Category Archives: New South Wales

Australia Covid live news update: Scott Morrison announces increase to support payments as NSW records 11th death of outbreak

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NSW records 177 local cases, lockdown extended four weeks; single bubbles now allowed in greater Sydney; those on welfare support now eligible for federal disaster payments, NSW premier says; Victoria records eight local cases overnight, and a new local, non-quarantined case today. Follow all the day’s news

And here’s the video of Scott Morrison comparing the vaccine take-up to a gold medal run at the Olympics earlier today:

Reviews of rapid Covid-19 tests in Australia have found markedly different results in their effectiveness, but experts say the New South Wales government’s decision to employ them in schools and essential workplaces will help to control the virus.

Michael McGowan has this story after NSW announced that rapid tests would be used during Sydney’s continuing lockdown.

Related: Cautious welcome for rapid antigen tests to control Sydney Covid outbreak, despite reliability concerns

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Teens getting the AstraZeneca vaccine: ‘They want a light at the end of the tunnel’

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When I heard my 18-year-old nephews had received their first jab, it was like sunshine slicing through the clouds

Even by pandemic standards, Saturday was a rattling day. As Covid cases in Sydney reached their highest tally to date, anti-lockdown protests turned violent in the CBD.

The day before, New South Wales had begged both the federal government and other Australian states for more Pfizer vaccines. The proposed approach gave me new hope, which by afternoon was extinguished. No solution appeared to be in sight.

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Sydney Covid lockdown restrictions: update to Orange and regional NSW coronavirus rules explained

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Covid restrictions for greater Sydney, including residents in the Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown, Liverpool, Cumberland and Blacktown LGAs, the Central Coast, Blue Mountains and Wollongong to be extended, with lockdown set to lift for Orange, Blayney and Cabonne local government areas in the state’s central west. Here’s the full list of what you can and can’t do in NSW

Sydney’s lockdown is expected to continue beyond 30 July, but there will be some changes to the rules.

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, is expected to announce a four-week extension to the lockdown on Wednesday, where it is understood she will also outline eased restrictions for the construction industry.

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Australia Covid live update: Victoria premier Dan Andrews eases lockdown after 10 new cases; Gladys Berejiklian confirms 172 local cases in NSW

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SA to exit lockdown at midnight; NSW records 172 local Covid-19 cases overnight; Victoria lockdown to ease from midnight after state records 10 cases; Queensland records no new cases overnight. Follow all the day’s news

NSW press conference:

Inevitable Berejiklian is now being grill over Victoria’s sucsess which many are viewing as proof that NSW’s lockdown was too little, too late.

Victoria is now coming out of lockdown. Have they now shown us up? Should we have gone down harder and faster? They’ve done two weeks, we’re here in week five, and with no sign of things slowing down.

Oh look, I think it’s important to note that every state has had its own course during the pandemic.

Victoria is emerging out of its fifth lockdown, and I appreciate appreciate people want to make comparisons, but it’s also important to note that every state has had its own course. Every state has its own history of how they’re built with the pandemic.

Melbourne: schools, restaurants and bars open.
Sydney: 172 cases. Highest case number since the borders were shut and edging towards the 200 record.

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Australia Covid live update: Sydney to open walk-in AstraZeneca clinics as NSW records 145 cases; Victoria records 11; Queensland and SA record one new local case each

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NSW reports 145 local Covid-19 cases overnight; no lockdown announcement for Victoria today after 11 new local cases recorded; SA to lift lockdown from midnight tomorrow and another vaccine record. Follow the latest updates

Brittany Higgins has welcomed the government’s decision to accept all 10 recommendations of the Foster review into how federal parliament responds to serious incidents.

The government put out a press release announcing this earlier today.

I am so pleased to hear that all 10 recommendations of the Foster Review will be implemented.

