Australia news LIVE: Canberra lockdown to begin as ACT records one local COVID-19 case; NSW records 345 new local cases; Victoria records 21 new cases

Coming back to Victoria’s press conference where COVID-19 commander Jeroen Weimar is most concerned about new mystery cases in Glenroy in Melbourne’s north which don’t have “acquisition sources”.

“Normally, at this stage of an outbreak, you would want all of the people and your wider group to be known. The fact that this hasn’t all popped up on the radar is concerning,” Mr Weimar said.

“The other pieces, we can see how they fit together. These two don’t.”

Furthermore, contact tracers are yet to establish a link between the two Glenroy households with no obvious crossover like shopping at the same supermarket or connections to the same school or sports club.

Mr Weimar said one of the cases is a school-aged child who may have attended Glenroy West Primary School last Thursday but that is still to be confirmed.

He said wastewater samples last week showed the virus was in Glenroy.

“We know that wastewater isn’t a perfect ground radar but it is a useful canary in the coalmine,” Mr Weimar said.

“Three people across two households turning positive in Glenroy gives some explanation but when need to know where they got it.”

The ACT government has told people not to panic-buy groceries after already starting to see this behaviour since the lockdown was announced.

ACT Minister for Health Rachel Stephen-Smith has encouraged Canberrans to stay “calm and be thoughtful” during the lockdown.

“Like every other jurisdiction has had to do, we need to remind you that supermarkets will remain open. Grocery shopping will continue to be allowed during the lockdown,” she said.

“The clear message is that the best thing you can do to protect yourself, your family and community is to stay at home as much as possible, to only leave your house for essential reasons and ensure that you wear a mask when you leave your home.”

There are 15 exposure locations where the infectious case visited between August 9 and August 11. Anyone who visited the following locations at the specified times must immediately quarantine, get tested for COVID and isolate until further advised.

August 8

• Fiction Bar, Canberra City - midnight to 4.45am
• Church of Pentecost, Woden - 10.30am to 1pm
• Freedom Furniture, Fyshwick - 2pm to 2.20pm
• JB Hifi, Fyshwick - 2.15pm to 2.35pm
• TK Maxx, Fyshwick - 2.35pm to 2.50pm
• Assembly Pub, Braddon - 9pm to 9.30pm

August 9

• Stockade Training Centre, Fyshwick - 7.30am to 1pm

August 10

• Stockade Training Centre, Fyshwick - 9am to 11am
• Urban Pantry, Manuka - 10.30am to 1pm
• Harvey Norman, Fyshwick - 11am to 12pm

August 11

• North Canberra Business Centre, Mitchell - 11.10am to 11.30am
• Companion House, Cook - 12pm to 12.15pm
• Capital Chemist, Kingston - 12pm to 12.15pm
• Coles, Manuka - 12.15pm to 12.140pm

Further, anyone who spent time at Canberra Outlet Centre in Fyshwick between 2pm and 3.30pm has been told to monitor for symptoms.

The full list can be found here.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr says the source of the territory’s first COVID-19 case in more than a year remains unknown as he confirmed the seven-day lockdown will begin at 5pm.

“This is the most serious public health risk that we are faced in the territory this year,” Mr Barr said.

The new case was a man in his 20s residing in Gungahlin. The authorities are contact tracing, but warn the man spent “extensive time in the community” since Sunday morning when he was infectious.

ACT parents are asked to keep their children home from school over the next week, with teachers told to prepare for remote learning to extend in case the lockdown needs to go on for longer. Children of essential workers and those experiencing vulnerability can still go to public school where they will be supervised.

Deputy chief minister Yvette Berry said this meant normal schooling won’t happen this week but the education directorate had spent the last 12 months developing a home lending library with resources for families.

“You can go to the Education ACT website, search Home Learning, and they will be a range of activities available through that online resource library,” she said.

Teachers, school staff and children aged 13 and above must wear masks.

