Australia news LIVE NSW records 863 new local COVID-19 cases 15 deaths Victoria records 950 new cases seven deaths Queensland records one new case

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Victoria’s Health Department has been charged over last year’s mistakes in hotel quarantine that drove the state’s deadly second wave of COVID-19.

WorkSafe has charged the Department of Health with 58 breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, alleging the department failed to provide a safe workplace for its employees and failed to ensure people were not exposed to risks to their health and safety.

Hotel workers inside the Stamford Plaza, one of the quarantine hotels that became the site of an outbreak last year.Credit: Getty Images

Set up to prevent COVID-19 from transmitting from overseas arrivals into the community, the department’s hotel quarantine program last year did the opposite, with an inquiry into the failed system linking 783 deaths during the state’s second wave back to the hotels.

In a statement published on Wednesday, WorkSafe alleged the department failed to appoint people with infection prevention and control expertise at the hotels, failed to provide security guards with appropriate infection control training and did not provide, at least initially, written instructions on how to use protective gear.

The department also did not update written instructions about how to wear masks at several of the hotels, WorkSafe said.

Read the full story here.

Walk-ins will be accepted at all Queensland COVID vaccination hubs as the state attempts to ramp up its jab rate.

Queensland has the second-lowest rate of people aged 16 and older double-dosed in the country, with 45.60 per cent fully vaccinated.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced all of the state’s vaccination centres will accept walk-ins.Credit:Matt Dennien

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced that the state’s 80-plus vaccination hubs would allow walk-in jabs from Wednesday, as the state remains on edge amid several new local cases of COVID-19 in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast.

“The more people vaccinated, the safer we will be,” she said, delivering her annual CEDA State of the State address in front of 700 people at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

“Opening hours will be extended into the evening â€" which is logical â€" to cater for tradies and industry who want to come in after work with their families.

“From now on, every weekend is a super Pfizer weekend.”

Read the full story here.

Good afternoon. Megan Gorrey here, I’ve taken over the blog from Broede Carmody to steer you through this afternoon’s developments.

Here’s what you might have missed this morning:

Victoria has recorded 950 new local coronavirus cases and seven deaths. The case numbers are the highest recorded so far in Victoria, and the number of deaths is also the highest recorded in the state this year. There are 371 people in hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 81 are in intensive care and 55 require a ventilator. Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley says the state’s authorities still don’t quite have the supply certainty they need to reduce the timeframe between mRNA vaccine doses down from six weeks. The state has reached its 80 per cent first dose vaccination target. Some outdoor recreational activities (like fishing, boating and golf) are allowed to resume. Five adults from a maximum of two households are now allowed to gather outdoors if they’re fully vaccinated and the 10km travel radius has been extended to 15km. Personal training is also back for small groups if everyone has both jabs. A snap lockdown has been implemented for Gippsland’s Latrobe Valley, in the state’s east.

A COVID-19 outbreak has hit the Melbourne office of the construction union a week after a violent protest was held there, with several staff infected and those in attendance on that day, including union secretary John Setka, forced into self-isolation.

CFMEU secretary John Setka outside the union’s Melbourne headquarters before the protest turned violent.Credit:AAP

NSW recorded 863 new local cases of COVID-19 and 15 deaths, the state’s highest daily number of deaths during the latest outbreak. The state is expected to reach its 90 per cent first dose vaccination target for people aged 16 and older next week. Premier Gladys Berejiklian suggested the reopening of NSW schools could be pulled forward from October 25. She said she would wait a few weeks before raising the possible opening of the NSW-Victoria border with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Thousands of NSW healthcare workers will be placed on unpaid leave if they do not meet tomorrow’s mandatory vaccination deadline. Around 94 per cent of NSW Health’s 140,000 staff have received at least one jab. Residents in the regional areas of Port Macquarie, on the mid north coast, and Muswellbrook, in the upper Hunter, entered a week-long lockdown from 6pm last night.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said some students could return to schools earlier than October 25. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

The ACT recorded 22 new cases of COVID-19. Ten people with the virus are being treated in hospital. About 89 per cent of territory residents aged 12 and older have received their first dose of the vaccine, while 61 per cent are fully-vaccinated. Authorities are concerned about one in 10 people with symptoms are waiting five or more days to get tested. There are 88 “mystery” cases in the capital, while cases have been detected in surrounding regional areas of NSW, including Queanbeyan, Goulburn, the south coast and Snowy Mountains. The ACT is due to emerge from lockdown mid-next month.

In Queensland, the Gold Coast is on high alert after two COVID-positive people were infectious in the community, after the state recorded four new local cases yesterday. Those cases included an aviation worker and his wife, a truck driver and a woman who recently left hotel quarantine. Dozens of Brisbane exposure sites, including a Woolworths and McDonald’s, have been added and mask-wearing rules have returned. This weekend’s NRL grand final will shift to Townsville if Brisbane is sent into lockdown.

The Gold Coast in south-east Queensland is on high alert.Credit:Attila Csaszar

Victorian health authorities have started letting people know they have tested positive for COVID-19 with a text, rather than a call, in areas where there are high virus case numbers.

Health Department Deputy Secretary Kate Matson said the text message included a triage form, which asked a number of questions to help prioritise cases so those at the highest risk could be identified.