These reforms, most notably the independent complaints mechanism, will ensure Parliament House is a safer workplace for all future employees. https://t.co/wNNkVy4y9D

Sydney Covid crisis could take months to recede if other outbreaks are anything to go by - depressing read (but with good charts) from @joshcnicholas looking at peaks and troughs of covid waves https://t.co/slr3A5O9gX pic.twitter.com/4zR7STbB3i

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PM confirms extra doses of Pfizer vaccine – as it happened

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Scott Morrison confirms extra 85 million Pfizer doses; NSW records 141 new local cases and two deaths, including a woman in her 30s; too soon to tell if Victorian lockdown will end Tuesday as state records 11 new local cases. This blog has now closed

With that, we might leave you for the night.

I’ll see you bright and early on the blog Monday morning to kick start the next week of news.

Okay, here are the numbers on all the arrests and penalty notices to come out of the Syndey anti-lockdown protest so far.

NSW police say they have received more than 5,500 reports from members of the public, with 63 people arrested.

Thirty-five people – aged between 18 and 69 - were charged with various offences, including assault police officer in execution of duty, resist officer in execution of duty, wilfully obstruct officer in execution of duty and not comply with noticed direction...

Of these, 20 were refused bail to appear at Parramatta Local Court today [Sunday 25 July 2021].

Investigators are following up every report and have issued two court attendance notice and [penalty notices] to 16 people today.

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Anti-lockdown protests across Australia as Covid cases surge to record levels in Sydney

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Chaotic scenes in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane as protesters demand end to lockdowns

Anti-lockdown protesters have marched in major Australian cities, as Covid cases spiked to record numbers in Sydney and authorities warned of a “continuing and growing problem”.

Thousands of angry, unmasked people marched through the Sydney central business district on Saturday afternoon demanding an end to the city’s lockdown, which is entering its fifth week.

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Australia’s most populous state declares ‘national emergency’ over Covid outbreak

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New South Wales announces 136 new local Delta cases with Sydney under the strictest lockdown measures it has experienced

Australia’s most populous state has declared a “national emergency” as it struggles to contain a record-breaking surge of the Delta variant of Covid-19 amid a lockdown affecting half the country.

The state of New South Wales announced 136 new locally-acquired cases of Covid-19 on Friday, with continued community transmission among essential workers, including in supermarkets and pharmacies.

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Australia coronavirus live news: 136 new cases announced in NSW Covid update; Victoria records 14 cases; Pfizer vaccine approved for 12-15 year olds

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Premier Gladys Berejiklian says 53 of the new cases were infectious in the community; northern NSW on alert after Covid fragments found in Byron Bay sewage; national cabinet to meet to discuss vaccine rollout. Follow live

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant is back after a few days, and she is speaking to the tighter restrictions she has recommended.

Chant said:

I have advised the government today that this is a national emergency and requires additional measures to reduce the case numbers. What we are seeing is that the actions we have taken to date have averted many cases.

But what we are not seeing is the turnaround that we would have liked to see at this stage. And I’m concerned that we need to put in place urgent additional measures, what I’m recommending strongly is that our vaccination efforts are refocused on those affected LGAs. Every day, people from those LGAs have to go out to work to keep our city going.

We also know that, as I indicated that the group of workers that keep the society going is this group of workers in the 20 to 49 year old age group in south-western Sydney. Under 40s would not have been routinely eligible for vaccination, in terms of Pfizer. And what I’ve recommended to government is we urgently do mass vaccination of those workers to stem the transmission risk. We know the vaccines do that because they reduce the risk. If you’re vaccinated, even one dose, it reduces your risk of onward transmission.

Gladys Berejiklian has announced a new Covid death in her state, a 89-year-old male.

Details of the death are brief as the death is recent (it happened after 8pm last night) and authorities want to make sure family members have been notified.

I also want to say that tragically, as we see more cases, develop, we will also see more hospitalisations and more people in intensive care and regrettably, we did have an additional death overnight, which I’ve only just learned about.

I just want to foreshadow that unfortunately, we’re going to see more of this as the case numbers increase.

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NSW allied health staff to join vaccine rollout as state records 124 new cases and Victoria 26 – as it happened

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Two people have died following a first AZ dose; NSW residents will learn lockdown fate ‘this time next week’. This blog is now closed

With that, we’ll be closing the blog for today. Thanks for reading, and thanks to Matilda Boseley and Nino Bucci for their work running it earlier today.

