By Simon Smale
Pinned
Today’s case numbers and press conference times
This section will be updated throughout the day. If you don’t see your state or territory yet, don’t worry — press conference times may not be confirmed yet (or there may not be one), and case numbers often filter in through the day.
Victoria
Case numbers: 55 new cases, 49 linked to known outbreaks, 25 in isolation while infectious. Press conference: Watch here.
Queensland
Case numbers: 1. Press conference: Watch here.
New South Wales
Case numbers: 644 new cases, four deaths. Press conference: Watch here.
Northern Territory
Case numbers: 0.
Australian Capital Territory
Case numbers: 12. Press conference: Watch here
Western Australia
Case numbers: 1 (Returned overseas traveller) Press conference: Watch here
Tasmania
Case numbers: 0. Press conference: Watch here via Facebook.
South Australia
Case numbers: 0.
New Zealand
Case numbers: 11. Press conference: Watch here via Ministry of Health New Zealand YouTube.
By Michael Doyle
That is all for the blog today
We have been given our cue to close the blog for today.
It has been another big day on the blog.
A big thank-you to everyone who joined us today.
A special mention to those who are going into this weekend in another lockdown. Many around the country are wishing you the best.
Until next time, stay safe and be well.
By Michael Doyle
By Michael Doyle
By Michael Doyle
Foodbank Victoria closes over safety concern
Foodbank Victoria says police have advised their drive-thru service was an “issue of public safety” after having so many people come to their warehouse.
By Michael Doyle
Yes. There is a curfew in 12 Sydney LGAs
Hello ABC, is there a curfew in Sydney?
-Concerned
From midnight on Monday, August 23, people in the LGAs of Bayside, Blacktown, Burwood, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool, Parramatta, Penrith and Strathfield must stay home between 9:00pm and 5:00am.
By Michael Doyle
Anger as Illawarra region divided in new COVID restrictions
There has been widespread condemnation of the decision to continue to classify Wollongong as part of Greater Sydney amid fears it will divide the community and unnecessarily prolong the lockdown.
The state government revealed on Friday that Shellharbour and the Central Coast would no longer be considered part of Greater Sydney and would instead be classified as part of regional NSW.
The regions are due to come out of lockdown next weekend after the snap one-week lockdown was extended earlier this week.
Wollongong will still be considered part of Greater Sydney, where the lockdown has been extended for another month until the end of September.
“In the short-term, it makes absolutely no difference between the two areas but if circumstances change this is a situation that makes absolutely no sense,” said the Member for Wollongong Paul Scully.
“I have lived in the Illawarra all my life and it has always acted as one economy, one community and for the purposes of COVID we should be one region for any COVID response.”
Reporting by Tim Fernandez.
By Michael Doyle
Concerns Broken Hill case was out in the community
Health authorities in the NSW Far West are worried a new COVID case in Broken Hill may have been infectious in the community for several days before they got tested yesterday.
The Broken Hill resident attended a funeral in Wilcannia last Friday, which the government has warned may develop into a major COVID seeding event for the region.
It is the second case outside the predominantly Aboriginal outback town to be linked to the funeral.
The Broken Hill resident was tested yesterday and is now in isolation, but may have been infectious in the community before then.
Meanwhile in Wilcannia itself, four new cases have been diagnosed, bringing the town’s current total cases to 10, spread across at least five households.
Only about a third of the town’s population has had their first dose of a COVID vaccine.
The Far West Local Health District says four health staff are also in isolation.
Reporting by Bension Siebert.
By Michael Doyle
Number of cases in Sheparton rises to 12
The total number of COVID-19 cases in Shepparton in Victoria’s north has risen to 12.
The regional city’s first case of coronavirus, a man aged in his 30s, was detected this morning.
All of the new cases are family members from two separate households and they are now isolating.
By Michael Doyle
South Australia has no new cases today
By Michael Doyle
By Michael Doyle
A clarification on NSW face masks
McGowan said of NSW “face mask requirements should come in for all areas, not just some LGAs“ I thought the NSW govt announced today that they would be for all areas??
-Masky
Hey blog friend.
You are right. The NSW government has made face masks mandatory for everyone in NSW while they are outdoors, unless they are excercising.
Mr McGowan did say they should have a uniform rule for face masks, but that came after a reporter gave him some wrong information about what the new rules would be.
The gist of his point was he believed the NSW government had not done enough with their measures. Ignore the face mask example which I have now removed form the blog as well.
By Michael Doyle
Bendigo business announces itself as a Victorian exposure site
A business in the regional Victorian city of Bendigo, 120 kilometres south-west of Shepparton, has publicly announced it’s been identified as an exposure site.
The construction equipment supplier, Delecca’s, will be a tier 2 site and a spokesperson for the business said they had been notified today that a positive COVID-19 case had visited on the afternoon of Friday August 13.
The business was notified at lunch time today. All staff are going to get tested and the site is undergoing a deep clean.
The exposure came to light amid after seven positive cases were revealed in Shepparton today.
By Michael Doyle
By Michael Doyle
McGowan says the modelling of the pandemic roadmap will be adjusted as cases rise
WA Premier Mark McGowan said the cases in NSW and Victoria are greater than the modelling in the Doherty Report modelled its assumptions on.
He said the modelling will be reviewed following today’s National Cabinet.
By Michael Doyle
McGowan calls the NSW government measures ‘illogical’ and ‘frustrating’
WA Premier Mark McGowan says the NSW government has been taking “half measures” and would be over this outbreak already if they had followed the lead of other states.
He said requirements should be across the board, not just in certain areas.
“It’s gone on now for two months, whereby they’ve had insufficient measures in place,” he said.
“If they put the right things in place back in June, I suspect they’d be out of it now.
“So now, they continue to do half measures. I don’t understand it. It’s actually illogical.
“It’s so frustrating to watch what they do, the NSW government does. They always put in place half measures.”
By Michael Doyle
NSW will be classified at ‘extreme risk’ to WA on Thursday, August 26
WA Premier Mark McGowan says NSW will be moved to its highest border control classification next Thursday.
This gives people wanting to return to WA from NSW until then to be able to do it, provided they have a negative test and at least one vaccine dose.
Mr McGowan said the “window is closing” for those wanting to return to WA.
“That means West Australians who want to come home need to do so now,” Mr McGowan said.
By Michael Doyle
Mark McGowan is speaking now
By Michael Doyle
New Tier 1 exposure site in Shepparton
Anyone who was at this site at the time stated isolate, get a COVID-19 test, and quarantine for 14 days from the date of exposure.
- Tuesday, August 17, Shepparton Tutoring Centre, 1st Floor, 296 Wyndham Street between 4:00pm and 6:00pm
By Michael Doyle