Victorian Government lifts work from home recommendations
With fourth dose vaccinations now available, more antiviral options and active COVID case numbers dropping to 14,802 in Victoria from a peak of 71,428 in July, the state's government has announced a lifting of work from home recommendations.
The announcement yesterday came hard on the heels of a relaxation of COVID isolation periods nationally from seven to five days if a person tests negative to the virus on the fifth day - a policy that will be in place from 9 September.
Victorian Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas made the announcement encouraging more Victorians to safely return to the office, in a bid to deliver a boost to economies like the Melbourne CBD.
The work from home recommendations were in place to help reduce transmission and protect Victoria's health system during the winter, but now the advice from the Department of Health is that this pressure and transmission risk has reduced.
However, employers and staff may still consider remote working arrangements that are most appropriate for their workplace and employees based on individual requirements. Businesses or organisations with on-site operations, including home-based businesses, need to have a COVIDSafe Plan which is regularly reviewed to ensure it’s as up to date as possible.
Following the winter peak, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has also requested and received public health advice to confirm that the pandemic declaration should remain until at least the existing date of 12 October, prior to which new advice will be requested.
All Victorians, no matter where they work, are also encouraged to make sure they are up to date with vaccinations, to wear a good quality face mask when in an indoor space and unable to socially distance and maintain good ventilation indoors.
"With spring now here and case numbers and hospitalisations declining significantly, more people may want to get back into the office – and back out to the cafes, shops and bars in busy professional precincts across the state," Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas said.
"Lifting the work from home recommendation is in line with current public health advice – we encourage employers and employees to have a conversation about what’s right for their individual needs."
The Property Council announced its "delight" at the decision and applauded the state government for acting to help small business recover in the Melbourne CBD, noting August office occupancy data had barely moved from the 38 per cent mark in July, which was the lowest in the country and represented a significant slump from the month before.
"Melbourne’s CBD has suffered more than any other, with last month’s occupancy figure of 38 per cent a massive 14 points behind Sydney which was the next highest. On our lowest occupancy days, we are seeing only 19 per cent of workers coming into the CBD on Mondays and Fridays," the council reported in a statement.
"The updated advice sends a much-needed signal of confidence to workers and businesses and will support increased CBD activity that will flow through to thousands of small businesses and their families. Victorian employers have a strong record of CovidSafe conduct and will do everything required to warmly welcome back workers to the office.
"We know that our office occupancy since COVID is the worst in the country, and the small businesses in our city now have some hope that Spring has sprung and this change in advice is the absolutely well timed."
This morning Victoria's Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reported 2,393 new cases of the virus and 17 lives lost, while there are currently 295 people hospitalised of whom five are on ventilators
COVID isolation time will be cut to five days, mask rules to be removed for domestic flights
National Cabinet has agreed to reduce isolation periods for COVID-positive cases from seven to five days following a positive test, while also doing away with the mandatory wearing of masks on domestic flights.
The new rules will come into effect on 9 September, with the condition that the reduced isolation times will only apply to people with no symptoms at the five-day mark.
It was a decision that also came with a caveat that seven-day isolation would remain for workers in high risk setting including aged care, disability care, and those providing care in the home.
Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment (PLDP) eligibility will be adjusted as well to reflect the changed isolation periods, effective on the same date.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the changes as a proportionate response at this point in the pandemic.
The National Cabinet met in Sydney yesterday to discuss these matters ahead of the Jobs and Skills Summit, and heard from Acting Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd with an update on the pandemic and strategies for combating potential COVID-19 waves.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) cautioned the reduced isolation periods would mean extra vigilance is now required from governments and the community to prevent infection from COVID-19, and called for the release of medical and health advice that guided the decision.
AMA President, Professor Steve Robson said the health advice needed to be made public as the decision would mean many people re-entering the community after five days’ isolation would potentially still be infectious and pass the virus on.
“Throughout this pandemic the AMA has continuously said governments must base their decision-making on the health and medical advice and we need to see that advice and whether it supports today’s decision. If it doesn’t, the politicians need to explain themselves,” Professor Robson said.
"As many as 30 per cent of people are likely to still be infectious on days six and seven - even longer. When isolation rules change we need clear plans for protecting the vulnerable and careful monitoring, and if case numbers climb then the isolation rules should be re-evaluated."
He said it was now increasingly important that people take protective measures including getting tested if they develop COVID symptoms and remain in isolation while awaiting the results.
"Additionally, everyone should be taking up the vaccine booster shots they’re eligible for and wear a mask wherever possible indoors when around other people," Robson said.
"We also need to keep appropriate distances from people in indoor settings and continue hand sanitising and good hygiene practices.
"The move from seven to five days isolation will mean it is more important than ever for governments to ensure plans are in place to monitor and respond to outbreaks to protect Australians in vulnerable settings – such as those in aged care facilities."
Robson urged all governments to take immediate and ongoing action to address the logjam in public hospitals, which are suffering under extreme demand and staff shortages, further exacerbated by the number of COVID positive cases presenting.
"Governments should also continue public health messaging on the importance of community vigilance around COVID testing and isolation requirements, community spread and vaccine uptake," he said.
There were 12,061 known new COVID-19 cases reported for Australia yesterday, making the country the ninth-highest in the world for new infections. There were 75 people who passed away due to the virus in Australia yesterday, which gives our country the sixth-highest daily COVID-19 death rate globally at present.
There are currently more than 107,000 active cases of the virus in Australia.
Fourth COVID-19 shot approved for over-30s
An additional 7.4 million Australians will be entitled to receive another COVID-19 booster from next week after the Federal Government accepted recommendations from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) to expand the eligibility for a fourth shot to over 30s.
The updated guidance follows an increase in the number of people falling ill from respiratory virus infections, including COVID-19, over the past few months, placing an increased strain on the Australian healthcare system, particularly hospitals.
A contributing factor to the upsurge of COVID-19 cases comes from the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, which ATAGI says can partly escape the immune response generated by both prior vaccination and infection, with numbers expected to worsen over the coming months.
A first booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine has been shown to increase the immune response to these new subvariants but wanes over several weeks; however, a winter dose (the second booster dose) is anticipated to boost this immune response.
“We are in the early stages of a third Omicron wave, and our Government is absolutely committed to making sure as many people as possible are protected with the vaccine,” the Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler said.
“My message to everyone living in Australia aged 50 and over is to make sure you have the greatest protection against COVID-19 by having a fourth dose as soon as possible. If you are aged 30 to 49, and you want that extra protection, you can choose to get a fourth dose.
“The vaccine experts on the Australian Technical Advisory Group on immunisation have recommended it – and the Government has accepted this advice.”
ATAGI emphasised that people previously eligible for a winter booster dose remain at higher risk of severe disease and death from COVID-19 and should look to receive the booster dose as soon as possible; these include:
all adults aged 65 years or older
residents of aged care or disability care facilities
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 50 years or older
people who are severely immunocompromised (this will be their fifth dose)
people aged 16 years or older with a medical condition that increases the risk of severe COVID-19 illness
people aged 16 years or older with a disability, significant or complex health needs, or multiple comorbidities, which increase the risk of a poor outcome.
