Australia news live: second case of UK Covid strain in Qld; McCormack defends Craig Kelly’s right to post misinformation
Good morning all, Matilda Boseley right here, bringing you all of the news on this beautiful Tuesday morning.
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So, what’s taking place immediately?
It appears to be like likes Queensland may need a second Covid-19 case brought on by the extremely contagious UK variant of the coronavirus, however it’s unlikely that it’ll spark one other lockdown.
The associate of the quarantine resort cleaner who initially contracted the brand new strain of the virus has now examined optimistic, and whereas technically genomic testing will take one other 24 to 28 hours, it appears possible that they’re carrying the identical varient.
“We know this particular variant of Covid-19 is more contagious, so this result is unsurprising,” Queensland’s chief well being officer, Dr Jeannette Young, mentioned.
Luckily that particular person has been in isolation since 7 January, however further contact tracing is now underway as a precaution.
Yesterday Young confirmed to reporters that if one other UK variant case appeared in somebody who was already in isolation it was unlikely to trigger the state to enter one other snap lockdown.
Down south on the NSW/Victoria border trapped holidaymakers have been left annoyed after the web site required to apply for a allow to enter Victoria nonetheless wasn’t working hours after the allow reduce off at 6pm final night time.
Earlier on Monday, the premier, Daniel Andrews, announced that anyone wanting to enter Victoria, together with from areas with no journey restrictions, wanted to apply for a allow by means of the Service Victoria web site, with a brand new most penalty of $5,000 for these arriving with out the right documentation.
Regional NSW can be downgraded from a “red” zone to an “orange” zone at 6pm, which means that Victorian residents may enter the state with a allow.
But by the 6pm deadline, the web site to apply for a allow was not operational. The utility web site didn’t begin working till a couple of minutes earlier than 9pm with Service Victoria and the Department of Health and Human Services apologising for the delay on Twitter.
Okay, now we’re all caught up, let’s get going with the day!