Here’s what happened today:

Liquidators of the company that sits atop the failed global finance empire formerly run by Bundaberg sugar farmer Lex Greensill (with advice along the way from Julie Bishop and David Cameron) have released a new report.

The new report covers the affairs of Greensill Capital, which is an Australian company that owned the company’s subsidiaries overseas, including its main trading entity in the UK and a bank in Germany.

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NSW premier asked why so many people still infectious in community after 110 new Covid cases – video

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NSW has recorded 110 local Covid-19 cases overnight, with 43 of those infectious while in the community. Premier Gladys Berejiklian was questioned as to why that number remained so high even after tighter lockdown restrictions have been introduced.

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For years Eddie Obeid fended off all allegations. Now the truth can’t be denied | Anne Davies

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I was among those who first reported on Eddie Obeid’s dealings in the NSW Upper Hunter. Monday’s supreme court verdict is vindication for many who investigated him

“If it is corruption, then it is corruption on a scale probably unexceeded since the days of the Rum Corps,” counsel assisting the NSW Independent Commission against Corruption, Geoffrey Watson SC, declared theatrically at the opening of the inquiry into the grant of a coal licence at Mount Penny in 2012.

A decade later, the NSW supreme court has found the grant of the controversial coal exploration licence in the Bylong Valley was the result of a criminal conspiracy that resulted in the Obeid family making at least $30m.

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Australia Covid live news update: NSW records fifth death from Sydney outbreak amid 98 new cases; Victoria extends lockdown after 13 new cases

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NSW reports 98 new local cases, with 24 patients now in intensive care, and says vaccinating children will be a ‘key’ part of rollout; Victorian coronavirus outbreak hits construction; 1m Pfizer vaccine doses arrive in Australia. Follow updates live

We are waiting on an update from South Australia now, but in the meantime, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has released an ad campaign to encourage people to get vaccinated. It features artists such as Tim Minchin, Rhonda Burchmore and performers from the Australian Ballet.

NSW Health has confirmed that the woman found dead in Green Valley was a confirmed Covid-19 case.

It said in a statement:

NSW Health today sadly reports the death of a woman in her 50s who was a confirmed Covid-19 case. She was a resident of south-western Sydney and a close contact of a Covid case.

This is the 61st death in NSW related to Covid-19 and the fifth of the current outbreak.

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NSW Covid update: Gladys Berejiklian relaxes south-west Sydney rules on workers despite 105 new cases

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Premier widens who can leave Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool to include all authorised workers, as long as they get tested regularly

Plans to allow only emergency and health staff to leave three south-western Sydney areas at the centre of the city’s Covid-19 outbreak for work were shelved on Sunday, despite another day of more than 100 new cases.

New South Wales health authorities announced 105 new local cases on Sunday, with 27 of them out in the community while they were infectious.

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Australia Covid live update: Victoria records 16 new local cases; NSW tightens restrictions on south-west Sydney

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Residents of Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool local government areas barred from leaving for work as NSW tries to control spread of Delta variant. Follow the latest developments live

The NSW branches of the Transport Workers’ Union and the Australian Road Transport Industrial Organisation are welcoming an exemption for their workers in the three local government areas where only health and emergency workers are allowed to leave.

The groups say updated advice now includes a list of “authorised workers” permitted to go to work, “which includes freight, logistics, courier and delivery workers, bus drivers, waste workers and airport workers”.

The exemption will come as a relief to the more than 20,000 transport workers in south-west Sydney who yesterday believed they would not be able to go to work. We commend the NSW government for responding quickly to our calls for an exemption, however the advice to workers and operators is still far too sluggish.

Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce is asked about far-right media figure Katie Hopkins flying into Australia and going into hotel quarantine (maybe to appear on the local reality TV show Big Brother, as is the speculation).

I’m the one who wanted to send home Johnny Depp’s dog, so I have no problem sending home someone who wants to flout our laws. If you want to do that, pack your bongo and get out of country!

