Australia news LIVE Victoria records six new local COVID-19 cases NSW cases continue to soar as Sydneys lockdown extended

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Victoria’s daily coronavirus numbers are in.

The state has recorded six new cases of COVID-19. There were seven reported in total today, but we already knew about one of those yesterday (the mystery case that has experts worried).

Today’s six new cases are all linked to current outbreaks and were in isolation for their infectious period.

The Victorian Department of Health says investigations into how a male traffic controller contracted the virus, possibly at a testing site in Melbourne’s north-west, are ongoing.

There are now 205 active cases of coronavirus across Victoria. Zero cases have been detected in hotel quarantine.

Those numbers are off the back of yesterday’s 42,009 tests.

Cumberland City Council Mayor Steve Christou says morale is at an all time low thanks to the slow vaccine rollout and ongoing lockdowns.

The local government area is one of eight in west and south-west Sydney which are subject to stricter restrictions than the rest of the city, meaning people are not allowed to leave their locality for work unless they are on the list of authorised workers .

Cumberland mayor Steve Christou. Credit:Cumberland City Council

“It is seriously like armageddon,” Councillor Christou said on 2GB radio this morning.

“Our residents have been very patient and abided by every rule and condition that’s been asked of them.

“We are now 19 months into COVID and we have no solutions other than lockdowns while other countries are enjoying their freedoms.”

The mayor said the council had offered up 10 local facilities as vaccination centres to NSW Health more than a month ago but had not received a response.

The Victorian Racing Club have proposed an ambitious plan to host up to 60,000 patrons across a series of zones at Flemington Racecourse on each day of this year’s Melbourne Cup carnival.

Victoria Racing Club chief executive Steve Rosich said planning was already underway with the Victorian government and they intended to share more details about how the event would proceed soon.

“The Melbourne Cup carnival follows the AFL Grand Final and we hope this huge period of sport will light up our great city and deliver another epic economic stimulus to many of the industries that hurt so much during the pandemic, including the hospitality, event management and retail sectors,” he said.

“The Victoria Racing Club is planning to safely host up to 60,000 patrons across multiple zones at Flemington Racecourse on each day of the 2021 Melbourne Cup carnival, kicking off with Penfolds Victoria Derby Day on Saturday 30th October.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison isn’t the only one fronting the cameras this morning to sell his government’s increased disaster payments.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was on ABC News Breakfast a short while ago. He battered away a question over whether the increased payments have come too late by saying there have been “a wider number of recipients” under the current program than last year’s JobKeeper subsidy.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Credit:Justin McManus

ABC presenter Lisa Miller then asked this question: “Have you got a ceiling on what you’re going to spend? Is there a limit here? Or you just keep racking up the debt and deficit?”

Debt and deficit, you might recall, was one of the two-word slogans the Coalition used to campaign against the then-Labor government ahead of the 2013 election. At the time, the Coalition was slamming Labor’s spending in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Here’s Frydenberg’s response:

“Well, it’s certainly costing the economy, the budget and the country a significant amount of money. But we have no alternative other than to ensure that we get on top of these outbreaks when they occur. And my sense is that you’ll now see shorter and sharper lockdowns as the default position of state governments until we get a sufficient number of people vaccinated.”

However the Treasurer rejected any assertion that Victoria was now the “gold standard” given it has managed to quash Delta outbreaks not once but twice with short, sharp lockdowns compared to Sydney which yesterday recorded a record 177 new infections.

“Tragically here in Victoria, more than 90 per cent of the deaths [in Australia] have taken place and we’ve been in lockdown for more than 200 days,” he said.

“But I have welcomed and I did support the short, sharp lockdown that the Andrews Government undertook, and it’s very pleasing to see life starting to get back to a COVID-normal, although the restrictions are still in place in many parts of the city.”

From today, workers in three additional local government areas in Sydney’s west and south are subject to stricter rules.

The affected LGAs are Parramatta, Georges River and Campbelltown. Workers from those areas join people in Fairfield, Liverpool, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland and Blacktown in not being allowed to leave their region for work unless granted essential worker status by the state government.

