Prime Minister Scott Morrison says state and territory governments have agreed “in principle” to a vaccination target plan at today’s National Cabinet meeting.

Here are the key COVID updates from Friday: 

Look back on all of Friday’s COVID-19 updates as they happened.

Live updates

By Nicholas McElroy

Pinned

By Kelsie Iorio

That’s all we have time for

Stay up to date overnight here and here, and we’ll be back next time with more blog.

By Kelsie Iorio

Latest on Mooney Valley testing site case – details still unknown

Direct from the Victorian CHO: 

Public health officials continue to investigate the positive case who worked at the Moonee Valley testing site. Genomic testing has linked this case to the current Delta variant outbreaks but the source of infection is still not known. The case’s work colleagues and household contacts are being tested. Residents in the Newport apartment complex that the case visited have been contacted and all primary close contacts within the building have been tested.

By Kelsie Iorio

Some extracts of ~ the plan ~ 

The new version doesn’t look like it’s been updated on the PMC website yet, and I don’t know if that’s going to take five minutes or five hours or five days. Instead, here’s a hopefully-more-readable basic version of the phases: 

A. Current Phase: Vaccinate, Prepare and Pilot* — Continue to strongly suppress the virus for the purpose of minimising community transmission

“*No jurisdiction required to increase restrictions beyond current settings”

And when we hit 70% of double-dose vaccination we can go to: 

B. Vaccination Transition Phase — Seek to minimise serious illness, hospitalisation and fatality as a result of COVID-19 with low level restrictions 

Then we have to hit 80% of double-dose vaccination before we can move to: 

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

Before the elusive: 

D. Final Post-Vaccination Phase — Manage COVID-19 consistent with public health management of other infectious diseases

And you can read more on how all of this works here.

By Kelsie Iorio

Still trying to find a zoom-able version of ~ the plan ~

Thought I’d found it — but the old plan looks SO much like the new plan. New plan still to come.

By Kelsie Iorio

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.

Here’s Scott Morrison talking about ~ the plan ~.

By Kelsie Iorio

WA will lock down if it needs to lock down, Premier says

Under the measures agreed to at National Cabinet today, lockdowns would only be used where strictly necessary once 70 per cent of the population has been vaccinated.

But Mark McGowan said that wouldn’t necessarily change WA’s approach.

“Lockdowns would still be possible where needed, so it has the ability for that to take place, and we all agree on that,” he said.

“Lockdowns are, really, until we’re all vaccinated, the only thing that works.

“When we hit the 80 per cent mark, lockdowns would only be for unusual circumstances in specific locations, but 80 per cent vaccination is very high.”

By Kelsie Iorio

~ The plan ~

By Kelsie Iorio

By Kelsie Iorio

More from the WA Premier

Mark McGowan says ships will be blocked from entering West Australia ports unless they meet strict new rules that apply if they have come from “high risk” countries.

The Premier admitted the measures were “robust and draconian” but said they were necessary to protect the people of Western Australia. 

Rolling coverage from WA here.

By Kelsie Iorio

Indooroopilly State High will close completely for two weeks 

Which makes sense, because the whole thing’s been listed as a close contact exposure site — so that’s a lot of people quarantining.

Here’s Queensland reporter Elizabeth Cramsie

Thousands of students at Indooroopilly State High School will have to isolate for the next 14 days after a student at the school tested positive to the virus.

The school will be closed for the next two weeks, instead operating as a pop up testing clinic. The facility is now listed as a close contact exposure site for anyone who was there on Tuesday between 8am and 10am, and from 8am to 3:30pm on Wednesday.

Those people are required to isolate, get tested and continue isolating for 14 days even if they return a negative result. Staff from several universities were in isolation today after attending an expo at the school last night.

By Kelsie Iorio

By Kelsie Iorio

So we’re aiming for 70% vaccination of eligible population

We’re dissecting the numbers here in more detail, but for a rough idea of what 100% looks like, here’s the latest from the ABC’s Digital Story Innovation Team who have been charting the vaccine rollout:

At our current pace of 1,173,123 doses a week, we can expect to reach the 40 million doses needed to fully vaccinate Australia’s adult population in mid January 2022.

The program has picked up pace since local outbreaks in multiple states plunged millions into lockdown. It took 6 days to increase total doses from 10 million to 11 million, compared with 45 days to deliver the first one million doses, 20 days to reach 2 million total doses and 17 days to reach 3 million total doses.

So far, 12,005,978 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been delivered across the country.

By Kelsie Iorio

Tasmanians over 30 can book COVID vaccinations from tomorrow

What excellent timing to help you “get the job done” in the words of the Prime Minister. 

