Australia news LIVE NSW and Victorian COVID-19 cases and exposure sites grow Sydney lockdown extended and masks back on in Melbourne

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Dr Finn Romanes runs Victoria’s Western Public Health Unit and is responsible for contact tracing in the western suburbs of Melbourne, including at the Ariele Apartments and another 16 exposure sites.

Speaking on ABC Radio Melbourne, he said there are 153 close contacts in quarantine at the Maribyrnong apartments, comprised of 121 residents and another 32 people who visited.

The Ariele Apartments building in north-west Melbourne.Credit:Eddie Jim

While the data was still being analysed by public health teams, Dr Romanes told ABC presenter Virginia Trioli that it looked like the period between infections was dropping.

“Clearly, things are moving very fast,” he said.

“Previously we saw, you know, around about three days between each circle of cases developing â€" one group of people would potentially infect another and at about three days later and you would see these cycles or generations of cases.

“Here within this outbreak since the exposures on the eighth [of July] and then the cases first coming to light on Sunday, we’ve got, it’s down to about two days. So it’s moving every couple of days and we’re seeing another ring of cases develop.”

Dr Romanes said it’s really important that everyone in Victoria “doubles down” on safety measures to keep themselves and others safe.

“It’s really important that people wear a mask indoors, including in secondary schools now and outside if you can’t socially distance,” he said.

“It’s crucial people use hand hygiene regularly and check in everywhere ... every time when you’re out and about [and] when you’re at work as well.”

Dr Romanes also urged all Victorians to regularly check the list of exposure sites, and said people being proactive and contacting the Health Department if they had been at a site could save hours and potentially reduce other exposure sites.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he will work with the Victorian government to provide financial support as soon as it’s needed should Melbourne be plunged into a fifth coronavirus lockdown as a result of the Maribyrnong apartment cluster.

During Melbourne’s most recent lockdown, federal government ministers said they were hesitant to bring back the JobKeeper subsidy scheme or increase emergency payments because they didn’t want to encourage further lockdowns and had already provided a lot of Commonwealth support over the past 12 months.

This week, the Morrison government announced a joint package with the NSW government to increase emergency payments for out-of-work employees from $500 to $600 beyond the two weeks of Sydney’s current lockdown.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Credit:Wolter Peeters

Earlier this morning, ABC Radio’s Sabra Lane asked the PM how quickly additional federal assistance would flow to Victoria should Melbourne, or indeed the rest of the state, enter a snap lockdown.

Here’s what the PM had to say:

“Well, we would look to work with [the Victorian state government] to provide that as soon as ... was needed. I mean, we already did that in the last lockdown. The first two weeks of the lockdown in NSW in Sydney â€" it was exactly what we did in those two weeks in Victoria [for Melbourne’s fourth lockdown]. And of course last year, we were putting in three quarters of a billion dollars a week, every week, during the course of that very long lockdown in Melbourne.

“And so, look, I look forward if â€" if â€" Victoria has to go into that situation and let’s hope they don’t ... but if they do, we have models now that can learn quickly. You learn a lot during COVID and you learn how to do things better each time.

“If Victoria goes into this again, I think we’ll have even better arrangements to support them if they have to go into that.

“One of the big challenges is how you deliver that business support. I know there are still people waiting for cheques from the last lockdown.”

Victoria’s daily coronavirus numbers are in.

The state has recorded no new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 overnight. Ten cases were reported in total today, but we already knew about those.

There were also no cases detected in hotel quarantine. As it stands, there are a total of 26 active cases of coronavirus in Victoria.

Those numbers are off the back of 27,061 tests.

Australia is likely to take until 2023 to produce its own messenger RNA vaccines like those from Pfizer and Moderna, as scientists call for a huge federal investment to match countries that already have manufacturing deals.

The federal government is expecting several commercial bids this Friday to build local facilities to produce the mRNA vaccines, but its plans rely heavily on talks with Moderna to lure the US company.

The federal government’s plan to produce mRNA vaccines relies heavily on talks with Moderna to lure the US company.Credit:Getty

Australia is already two months behind other countries in the region in signing a major global partner for local mRNA facilities after Singapore, South Korea and China struck agreements in May for domestic production.

One scientist said the federal government’s funding promises so far were “wildly insufficient” to expand local vaccine research and development to a scale that could attract a company like Moderna.

Read the full story here.

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet was speaking on the ABC’s RN Breakfast earlier this morning.