Adults aged between 50 to 64 years old are now recommended to receive a COVID-19 winter booster dose. Those aged between 30 to 49 are also now eligible, although the benefit for people in this group is less certain.
There was no support for making the fourth dose available to healthy adults under the age of 30 as it was not clear whether the benefits outweighed the risks in this population group.
ATAGI has also recommended that the interval between vaccine doses, or prior infection (whichever comes later), be reduced from four months to three months to provide earlier additional protection.
Individuals who have previously been infected with SARS-CoV-2, irrespective of which variant it may have been, should continue to receive recommended vaccine doses after three months, as prior infection alone will not provide sufficient protection against severe disease.
Vaccination, in addition to infection, as compared with prior infection alone, currently offers the best available protection against reinfection.
ATAGI acknowledges that increasing the uptake of fourth doses in the most at-risk population groups is anticipated to play a limited but important role in taking pressure off Australia’s health care system by reducing the risk of severe outcomes in individuals.
The group advises that other public health and social measures, in addition to vaccination, will have the most significant impact against the surge in Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 infections.
This includes increased use of masks and expanding the use of antiviral treatment in people diagnosed with COVID-19, including those aged 50 years and above.
“My other message is that oral antiviral treatments can be life-saving for older people or people with chronic health conditions who are at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19,” Butler added.
“It is vital a person starts the five-day oral treatment course as soon as possible after symptoms first appear.
“If you are at higher risk of severe illness, plan ahead. Speak to your doctor now about oral antiviral treatment for COVID-19.”
Almost 14 million people in Australia aged 16 and over have received three or more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
However, take-up of the vaccine's first and winter booster doses are considered suboptimal according to ATAGI, with only 70.6 per cent and 59.5 per cent of the respective eligible populations having completed initial doses.
New Zealand scraps pre-departure COVID-19 tests
Business travel and holidays to New Zealand are set to become less of a hassle with the announcement passengers will no longer need a COVID-19 pre-departure test to enter the country as of Tuesday, 21 June.
In the hope of enticing more tourists into the nation as the ski season kicks off, unvaccinated travellers will also be allowed to enter without quarantining.
New Zealand COVID-19 Minister Ayesha Verrall confirmed the availability and cost of getting a test had increasingly become a barrier for people travelling to the nation.
"I'm advised the challenges pre-departure tests pose to visitors are now no longer outweighed by the public health benefits," she said.
"Around 90 per cent of international arrivals undertake their required testing once they are in the country, with only a 2-3 per cent positivity rate. So we don't anticipate a significant increase in border cases once the requirement is lifted."
While more than 387,000 travellers arrived since the nation reopened its borders in February, the number of COVID-19 cases has slowly declined in New Zealand.
However, the government is keeping a set of surveillance measures in place to detect new variants of COVID-19.
Travellers will still be required to self-test using a rapid antigen test (RAT) within the first 24 hours of arrival and again on day five or six. If the result of either test is positive, the person must get a PCR test.
Additionally, any traveller with COVID-19-like symptoms (e.g. hayfever) could be asked to provide a negative COVID test or a certificate from a health professional before boarding a flight.
The maximum penalty for breaching the Air Border Order’s vaccination requirements will be reduced from $4,000 to $1,000.
Dr Verrall said New Zealand was ready to relax the pre-departure testing requirement ahead of the planned 31 July reopening to all visa categories.
"We've taken a careful and staged approach to reopening our borders to ensure we aren't overwhelmed with an influx of COVID-19 cases," she said.
"Our strategy has worked, and as a result, it's safe to lift pre-departure test requirements much sooner than planned."
More than 95 per cent of eligible New Zealanders aged 12 or over are double-vaccinated. The nation's COVID-19 death toll currently stands at 1,359.
Two Melbourne-made COVID-19 vaccines to launch Phase 1 trials
Two COVID-19 vaccine candidates created by the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences are moving into the Phase 1 clinical trial stage, with both projects looking for healthy volunteers.
The new vaccine candidates are distinct from existing vaccines in use globally because they focus on the immune response on the tip of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, called the receptor binding domain (RBD).
The RBD enables the virus to enter and infect cells in the body, eliciting more than 90 per cent of neutralising antibodies which can block the virus following SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The two candidates are:
RBD protein vaccine – it uses part of the virus protein, rather than genetic material or another virus, to elicit an immune response.
RBD mRNA vaccine – represents the virus genetic sequence that codes for the tip of the spike, which will lead to the production of the RBD protein.
According to the Doherty Institute, both candidates are ‘proof-of-principle’ variant vaccines that present the Beta variant to the immune system - the variant of concern back when the vaccines were being designed.
This is important at this point in the pandemic, as the Beta variant has two of the same key RBD mutations as the Omicron variants currently spreading through Australia (BA.1 and BA.2), so the scientists behind the candidates hope they may also improve immunity to Omicron.
University of Melbourne Professor Terry Nolan, head of the Vaccine and Immunisation Research Group at the Doherty Institute, will lead the Phase 1 trial and is recruiting 114 volunteers to participate.
“This trial will assess the safety and efficacy of a single dose of these vaccines as a fourth dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, therefore participants must have had their third dose at least three months prior to the study commencing,” Professor Nolan said.
“People who have been infected with COVID-19 are also eligible provided they had their infection at least three months prior, and have had their third vaccine dose.
“What’s also unique about this gold standard, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial is that it will be the first time a side-by-side comparison will be undertaken of two new COVID-19 vaccine platforms.”
Dr Georgia Deliyannis from the University of Melbourne performed most of the RBD protein vaccine experiments at the Doherty Institute, and said in pre-clinical trials the vaccine induced high levels of RBD-specific antibodies, including high neutralising antibodies following two doses.
“Immunity induced by the RBD protein vaccine protects against virus challenge in a mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection, even 100 days following the boost,” Dr Deliyannis said.
“As well as inducing strong neutralising antibody immunity to the Beta variant in mice, it also retains its potential to neutralise the original ancestral strain, and preliminary in-lab studies have demonstrated neutralising activity against other variants including Delta and Omicron.”
Doherty Institute director Professor Sharon Lewin said the need for next generation vaccines using innovative technology remains high, especially as new variants continue to emerge.
“Both vaccines are efficient to produce and can be rapidly modified to incorporate distinct or multiple RBD mutations arising in future variants,” said Professor Lewin.
“In addition, Australia needs the ability to manufacture its own vaccines to ensure our own supply should future global shortages occur, and to contribute to the global need for COVID-19 vaccines.”
Updated at 11.24am AEDT on 25 March 2022.
WA to ease COVID restrictions as ICU numbers remain lower than predicted
The Western Australian government will ease its Level 2 restrictions from next Thursday, 31 March, with the announcement coinciding with a record 8,616 new COVID-19 cases across the state.
The Level 2 public health and social measures, which were introduced on 3 March, will be relaxed to allow up to 30 people to gather indoors at home, the size of private outdoor gatherings to increased to 200, and Optus Stadium’s capacity to increase from 50 per cent to 75 per cent.