Related: Anger as Katie Hopkins posts video reportedly from Australian lockdown while thousands stranded overseas

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Covid Australia live update: Scott Morrison says four-step ‘path out’ still on agenda despite Victoria and NSW outbreaks

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Six new cases in Victoria; Sydney records 97 local cases; WA and Queensland to close border to Victoria

The Western NSW Local Health District has posted on its Facebook page that it has been notified of cases that travelled to Molong, near Orange in the state’s central west, on 16 July.

No venues of concern are currently identified and contacts of the cases are being tested while in isolation. Urgent investigations are underway and contact tracing is continuing.

As a precautionary measure, a drive-through (testing) clinic will be established in Molong and capacity in Orange and Bathurst will be increased.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has released a statement following today’s national cabinet meeting:

National Cabinet discussed the outbreak in Greater Sydney and the additional measures introduced by the New South Wales Government to stop the spread of the virus. National Cabinet has agreed to a suppression strategy for COVID-19 with the goal of no community transmission.

All leaders expressed their full support for NSW to get on top of the current outbreak. National Cabinet noted the Commonwealth’s extension of the COVID-19 Disaster Payment support for Greater Sydney and Victoria, based on Commonwealth hotspot declarations.

National Cabinet received an update from the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on the four step plan to reopening and the progress of the Covid-19 Risk Analysis and Response Taskforce report and the Doherty modelling for the National Plan to transition Australia’s National Covid Response.

All leaders reiterated the importance of Australians, especially those in vulnerable groups, to get a COVID-19 vaccination.

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Sydney hospitals stretched to ‘the brink’ as Covid crisis sidelines medical staff

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Doctors and nurses forced to isolate after being exposed to virus in hospitals, causing delays to surgeries

Sydney’s hospitals are being stretched to “the brink” as healthcare professionals continue to be sidelined by exposure to Covid, with two major hospitals reporting cases, including a fully vaccinated nurse.

NSW Health confirmed the nurse, who tested positive on Tuesday, works at Westmead hospital and the source of the infection was being urgently investigated.

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A rare look inside a Sydney Covid-19 ICU ward as one man fights for his life – video

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Cameras have been allowed in a Sydney hospital's Covid-19 intensive care unit, showing the struggle of one patient on a ventilator. The 53-year-old Covid patient from NSW is only able to take shallow breaths of air through the ventilator. His medical teams, dressed in full PPE, adjusts his ventilator tubes and monitor his oxygen levels. The patient has given his consent for his images to be published

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Covid Australia live updates: Morrison to announce NSW support package after 89 new cases and one death; three cases in Victoria

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A man in his 70s from Sydney’s east has died of coronavirus; Queensland keeps border open for now; support package for NSW to include increased payments for people who have lost work. Follow the latest updates live

It’s a little late today, but pleased to keep up Matilda Boseley’s tradition of highlighting the bizarre graphic design choices of the Queensland premier’s social media team.

Today’s special announces 100 new Tafe scholarships. Someone has spent time etching the bloke’s arm in front of the graphic, for some reason.

100 TAFE scholarships valued at up to $5,000 are up for grabs.

The skills TAFE offers can change lives and set people up for stable and rewarding careers. pic.twitter.com/9TOHAsIbuz

Looks like we’re learning about that Covid relief package at 3.30pm.

Just enough time to take a breath, grab a coffee, watch a couple of episodes of he Office and settle in for the announcement.

Very glad @joshgnosis tweeted these together. pic.twitter.com/yCJ9AWus1o

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Two apartment blocks in hard lockdown in Sydney and Melbourne to contain Covid outbreak

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Residents in Bondi Junction under police guard after eight cases in block, while residents in Maribyrnong building ordered to isolate after an infected removalist worked there

Concerns about the spread of the Delta variant in apartment buildings has prompted a hard lockdown of two residential complexes in Sydney and Melbourne.

An apartment building in Bondi Junction in Sydney’s east remains under police guard after eight cases of Covid-19 were detected across five of the 29 apartments, while residents of an apartment building in Maribyrnong in Melbourne’s north-western suburbs, have been ordered to isolate after a removalist with Covid worked there last week.

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