Premier Peter Gutwein attended the national cabinet this afternoon and says Tasmania has agreed to the four-step roadmap that we’ve just heard about.

Tasmania will form a working group with the Northern Territory and Victoria as part of the plan.

Mr Gutwein says the way out of COVID will only be possible with higher vaccination rates.

By Kelsie Iorio

Press conference finished

His final comment: 

“So what we’ve all agreed — premiers, chief ministers and I — is on the road back the targets that will get us there and we’ve agreed that the way we get there is Australians, one by one, family by family, community by community, going out there, getting vaccinated, getting the job done.”

By Kelsie Iorio

Is it realistic to aim for 70% vaccination rates in Australia? 

Mr Morrison says he believes we can get there “by the end of the year“.

“The UK has got there. Israel has got there. We’ve actually delivered and administered more vaccines than the state of Israel now in volume terms. So I believe we can get this done, but it’s not something that any one government, any one vaccination clinic, any one Australian, can achieve on their own.

“It’s done as a team effort. We are seeing our Olympians show that team spirit over there in Tokyo, and we will hit these targets with what I believe will be a gold medal run to the end of the year.”

By Kelsie Iorio

Army on one side, beach visits on the other? 

REPORTER: At the weekend we are going to start to see the army helping with that compliance effort, in particularly the west of Sydney, while in other parts of the city residents, say, in the eastern suburbs, enjoy a bit more freedom in terms of being able to go to the beach – what’s your message to those people who will be in the more locked-down areas, as they’re watching this unfold, and do you expect that it could cause some distress?

MORRISON: Well, Operation COVID Assist is there to support the efforts of NSW right across the city, and where they’re deployed, that is being done under the direction, I should stress, of the Police Commissioner, Mick Fuller in NSW, and they work under that command and they are supporting the effort of the authorised officers.

I want to be very clear about this. ADF personnel are not authorised law enforcement officers in New South Wales. The sworn officers are those who are in New South Wales. ADF are there to support and assist, as they successfully did during the lockdown in Victoria over many months last year. They did many tasks, from driving vehicles to supporting logistics, to assisting in communities by checking on the welfare of people, checking in on people’s isolation. They do a vast array of tasks and New South Wales will get as much ADF assistance as they request and I’m very pleased that that request has finally been made of the NSW government and we’re moving very quickly to have those ADF officers and others involved as quickly as possible.

By Kelsie Iorio

What if someone was vaccinated overseas with a vaccine not recognised in Australia?

“Well, when I talk about people who are vaccinated entering Australia, they would have to be vaccinated with a vaccine that is recognised in Australia,” Scott Morrison says.

But he adds that it’s hoped that vaccines like Moderna and Novavax will be recognised in Australia at some stage.

By Kelsie Iorio

So why don’t we have a timeline on this? 

Because it’s all up to us as Australians, Morrison says.

“We haven’t put timelines on this because the timelines are now in the hands of all Australians together with state and territory governments and the federal government.

We get there when we get there and I hope we get there as soon as we can and the more people who go forward to get these vaccinations. For example, the walk-in AstraZeneca clinics, I’ve been greatly encouraged by the increase in the take-up of the AZ vaccine, particularly in the past month. We have seen those rates, particularly under the age of 40 and particularly in New South Wales, but we’ve seen it in other states and territories as well, and seeing an increasing rate of vaccination with the AZ, AstraZeneca, vaccine in those aged over 50. So we welcome that, we think that’s great.

“If you want to get vaccinated, the AZ vaccine is there for you, it is a highly effective vaccine, as we’ve seen all around the world. It’s how the United Kingdom have got to their 70% substantially and so many other countries as well, but it is the most recognised COVID-19 vaccine in the world, and it is there and available to boost the vaccination efforts right across the country.”

So does the PM think we’ll get to the next phase by the end of the year? 

“We’re not going to set timetables on it. I would hope so but that is entirely up to how the nation responds to this challenge we’re setting for ourselves, for each and every one of us. There will certainly be the supply and the distribution and the opportunity to do that. But whether that is achieved is up to all of us.”

Well, you heard the man. If we don’t get there, it’s our own fault.

By Kelsie Iorio

How’s about those short sharp lockdowns?

REPORTER: You said there was a clear learning about the importance of short, sharp lockdowns in tackling Delta. Do you now regret applauding Premier Gladys Berejiklian last month when case numbers were rising?

MORRISON: People were acting on the information they had. No one has perfect hindsight over these issues and the Delta strain is a strain that we’ve sought to understand and learn and react to and respond to. So those who have had to make those decisions have made decisions, I think, in the best interests of their state and on the best possible advice they had available to them, and I’m in no different situation to that. But I tell you what, we all humbly learn from these things and we make the adjustments and get on with it.