Masks will remain mandatory indoors for all adults and schoolchildren in years three and above. However, mandatory check-ins will be abolished except for venues that carry proof of vaccination requirements.
"Western Australia's soft landing through the Omicron wave is on track - with COVID-19 hospitalisations and ICU admissions lower than expected thanks to our world-leading vaccination rate,” WA Premier Mark McGowan said.
"Given this, we can now ease most Level 2 measures back to modified Level 1 measures after only four weeks - just as we had planned.
"WA has been fortunate enough to mitigate the need to move towards more severe and sustained long-term restrictions seen elsewhere in the country - like working from home mandates and implementing a broader four square metre rule, which would have been far worse for WA jobs and businesses.”
COVID-safe settings in workplaces remain, and the two square-metre capacity rule will stay in place for venues such as hospitality, galleries, museums, places of worship, hairdressers and beauty salons.
However, WA businesses can look forward to capacity limits at nightclubs and hospitality venues increasing to 500 and will rejoice at their removal from 14 April.
“There is no doubt that some businesses have done it tough while Level 2 measures have been in place,” McGowan said.
"My Government is supporting those businesses most impacted through our recent support packages worth more than $420 million, with more than $1.7 billion committed to businesses since the beginning of the pandemic.
"I thank all Western Australians for doing the right thing. We have only got to this position by doing what is required, when required, and now we can all benefit. As we continue through the Omicron wave, we will continue to review and adapt measures as necessary."
The relaxing of the restrictions is based on the latest health advice, but some rules remain unchanged. A limit of two visitors per day to residential aged care and disability facilities will be kept. There will also be no change to essential visitors only being allowed into hospitals.
Other changes include increased capacity for venues like cinemas and theatres to 75 per cent, check-ins will be scrapped for lower-risk sites like supermarkets and retail outlets, and the Crown casino will move to a two square metre rule.
"These new Level 1 measures strike the right balance between reducing the spread of Omicron and minimising the impact on businesses. Importantly, we are retaining stronger PHSMs for higher-risk settings, including hospitals and residential aged and disability care, to ensure our most vulnerable citizens are appropriately protected,” WA Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said.
"Thank you to all those who continue to get tested and vaccinated, including a third dose when eligible - you are doing your bit to protect those in the community who might become more seriously unwell from COVID-19.
"Our very high vaccination rates have kept hospitalisations and ICU admissions down and enabled us to keep our restrictions modest and short-term."
WA announced 3,848 positive PCR tests and 4,768 RAT tests on 24 March, which brings the total number of active cases to 42,988 across the state. There are 209 people in hospital with COVID, with nine of those people currently in ICU.
There were seven deaths recorded across WA yesterday, but six died earlier this year. Almost three-quarters of the WA population over the age of 16 have received their third vaccine.
Updated at 7:30 am AWST on 25 March 2022.
100 million doses per year: Moderna to construct mRNA manufacturing facility in Melbourne
Up to 100 million Australian-made mRNA vaccines will be produced in Melbourne from 2024 once Moderna’s new manufacturing centre is constructed.
Announced today, the multi-billion dollar landmark agreement between the Federal Government, Moderna and the Victorian Government means the biotech will give Australia the sovereign manufacturing capability to produce COVID-19 vaccines, and any other new and innovative respiratory mRNA inoculations.
The Federal Government also hopes the partnership will make Australia a regional hub for mRNA technology development and production, bolstering the local biotechnology sector in the process.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the agreement, which is expected to create “hundreds” of manufacturing jobs too, was an important milestone in securing Australia’s future pandemic preparedness.
“This is an Australian made shot in the arm that will protect Australians from future pandemics and secure a new manufacturing capability right here on our shores,” the Prime Minister said.
“This landmark agreement means that Australia can make up to 100 million world-leading mRNA doses every year, which can protect against evolving strains of COVID-19 or new respiratory diseases that emerge into the future.
“This will be the first mRNA production facility in the Southern Hemisphere, and will ensure Australians have quick and easy access to these lifesaving vaccines.”
The Moderna facility is expected to support about 500 jobs during construction, plus hundreds of indirect jobs, with up to 200 highly skilled staff to work at the facility once it's up and running in 2024.
Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt said securing a sovereign on-shore mRNA technology was critical and would soon be a reality.
“This agreement and strategic partnership with Moderna and the Victorian Government is crucial insurance for the health of the Australian population,” Minister Hunt said.
“It means Australians will have access to the most cutting-edge vaccination technology available both now and into the future.”
Updated at 10.30am AEDT on 24 March 2022.
“We're ready to welcome the world back”: NZ reopening to vaccinated Aussies on 12 April
Australian tourists will be welcomed into New Zealand without having to undergo any period of isolation from 11.59pm on 12 April, 2022 as our neighbouring nation brings forward the easing of border restrictions.
Initially pencilled in for July, the eased restrictions will allow all vaccinated Australians to enter New Zealand as long as they complete a pre-departure COVID-19 test (be it a PCR or RAT), as well as another test on arrival and a third on day five.
“We’re ready to welcome the world back,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.
“We are a safe place to visit and New Zealand will be ready with open arms.”
The PM also announced that from 11.59pm on 1 May, 2022 travellers from visa waiver countries and those with valid visitor visas will also be permitted to enter New Zealand.
Ardern noted the eased border restrictions will be a boon for the local tourism industry, especially once Australians are allowed in, considering they historically made up 40 per cent of all international arrivals.
“They will be able to arrive in time for the Australian school holidays and provide a particular boost for the upcoming winter ski season,” Ardern said.
“Obviously we know that travel numbers will be below 2019 - it will take time to rebuild.”
The announcement comes after New Zealand already opened its borders to returning nationals earlier this year and those on critical worker visas without isolation earlier this week.
It was also made in the midst of a major spike in COVID-19 numbers for New Zealand, with the country reporting more than 21,000 new daily cases as of its last update, and no deaths reported yesterday.
“Ultimately, the most poignant moments of reopening to the world so far has surely been those when family and friends are reunited,” the PM said.
“I’m proud that New Zealand is a country able in this moment of time to provide a safe place for our tourists to return to.”
Updated at 10.38am AEDT on 16 March 2022.
COVID pandemic 2nd anniversary: 3 things we got wrong, and 3 things to watch out for
This was two months after there were reports of a mystery virus infecting people in Wuhan, the most populous city in central China. Early reports said the virus didn’t appear to be readily spread by humans.
Well, the SARS-CoV-2 virus could indeed be spread by humans. It quickly travelled around the world, and has so far infected more than 450 million people.
COVID-19, the disease it causes, has to date caused more than six million deaths, making it one of the most deadly pandemics in history.
In those early days we knew very little about the virus and COVID.
Here are three things we realised were wrong as the pandemic wore on, and three things we need to keep a close eye on as we approach the endemic phase, where the virus continues to circulate in the population at relatively stable levels.
1. Many were worried we wouldn’t get a vaccine
In early 2020 we didn’t know whether a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 was possible.
