Australia politics live update: NSW reports 16 new Covid cases; premier Gladys Berejiklian announces new Sydney restrictions; NZ, WA, Qld and Victoria tighten borders

 

NSW urgently investigating four mystery cases overnight. Follow all the latest updates, live

• New Zealand suspends travel bubble with NSW as Victoria shuts border to parts of Sydney
• NSW mask restrictions; NSW and ACT coronavirus hotspots
• Covid travel restrictions in Australia; Victoria Covid hotspots
• Wellington may face lockdown after visit by infected Australian tourist
  
  
  
  

 NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian gives an update on the state’s Covid outbreak on Wednesday morning. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Mark McGowan has updated the travel advice for NSW – and it goes a little further than Queensland and Victoria:

Following updated health advice related to the Covid-19 outbreak in New South Wales, WA has strengthened its border controls to reduce the risk of the virus coming into the WA community. NSW has transitioned from ‘very low risk’ (with a test and quarantine regime) to ‘medium risk’ under our controlled interstate border, effective from 11am today (23 June).

This returns us to hard border arrangements with New South Wales. Under the medium risk classification, travel from or through NSW is no longer permitted, except for exempt travellers. This also applies to anyone who may have been in NSW since 11 June and has not subsequently been in a ‘very low risk’ State or Territory for 14 days – this includes anyone travelling from the ACT who has travelled into NSW in that time.

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Thousands of Brazilians protest against President Jair Bolsonaro as COVID deaths reach 500,000

 

A person holds a cross reading "500,000 deaths" as people participate in a protest against Brazil's President

Protesters have rallied in 44 cities across Brazil to accuse their government of "genocide" as the country became the second to record 500,000 COVID-19 deaths.

Thousands took to the streets on Saturday to criticise President Jair Bolsonaro's pandemic response, blasting the leader for not acquiring vaccines fast enough.

Brazil has the global pandemic's second-highest death toll, after the United States.

"I am working tirelessly to vaccinate all Brazilians in the shortest time possible and change this scenario that has plagued us for over a year," Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga tweeted as the death toll passed 500,000.

The government faced fierce criticism for passing up earlier opportunities to buy vaccines.

Pharmaceutical maker Pfizer said it got no response to early offers to sell vaccines to the government between August and November last year.

"We are protesting against the genocidal Bolsonaro government that did not buy vaccines and has done nothing to take care of its people in the last year," Aline Rabelo, a 36-year-old told Reuters in the capital, Brasilia.

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Multiple Victorian businesses shut down for breaking COVID-safe rules

 

More than 150 businesses have been found not complying with QR code requirements. (9News)

Several businesses in Victoria have been shut down for COVID-safe breaches.

The state government today confirmed seven Melbourne businesses in retail, hospitality and health and beauty were forced to close for failing to follow correct COVIDSafe protocol.

 

A retail store in St Albans was shut down for unauthorised trading during lockdown.

 

A health and beauty business in South Melbourne was also closed for exceeding density limits and having no density quotient signage, no COVIDSafe plan and no QR code check-in system in place.

 

Fines of $1652 were also handed to a hospitality venue in Essendon and a retail venue in Campbellfield for not having the Victorian Government's QR code check-in system in place.

 

In the past week authorised officers saw 168 instances of QR code non-compliance.

 

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Piers Morgan calls for 'selfish' unvaccinated NHS and care home staff to quit triggering an interesting debate

 

Piers Morgan’s comments have caused controversy once again, this time after he called for unvaccinated NHS and care home staff to leave their jobs.

The former Good Morning Britain host took to Twitter to suggest that NHS and care home staff who refuse to have the Covid-19 vaccine should not be able to continue in their roles.

The tweet, which was posted on the morning of June 16, read: “ NHS and Care Home staff who refuse to be vaccinated need to leave their jobs and do something that requires less reckless selfish disregard for the health & wellbeing of their patients/residents.”

READ MORE: 'I tried to book my Covid vaccine and the call operator was an anti-vaxxer'

The bold statement divided fans, with some taking a strong stance against his controversial opinion.

One follower called his comments “disgusting” while another told him to “stop this bullish behaviour”.