While construction workers are set to pick up their tools across Sydney from Saturday, tradies in the eight LGAs of concern aren’t allowed to leave their suburbs. Similarly, singles in those LGAs are only allowed to set up a “singles bubble” with someone within a 10-kilometre radius.

Year 12 students in Sydney’s south and west are also set to receive the Pfizer jab as part of a targeted rollout. The doses are being taken from regional NSW.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is speaking on Seven’s breakfast show Sunrise right now.

He is being grilled by co-host Natalie Barr about past comments in which he suggested Australia’s vaccine rollout wasn’t a race.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Here’s the opening exchange:

Barr: Earlier in this pandemic you said the vaccine rollout was not a race, now you are saying it is like a gold medal run at the Olympics. If you treated it as a race from the start, would we be in this mess?

Morrison: When we made those remarks, we were talking about the regulation of the vaccines. I’m not sure people are aware of that. We have always treated this with the greatest of urgency. That is why we have been able to turn around the program from the early setbacks and the lack of supply of a vaccine and changing advice on AstraZeneca. We are now vaccinating at a rate of more than a million a week.

In case you missed them, NSW health authorities released 16 additional COVID-19 exposure sites last night.

Anyone who attended the following venues is a close contact and must get tested and isolate for 14 days:

The GoVita in Engadine, in Sydney’s south, on July 21 between 9.45am and 9.55am;

Gwynneville Bakery in Wollongong on July 24 between 9am and 9.30am; and

Mancini’s Original Woodfired Pizza in Belfield, in Sydney’s south-west, on July 24 all day.

A number of locations were also added to the casual contact list, meaning people must get tested and isolate until a negative result is received.

The venues include two Bunnings stores â€" one in the Wollongong suburb of Bellambi on July 20 and one in Lidcombe, in Sydney’s west, on July 23. The list also includes a number of Woolworths and Coles stores.

Full details on all the new sites can be found here.

Police are appealing to the public to help identify three protesters at Saturday’s anti-lockdown rally in Melbourne who they believe let off flares during demonstrations.

Detectives are hoping to identify two men and one woman, alleging the flares endangered not only police but people in the area.

Police are seeking to identify these three people who they allege let off flares during anti-lockdown protests in Melbourne.

Police have released images of three people they are hoping to speak to in relation to the incidents.

Police believe one of the men is aged in his late 20s to 30s, of slim build with short dark brown hair and was seen wearing a grey and black hooded jacket.

Police say the other man appears to be aged in his 30s, of medium build with short brown hair. He was seen wearing a plain black T-shirt.

The woman pictured, police believe, is aged in her 20s, of slim build with long brown hair. She was seen wearing a blue puffer jacket.

Anyone who recognises either the two men or the woman, or with information about the incident is asked to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit a confidential report at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro says the highly-contagious Delta coronavirus variant is making it difficult to know “what’s working and what’s not working” in his state.

“What we have seen are stubborn numbers,” Mr Barilaro told the Today show.

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro at yesterday’s press conference. Credit:Nick Moir

NSW recorded 177 new cases yesterday, the biggest daily case total of the outbreak so far. The number of people infectious in the community has remained high for weeks.

Asked how the citizens of NSW can have confidence in the state government if they don’t know what’s working, the Deputy Premier urged people to have patience (as hard as that is in lockdown).

“The Delta strain is really challenging us because it’s transmissible and contagious,” he said.

“We are putting in place all the learned experience of the last 18 months, the advice from [NSW] Health and we will continue to throw more at this. Eight LGAs [local government areas] have been locked up with very minimal movement, lots of restrictions in place.

“But we are not going to pretend that we have every answer because we don’t. What we are doing is working with the public. This is going to be a joint effort where the public abide by the rules together we can get through it.”

Non-urgent elective surgery has been suspended in at least three major Sydney hospitals as COVID-19 exposures take their toll on staff numbers in the west and other facilities work to free up resources for a potential surge.

There were 56 COVID-19 cases in intensive care units across NSW yesterday, the highest number since the pandemic began. About half of these cases are ventilated.

Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital has paused non-urgent surgery.Credit:Janie Barrett

Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred, St Vincent’s and Liverpool hospitals all have a pause on non-urgent surgery, also known as category three elective surgery, such as joint replacements, eye surgery and some cosmetic procedures.

Read the full story here.

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