There had been previous attempts to develop vaccines against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), two similar coronaviruses that also caused outbreaks this century. A few of these vaccines entered clinical trials, but none were approved.
Before COVID, the fastest developed vaccine was for mumps which took four years.
But in under 12 months, Pfizer/BioNTech developed a successful vaccine. Now we have 12 vaccines approved for full use in different parts of the world, 19 for emergency use, and more than 100 still in the clinical trial stages.
Both Pfizer and Moderna have also commenced clinical trials of an Omicron-specific vaccine.
There are also several research groups around the world developing vaccines aiming to work against all SARS-CoV-2 variants.
2. Some thought we didn’t need face masks
In the early days, without a vaccine, to reduce transmission we had to rely on individual preventative measures such as hand hygiene, social distancing and face masks.
Although there was widespread acceptance hand washing and social distancing protected against infection, face masks were much more controversial.
Before April 2020, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advised against the wearing of face masks by the public. There were apparently two reasons for this.
First, the CDC was afraid there wasn’t a sufficient supply of surgical and N95 masks, which were essential in high-risk settings.
Second, it was thought at the time asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic people could not transmit the virus (we now know they can).
However, on April 3 2020, the CDC changed its advice and recommended the general public wear multi-layered cloth face masks.
This has now been updated to wearing a well-fitting mask that is consistently worn.
With the advent of Omicron, some experts say cloth face masks aren’t up to the task and people should at least wear surgical masks, or even better respirator masks like a P2, KN95 or N95.
3. We worried a lot about surface transmission
In the early days of the pandemic, it was thought contaminated surfaces were a major means of COVID transmission.
People wore gloves when going to the supermarket (some still do), and washed food packages once they got home.
However, we now know the virus is spread primarily through aerosol and droplet transmission.
When a person coughs or sneezes, droplets containing mucous, saliva, water and virus particles can land on other people or drop onto surfaces.
Larger droplets tend not to travel very far and fall quickly.
Smaller droplets called aerosols, can stay airborne for an extended period of time before settling.
Scientists now believe transmission through touching contaminated surfaces is quite rare.
3 things to watch out for
There are three key issues we need to be aware of as COVID slowly becomes endemic.
1. New variants
There’s still the potential for new and more severe variants to hit us. One of the main reasons for this is the low rates of vaccination in many developing countries. The more the virus replicates in unvaccinated populations, the greater the chance of mutations and variants.
Vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna either manufacture the vaccine in their own facilities, or licence the right to produce the vaccine in other countries.
This puts it out of reach financially for most developing countries, who then have to rely on the COVAX initiative for supplies. COVAX is a worldwide facility funded by developed countries and donor organisations to purchase vaccines to be distributed to developing countries.
Researchers at the Texas Children’s Hospital’s Center for Vaccine Development have unveiled a protein-based vaccine called Corbevax. It uses established and easy-to-manufacture technology, and is being provided patent-free to developing countries. It has now received emergency use authorisation in India.
It has over 80% efficacy against symptomatic disease, though this is against the no-longer dominant Delta variant. Trials are currently under way to determine its efficacy against Omicron.
If approved, this should greatly help lift vaccination rates in many developing countries.
2. Waning immunity
Many older and vulnerable people had their third dose in November or December last year, with their immunity now waning fast.
We need to provide a fourth vaccine dose as soon as possible to the elderly and vulnerable.
With thousands of cases a day in Australia, over the next year we will be getting a tsunami of people suffering from long-term health problems.
So, we simply cannot ignore high case numbers and would be wise to retain at least some public health measures (for example, face mask mandates) in order to bring case numbers down.
Some good news is that Australia’s Medical Research Future Fund will be funding research into long COVID this year.
The beginning of the end
State and territory governments are now dismantling public health measures such as the use of QR codes, social distancing measures and face mask mandates.
Their thinking is that although case numbers are still quite high, hospitalisations are going down – and of course, elections are in sight. Chief public health officers, who used to give daily briefings, are now rarely seen.
“Give us our freedom back” is now a commonly heard cry, even if the inevitable consequence means this is at the expense of elderly and vulnerable people.
In a nutshell, many believe we have moved already from epidemic to endemic status.
As much as we all wish for this to be over and life to get back to normal, we aren’t quite there yet.
But I think with better vaccines and improved treatments on the way, it’s at least the beginning of the end.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens has announced South Australians will be able to dance and sing freely this weekend, in addition to seeing all density restrictions scrapped.
The current 50-person cap on home gathering will also be removed when restrictions ease on 12:01am, 12 March.
“It is good to be able to stand here and provide this much sought-after relief to a wide range of activities right across SA - including hospitality – and we certainly understand the pressures sectors have been under because of the restrictions,” Stevens said.
QR codes will also no longer be required for recreational transport, auctions and inspections, public transport, taxis, rideshare and education facilities.
Some people with COVID-19 will be directed to isolate for seven days instead of 10, with SA Health to make “direct contact” with positive cases to advise them of their quarantine requirements over the coming days.
The easing of restrictions comes despite SA recording 2,590 cases and four deaths in the latest 24-hour reporting period.
There are currently 91 people with COVID-19 in hospital, including 11 in ICU and two requiring a ventilator.
There were 21,514 active cases in the state as of yesterday – the highest number reported since 29 January.
“We’ve always expected we’d see fluctuations in the daily case numbers,” Stevens said.
"The critical indicator for us is the number of people being hospitalised on a daily basis and that has reduced substantially and remains low and consistent.
"That tells us that while people may be contracting COVID-19 they are not becoming terribly sick with the virus, requiring that intensive medical support.
The state’s COVID-Ready committee will meet next week to determine whether any changes will be made for close contacts in quarantine or the mask-wearing mandate for indoor public settings.
Updated at 10.15am AEDT on 11 March 2022.
WA rolls out another $72m business support scheme ahead of "rockiest month"
Aimed at Western Australian businesses most affected by Level 2 public health and social measures, the bulk of the new deal is in $66.8 million worth of Small Business Hardship Grants, while other funds include $2.8 million of payroll tax relief for large hospitality businesses and $2.1 million for a COVID-19 Commercial Sporting Franchises Support Program.
Small and medium businesses (SMEs) with a 50 per cent reduction in turnover year-on-year for any four week period between 1 January 2022 and 30 April 2022 are eligible to apply for the tiered grant.
"My government is committed to doing everything we can to help protect WA businesses, local jobs and the economy from the full brunt of COVID-19,” WA Premier Mark McGowan said after announcing the fifth business package since December.
"That is why we have now committed more than $420 million in business support since December, and a total of almost $1.7 billion since the beginning of the pandemic.
"We know that WA is about to enter its rockiest month - but under these Level 2 measures, businesses can continue to operate safely, so I encourage everyone to do the right thing, follow the health advice and support local businesses.
"With our world-leading vaccination rates and safe and sensible measures in place, Western Australians can have confidence to continue to support WA businesses - we will get through this together."