Some did agree with Piers, with one fan saying: "For once I agree with you Piers. The deaths of elderly and vulnerable in care homes has been catastrophic. They need to be afforded all the protection from this awful disease that we possibly can give them."

The controversial comments come after reports that the government is due to announce that the Covid vaccine will be compulsory for care home staff.

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 Anti-Vaxers have Rocks Between their Ears

Wuhan lab leak theory investigations ongoing, 18 months after the arrival of COVID-19

 

The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been referenced multiple times as a potential original source of the COVID

It's been a year and five months since Australia recorded its first case of the novel coronavirus, after an infected person who travelled from Wuhan to Melbourne tested positive on January 25, 2020.

Despite all that time passing and global researchers trying to get to the bottom of it, we still don't really know how SARS-CoV-2 first came to be.

There's been many a theory — and one particular one about the virus escaping a laboratory in Wuhan doesn't seem to have fallen off the radar, despite a World Health Organization investigation finding no clear evidence that the theory is true.

LIVE UPDATES: Read our blog for the latest news on the COVID-19 pandemic

Just last week, leaders of G7 nations demanded a full investigation of the origins of the coronavirus in China at a meeting in the UK.

That came just days after US President Joe Biden revealed US intelligence agencies were pursuing theories, including a possible laboratory accident in China.

So why are leaders still so hung up on it, and what are they doing to research it further?

D-19 outbreak, but Chinese authorities deny the claims.

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 Covid is NOT a Joke or Hoax - Millions have Died - Will You Be Next?

Chinese researchers find 24 new coronaviruses in bats amid renewed calls to probe COVID origins

The newly found viruses in the bats include one that may be the second-closest yet (genetically) to the COVID-19 virus, CNN reported.

  

Washington: Amid renewed calls to probe into the origins of COVID-19, Chinese researchers said they had found a batch of new coronaviruses in bats.

The newly found viruses in the bats include one that may be the second-closest yet (genetically) to the COVID-19 virus, CNN reported.

The researchers say that their discoveries in southwestern China show just how many coronaviruses are there in bats and how many have the potential to spread to people.

In a report published in the journal Cell, the Chinese researchers from Shandong University said, "In total, we assembled 24 novel coronavirus genomes from different bat species, including four SARS-CoV-2 like coronaviruses."

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New research on coronavirus on surfaces of patient rooms in hospitals

The findings: The virus, or at least its genetic signature, abounds. It was detected on the floors next to the beds of patients, floors outside patient rooms and surfaces inside the rooms.

 

Covid-19 patients are treated at a care centre in New Delhi. (Express Photo: Amit Mehra)

A new study published in the journal Microbiome describes how SARS-CoV-2 persists on surfaces in hospitals.

Researchers swabbed patient room surfaces before, during and after occupancy, and repeatedly collected samples from the skin, noses and stool of Covid-19 patients and their health care workers over time. In total, they tested 972 hospital-associated samples for traces of SARS-CoV-2 over two months.

Their findings: The virus, or at least its genetic signature, abounds. It was detected on the floors next to the beds of patients with Covid-19 (39% of samples tested), floors outside patient rooms (29%) and surfaces inside the rooms (16%). SARS-CoV-2 detection tended to be highest in the first five days after a patient’s onset of symptoms.

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 Covid is NOT a Joke or Hoax - Millions have Died - Will You Be Next?

‘Vaccine won’t give you Covid’: health officials battle anti-vaccination messages in Northern Rivers

Medical professionals living in the Byron Bay region are angry and frustrated after businesses asked vaccinated customers not to enter.

Health officials in NSW have had to reiterate advice over Covid-19 after a number of businesses in Byron Shire were witnessed asking vaccinated customers not to enter their premises under the misapprehension they could shed the virus.

The New South Wales department of health has stressed that it is impossible for people to develop, shed, or spread the virus through receiving a vaccine.

The advice comes after some businesses in the small town of Mullumbimby placed signs in their windows that read: ‘If you have had the Covid-19 vaccine we ask you not to enter for two weeks or longer until any symptoms subside’.

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 You can't vaccinate against STUPIDITY - But you can Vaccinate against Covid.

