Live: All the coronavirus news you need in the one place

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: 14 deaths and 7,437 new cases; 2,099 people in hospital, including 137 in ICU

VIC: 7 deaths and 8,275 new cases; 638 people in hospital, including 72 in ICU

TAS: 0 deaths and 443 new cases; 15 people in hospital, including 1 in ICU

Two can play the poem game

I opened up the blog today,

An no Gif did I see,

Might not matter much to u,

But means a lot to me.

I need a smile to start my day,

So search an post one please,

Gif the gif or live with know,

U sadden not just me….

Happy to resort to guilt tripping. Thanks for blog anyway, stay safe an have good day!

-Rural Vic

I tried something new today

And was quickly shouted down

Readers called me everything

From a disappointment to a clown

I try my best to give the news

For those in cities and rural Vic

But my loyal readers now demand 

It’s time to #CancelMick.

TAS: 443 new cases and no deaths

Tasmania has recorded 443 new COVID cases but no new deaths.

There is one person in ICU.

Fifteen people are in hospital with COVID, with eight patients being treated specifically for their coronavirus symptoms — a slight rise from yesterday.

Active cases in the state continue to drop and now sit at 3,359.

There was one COVID-related death yesterday — an 89-year-old man in a residential care facility with underlying medical conditions.

Victoria press conference

I love your blog. Do have the time for the Vic. Govt press conference this morning?

-isabella20P

And I love all of you. 

I do have a time but I don’t know if it will be COVID-19 related. 

Education Minister James Merlino, and North Melbourne AFLW Captain Emma Kearney will make an announcement at 10:30am AEDT.

VIC: Vaccine stats for Victoria 

The Victorian government is reporting 45 per cent of people aged 18 and over have received three doses of the vaccine. 

Those aged 12 and over who have received two doses is at 93 per cent. 

There were 13,486 vaccines administered yesterday.

NSW: Vaccine stats from New South Wales

• 95.5 per cent of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
• 94.1 per cent of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine
• 43.8 per cent of people have had three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine*
• 83.4 per cent of people aged 12-15 have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
• 78.7 per cent of people aged 12-15 have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine
• 43.1 per cent of people aged 5-11 have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine

Officials warn ‘unboosted’ grandparents at risk as Qld children return to school

More than half a million state school students are heading back to Queensland classrooms today after a COVID-delayed start to the new school year.

Queensland’s Chief Health Officer John Gerrard expects daily case numbers to rise despite measures imposed in schools to limit the spread of Omicron.

But he doesn’t expect large numbers of children to be hospitalised — instead, officials are more concerned about the risk to grandparents.

“The bigger risk in terms of hospitalisations is more the child bringing the virus home to the parents and grandparents, particularly if the grandparents aren’t boosted,” he said.

As of February 6, only 39 per cent of Queenslanders aged 16 and over had received their third dose, according to the ABC’s vaccine tracker.

Dr Gerrard said 268 Queenslanders have died since the state’s borders opened on December 13.

“Most of the deaths are we are seeing in Queensland are in the unboosted older age group, so unboosted older Queenslanders are at the highest risk of death,” he said.

Reporting by Hilary Whiteman and Emma Pollard.

What’s with the lack of a GIF?

Morning Mick, hope you’re well, no greeting gif today?

-Vicky

I’ll be honest. I was curious to see if anyone noticed. 

Tourism industry ‘needs warning’ before opening up

The tourism industry needs a few weeks’ notice to get prepared for the return of international travellers, the chief executive of the Tourism and Transport Forum said.

Margy Osmond told News Breakfast the industry would need a heads-up before the international borders reopened. 

“We’d like a couple of weeks at least. That would be good,” she said.

“You don’t just turn the tap back on. We have to get our airports ready to roll.

“You know, it takes a while to get cruise ships happening again. So we just need to get some time and warning so that we can be organised.”

Expert says booster shots are vital to lowering death rate

A leading expert in immunisation says the COVID booster shot is crucial to reduce the high death rate in Australia.

The NSW government is today launching an advertising campaign to try to increase the uptake of COVID-19 booster shots.

Forty-four per cent of people aged 16 and over in NSW have had their COVID-19 booster.

Professor Stephen Booy from the Immunisation Coalition says there have been up to one hundred deaths a day for weeks across the country.

“So many deaths occur even a month or six weeks after first being infected so we’re still seeing the after effects of Delta in December and still the effects of Omicron in unvaccinated people,” he said.

Tax deductible RATs for work

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says RATs could soon be claimed on tax.

Speaking on News Breakfast this morning, Mr Frydenberg said the tests were only tax-deductible if they were for work.

“This starts for this financial year that we’re in so if an individual uses a COVID test for work-related purposes — so for example a retail worker goes and gets tested before they turn up at work — then that will be tax deductible for them,” he said.

“We’re ensuring that for businesses that provide tests to staff, that they’re exempt from fringe benefits tax.”

Expert questions necessity of vaccine passports

Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Melbourne, Tony Blakely, has advocated for a more relaxed approach to the virus, while having practices in place for another variant. 

He told News Breakfast this morning he did not think people needed a vaccine passport to “go to the pub”.

“I think we’re heading into the phase now where we don’t need them in place but we need the systems. We need the planning, so we can turn it on within days if a new variant of concern arises,” he said. 

Some elective surgery returns to Victoria

Elective surgery resumes in Victoria today in a limited capacity after being suspended since early January.

The Health Department said procedures would be limited to day surgery at private hospitals and day procedure centres at up to 50 per cent of normal levels. 

Elective surgeries have been cleared to resume because the seven-day average for COVID-19 hospitalisations in Victoria has dropped from 1,000 to fewer than 800 cases. 

Yesterday, the state announced its lowest daily case count in over a month, with 7,169 new infections detected. 

The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 fell again, to 652 patients, while the number of active cases fell to 60,917.