Host Fran Kelly asked him whether florists or homeware stores are essential services. As you might recall, NSW has had a series of retail exposure sites in recent days (for example, Kmarts and furniture stores).

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet.Credit:Edwina Pickles

The situation is pretty unthinkable for people in, for example, Victoria where a lockdown means most retail stores would close their doors and shift to online delivery. The NSW government says it’s difficult to define what is essential and what isn’t and wants people to use common sense.

“We’re constantly reviewing [the rules],” Mr Perrottet said. “From my perspective, the vast majority of retail should be closed and these are constant discussions that we will have.”

Kelly: “Should a florist be open?”

Perrottet: “There may be a reason as to why they could be deemed to be an essential service. I will make sure this is raised today. But I can assure you that the discussions we have with our health team... we follow their advice in relation to what should be deemed to be an essential service and what their concerns are in relation to what is open.

“I believe, as the Premier has said, the policy settings that we have in place will ensure that we get out of this lockdown as quickly as possible.”

Two new 24-hour testing clinics are operating in the Fairfield area today in Sydney’s west, bringing the total number of 24-hour clinics in Fairfield to three.

NSW Health is scrambling to deal with the demand for swabs after bringing in new mandatory testing rules for locals working outside the virus-ravaged area.

This coronavirus testing clinic at Fairfield, Sydney, now operates 24-hours a day.Credit:Louise Kennerley

An existing drive-through clinic at Fairfield Showground moves to 24-hour operation from 6am today. Another 24-hour clinic is set to open at the Mounties Club car park at Mount Pritchard from 10am. And a 24-hour clinic opened at Endeavour Sports Park on Tuesday morning.

The hours of the Wetherill Park drive-through clinic have also been extended. It now runs from 7am to 10pm.

As we reported yesterday, one of Victoria’s new coronavirus cases is a teacher who works at a school about 60 kilometres north-west of Melbourne but lives in Barwon Heads, close to the regional city of Geelong.

Two members of that teacher’s family, who also live in Barwon Heads, have tested positive. As a result, staff and students at a local primary school on the Bellarine Peninsula have been told to limit their movements.

A parent at Barwon Heads Primary School, Simon Quirk, tweeted on Wednesday night that everyone at the school has been told to isolate and get tested.

Mr Quirk said a testing centre was being set up at the local Country Fire Authority and everyone had been assigned a time to get tested on Friday.

Crossbench Senator Jacqui Lambie was speaking on the Today show earlier this morning.

Here’s what she had to say about the situation Victoria is facing this morning:

Crossbench Senator Jacqui Lambie.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

“Those bloody poor Victorians, I tell you. They must have had a gutful ... to be honest with you.

“We have to get those vaccines moving. People are at the end of their tether. A lot more people wanting to step up to the plate to get those vaccines. It has been bungled the whole way through. They [the federal government] should have had the mRNA ones and I have gone and got my shot. I did that about two weeks ago.

“I thought for goodness sake for the sake of the elderly down here in Tasmania I will bite the bullet. What really annoys me the younger kids will have to ... get the AstraZeneca because we seem to have a heap of them, and line up and do that. We know that that Delta variant really bites. So do they risk taking AstraZeneca to get that availability or do they wait and see whether they catch the Delta strain?

“It is just really not a nice morning. Eighteen months to get their crap together up there in Parliament and still it’s a mess, mate. Absolute mess.”

Monash University Associate Professor James Trauer was speaking on Seven’s Sunrise just moments ago.

He was asked if a snap lockdown is inevitable in Melbourne after Victoria recorded 11 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday.

Associate Professor James Trauer of Monash University. Credit:Scott McNaughton

“It seems likely,” he said.

“We have seen increasing cases over the last few days, more exposure sites every day and we know that if we go early with lockdowns, the earlier we go, the shorter they need to be. We need to get on top of this and we still don’t really understand the scale of the number of cases that have been created at the moment. I would really support an early lockdown.”

A fully vaccinated nurse working on the COVID-19 ward at Sydney’s Westmead Hospital has tested positive to the virus and NSW Health is conducting urgent investigations into the source of the infection.

In a statement, a spokesman for NSW Health said a staff member at the hospital tested positive yesterday during routine surveillance and is now isolating at home. The nurse did not have any symptoms.

A Westmead Hospital nurse has tested positive for COVID-19Credit:Kate Geraghty

“The staff member wore full personal protective equipment at all times while working, as did their colleagues,” the spokesman said.

“There has been no further transmission associated with this case to date.”

Patient care at the hospital has not been impacted and continues as normal.

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