Owners of small and medium-sized businesses will be eligible for the following grants from the Small Business Hardship Grants Program:
$3,000 grant for sole traders (no employees);
$7,500 grant for micro-businesses (those with one to five employees);
$20,000 grant for small businesses (those with six to 19 employees); and
$50,000 for medium-sized businesses (those with 20 or more employees and with an annual payroll of up to $4 million).
Large hospitality businesses with payrolls of between $4 million and $20 million will receive a three-month payroll tax waiver if they have experienced at least a 50 per cent drop in turnover over any four week period between 1 January 2022 and 30 April 2022, comparable to the same period last year.
Eligible businesses that apply and receive funding from other recent business support programs, including the Level 1 COVID-19 Business Assistance Package, are also eligible to receive grants from the Level 2 package.
The $2.1 million COVID-19 Commercial Sporting Franchises Support Program includes a $35,000 rebate per game for venue hire costs until June 30, 2022, for commercial sporting franchises, such as the Perth Glory, Perth Wildcats, Perth Lynx and the Western Force.
This program also includes the waiver of public transport charges for home games for these teams in March - and a 50 per cent concession on public transport costs for events in April.
The announcement follows support provided through several recent arts and events support programs, including the revamped $10 million Getting the Show Back on the Road+ program, $3 million Event Suppliers Support Program, the $1.3 million Performing Arts, Theatres and Cinemas Assistance Program, and an additional $9 million to attract major events to WA.
It is expected that applications to these programs will open later this month.
"In Australia, the data shows that once a jurisdiction hits one thousand new cases a day, the peak of the Omicron outbreak is only a few weeks away,” McGowan said.
"The latest advice is that we should now expect to see WA reach the peak of cases in the next two weeks or so.
"That is how fast we expect Omicron to spread here and why we've had to move quickly to implement Level 2 public health and social measures.
"While we hope these measures will only need to be in place for a short time, or about four weeks, we know that there will be an impact on businesses regardless.”
WA recorded 1,770 new cases of COVID on Wednesday, bringing the active cases in the state to 6,979. Sixteen people remain in the hospital, with no patients in ICU.
As WA reopens its borders to the world tomorrow, with a 64.6 per cent COVID booster vaccination rate, the full state will move under level two restrictions.
Level 2 restrictions will include children from Years 3 upwards having to wear masks in all public indoor settings and will see major venue capacity cut to a 50 per cent limit. Home gatherings are limited to a total of 10 people indoors and outdoors, except weddings and funerals.
The measure also includes the two square metre rule and 150 patron capacity limit, for fitness venues, hospitality, entertainment venues, nightclubs, and galleries and museums, with seated service only. Private outdoor gatherings in a public space will be limited to 50 people.
Updated at 2:20pm AWST on 2 March 2022.
Tenant and landlord relief, alfresco program part of new $67m WA funding for businesses
The Western Australian Government has today launched an additional $67 million of assistance packages to support businesses affected by COVID-19.
As cases start to increase exceptionally within the state, the measures aim to assist small businesses with cash flow and support safe trading.
The package includes up to $6,000 in rent relief, outdoor dining and entertainment support grants, as well as further funding for business counselling services.
"As COVID-19 caseloads continue to increase, and with some public health and social measures in place to manage the spread of the virus, we expect some businesses will experience declines in revenue,” Premier of WA Mark McGowan said.
"For some, this impact will be greater than others and likely put pressure on their cash flow. Our latest $67 million businesses support package recognises these impacts and supports those businesses most impacted to get through the next phase of the pandemic.
"Over the past two years, Western Australians have done the right thing and supported local businesses and now is the time to continue to patron WA businesses, venues and events.”
The new support, consisting of eight tailored packages, is in addition to the McGowan Government’s $77 million Safe Transition Industry Support Package released earlier in February.
Small Business Rental Relief Package
$42 million Tenant Rent Relief Scheme providing grants of $3,000 to eligible small business tenants;
$10.7 million Landlord Rent Relief Incentive supporting eligible landlords with $1,500 - who voluntary match the Government's Tenant Rent Relief payments; and
$1.5 million Tenant Rental Credit Scheme providing a rental waiver or credit of $6,000 for eligible small business tenants of Government-owned buildings.
Outdoor Dining and Entertainment Support Package
$5 million Alfresco Support Program to reimburse small businesses in the hospitality sector with up to $5,000 for eligible costs associated with creating and expanding an alfresco area to meet the requirements of public health and social measures;
$3.5 million Waiver of Liquor Licensing fees. Liquor licence renewal fees for 2022 will be waived and refunds provided for businesses that have already paid. One-off fees for variations to liquor licensing to enable alfresco services will also be waived, and fees for a COVID-19 occasional permit will be waived to permit the sale of takeaway alcohol as part of a takeaway meal;
$1.8 million Nightclub Assistance Program payments of up to $50,000 for eligible nightclubs impacted by capacity limits and social distancing; and
$1.3 million Performing Arts, Theatres and Cinemas Assistance Program, providing payments of up to $50,000 to provide cash flow assistance to a range of larger, indoor entertainment venues that are particularly affected by capacity constraints.
Other business support
$1 million Small Business Financial Counselling and Advisory Services funding to expand small business support services administered by the Department of Communities.
McGowan said Western Australians could have confidence in safely going out and socialising with friends and family, thanks to the state's "world-leading vaccination rate and sensible public health measures".
"Under these Level 1 public health rules and by keeping up our COVID safe practices, we can continue to operate safely and keep businesses in business," he said.
"Our strong financial position by maintaining a healthy budget has given us the capacity to provide this immediate assistance.
"Since December, we have provided four financial support packages for WA businesses, including the Safe Transition Industry Support Package, ReconnectWA and grants for businesses impacted by the Delta backpacker outbreak, taking the total investment to assist WA businesses through the pandemic to date to $1.6 billion."
The Western Australian hard border is set to open on 3 March - the date WA is forecast to reach 70 per cent third dose vaccination of its eligible 16+ population, with several requirements in place for those entering the state.
Anyone wishing to enter WA will need a registered G2G pass and be fully vaccinated. Interstate arrivals over the age of 16 will need to be triple-dosed. International arrivals only need two doses of an approved vaccine as they fall under Commonwealth government requirements as opposed to state mandates.
If you are vaccinated, there is no requirement to quarantine, but the unvaccinated will need to complete hotel quarantine for 14 days. All vaccinated arrivals are required to take a rapid antigen test within 12 hours of arriving in WA.
The Perth, Peel, South West, Wheatbelt, Great Southern and Pilbara regions have been under Level 1 measures since Monday, 21 February.
Level 1 measures include private indoor capacity limits of up to 30 people and a capacity limit of 200 people at private outdoor gatherings as long as people can adhere to the 2sqm rule.
The 2sqm density rule also applies to venues including hospitability, fitness, entertainment, galleries and museums, hairdressers, nightclubs (with a 500-capacity limit), Perth Crown complex, convention centres and community, recreation and youth centre facilities.
Masks are mandatory for anyone aged 12 or above in an indoor setting other than the home, unless an exemption applies.
Weddings and funerals have to adhere to the same capacity limits, and proof of vaccination is required to enter most venues including Perth Zoo and Perth’s Optus stadium.
