Australia news LIVE NSW records 110 new local COVID-19 cases as Victoria records 22 local cases Orange SA begin first day of lockdown

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NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is due to provide her state’s coronavirus update from 11am AEST.

In Victoria, Health Minister Martin Foley is speaking from 11.30am AEST.

Meanwhile, in South Australia, Premier Steven Marshall is due to front the press at the same time as his Victorian colleagues.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard says Sydney doesn’t have enough GPs to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine, calling on the federal government to help.

He said despite a shortage of the Pfizer vaccine, there was “plenty” of AstraZeneca available.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

“There are not enough GPs to actually give the AstraZeneca,” he said. “There is plenty of AstraZeneca around both for GPs and our state hubs.”

Mr Hazzard said the difference in mortality rates for people infected with COVID-19 between vaccinated and unvaccinated people showed the huge benefits of getting the jab.

“I want to remind people that if you’re over 60, if you get COVID, you have a one in 200 chance of dying,” he said.

“If you’re over 50, you have a one in 500 chance of dying if you got the COVID virus. If you have the vaccine, you have a 1 in 2 million chance of actually dying, so the odds are with you.

“You can take a bet on TAB and you’d be doing far better if you’d had the vaccine.”

Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton has admitted that the 22 new local cases in Victoria was a “big number” but that all of those people isolating throughout their infectious period was comforting to health authorities.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said cases were increasingly in isolation while infectious.Credit:Eddie Jim

“That speaks to the Delta variant,” he said.“Can you imagine what situation we could be in if we hadn’t locked down.

“Even though it’s a big number it’s very encouraging to see people [spending] their entire infectious period at home so you know, I’m confident that this is going in the right direction.”

Professor Sutton said that health authorities are looking at ways to assist the ailing events industry open back up again, including the rapid testing model used at Wimbledon.

He said though the rapid testing model wasn’t perfect, it’s a “real game-changer”.

“[But] it’s not a perfect test,” he added.

The Victorian government will offer an additional $282.5 million in new cash grants for 90,000 businesses hit hard by the current lockdown.

It brings the total support offered to Victorian businesses to $484.3 million over the 12 days.

Victoria’s Tourism Minister Martin Pakula.Credit:Eddie Jim

Minister for Industry Support and Recovery Martin Pakula says the government will also establish a concierge service for small businesses to access the Commonwealth support on offer.

Alpine businesses that rely on the snow season will also be singled out for support by the government.

“We recognise that the snow season is a relatively short period of time and so any impacts during that season has a proportionately greater impact on businesses in the alpine regions,” he said.

“Their earning capacity is not year long.”

Alpine operators will be able to access an additional $3000 of support.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian yesterday gave her “assurance” that construction would resume on July 31 after a temporary ban was introduced to reduce mobility across the city.

But when asked today when construction and school may reopen, her answer was less definitive.

“Obviously we’ll be able to do that as soon as we have a sense in the next week of what the impact of the harsh restrictions [implemented last week] have had on the community,” she said.

“We know any form of human interaction is spreading the disease and that’s why we just need to stop that human interaction.

“Some industries are able to control that more than others.”

She also dismissed a proposal from the Housing Industry Association that construction should restart before the end of the two-week pause.

“It would have been irresponsible for us not to have taken that pause,” she said.

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley says Victorians have set a new record for the number of tests conducted in a single day, with 59,355 people getting tested yesterday.

“Almost 60,000 people right across the state braved some pretty inclement weather to return the highest single day’s worth of tests,” Mr Foley said.

The Health Minister added that 98.8 per cent of the tests have been turned around by the following day.

“Everyone needs to get tested if they have even the slightest of symptoms, it continues to be the most important thing you can do,” he said.

Mr Foley singled out the Phillip Island area, which had some COVID-19 fragments detected in wastewater on Monday, saying the community had come forward in large numbers after a few positive cases travelled to the area last week.

It comes after NSW also recorded a record number of tests yesterday (83,477 tests).

Premier Gladys Berejiklian was asked by a reporter if the state needed to reassess its target of having zero people infectious in the community.

In response, she said authorities were aiming for zero cases but suggested restrictions could be eased before reaching that.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian at today’s COVID-19 briefing. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

“If that number is in settings which are low risk, well, obviously we can ease restrictions,” she said.

“So it’s really based on the health advice and it really depends on where those infections took place. So please know we’re analysing all that data on a daily basis.”

The NSW Premier said modelling suggesting that the state won’t come out of lockdown until September was not definitive.

“Remember the modelling we were presented with 18 months ago about the number of cases and deaths that would happen in Australia which didn’t materialise,” she said.

“So modelling has a role and a purpose. But what is the most effective tool for us to measure what the future looks like is the result of our own activity.

“The modelling can’t predict how many people are going to stay in their homes and not be mobile.”

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley says 16 of today’s 22 new cases were in isolation during their entire infectious period.

He said health authorities have seen a large increase in the percentage of daily cases who have been in quarantine.

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley.Credit:Justin McManus

“Two days ago, [it was] only six per cent of our daily cases of fully isolating in quarantine. Today, it is 73 per cent,” he said.

“Our contact tracers and our restrictions are working in tandem.”

Health authorities added 12 new exposure sites to the list on Wednesday. Of the 12, 11 are tier-2 sites and just one a tier 1 (a Subway in St Kilda).

“That should give us confidence that this is a process that is working, and it is working because millions of Victorians [are] ... doing the right thing,” Mr Foley said.

South Australia’s Premier Steven Marshall has just confirmed that his state has recorded one new, locally acquired case of COVID-19 overnight.

South Australian Premier Steven Marshall.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

There are now just over 50 exposure sites in SA.

The state is currently in its first full day of a 7-day lockdown. There are just five reasons to leave home: essential work, essential shopping, outdoor exercise, medical care and caring for a loved one.

With cases sitting stubbornly high despite Great Sydney’s lockdown, Premier Gladys Berejiklian has been asked what the next step is.

She said the impact of harsher restrictions implemented last Friday will not be apparent until early next week.

“I just ask for everybody’s patience. But please know that what we have prevented here in NSW is what we’ve seen around the world,” she said.

“In many jurisdictions, even when they had much, much higher vaccination rates than NSW, they’re recording thousands and thousands of cases a day.”

There are currently 106 people with COVID-19 in NSW hospitals. Twenty-three are in intensive care and, of those, 11 require ventilation.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the situation was “really serious” and the high number of cases in Fairfield are spilling into surrounding local government areas.

“We’re now seeing additional spillover in the Canterbury-Bankstown local government area and the suburbs within that area,” she said.

“We need to make sure we have those high rates of testing and that limited mobility in those areas as well. But the simple message is please do not leave your home unless you have to.”

Ms Berejiklian said if Greater Sydney had not gone into lockdown when it did, daily cases would be in the thousands.

There are now 1528 cases associated with the current outbreak.

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