Victoria’s Health Department deputy secretary Kate Matson.Credit:Getty

“So we can provide triage and ensure we address with a phone call the highest-risk cases,” Ms Matson said.

“It will ask if anyone at home is being looked after by that confirmed case, such as children or someone with a disability.

“It will ask if that person needs support to help isolate at home, such as groceries, medication or income.

“It will ask if they are vaccinated and we’ll confirm that against our own records, and ask if there’s been any exposures to high-risk settings such as hospital, aged care, childcare, or at the moment, anywhere in regional Victoria.”

Everyone who tests positive will get a phone call following that text message, but the phone calls will be prioritised in order of the highest-risk cases.

Ms Matson said initial interviews with close contacts were now more of a “household interview”, as opposed to one-on-one interviews with every single primary close contact, as was the practice a couple of months ago.

She stressed authorities would always continue to manage and treat differently sensitive settings such as hospitals and aged care facilities.

“Should case numbers increase further, although it’s all in our collective will and efforts to try and maintain them, we will adapt the approach again and again and refine it based on risk,” Ms Matson said.

Victoria’s Health Minister Martin Foley says an investigation is under way after a three-year-old girl went into cardiac arrest in Bendigo, north of Melbourne, and her family waited 1 minute and 41 seconds on hold with triple zero.

Mr Foley said the girl had died.

“[The] ambos and the paramedics … made it as a code one well and truly within the time that they were advised to get there, and I want to thank them for their efforts, but sadly, the young person passed away in their care.”

Mr Foley expressed his deep condolences to the girl’s family and the local community.

“Any death is a tragedy but a death of a young child from a major incident like that is really, really traumatic for everyone involved.

“In terms of the issues at the [Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority] end of things, I understand that that’s under active investigation.”

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley says the state’s authorities are confident that although the health system is under “huge stress”, it “will nonetheless get through”.

A short time ago, Mr Foley was again asked about ambulance “ramping” at Victorian hospitals, with at least 17 ambulances seen outside Northern Hospital on Tuesday evening.

He said the Victorian government had invested “enormous” amounts into the ambulance and hospital system, while “friends at the Commonwealth have reduced their funding” through various governments.

“What we have seen across all of the emergency and health response sectors is an enormous demand, [and] not just COVID demand, which we would expect through the projections to actually increase over the weeks of October,” Mr Foley said.

“The $749 million invested in the May budget, the $300 million in the December budget, [is] all designed to make sure that we get that capacity up.

“The truth of the matter is, we are facing unprecedented levels of demand, and we need to continue to work hard to build our surge capacity.”

Mr Foley said it was within the Victorian community’s grasp to turn modelling around when it came to case numbers, by following public health orders and social distancing.

“The most important thing we can do is to visit our GP, visit our chemist, and visit our [state-run] clinics to get yourself vaccinated.”

The NSW Premier says she will begin talks with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews about reopening the border in a few weeks.

“I’ve been through what he’s going through. It’s very scary when the case numbers are going up. You’re not quite sure when things are peaking,” Gladys Berejiklian said at this morning’s coronavirus update.

“I think he’ll be in a position to have those conversations in a few weeks, so I’ll leave him to manage the delicate situation down there for now.

“It’s fair to say it wasn’t very pleasant when everybody was piling on NSW and I don’t want to inflict that on anyone else.

“All I have is sympathy and empathy for other states going through this.”

The ACT’s daily coronavirus numbers are in.

Canberra has recorded 22 new cases of COVID-19 and one death.

There are now 237 active cases of coronavirus in the ACT and 10 people are in hospital.

Today’s daily tally is up from yesterday’s 13 cases.

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley says the state’s authorities still don’t quite have the supply certainty they need to reduce the timeframe between mRNA vaccine doses down from six weeks.

Speaking during Wednesday’s COVID-19 update, he said: “We will reduce that six weeks down to three weeks the moment we are confident that we’ve got the supply to ... achieve that, so we can bring forward [those] double-dose rates at the earliest possible opportunity.

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley.Credit:Justin McManus

“That requires us to have confirmation of supply over all of October.

“And I can assure you that as recently as last evening, the very productive discussions that we have with senior officials at the Commonwealth reconfirmed that as of last night, we still do not have confirmation of that last week in October.”

Mr Foley said he had seen some “interesting reports” about when the gap between doses would be reduced.

He was asked whether the dose interval would be revised by the end of the week, but refused to say whether that would happen, only reinforcing that authorities had not been able to confirm supply for the last week of October.

“If that advice comes in and we can lock in those changes, we will lock them in the minute we possibly can, because everyone wants to bring forward those double-dose dates,” Mr Foley said.

“But we can’t do it at the expense of cancelling first vaccination programs.”

Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant says NSW should reach its 90 per cent first dose vaccination target for people aged 16 and older by next week.

She said she ultimately wanted the state to reach a double dose vaccination rate of 93 per cent.

“I would genuinely believe that by next week we will see 90 per cent first dose and the question for us as a community is how hard and how high can we go,” Dr Chant said.

“I want to see that first dose continue to increase. I particularly want to call out to the community to really ask your network â€" your social network, who hasn’t been vaccinated and if it is because they haven’t â€" they’re finding it hard to get transport to a location, if they’re finding it hard to navigate a booking system, if they’ve got a disability and are finding it hard to wait online, please help them get a booking.”

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