Perth recorded 610 new cases on 24 February, bringing the total active cases to 2,272. There are currently seven patients in hospital with COVID, but none are in ICU.
1.2 million of the population, over 16, have received three doses – 60.1 per cent of the population. Ninety-six per cent of people living in West Australia have been double vaccinated.
Further public health and social measures (Level 2) may be introduced in the future to help reduce increasing transmission of COVID-19 and hospitalisations, if necessary.
The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) has welcomed the Government’s $67 million support package.
“Covid cases are continuing to rise in WA and additional restrictions have been put in place, so a decline in revenue is inevitable for some businesses as they battle through this challenging period,” ARA CEO Paul Zahra said.
“We’ve been in close contact with the WA Government discussing the ongoing challenges for small businesses, and we appreciate the speed in which they have put these supports in place as a direct result of our advocacy.
“Rent is a significant pain point for small business, and with limited customers shopping in physical stores at the moment, many will struggle to pay their operating costs. The rent relief grants will help cushion the blow from the current wave of new COVID cases and help businesses to keep the lights on and their doors open.”
Updated at 1:10pm AWST on 24 February 2022.
Australian Clinical Labs lifts profit six-fold on prospectus forecast at $130m
Australian Clinical Labs (ASX: ACL) has been collecting both swabs and earnings as a wave of COVID-19 testing propped up revenue by 61.2 per cent in the December half, reaching $538 million and thus surpassing its entire revenue for FY20.
Formed as a spin-off of Healthscope’s Australian pathology business in 2015, ACL listed on the ASX in May last year with a net profit after tax (NPAT) forecast for 1H22 of $22.4 million, but that figure has instead shot up by a multiple of almost six to hit $130.3 million.
The result also beats guidance of up to $128 million as released on 21 December, but shares have fallen back by 3.18 per cent amidst a broader market sell-off and an expected moderation of COVID testing as the virus transitions to an endemic status.
It has been a similar story for competitor Sonic Healthcare (ASX: SHL) which saw a 22 per cent rise in its global revenue in the half, and like ACL its shares have dropped up sharply in early 2022 as testing wanes.
ACL opened a purpose-built lab in Brisbane in November with dedicated clinical trials and community laboratories, and the following month completed its $70 million acquisition of Medlab Pathology, doubling its market share in NSW to 20.4 per cent and securing a 6.5 per cent share in QLD as a market entry platform.
The company's chief executive officer and managing director Melinda McGrath says Australian Clinic Labs has played an essential role in the country's response to COVID over the past two years in what has at times been a challenging operating environment.
"At the same time the team have delivered growth in our core business, driven operational improvements across the organisation while simultaneously completing two acquisitions," she says.
“The strong result achieved in 1H FY22 demonstrates the value of the significant prior investment in the business which resulted in further operating leverage, efficiencies, improved productivity and increased automation and digitisation.
"There exist several opportunities to continue to grow the business including via our commercial offering and our established clinical trials business. We have strong foundations in technology and systems and a highly experienced performance-driven management team to execute our well-defined growth strategy."
Slater & Gordon injured by lockdowns with $7.5m loss
Slater & Gordon (ASX: SGH) shares fell to all-time lows this morning after the firm revealed a $10.6 million swing into the red for its December half results, as lockdowns led to less work in its personal injury law (PIL) business.
The Melbourne-based company, also known for its class action work, reported a $7.5 million loss compared to a $3.1 million profit in the previous corresponding period.
"While these results are disappointing, the fact that we have been able to largely absorb the impact of the significant disruptions caused by the COVID pandemic to date shows we have made reasonable progress in rebuilding the resilience of our business. However, we clearly have more work to do," CEO John Sommerville said.
"This half demonstrated how unpredictable the impacts of COVID and the government restrictions can be."
The personal injury law division accounts for the bulk of the firm's revenue, and was down 14.3 per cent at $71.8 million. Fees actually rose slightly, but work in progress-related revenue plummeted by around two-thirds as lockdowns in Victoria and NSW impacted file progression.
"It was pleasing to see the resilience of our Personal Injury Law fees, which demonstrates the hard work put in by our people in extremely trying times," Sommerville said.
At the time of writing SGH shares are down by almost 6 per cent at $0.63, having fallen to as low as $0.61 earlier this morning.
The law firm notes that until the December half its performance had not been materially impacted by the pandemic, and while there has been some improvement following the easing of restrictions, COVID-related restrictions on work remain which may continue to affect performance.
Class action fees also declined in the half by 5 per cent, although SGH says a highlight was securing compensation and an apology for First Nations survivors of abuse suffered as children at the Garden Point Catholic Church mission on Melville Island.
Slater & Gordon also highlights a continued focus on social justice with 73 employees working on a pro bono basis to support Afghan refugees with immigration applications.
Expenses have also gone up by 3 per cent, mostly because of ongoing investment in hiring talent to support growth, as well as a build-up of leave provisions arising from extended lockdowns in Victoria and New South Wales.
The firm has neither sought nor received Jobkeeper assistance at any time.
Welcome back: Australia reopens to double-vaccinated international travellers
After closing international borders almost two years ago, Australia is welcoming double-vaccinated travellers into the nation as 56 flights touch down in the country today.
While passengers must take a rapid-antigen test (RAT) or PCR test within 24 hours of their arrival, they are only required to quarantine until they receive a negative result.
The mandate applies to most states and territories - with the exception of Western Australia, which will require international arrivals to undertake a rapid antigen test within 12 hours of arriving from 3 March. On the same date, WA will also open its borders to triple-dosed interstate travellers.
The first flight into Sydney touched down from Los Angeles at 6:20am and was followed by arrivals from Tokyo and Vancouver.
Qantas Group (ASX: QAN) CEO Alan Joyce said bookings had been strong since the government announced the country was opening to international visitors, with today’s arrivals to be the first of many.
“It’s fair to say we’ve all been waiting a long time to welcome visitors back to Australia. The thousands of international tourists arriving this week and many more over the coming months will help kickstart the tourism industry which has done it tough for the past couple of years,” Joyce said.
“We’re in this position today thanks to the millions of Australians who rolled up their sleeves to get the jab and give the Australian Government and state and territory governments’ confidence that we can safely reopen to the world.
“We can clearly see from the Australian Government’s announcement that people are very keen to come back to Australia, and we continue to see strong bookings out of the US and UK, as well as South Africa and Canada.”
Unvaccinated travellers who do not hold medical exemptions must enter hotel quarantine for seven to 14 days, depending on which state or territory they arrive in.
For example, New South Wales has mandated a seven-day hotel quarantine period for unvaccinated arrivals, whilst South Australia has a 14-day quarantine in place.
There are approximately 1.23 million student, visitor and working holiday maker visa holders offshore who, if vaccinated, will be able to travel into Australia.
The return of double international visitors is welcome news for Australia's tourism sector, which supports 660,000 jobs and contributed $60.4 billion to the economy in 2018-19.
Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Dan Tehan said the return of international arrivals was an important step in Australia's COVID-19 recovery.
