7 August 2020 / COVID-19

Prime Minister & CMO, QLD Deputy Premier, VIC Premier Updates

The following announcements were made today (in order of appearance) by various governments regarding coronavirus.

Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles and Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young conference

  • Case update QLD: 0 New Cases, 11 active cases, 17,000 tests, 5 cases related to the returning women from Melbourne
  • Active Cases in AUS: 1 SA, 270 NSW, 7449 VIC (averaging 519 daily)
  • QLD Borders shut Saturday 1am 8 / 8 /2020, expecting great delays over the weekend as people rush back
  • Border pass exemptions comes in three forms X Pass, F Pass and S Pass which are required to be on the person at all times
  • X Pass – People living in the surrounding suburbs of the borders will be allowed to cross freely in a travel bubble. Queenslanders are allowed to still travel within QLD as long as they don’t leave the travel zones in NSW. NSW residents who live in the NSW travel zone will be allowed to travel freely within the designated QLD travel zones but no further.
  • F Pass – For freights, trucks and goods to cross the border
  • S Pass – Essential workers that meet the criteria to cross the border
  • The border pass website will come on this afternoon, however it could be glitchy and slow due to demand on the site. Regardless of this no exemptions will be made on the border without these passes.
  • Anyone wishing to return to Queensland after Saturday 1am without a border pass will be required to fly in through Sydney Airport and will be forced into hotel quarantine at their own expense. There are minimal exemptions to this.
  • Protests have been planned for the Story Bridge in QLD this Saturday, this is labelled unlawful and immediate Police action will be taken on anyone tempting to protest
  • If Queensland maintains no community transmission into the next week more restrictions may be lifted including visiting nursing homes

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews

  • 450 new cases 181 passed away (11 extra in the past 24 hours).
  • 2,500 unknown transmission, 66 new unknown cases
  • Health care workers account for around 1,500 active cases
  • Year 12 VIC Students: VCE students will be individually assessed and any adverse impacts from COVID-19 will be reflected in their ATAR ranking. This includes Mental Health, days off, additional responsibility. ATAR will be a fair reflection of their past year.
  • A further $28.5 million in funding for mental health and wellbeing support in schools, saying they had seen higher absence rates for vulnerable kids and a sharp increase in mental health reports in government schools. This comes in the form of additional mental support and mental health training for 1500 school staff. Health practitioners will also be rolled out to additional schools and the Navigator program will increase 33% to help support students who have disengaged from school.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison

  • Familiarity of Premiers in Nat Cab working together is really helping working relationships and productivity
  • The following federal measures have been implemented on the back of the Victoria situation:
    • Pandemic leave disaster payment for Victorians
    • Childcare keeping places arrangement for Victorians
    • Easing restrictions and extending JobKeeper to make sure that Victorians and any other parts of the country doing it tough can access:
      • Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has announced businesses will only need to show that their GST turnover had fallen over one quarter, instead of multiple, to be eligible for the scheme's extension.
      • Workers will also qualify if they were employed on July 1, rather than March 1.
  • Very dark times – the governments are working together, very clear and strong plan for the road out. Continue to work together to provide support businesses and jobs. National effort to support Victoria.
  • Stress testing national preparedness - in quarantine arrangements and aged care
  • Quarantine review being undertaken to track lessons and experience as well as the need to ensure we conduct QA processes in each state. Welcome to hear that people are being treated like hotel guests in hotel quarantine, making the process as positive as possible. Little things make a big difference.
  • Ongoing auditing of aged care preparedness around the country, and also helping to stabilise the aged care situation in Victoria
  • International travel restrictions on arrivals to stay. This inbound ban will continue for months to come indefinitely.
  • Freight protocol is now a Code, as of today and will be enforced around country from today
  • 340,000 training places via JobTrainer program will be made available this year
  • Vaccine progress – never been a global effort like this, positive signs
  • Whoever finds the vaccine needs to share it without restraint, otherwise they’d be looked upon terribly in history. Australia pledges to share vaccine if it develops it, all other countries should too.
  • Can’t count on a vaccine, but we need an economic plan in place that accommodates life without a vaccine
  • National Preparedness Plan coming in next two weeks – keenness from all Premiers to engage in this plan

Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly

  • ACT/TAS have no active COVID-19 cases
  • Particularly older people who have higher rates of death
  • Younger age groups are the most infected and are spreading the virus
  • Very good engagement across the board helping Victoria
  • Acute response phase is about preparing for the worst so it can be handled the best
  • Vaccine – strong optimism, can’t promise when it will occur. Many in clinical trials at the moment, it needs to be safe and of a high quality
  • National stockpiles have been increased including lifesaving medication
  • The virus can be a severe long-term illness in some, including young people
  • Person in their 30s who died had co-morbidities, but confirms it is not just an old person’s virus
  • QR codes are being used in venues. We are in a pandemic so the quicker that people can do contact tracing the better. Put down real addresses/names because that will help you.
  • Suppression strategy is working well in other states

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