Melbourne finally set for lockdown reprieve on Friday

Senior Victorian government sources say they are very confident the city’s lockdown will not be extended again, ­unless this appears in the state’s Covid figures. 

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Melbourne is set for a lockdown reprieve on Friday.

Senior Victorian government sources say they are very confident the city’s lockdown will not be extended again, ­unless there is a dramatic rise in mystery cases.

Restrictions similar to those that regional Victoria moved to last Friday are expected to instead come into force in the city.

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What we know about the new Delta coronavirus variant that’s causing ‘significant concern’

There’s a new COVID-19 variant spreading in the community in Australia and it’s causing ‘significant concern’.

The Delta variant, which has become infamous for causing devastation in India and the UK, has been detected in Victoria’s outbreak.

On Friday morning genomic sequencing revealed that seven cases in Melbourne were infected with the strain.

It is different from the Kappa variant which caused the outbreak when an infected man left hotel quarantine in South Australia last month.

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The ‘Quaranteens’

What life’s like for young Australians who turned 18 in a pandemic.

In the future, we’ll look back at 2020 and remember it all like a blur: the lockdowns, the late-night press conference panics, the toilet paper shortages, the Netflix binging and the sourdough-starting, the anxiety, the loneliness, the grief.

Young Australians who were in their last year of high school will remember it as a generation-defining disaster.

The pandemic hit them in a fragile moment; the transition from school to the rest of their lives, when every decision they made felt life altering.

This period would normally be marked with a series of milestones. Instead, the class of 2020 said anti-climactic goodbyes from their bedrooms over Zoom. Many finished the year feeling trapped, disoriented and lost. 

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 Covid is NOT a Joke or Hoax - Millions have Died - Will You Be Next?

Fauci calls on China to release medical records of Wuhan lab workers who fell sick in 2019

Dr Anthony Fauci has called on China to release the medical records of three Wuhan lab researchers who fell sick with Covid-like symptoms in November 2019.

"I would like to see the medical records of the three people who are reported to have got sick in 2019. Did they really get sick, and if so, what did they get sick with?” Dr Fauci told the Financial Times on Thursday.

A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, Wang Wenbin, would not say whether China would release the records but firmly denied that the laboratory was linked to the outbreak of Covid-19. The country has continually denied any laboratory involvement.

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US paid Chinese People’s Liberation Army to engineer coronaviruses

Anthony Fauci’s institute funded research by the Chinese military, the Wuhan Institute of ­Virology and American scientists to genetically manipulate coronaviruses soon before the pandemic hit.

The revelation shows American money was funding risky ­research on coronaviruses with People’s Liberation Army scientists – including decorated military scientist Zhou Yusen and the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s “Bat Woman”, Shi Zhengli.

Their research paper, submitted to the Journal of Virology in November 2019, was funded with three grants from the National ­Institutes of Health, via US universities. Details of the research funding, contained in the forthcoming book What Really Happened In Wuhan, go to the heart of whether senior US officials were reluctant to give credence to the theory that Covid-19 may be a ­result of a ­laboratory leak, out of concern that it would expose their ­complicity in providing funding to a facility that intelligence agencies suspected might have sparked the pandemic.

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18pc of aged care residents have elected not to have Covid-19 vaccination

Tens of thousands of aged-care residents across Australia are refusing to be vaccinated despite being at the highest risk of dying from Covid-19, new figures reveal.

The federal government has faced heavy criticism in recent days over the slow pace of ­vaccination rollout across aged-care facilities.

But figures released last week to a Senate estimates hearing show 33,000 — or 18 per cent — of elderly Australians offered a vaccination in aged-care facilities have not received one.

The statistics also reveal that vaccine hesitancy rates differ markedly across the country, with the elderly in Queensland, Western Australia and the North Territory far less likely to take a jab than their counterparts in Victoria and NSW.

According to the data provided to the Senate, one in five West Australian aged-care residents remained unvaccinated, even after being visited by federal government teams offering them the jab.

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No care, no responsibility: Morrison government’s stark pandemic failures in aged homes

If the stakes weren’t so high it’d be a comedy of errors. With the stakes very high indeed, it’s closer to a danse macabre.

