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

By Dannielle Maguire

Cases, hospitalisations and deaths

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

Can’t see your state? Don’t fret pets! We’ll be updating this post throughout the day as numbers are announced. 

Victoria: 19 deaths and 7,224 new cases. 487 cases are in hospital, 79 of those in ICU

NSW: 32 deaths and 8,183 new cases. 1,650 cases are in hospital, 104 of those in ICU

Tasmania: 456 new cases. 17 cases are in hospital, 1 of those in ICU

Queensland: 13 deaths, 3600 new cases. 508 cases are in hospital, 49 of those in ICU

ACT: 428 new cases. 51 cases are in hospital, three of those in ICU

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Canberra’s check in rules change

As of today, people won’t have to check in at every venue in the ACT. 

But if you’re in our nation’s capital, you’ll still have to check in at places that have been deemed high risk settings like pubs, non-ticketed events, schools and early childhood education centres. 

The businesses that don’t need to display a QR code anymore are still encouraged to keep the signs up, however, for those people who want to check in to keep a record of where they’ve been. 

ACT records 428 new cases 

There are 51 people in hospital with the virus, three of them are in intensive care and one requires ventilation.

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And that’s the Queensland COVID update all wrapped up

There weren’t a lot of COVID questions for Dr Gerrard, who was wearing a high vis vest and a hard hat during the press conference because the update was tacked on to an announcement about a Brisbane infrastructure project and held at a construction site. 

He says the technical issues with the COVID data should be sorted out today, so I’ll keep my eyes peeled for that Queensland Health infographic. 

Queensland’s hospital rate is falling

The state’s Chief Health Officer John Gerrard says the number of people in hospital is continuing to fall, but there’s a bit of lag in the decrease of cases in intensive care. 

There are 508 patients in hostpial with COVID-19, 49 of those in intensive care.

Queensland’s Chief Health Officer is speaking now

John Gerrard says there have been some “technical issues” with data reporting so there’s probably more than the 3,660 new cases.

He says six of the 13 deaths were unvaccinated, two had received one dose, one had received two doses and four had received booster shots. 

Six of the deaths were aged care residents. 

Queensland records 13 deaths, 3660 new cases

Tasmania records 456 new cases

There are 17 COVID patients in hospital, but Tasmania’s Department of Health says only nine are being treated specifically for COVID-19 symptoms.

The other eight cases are being treated for unrelated medical conditions.

There’s one person in intensive care. 

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Looks like things are running a little late in Queensland

We were expecting the press conference to kick off at 8.30am AEST, but we’re yet to see any action. 

We’re standing by for the Queensland COVID update

Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick and Chief Health Officer John Gerrard are due to speak in a few minutes. 

We’re expecting a bit of a mish mash of COVID and non-COVID news in this press conference. 

But because this is a COVID blog, we’re only going to focus on the COVID news. 

NSW records 32 deaths, 8,183 new cases

There are 1,650 COVID patients in hospital, with 104 of those in intensive care.

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Victoria records 19 deaths, 7,224 new cases

There are 487people in hospital, with 79 in intensive care and 20 on ventilators. 

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Is our health system set up to deal with long COVID?

Steven Faux, the director of the rehabilitation unit at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital, doesn’t think so. 

Well, not yet at least. 

“When the pandemic started, all the resources went into the front end – get people to survive, get them into hospital as soon as possible,” he said.

“Now that we’ve got long COVID and we are actually managing long length stays in our hospitals now.

“We can’t get people out of hospitals because our nursing homes are affected and all sorts of things – we are not getting the resources shifted into the post-acute or the long acute areas.”

He says experts are expecting public hospitals will see at least 100 new patients with long COVID each year and hospitals need to be ready for that. 

“We need cooperation between the federal department and the state departments because the federal department pay for the GPs, and the GPs are already struggling giving injections and now they’ve got to look after a whole new cohort of people,” he said.

“So, we need cooperation like we had at the [start of the pandemic] and that has stopped.”

Can kids get long COVID?

Associate Professor Faux pointed out the WHO’s definition of long COVID doesn’t apply to children. 

“I don’t really know why except to say there hasn’t been that many cases and so the research isn’t as robust,” he said. 

Let’s talk long COVID

Steven Faux, who is the director of the rehabilitation unit at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, has been speaking to Weekend Breakfast about the disease. 

He says that, essentially, long COVID is where symptoms persist for longer than three months. 

“There is some data that up to 46 per cent of people with mild COVID will have some symptoms beyond three months,” he said. 

He says there’s a whole bunch of risk factors for long COVID like being overweight and being immunocompromised, and it’s more common in women. 

It’s also more common in people who have been hospitalised with COVID. 

“Like anything, the healthier you are, the better your chances of not having it,” he said.

“And if you have chronic conditions, you have a greater risk.”

Pop-up vaccine hub at the footy 

NSW Health will be running a walk-in vaccine clinic at the NRL All Stars clash in Syndey this evening. 

The hub will be inside CommBank Stadium and be operating from 4pm to 8pm. 

With at least 25,000 footy fans set to fill the stadium, it’s hoped a whole bunch of doses will be administered tonight. 

And, just as a reminder, people aged 16 and up are eligible for the booster shot if it’s been at least three months since their second dose. 

Concerns NT COVID deaths are going unreported

The head of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress is calling for a broad review of recent deaths in Central Australia, over concerns some COVID-related fatalities may have been overlooked.

It comes after the Northern Territory recorded four COVID-related deaths this week, including two in Alice Springs which weren’t publically announced until days later. 

Central Australian Aboriginal Congress’ Donna Ah Chee says there needs to be an independent medical review of all deaths in Central Australia to determine whether any were COVD related. 

Bess Price’s brother Jungarrayi died from COVID on Monday, but his death wasn’t reported until yesterday.  

She says the NT government needs to explain what’s going on.

“They want to pretend that nothing is happening, no Aboriginal people are dying out there of COVID … they want to keep it quiet.

“I am very angry and want answers I want answers from the Chief Minister Michael Gunner and the Health Minister.”