Live: Get up to speed on all the coronavirus news from across Australia

By Michael Doyle

Cases, hospitalisations and deaths

If you don’t see your state or territory yet, don’t worry – these numbers are updated throughout the day.

For a detailed breakdown of cases across the country, check out Charting the Spread.

NSW: 21,030 new cases, 2,794 people in hospital, 175 in ICU, 29 deaths.

VIC: 13,507 new cases, 1,089 people in hospital, 113 in ICU, 35 deaths.

QLD: 13,551 new cases, 889 people in hospital, 47 in ICU, nine deaths. Watch the press conference here

TAS: 712 new cases, 11 people in hospital, two in ICU, one death.

ACT: 896 new cases, 67 people in hospital, five in ICU.

NT: 492 new cases, 84 people in hospital, three in ICU.

WA: 24 new cases. 

SA: 2.401 new cases, 288 in hospital, 26 in ICU, 13 deaths

With COVID spreading in regional WA, rangers are ready to assist

Early in the COVID pandemic, a group of Noongar rangers swapped their usual duties to help elderly and vulnerable people left stranded and unsure of where their next meal would come from.

With COVID once again spreading in regional WA, the rangers are prepared to assist again.

In 2020, the Badgebup Aboriginal Corporation was called upon by the Katanning Shire to deliver essential household goods to elders and others in need throughout the district.

“We helped in towns delivering food, wood, helping people in their day-to-day,” leading ranger John Rod says.

“We were the only crew that were doing any help in the Gnowangerup and Tambellup areas [in 2020] and since then we’ve grown it to help more people.

“The Noongar community and other communities in our towns aren’t getting help from bigger places.”

Read the full story.

More on those figures out of SA

As we heard during that earlier press conference, the state recorded 2,401 new cases of COVID-19 and 13 deaths.

SA’s Department of Health has now released further details:

• The COVID fatalities include a woman in her 50s, a woman in her 60s, a man and a woman in their 70s, a man and four women in their 80s and two men and two women in their 90s
• The deaths include reconciled data of death notifications from the last to weeks
• There are 288 people with COVID in hospital, including 26 in ICUs and four requiring a ventilator
• Of those hospitalised, 170 people are fully vaccinated, 44 people are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated and 74 have an unknown vaccination status

Australian navy ship docks in Tonga, supplies delivered without contact to avoid COVID transmission

Tonga has allowed an Australian navy ship to dock and offload essential supplies, despite defence members testing positive to COVID-19.  

Twenty-three personnel on HMAS Adelaide have the virus, and Tonga is currently COVID free. 

The ship was allowed to dock today and offload humanitarian and medical supplies.

In a statement, Foreign Minister Marise Payne says the process has been entirely contactless to avoid transmission. 

Massage therapist banned from giving advice about COVID-19 and vaccination

A woman offering massage and homeopathy services in South Australia’s north has been banned from providing COVID-19 vaccination advice after posting misinformation online.

Monika Milka, who offers her services in Gawler, has been banned indefinitely following an investigation by the Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner (HSCC) Associate Professor Grant Davies.

The investigation was launched following a complaint about false statements posted on Ms Milka’s business Facebook page about COVID-19 and vaccines between June and July last year.

Ms Milka has been banned from providing health services regarding information about COVID-19 and vaccines, and from providing advice in relation to vaccinations generally.

Read the full story.

Pfizer begins testing Omicron-specific COVID shots in adults

Pfizer is enrolling healthy adults to test a reformulated COVID-19 vaccine that it says matches the hugely contagious Omicron variant, to see how it compares with the original shots.

Pfizer and its partner BioNTech announced the study on Tuesday (local time).

The new US study will include up to 1,420 volunteers aged 18 to 55 to test the updated Omicron-based shots for use as a booster or for primary vaccinations.

Researchers will examine the tweaked vaccine’s safety and how it revs up the immune system in comparison to the original shots.

It will be months before the full study results are known because volunteers will receive multiple vaccine doses and researchers will measure how long virus-fighting antibodies will remain at high levels after an omicron-adapted dose compared to a regular booster.

“We recognise the need to be prepared in the event this protection wanes over time and to potentially help address Omicron and new variants in the future,” Kathrin Jansen, Pfizer’s vaccine research chief, said in a statement.

AP

More on those figures out of WA

As we heard during that earlier press conference, the state has recorded 24 new local cases of COVID-19.

