That’s all for us today, folks. It’s been another awful day in the pandemic, with Australia recording its highest death toll for the pandemic so far, following a grim two weeks of escalating numbers. That included an infant who died with Covid in NSW, and Tasmania’s first casualty of the disease for nearly two years – a woman in her 90s. You can find all the daily Covid statistics in the summary post pinned at the top of the blog.
Other things that rounded off this week of news:
• Queensland has reduced its booster interval from four to three months, following NSW, Victoria, ACT and South Australia.
• The Australian federal police have launched an investigation into price gouging of rapid antigen tests.
• Western Australia announced that its border would stay closed, but had to fend off concerns that its hospital system wasn’t ready for a Covid surge despite a long preparation time.
• Peter Dutton has said there will be more visits from UK and US submarines as part of the defence deals being discussed in the annual AUKMIN talks in Sydney this week.
• The federal government announced 15,000 humanitarian visas would be provided for Afghan nationals, after a senate inquiry delivered a scathing report into Australia’s treatment of former Afghan interpreters and other colleagues left behind after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The announcement has also come under fire for not actually adding any new places to the humanitarian visa program.
• Health experts have warned that delaying elective surgeries in Victoria will see blown-out waiting lists spiral into a “massive healthcare crisis”.
• Australian naval ship HMAS Adelaide loaded with critical humanitarian supplies departed for Tonga as part of disaster relief efforts in the Pacific island nation following the devastating volcano eruption and tsunami, but an Australian aid flight was turned back from the Covid-free nation after a positive case was detected on board.
Thanks for coming along for the ride this week. I hope you have a lovely weekend, stay cool and hydrated, wear sunscreen, and I’ll see you again soon!
Updated
Tonga has turned back an aid flight from Australia due to a positive Covid case on board, despite assurances from the Morrison government that humanitarian relief from the volcanic eruption and tsunami could be offered in a Covid-safe way.
Tonga is Covid-free and has a strict border control policy, requiring contactless delivery of aid that began arriving by plane on Thursday.
The Australian aid flight left Brisbane on Thursday afternoon but was turned around mid-flight after being notified of the positive Covid case, an Australian defence spokesperson said.
All crew had returned negative rapid antigen tests before departure, but PCR tests later showed the positive result. The supplies were moved to another flight that took off on Friday.
Read more:
Updated
Health minister Greg Hunt and home affairs minister Karen Andrews have released their official statement on the changes that mean negative rapid antigen tests will now be accepted for international arrivals, saying the changes will provide more flexibility.
Interestingly, they’ve also reduced wait times between receiving a positive Covid diagnosis and being cleared to travel here.
Here’s what the release says:
Under the Biosecurity Act 2015 the Government will change the requirements for a pre-departure test of any nucleic acid amplification test (such as PCR tests) within three days, to allow the flexibility for passengers to instead show a negative test result through a rapid antigen test (RAT) within 24 hours of the flight departure time.
These changes will come into effect from 1am Sunday 23 January 2022.
While PCR tests remain the gold standard test, a RAT within 24 hours is an acceptable indicator of whether a traveller has COVID-19 before flying to Australia.
This is consistent with moves within Australia to accept RATs for diagnostic purposes.
In addition to this, the time between receiving a positive test result and being able to be cleared for travel to Australia will be reduced from 14 to seven days. This will reduce wait times for travellers who contract COVID-19 overseas to return to Australia in line with the new domestic isolation requirements.
The pre-departure testing requirements will continue to be reviewed regularly, taking into account the domestic and international epidemiology.
Travellers to Australia must still wear a mask during their flight and follow the directions of state and territory governments regarding quarantine and on-arrival testing.
Updated
