Health News at Your Fingertips

An update on the Covid situation in the Hunter region of NSW:

An emergency physician on how health care workers take news on a day like today, when Victoria announces it’s opening up:

There were a few jabs (pun intended) delivered by the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, to the federal government earlier today. Perhaps Andrews had seen this tweet sent about 10.30 last night by the federal treasurer, Josh Frydenberg:

Here’s the Victorian premier Daniel Andrews confirming the news from earlier today about the end of the state’s lockdown:

And that’s it in Victoria, where premier Daniel Andrews and chief health officer Prof Brett Sutton confirmed lockdown will lift in Melbourne on Friday.

Sutton asked about masks outside staying as a restriction until the state reaches 80%, including the hypothetical of walking alone at night. As I’ve said, reaching the end of the press conference here.

Coming to the end of the Victorian press conference here. Andrews has left. Sutton taking a few final questions

There are nine people in ICU.

The Apple Isle is in its second day of a three-day lockdown, and the news is good, AAP reports:

Tasmania is breathing a collective sigh of relief, with no local Covid cases detected as a result of testing around the primary contacts of a coronavirus-infected hotel quarantine escapee.

The island state’s south, including Hobart, was forced into a three-day lockdown on Friday evening after the case, a NSW man, spent about 18 hours in the community.

The 31-year-old, who arrived in the capital on Monday night without a valid border pass and was ordered into quarantine, has allegedly refused to co-operate with contact tracers.

He was arrested in the city’s northern suburbs on Tuesday afternoon after allegedly fleeing the Hobart Travelodge. He subsequently tested positive.

Health authorities say it is still too early to tell whether the lockdown can be lifted on Monday evening as planned.

But the premier, Peter Gutwein, was more forthcoming, describing Sunday’s all-clear as “very welcome news”.

He said 168 primary close contacts of the man had been identified. Of them, 95 have returned negative results.

Gutwein said Saturday had been another record day of testing for the state, with a total of 1,769 results processed. No new exposure sites have been identified.

Tasmania police say the circumstances of the NSW man’s case will be examined once the public health response has concluded.

AAP has just filed this report on the situation in New Zealand:

New Zealand has recorded 51 new community cases of Covid-19, including new unlinked cases in the Waikato.

The Delta outbreak first identified on 17 August rages on in Auckland, comprising 47 of the new infections reported on Sunday.

Of those cases, 23 are yet to be linked back to the outbreak by contact tracers.

On Monday, Jacinda Ardern’s government will review lockdown settings for the three regions currently in lockdown: Auckland, Northland and much of the Waikato. Those regions make up roughly half of New Zealand’s population.

Auckland will stay in lockdown given the uncontrolled spread, which the health ministry predicts will double to more than 100 daily cases within the next fortnight.

Northland looks likely to exit lockdown, with no further cases identified in 10 days since two Auckland women illegally left lockdown into the region, before testing positive for the virus.

The Waikato will be a trickier call for Ardern’s cabinet.

On Sunday, there were four new cases identified – two in Hamilton, one in Raglan and one in Kihikihi – of which only one was already isolating as a household contact.

The lockdown announcement will be made at 4pm NZ time on Monday.

Andrews denies there were any conflicts between the government and the chief health officer about easing some of the restrictions at 70%.

“No, no. We had a series of meetings and discussions. We were able to agree last night,” he said.