WA’s Department of Health has now released further details:

• Nine of the new cases are linked to the growing Bunbury cluster, which now numbers 17
• In total, 13 workers at a South West construction site have tested positive. Four close contacts of workers have also tested positive
• Of the 99 close and casual contacts identified on site, 12 have tested positive, a further 73 have returned a negative result, with an additional 14 either with results pending or yet to be tested
• Many are believed to have been infectious while in the community

“The source remains under investigation by the WA Health contact and trace team,” the department said in a statement.

“This cluster is expected to grow in coming days.”

Known clusters

• Two are close contacts of the Coolbellup cluster, including one household contact
• Two are connected to IGA Willagee
• Three are a close contact of the Safety Bay cluster
• Two are close contacts of the Haynes cluster

Other new cases

• One is linked to a Mandurah exposure site
• One is a household contact of previously notified hotel security guard
• Two are household contacts of confirmed cases who had unknown sources in recent days (residing in Perth Hills, and Rockingham area respectively)
• Two are from an unknown source
  • One in the Rockingham area, remains under investigation
  • One in the Wheatbelt, unknown source but has spent time in the Southwest and remains under investigation

Today’s figures bring WA’s total number of COVID-19 cases to 1,442.

Darwin mental health ward becomes ‘red zone’ after positive COVID cases

Of the 492 cases recorded in the NT today, two were recorded in the mental health ward at Royal Darwin Hospital.

NT Health Minister Natasha Fyles said authorities would treat the facility as a “red zone”.

“What it means is that we are minimising the contact within those wards and we’re also making sure staff are wearing the appropriate PPE, and then we’re utilising other parts of the hospital,” she said.

“We’ve got further areas [where] we can care for people with mental illness that stops them potentially coming into contact with people on those wards already.”

South Korea reduces quarantine periods, expands rapid testing

South Korea has begun enforcing new COVID-19 response measures, including reduced quarantine periods and expanded rapid testing.

The change came as the nation’s new cases jumped nearly 50 per cent in a day.

The 13,012 new cases were 4,400 more than the previous single-day high of 8,571 set on Tuesday.

South Korean officials say their early analysis suggests Omicron spreads more than twice as fast as the Delta variant — which saw the country’s hospitalisations and fatalities spike during a devastating winter surge — but it is also significantly less likely to cause serious illness or death.

Starting today, the quarantine period for those who test positive after being fully vaccinated has been reduced from 10 days to seven days.

Fully vaccinated people who come in close contact with positive cases will no longer be quarantined, but they will be required to report their daily health conditions to health officials before being tested within six or seven days.

Officials are also planning to treat most mild cases at home and reshape a testing regime that had been centered around PCR tests, which will now be saved mostly for people in their 60s and older or those with pre-existing medical conditions. 

‘There’s the concern that some people will not fair well’

Locals on the Pacific Island nation of Palau say they are deeply fearful as COVID cases there surge.

The country is battling its first outbreak since the pandemic began, with nearly 700 infections.

There are around 20,000 people on the island and resident Michelle says there is concern everyone will catch it.

“If you come from a small country and you listen to the news, for example in Melbourne or Australia where there’s 20,000 cases a day, [it is worrying].

“So that’s a huge concern because with COVID there’s the concern that some people will not fair well and possibly pass from the disease. Its scary.”

COVID-19 vaccine booster drive faltering in US

The COVID-19 booster drive in the US is losing steam, worrying health experts who have pleaded with Americans to get an extra shot to shore up their protection against the highly contagious Omicron variant.

Just 40 per cent of fully vaccinated Americans have received a booster dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And the average number of booster shots dispensed per day in the US has plummeted from a peak of 1 million in early December to about 490,000 as of last week.

Overall, the US vaccination campaign has been sluggish. More than 13 months after it began, just 63 per cent of Americans, or 210 million people, are fully vaccinated with the initial rounds of shots. 

AP

‘We don’t want to have delays to elective surgery for one day longer than we need to’

That’s according to SA Premier Steven Marshall.

He says the Omicron outbreak appears to have peaked in SA, and the state can look to ease elective surgery restrictions. 

“I think we are at or past that peak in South Australia at the moment.

“We have got really good capacity within our hospital system.

“We don’t want to have delays to elective surgery in our state for one day longer than we need to.”

COVID-positive disability workers approved to do shifts

Victoria’s COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar says authorities are hopeful the state has hit the “high point” of the Omicron wave, noting hospitalisations are still “fairly stable”.

