Health News at Your Fingertips

And with that, I’m just going to hand over to my colleague Lisa Cox for a little while.

Big Bird tweeted overnight about being vaccinated against Covid and the quote tweet response is about as bad as you’d expect it to be.

The search is underway for the 57-year-old man who went missing after a suspected shark attack at Port Beach in WA yesterday.

WA fisheries minister Don Punch said police have deployed a number of vessels to the area.

“I’d like to extend our heartfelt thoughts to the family of this man at this very difficult time,” he said.

“This is a terribly sad and distressing situation.”

The ACT has recorded 13 new cases overnight, bringing the total active cases in the capital to 135, and the total in this outbreak to 1,729.

There is one person in hospital, who is also in intensive care and being ventilated.

Queensland has recorded zero new local cases. One case from someone arriving from interstate who is in quarantine, and two cases in international arrivals, who are also in quarantine, premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has said.

The two people from overseas were infectious on the flight, and normal contact tracing is underway.

The woman who tested positive yesterday was not in the community while infectious. Similar for the woman who tested positive in the NT after being in Queensland.

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has rejected comparisons between outgoing Liberal MP Tim Smith not contesting the next election after crashing his car with a blood alcohol level of 0.131 to Burwood MP Will Fowles, who Smith previously called to resign after he kicked in a hotel door during an alcohol-fuelled argument with staff.

Asked whether Fowles should also resign, Andrews said the two incidents were not the same.

He’ll be a candidate next time and it’ll be up to the people of his electorate, as it will be for all of us, to fundamentally decide who they want.

I don’t see any comparison. The only comparisons that have been drawn are rather self-serving comparisons from somebody today who has announced he’s not standing.

There you go – I’ve said more than I intended to about [Smith]. It’s just not my business.

A break down of the 244 NSW cases today, from NSW Health:

• 77 are from Hunter New England Local Health District (LHD).
• 37 are from South Western Sydney LHD.
• 22 are from South Eastern Sydney.
• 20 are from Mid North Coast LHD.
• 17 are from Murrumbidgee LHD.
• 15 are from Sydney LHD.
• 13 are from Western Sydney LHD.
• nine are from Western NSW LHD.
• nine are from Northern NSW LHD.
• eight are from Northern Sydney LHD.
• four are from Central Coast LHD.
• three are from Southern NSW LHD.
• two are from Nepean Blue Mountains LHD.
• one is from Illawarra Shoalhaven LHD.
• one is in a correctional setting and six are unassigned to a LHD.

NSW Health has also warned that viral fragments have been detected in sewerage in Bermagui, Moruya, Young in southern NSW and Gulargambone and Cobar in western NSW, where there are no known cases.

NSW is opening a Granville vaccination centre on Monday, and the Qudos Bank Arena vaccination centre will shut down tomorrow, returning the arena to sporting and entertainment functions.

NSW health minister Brad Hazzard said there were 2,700 health and support staff at Qudos when it was open, with 26 vaccine doses per minute being administered at the peak of its operation:

What NSW Health staff achieved not only at Qudos Bank Arena Vaccination Centre but across the state during the Delta outbreak has been extraordinary.

They helped lift vaccination rates in western and south-western Sydney to the highest levels across the state but even if we surpass our new goals we must remain vigilant.

If you’re confused by the news about CBA getting into crypto, my colleague Ben Butler has this explainer.

Victorians dining in Melbourne will be able to claim up to 30% of their bills for meals between Monday and Thursday every week, AAP reports.

A $44m package has been unveiled to revitalise Melbourne’s CBD as workers and visitors return after the city’s sixth lockdown.

The Victorian government and City of Melbourne will jointly fund a number of initiatives to bring the city centre back to life, including a $5m midweek dining rebate scheme.

From 15 November, diners will be able to claim 30% off their bills – up to $150 – between Monday and Thursday each week.

The more than 200,000 rebates will be up for grabs at restaurants, cafes and bars in the CBD, Lygon Street, North Melbourne, Southbank, South Wharf and Docklands.

The package also includes $10.4m to help businesses trade outdoors and at night, $15.7m to boost the city’s events calendar, $14m to revitalise public areas and $3.6m to provide an enhanced business concierge service.

“This is about getting people back to the CBD,” Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters at Italian restaurant Becco in Melbourne’s CBD.

Having people not only visiting but spending – and that’s all about jobs.

Lord Mayor Sally Capp said the cash injection was the first tranche of a $200m fund to revitalise Melbourne.

Meanwhile on Sky News, minister for emissions reduction, Angus Taylor won’t say if the UN climate change conference in Glasgow will achieve a deal to limit warming to 1.5C.

AAP reports Taylor said it is a very difficult outcome to achieve and that everyone understood that from the start.

I’m not going to predict the final outcome at the political level of this conference.

What I am going to say is this conference is recognising, and the world is recognising that the way to actually achieve the best possible outcomes is by deploying technologies with good projects.

Chinese president Xi Jinping has been criticised for not attending the Glasgow conference, particularly as his country accounts for one-third of the world’s emissions, but Taylor believes China is still being constructive.

What is very clear, the Chinese focus on technologies on bringing down emissions in a way which reconciles economic growth with emissions reduction.

They are not going to sacrifice economic growth for emissions reduction. That’s not just true of China, it’s India, it’s Southeast Asia.

Asked about the ongoing dispute with France over the submarines contract, Bowen said prime minister Scott Morrison’s alleged lies are “now impacting national security”.

Now we’ve seen the most inept foreign trip since Billy McMahon made a fool of himself in Washington 50 years ago this week and we’ve seen the prime minister’s fundamental dishonesty on display to the world.

We know Scott Morrison is a liar. He lies in parliament about briefings for Anthony Albanese on Covid. He lies about whether he’s called EVs ‘weekend wrecking’.

He lied about whether he used the term Shanghai Sam. He lies about Christian Porter’s disclosure. This guy is a liar and it’s now impacting on our national security.

You’ve talked about the leaking of the text exchange with Emmanuel Macron, which was reckless and extraordinary and damages our credibility internationally but also the leaking of a classified national security committee document which also damages our relationship with the United States.

How would anybody trust this bloke as prime minister of Australia?

He says Morrison should have been open and transparent with the French.

He has doubled down on his lack of integrity in his response. Emmanuel Macron did not attack Australia and he has just underlined his lack of honesty by asserting he did.

We are not privy to all the details of the arrangements between France and Australia. We have not received all that information but I do know the government ministers have been for years getting up and saying how well the deal is going.

I know the foreign and defence ministers said in a communique how well the deal was coming along. It’s understandable that world leaders are scratching their heads at Scott Morrison’s inept handling of this matter.