker dedicated to the country’s progress.

You can check out the current version of this data centre here, which shows the progress other nations are making towards achieving herd immunity.

Victorian courts face 160,000 case backlog

By Michael Fowler

Department of Justice and Community Safety secretary Rebecca Falkingham said Victoria’s courts were dealing with a backlog of 160,000 cases, including 100,000 in the Magistrates Court where most cases are first dealt with.

The Supreme Court of Victoria.Penny Stephens

Almost 15,000 cases in the Children’s Court were awaiting processing as of Tuesday, along with about 10,000 in the County Court, 5000 in the Supreme Court, 23,000 in VCAT and 5000 in the Coroner’s Court.

Ms Falkingham could not state the percentage increase of the backlog compared to before the pandemic. Courts were held up in part by a blockage on many in-person hearings last year.

The Parliament Accounts and Estimates Committee hearings continue with the Justice Department until 12.30pm, followed by the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions from 1.30pm to 4.30pm.

Changes to JobSeeker arrangements

By Katina Curtis

A summary of the changes to JobSeeker payments announced by the Prime Minister today:

  • Increase by $50 a fortnight for 1.95 million people,
  • People allowed to earn $150 a fortnight before payments reduce,
  • Waiver on waiting period will stay in place until the end of June.

Mutual obligations will also be “reinstated and strengthened”:

  • Job seekers must attend face-to-face meetings with employment agencies,
  • Job seekers must apply for 15 jobs a month, then 20 a month from July 1,
  • Job seekers must do intensive training or work experience after six months,
  • New hotline for employers to report to department people who are offered a job and turn it down,
  • Job seekers with online employment services must fill out an online career profile before receiving welfare payments,
  • Government will audit 10 per cent of the caseload of job providers (up from four per cent).
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Craig Kelly’s resignation won’t distract government: PM

By Katina Curtis

Less than an hour after the news broke of Craig Kelly quitting the Liberal Party, Prime Minister Scott Morrison insists nothing will distract him or his government from his promise to save lives and livelihoods.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison.Alex Ellinghausen

“We’ve always remained focused on the task at hand and that continues today, like any other day and will continue into the future,” he said at the outset of his press conference.

Mr Morrison also confirmed the base rate of the JobSeeker unemployment payment will increase by $50 a fortnight. He said the announcement of the increase marked a move from short-term measures to long-term arrangements.

“We are now moving - I said every day would become more normal - back to a normal safety net arrangement is part of that normalising process but we’re ensuring that it is set at a base we believe is appropriate going forward,” he said.

The increase brings the JobSeeker payment to 41.2 per cent of the national minimum wage, “commensurate with what it was during the Howard government”.

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