Health News at Your Fingertips

From AAP:

Tens of thousands of revellers are still expected to flood Melbourne for New Year’s Eve celebrations, despite record COVID-19 infections.

Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp said it was undeniable celebrations have taken a hit from the pandemic – normally hundreds of thousands of people flock to the city and an entertainment drawcard has been cancelled.

However, she assured those who have tickets to four event zones in the city, open to the double-vaccinated only, there was still plenty to enjoy.

“Within the celebration zones, there is family-friendly entertainment, more than 115 artists will be dazzling and delighting the crowds, there is a 9.30pm fireworks show, particularly for families and children,” she told reporters.

Streets will be closed for outdoor dining, families can bring a picnic and there will be alcohol-free zones.

“Post the 9.30pm show, we move more into glitter balls, DJs and dancing as people look forward to heralding the end of 2021 with a midnight firework show across those four celebration zones,” she said.

However, the pandemic’s ongoing impact on freight, logistics and workplaces’ ability to train staff also means the City of Melbourne has cancelled its drone swarm at Docklands as part of its New Year’s Eve celebrations.

It is hoping the drone event provider, Celestial, can deliver the spectacle in January.

Hello everyone, this is Cait Kelly. I’ll be taking you through the second half of the day.

Here’s some weather for you first up. It’s going to be hot, hot, hot over the next few days.

The Queensland press conference has just ended, and with that, I will pass the blog on to Cait Kelly.

She will bring you all the latest developments, including what comes out of national cabinet, due to meet at midday.

Back to Queensland, and Gerrard says this is “the best time” for the state to be experiencing a pandemic. The weather is warm, Queenslanders have had the opportunity to get vaccinated, and school is off for summer:

This is the first time Queenslanders will experience the true pandemic … if we are going to experience the pandemic, then January is probably the best time to be experiencing it, because it’s warm … and schools are on holidays. This is the time to be having a pandemic.

Over in South Australia, Steven Marshall will have more to say later in the day after national cabinet meets.

Gerrard says the “vast majority” of people who acquire Covid while fully vaccinated will experience a relatively mild illness. But “even if only a tiny proportion of a large number of people needs to go to hospital … that’s still a large number”.

Gerrard says “certainly” tens of thousands of cases will be detected in the state, and the definition of close contacts needs to change or “the country won’t function”.

If we continue to use our current settings, then all of us will be in quarantine, and the state won’t function.

Turning to the Torres Strait, Gerrard says there are 11 cases in Thursday Island and one case in the rural town of Cherbourg overnight. Lockdowns are not being considered at this point but the community will be consulted.

He says “we are not going to stop the Omicron virus” but there are some things that can slow its spread – like mask-wearing and working from home if you can.

Gerrard says there are five things to do if you test positive to Covid-19:

1. Self isolate and tell those you live with to self isolate and get tested.
2. Answer health care questions you are asked when called by a health worker.
3. Tell the people you’ve been in contact with to get tested and quarantine.
4. Ensure you have supplies of food and medications for a fortnight.
5. Look after yourself and keep a symptom diary.

To hospitalisations in Queensland, and there are 1,809 cases receiving care in their homes, and 103 cases in hospital.

But it’s difficult to work out what proportion are there for treatment and symptoms and what proportion are there for other reasons. There are at least 29 people receiving treatment for Covid in hospitals. Gerrard says:

Even if you’re vaccinated there is a significant chance you will acquire this illness in the coming weeks.

Queensland’s chief health minister Dr John Gerrard is up, breaking down today’s figures. He says case numbers will continue to rise, but vaccines work, and will hopefully keep intensive care admissions low:

Trying to relay this message in a balanced manner is quite difficult … if I can just take you back and compare what’s happening now with 2020. To the end of June 2020 in Australia there were 8,566 Covid cases diagnosed, so about the same number as we’ve seen in Queensland since the borders opened just over two weeks ago.

Associated with that 8,566 cases last year were 204 intensive care admissions and 30 deaths. In Queensland so far since this latest wave, we have seen no intensive care admissions and there have been no deaths reported.

It is likely in the coming days there will be intensive care admissions … the really big issue though in trying to balance this message is we’re not going to be talking about 8,000 cases in a few weeks, we’re going to be talking about tens of thousands of cases … but the good thing is the vaccines are working and they’ve been clearly demonstrated to work.

Grace has announced Queensland’s numbers. There were a record 2,222 Covid cases detected in some 30 local government areas, a slight jump on yesterday’s record figure.

There are now 8,586 active cases in the state.

The good news is there is nobody being treated in intensive care.

Further north, Queensland education minister Grace Grace is speaking in Brisbane now to provide a Covid update while also announcing funding for kindergarten services in the state.

Tasmania has reported 92 new Covid cases overnight – almost a doubling of cases in one day – as well as new hospitalisations for the first time since the borders reopened to hotspots.

Three people are now in hospital, with one admitted for an unrelated medical reason.

There are now 386 active cases in the state.