The state’s healthcare system is in the midst of a Code Brown emergency, which allows hospitals to cancel leave for staff and adopt more flexible workflows to cater for a critical surge in patient admissions.

Mr Weimar said three disability support workers in western Victoria who were COVID-positive were recently given approval to provide care to residents of a private home, all of whom were also infected with the virus.

He said it was the only approval or exemption he was aware of which allowed healthcare or disability workers with active infections to work shifts.

He said the positive staff, who were asymptomatic, had longstanding relationships with the COVID-positive residents and had applied for an exemption so they could continue to provide care while infected.

He said a lot of time and thought went into the exemption, which was granted due to the “exceptional” circumstances.

“Given it was a private home with only COVID-positive people in it and everybody was aware of that setting, on that one occasion our Deputy Chief Health Officer made the decision to allow that arrangement, given the controls were in place,” he said.

Reporting by Joseph Dunstan

UK research indicates healthcare workers and households with children most likely to catch COVID multiple times

Researchers in the UK have found that two-thirds of people recently infected with the Omicron variant say they have had COVID-19 before.

The findings come from a large, continuing study, with more than 2 million people tested.

The results reveal the groups that appear to be more likely to catch COVID-19 again are healthcare workers and households with children.

Questions from the audience

Do we know how many tests were conducted in WA?

-Nic Davison

Afternoon, Nic.

WA Premier Mark McGowan said the number of tests had dropped to 8,368 yesterday, down from more than 9,000 the previous day.

Some fast facts out of Victoria

The Victorian Department of Health has released today’s COVID-19 data, which provides a breakdown of testing and vaccination figures.

Of those who reported a positive result from a rapid antigen test yesterday:

• About 63 per cent were from tests undertaken yesterday (January 25)
• About 21 per cent were from tests undertaken on January 24

Unfortunately, as we heard earlier this morning, the state recorded 35 deaths:

• They included people aged in their 40s, 50s, 70s, 80s and 90s
• It was the highest number of deaths reported so far during the Delta and Omicron outbreaks
• Twenty-one of these deaths occurred during the past two days
• This brings the total number of deaths in Victoria since the pandemic began to 1,885

The majority of people with COVID-19 who have died during the Delta and Omicron outbreaks have been unvaccinated:

• 53 per cent of people who died were unvaccinated compared to 1.7 per cent who had received three doses of a vaccine
• People protected with three doses made up 7 per cent of all confirmed cases diagnosed with COVID-19 over the last week. They make up more than a third of the general adult population

Union worried WA industrial sites are ill prepared

The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union of WA says it’s worried industrial sites don’t have appropriate COVID plans in place, following workers at a processing plant testing positive on the weekend.

 Nine of today’s new cases are part of a cluster tied to a lithium plant being constructed near Bunbury in WA’s South West.

Union state secretary Steve McCartney says with members going home for the public holiday today, there are concerns the virus could spread to their families.

“That concerns us, the lack of information going to our members, and the fact that they have to think about, are they infecting their workmates next door? And could they possibly infect their family when they go home? And with a holiday today [it] could pose a bigger event in the South West,” he said.

Looking to get tested in the ACT?

What are the rules for close contacts in Queensland?

What are the current rules for household contacts of cases in qld please? Are they all supposed to isolate for 7 days or is a neg RAT ok to go?

-Asking for a friend

Hello blog friend.

A close contact’s quarantine period is defined as:

• starting when they are informed or become aware they are a close contact of a diagnosed person
• ending after 7 days from the date the diagnosed person took the initial test that returned a positive result (provided the close contact has no symptoms and a test on Day 6 of their quarantine returns a negative result).

There are exemptions for critically essential workers. These exemptions can be found by clicking here.

Missed those COVID updates out of SA and WA?

There was a bit going on there, so let’s recap the main events.

South Australia:

• Thirteen people with COVID-19 have died, the highest number since the start of the pandemic

• Premier Steven Marshall said seven deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours, with the remaining six added to the numbers after a reconciliation of deaths in aged care

• The state has recorded 2,401 cases, an increase on yesterday

• The number of active cases continues to decline, and is currently at 26,574

• A total of 288 people are in hospital, with 26 in Intensive Care Units and four on ventilators

Read the full story.

Western Australia:

• The state recorded 24 new local COVID-19 cases

• Premier Mark McGowan said nine of the new cases are part of a Bunbury cluster that has involved a lithium plant being constructed near Bunbury in WA’s South West

• The remaining new cases are from the Perth metropolitan area

Read the full story.