Under stay-at-home orders, ACT residents can only leave for safety, essential work, medical treatment, exercise and essential supplies but have been encouraged not to leave their local area where possible. Masks are required.

Two Sydney women who flew into Melbourne on Monday without a permit have tested positive to COVID-19 while in hotel quarantine.

Victorian COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar says the women will be fined because they were travelling from Sydney, which is a red zone under his state’s travel system.

Mr Weimar said 46 people on the flight, the majority of them travelling for permitted reasons, would go into quarantine for 14 days.

He did not know why the women were travelling to Melbourne and they were not sent back to Sydney immediately as there wasn’t an available flight to put them on that evening.

“This is why the Chief Health Officer has declared Sydney and New South Wales as an extreme red zone,” Mr Weimar said.

“This is why we are putting such significant barriers in place to limit all unnecessary travel between our states at this most critical time.

“The consequences of these two positive cases not having been stopped, being positive in the community and then spreading through Melbourne and Victoria, you know, we do not need two more incursions of this type.”

Victorian Jobs Minister Martin Pakula says the support thresholds for his state’s COVID-19 hospitality fund has been reduced following feedback from Melbourne businesses.

The fund has been topped up by the Commonwealth and Victorian governments by $55 million as lockdown six continues for residents of Greater Melbourne.

“There is an additional top up of the hospitality venue fund of $55 million and again that will be automatic,” Mr Pakula said at today’s state coronavirus briefing.

“We have adjusted those grant amounts in response to some feedback we received in the last week about those restaurants, in particular, in the 100 to 200 patron range.

“So the threshold for a $10,000 grant is being reduced from 199 to 100 [patrons]. So for all of those with between 100 and 499 patrons the payment will now be $10,000. It was previously $5000 up to 200.

“So it’s $5000 up to 99 [patrons], $10,000 for between 100 and 499, and $10,000 for a capacity of more than that. So that’s an additional $5000 in this week’s package.”

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard says he has written to the federal Health Minister regarding additional health resources to western NSW because he is “not at all” confident the region could withstand a significant outbreak.

He said issues with vaccine supply had been seen in the area, despite large numbers of the local Indigenous population becoming eligible in early phases of the vaccine rollout.

“There’s still a very substantial percentage, in fact, by far the majority of Aboriginal people in that section of our state, who have not received the vaccine,” he said.

Mr Hazzard said he had requested assistance including pop-up vaccination clinics as well as ADF staff or medical staff to the region.

He said federal Health Minister Greg Hunt had responded “within minutes” offering support.

The Commonwealth and Victorian governments have announced a $367 million joint support package for 100,000 Melbourne businesses hit by Victoria’s extended lockdown.

The funding will add $271 million to the existing business assistance program and a special hospitality and venue fund.

A new small business support fund has also been established for eligible businesses that don’t qualify for existing programs. This fund will provide a one-off payment of $10,000.

“We have put $1.4 billion plus into bank accounts since the May June lockdown commenced,” Victorian Jobs Minister Martin Pakula said during today’s coronavirus briefing.

“So that is the benefit of the automatic payment process that we are undertaking for the vast majority of businesses that are receiving our support.

“There are three key elements of the package, two of which involve automatic payments and the third a further boost to the hardship fund which I’m pleased to say will open today.”

As people in their 30s and even younger are offered the Pfizer vaccine in South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Tasmania and the ACT, NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has been asked if people aged under 40 might be offered that vaccine in the next two months.

In recent weeks, a significant number of under-40s have come forward for the AstraZeneca vaccine following advice by national vaccine advisory group ATAGI that all adults in outbreak areas should seek out whatever vaccine is available to them.

Mr Hazzard said the “strong advice” was both vaccines were “worldwide winners when it comes to stopping death and hospitalisation”.

“We will continue to follow the public health advice because we just don’t have enough of the Pfizer to do every group at the moment,” he added.

In NSW, with the exception of those with other qualifying health conditions and circumstances, the Pfizer vaccine is only being routinely offered to people in their 40s and 50s.