“Australia's health and economic response to the pandemic has been among the best in the world, with one of the highest vaccination rates and low mortality,” he said.
“We are successfully managing the pandemic and learning to live with the virus. Australians are travelling overseas, and we are welcoming international visitors to our country.
“International tourists will come here to see our iconic attractions, sample our world-leading food and drink, learn about our Indigenous culture, and enjoy the Australian way of life.”
Tourism Australia Managing Director Phillipa Harrison said the tourism industry has been looking forward to the return of international tourists.
“At Tourism Australia we are so excited to be welcoming back international visitors who make up a critical part of our visitor economy,” Harrison said.
“We know Australia remains an incredibly desirable destination for international visitors and we can’t wait to once again share all of the unforgettable tourism experiences we have to offer here in Australia.”
Australia launches new national brand
In the lead up to the border reopening, the federal government announced a new national brand that features a kangaroo and the tagline “Only in Australia.”
Co-created with indigenous designers, the brand elements are inspired by ancient stories from the Dreaming – which is an indigenous religion and worldview – and embody the spirit of Yamulhu awara ambirriju, meaning ‘Good country up ahead, good feeling for the future’ in the Yanyuwa language spoken by families in Borroloola in the Northern Territory.
More than 300 marketing resources will be available for free to help Australian businesses attract overseas investment and visitors.
Australia's Nation Brand logo
Development was led by Australia’s Nation Brand Advisory Council, including business leaders such as Fortescue Metals (ASX: FMG) and Future Industries Chair Andrew Forrest AO, Atlassian co-founder and CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, and Vogue, GQ and Publisher Prestige editor-in-chief Edwina McCann.
“In an increasingly connected and competitive international market, celebrating our unique Australian character with a unified and strong Nation Brand will help us stand out from the pack and the tagline ‘Only in Australia’ will amplify Australia’s reputation for quality, creativity and innovation,” said brand advisory council chair Dr Forrest.
The federal, state and territory governments were consulted through the process, as well as more than 480 senior industry representatives and 22,000 people in Australia.
More than 350 Australian organisations have already taken the national brand and tagline on board.
Updated at 4.44pm AEDT on 21 February 2022.
Spending vouchers, ventilation upgrades to breathe new life into Victoria with $200m stimulus
A wide-reaching support package has been announced in Victoria that will encourage people to get out and enjoy the state's cultural offering, while equipping businesses with the tools to lift confidence and capacity through improved ventilation, job placements and digitalisation.
The state government's $200 million package aims to help businesses recover strongly from the effects of the Omicron variant, targeting key sectors such as hospitality and tourism.
A new and extended $100 million voucher scheme will provide rebates to Victorians for entertainment, dining and travel with a $10 million round of Melbourne Money to be delivered with the City of Melbourne, enticing diners back to city cafes, bars and restaurants by reimbursing part of their bill.
The scheme will be extended across the state, with a new $30 million program providing rebates on food and wine experiences in regional areas and in suburbs beyond Melbourne’s borders.
A new entertainment voucher scheme will provide $30 million in rebates for tickets to the theatre, live music, cinemas, museums, galleries, conferences, exhibitions and other events across Victoria.
A new $30 million round of the Victorian Travel Voucher Scheme will encourage even more people to holiday at home and spend on accommodation, attractions and tours.
"This will help businesses in the creative sector while encouraging Victorians to get back to what they love doing," says Minister for Creative Industries Danny Pearson.
"Our arts and cultural scene was hit hard by the global pandemic and that’s why we’re supporting these businesses to bounce back in 2022."
The fresh stimulus also includes a $60 million Ventilation Voucher Program to help small businesses purchase equipment and upgrades to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace and improve customer confidence, with rebates of up to $5,000 available as well as $500 vouchers.
The government is also taking steps to support jobs, training and upgrading systems to new technologies. Some $34.2 million of Jobs Victoria funding will be used to place workers in more than 1,500 jobs across hospitality, warehousing and logistics, tourism and food processing.
A further $5 million will extend the Small Business Digital Adaptation Program, providing rebates of up to $1,200 so businesses can access a range of digital tools.
The extension of the Business Recovery and Resilience Mentoring Program with the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry will also mean more small businesses will have access to coaching.
“We’re encouraging Victorians to experience the best the state has to offer by going to see a show, having lunch with friends or visiting somewhere new," says Minister for Industry Support and Recovery Martin Pakula.
“Business and consumer confidence is critical for our continued economic recovery and that’s why we’re investing in these programs to deliver a boost where it is needed most.”
Singing and dancing back in NSW from tomorrow as most restrictions ease
Described as “measured” and “appropriate” by Premier Dominic Perrottet, the easing of restrictions includes the removal of density limits and the reintroduction of singing and dancing in indoor venues.
In addition, the state government will no longer recommend people work from home, and will instead leave that direction to be at the discretion of employers.
“These changes today are measured and proportionate to circumstances we find ourselves in,” the Premier said.
“We are able to lift these restrictions based on the efforts that people have made right across the state.”
As such, from Friday 18 February, the two-square-metre density limit will be removed, and singing and dancing will be permitted at all venues except for music festivals where it will recommence from 25 February.
QR check-in requirements will be ditched across the board, except for nightclubs and at music festivals with more than 1,000 people in attendance.
One week later, on 25 February, even more restrictions will be eased, including the removal of the mask mandate and the 20,000 person cap on music festivals.
Masks will no longer be required in indoor settings except for on public transport, but the NSW Government will still encourage masks be worn where individuals cannot maintain a safe distance from others.
Finally, the duration of hotel quarantine for unvaccinated travellers will be reduced from 14 days to just seven.
“As we move forward, there is the potential that we will have spikes in cases from time to time,” Perrottet noted.
“That is not a measure of success or failure, that is living alongside the virus. This is the new reality.”
Updated at 1.32pm AEDT on 17 February 2022.
Victoria's COVID restrictions to ease as hospitalisation and infection numbers fall
The Victorian Government will ease COVID-19 restrictions from 6pm tomorrow in line with decreasing hospitalisation and infection numbers, and as more than half of the state’s eligible population has received three doses of a vaccine.
Density limits will increase, dancefloors will return and QR code check-in requirements will be ditched in some settings at 6pm Friday, 18 February.
“We always said these measures wouldn’t be in place for a minute longer than they are needed, and with hospitalisation numbers decreasing and less pressure on our health system, now is a sensible time to make changes,” Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said.
“We’re grateful to everyone who has been doing the right thing, helping to reduce the impact of this virus on the community, our healthcare system and our economy.”
As part of new pandemic orders to be signed by the Minister for Health, density limits of one person per two square meters in place at hospitality and entertainment venues will be removed. Indoor dancefloors at these venues can also re-open.
Under the orders, QR code check-in requirements will no longer be in place at retail venues, schools (including childcare and early childhood) and for employees at many workplaces. QR code check-in and vaccination check requirements will remain in all ‘vaccinated economy’ settings such as hospitality and entertainment venues.
Further, mandatory surveillance testing requirements for key industries including meat processing will be scrapped, in favour of the government moving to make testing ‘recommended-only’.