Of all the Australians who’ve died of COVID-19 so far, three-quarters died in aged care homes. That’s 685 people dead in aged care homes out of a national COVID death toll of 910. Specifically, the 685 people died in aged care homes subsidised and regulated by the federal government. All deaths were last year.

When an outbreak occurs, we know the grim reaper comes calling at the aged care homes first, and it’s there that he reaps fastest and most unforgivingly. So, naturally, you’d assume the federal government would have taken special precautions. To make sure they’d put extra protections in place against any recurrence. Surely the Morrison government would have a plan for vaccinating the old folks in the aged care homes as a priority, and surely it would have a plan for vaccinating the workers in those homes.

After all, that’s how the virus got into the homes last year – in 84 per cent of the infections in aged care, it was inadvertently carried in by the staff.

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 Covid is NOT a Joke or Hoax - Millions have Died - Will You Be Next?

 

Australia’s Victoria reports Delta COVID variant in new outbreak

New variant has not been linked to any sequenced cases elsewhere in Australia but patients had traveled to New South Wales.

Authorities in the Australian state of Victoria said genomic sequencing has detected for the first time the Delta COVID-19 virus variant among infections in the latest outbreak in Melbourne, the state capital and Australia’s second-biggest city.

“That variant is the Delta variant, it is now infamous in India and increasingly found in the United Kingdom. It is a variant of significant concern,” Victoria state Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton told reporters in Melbourne on Friday.

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Federal government unveils financial support for Covid-hit Victoria

Out-of-work Victorians will be eligible for a new payment as the state grapples with its fourth Covid lockdown. Here’s how to claim yours.

Melburnians will have to prove they have less than $10,000 in liquid assets and have “insufficient” leave entitlements to receive a new $500 Covid-lockdown emergency payment.

Victoria was plunged into lockdown over a week ago to crush an escalating Covid outbreak, a measure that was extended earlier this week.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday confirmed people in hot spots would be eligible for weekly emergency payments to help them through the crisis.

People living in hot spots aged over 17 who ordinarily worked 20 hours a week will receive $500 a week, while those who worked less 20 hours would receive $325.

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Bombshell emails over what Anthony Fauci knew

America’s top medical adviser Anthony Fauci was informed as early as February 2020 that Covid-19 exhibited unusual viral characteristics which could have potentially been engineered in a lab, according to emails published.

A trove of private correspondence, obtained by The Washington Post and Buzzfeed, reveal some of the crucial moments leading up to the pandemic in early 2020 when Dr Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, sought urgent information regarding the nature and origins of Covid-19.

Dr Fauci, who led the US response to the outbreak, previously rejected claims that Covid-19 leaked from a laboratory setting, but reversed his position in May, admitting that he was “not convinced” the virus had developed naturally and more needed to be done to investigate its precise origins. In one email from Kristian Andersen, a virologist at the Scripps Research Institute in California, Dr Fauci was told that Dr Andersen and his fellow scientists had to “look really closely at all the sequences to see that some of the features (potentially) look engineered”.

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 Covid is NOT a Joke or Hoax - Millions have Died - Will You Be Next?

Former US official David Asher claims Covid-19 started in Wuhan lab

A former US State Department official has revealed that the wife of a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology died of a mysterious virus-like illness in December 2019, adding further weight to charges that the Covid-19 pandemic may have started in a Chinese lab.

David Asher — who was part of a team investigating the origins of the coronavirus whose work was stopped by the Biden administration — has made the shock claim to the US-based Daily Caller News Foundation.

If the woman did die from a coronavirus infection, it would have been another early clue that the virus could be passed from person to person, something China vigorously denied for several weeks even as the pandemic spread across the globe.

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Scientists develop five-minute COVID test

Australian scientists have developed a saliva test that can detect COVID-19 in five minutes.

The portable testing device uses infrared light to detect the virus in saliva samples, and scientists say it could be capable of screening 5000 people a day.

In preliminary testing, the screening device was able to correctly detect the virus in 27 out of 29 patients.

But the research, led by Monash University and the Doherty Institute, is only up to 'proof-of-concept' stage, so it may be some time before 'brain tickler' nasal swabs are no longer needed.

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