Requirements for hospital worker ‘bubbles’ will also be removed, but health services may still implement them at their discretion.
Small adjustments will also occur to border settings for international arrivals, who will no longer be required to obtain an international arrivals permit through Service Victoria. The 14-day hotel quarantine period for international visitors and aircrew who aren’t fully vaccinated or medically exempt will reduce to seven days.
The changes come in light of increased vaccination rates in Victoria, alongside decreased hospitalisation and infection numbers.
When Victoria’s density quotient restrictions were first announced on 6 January, the third dose vaccination rate for Victorians aged 16 and over was only 12.7 per cent, compared to 52.2 per cent today. When the dancefloor closure was announced on 10 January, 818 Victorians were in hospital with COVID-19, compared to 401 today.
“These are safe and sensible measures which balance the need to support our health system with the benefits of easing restrictions across a range of settings,” Victorian Minister for Health Martin Foley said.
“Changes to QR code requirements will still support our focus on the highest-risk settings most likely to generate super-spreader events – and we will keep reviewing the system over time in line with the epidemiological situation.”
Victoria reported 14 deaths from COVID-19 today, and 8,501 new cases.
Updated at 12.58pm AEDT on 17 February 2022.
Vital Signs: small businesses need a national support plan to survive shadow lockdowns
The “shadow lockdown” accompanying the Omicron outbreak should have come as no surprise to Australia’s policy makers. But the type of government support that helped so many individuals and businesses survive the official lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 is absent.
In the face of large case counts, hospitalisations and deaths from Omicron, people voluntarily cut back on economic activity. Why risk going out for a meal or sitting in a theatre while infections are raging?
This effect was quantified as early as mid-2020 by two University of Chicago economists, who calculated (using data from 2.25 million businesses across 110 industries) that nearly 90% of the reduction in economic activity in the United States stemmed from voluntary “self-lockdowns”, rather than government-imposed restrictions.
In Australia, we can see the effect in consumer confidence plummeting in January 2022 to its lowest level since October 2020 (and the worst January result since 1992).
For many small business owners, the past month has felt like the most difficult period of the pandemic. The single biggest government support measure, the A$90 billion JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme, was phased out in March 2021, with most other support winding up by the end of the year.
Given small businesses employ more than 5 million Australians – more than 40% of private-sector jobs – how we can help them survive this pandemic now, and if more COVID variants emerge?
The current patchwork of state and federal COVID payments
The following tables summarise the COVID-specific support programs that are still available today.
For individuals, the main support is the federal government’s Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment, which provides up to $1,500 for two weeks for individuals who cannot work because of having to isolate, quarantine or care for someone with COVID-19.
Most states and territories also provide a lesser one-off payment to support those who have to isolate but who can’t access the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment.
On the business side, the federal government has its SME Recovery Loan Scheme, which guarantees 50% of loan amounts for eligible businesses with turnovers up to $250 million. This scheme is scheduled to run until June 30, 2022.
The states and territories have wound up most of their general business support programs, with what remains targeted at particular interest groups or sectors.
Most generous are the Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory governments, which have “business hardship” packages offering rebates to reduce or waive payments such as payroll tax, utilities bills and rates.
New South Wales has a more limited rebate scheme, offering up to $2,000 to sole traders, small businesses and not-for-profit organisations to offset costs such as food licences, liquor licences, tradesperson licences, event fees, outdoor seating fees, council rates and road user tolls. It also has (my personal favourite) the Alfresco Restart Rebate, giving up $5,000 for restaurants to create or expand their outdoor dining area.
Queensland has a cleaning rebate for businesses and not-for-profit organisations designated exposure sites by Queensland Health. Victoria has a scheme to help commercial tenants cover rent.
Paying to save jobs across NSW
But given how tough small businesses are doing it, many people think these measures aren’t enough.
One of those people is the NSW treasurer, Matt Kean.
On January 30 he announced $1 billion in support for businesses with “JobSaver 2.0”, resurrecting the JobSaver program that had subsidised up to 40% of payroll expenses for businesses suffering a 30% fall in turnover due to official lockdowns.
JobSaver 2.0 reimburses businesses (of less than $50 million turnover) 20% of their weekly payroll, up to a cap of $5,000, if they have lost 40% of turnover during January.
JobSaver had been half funded by the federal government. Kean did not disguise his unhappiness about the federal government refusing to help with JobSaver 2.0, saying:
I was hoping to make this announcement standing beside the Prime Minister today and the Treasurer [Josh] Frydenberg, but they’re not to be found
Frydenberg, reportedly, did take Kean’s proposal to the prime minister, who in March 2020 had approved A$320 billion of fiscal support (equivalent to 16.4% of GDP). But this time, Scott Morrison apparently rejected the idea.
The case for a national plan
This is more than just a question of who pays – the Commonwealth or the states and territories. It’s about what is going to be required to get small businesses, who often have fragile balance sheets, through this stage of the pandemic.
One view is the Omicron cases are falling and consumer confidence should pick up, so there’s no need for extra support now.
But it would be rather brave to predict there won’t be further COVID-19 variants and outbreaks. If and when there are, consumers will go back into self-lockdown.
Do we really want more argy-bargy between states and the feds in the future, while consumer confidence plummets and with it small business revenues?
A far better solution would be to have an Australia-wide, federally funded support plan triggered by case numbers.
This would provide predictable support for business, including those working across state borders, by allowing them to plan, invest and keep hiring workers. And it would deliver a shot of confidence for consumers for the remainder of the pandemic – however long that may be.
The alternative is to stay in a constant crouch, waiting for the next outbreak and hoping some form of government support will arrive in time.
We should be able to do better by our small businesses and the many Australians who work for them.
Victoria to lift hospital Code Brown alert on Monday
Hospitals in Victoria will no longer be operating under a Code Brown alert from this coming Monday, 14 February, with the state government confident the COVID situation is coming under control - easing pressure on the system.
At a press conference today, Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley announced the state was in a position to lift the Code Brown alert safely, meaning more elective surgeries will be able to go ahead.
“While we’re still going to be very, very busy, we are in a position to safely lift the code brown alert,” Foley said.
“It also allows us to continue down the path of the careful, steady relaxation of the deferral of elective surgery.”
As such, private sector areas will be allowed to return to 50 per cent of all elective surgery arrangements, while regional healthcare providers can return to 70 per cent of elective surgeries.
“It will be extended to multi-day locations and facilities, therefore allowing more complex and serious operations to be brought in,” Foley said.
“We will continue to monitor the arrangements in place in close consultation with private operators.”
Victoria today recorded 13 deaths and 8,521 new cases of COVID-19. There are 553 people with the virus in the state’s hospital system, of which 82 are in intensive care.
Updated at 1.22pm AEDT on 11 February 2022.
ATAGI recommends three jabs to be considered 'up to date' with vaccines
Australians aged 16 and older will soon require a booster shot of a COVID-19 vaccine to be considered “up to date” with their immunisation after the nation’s leading medical advisory body recommended moving away from the term “fully vaccinated”.
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) put forward the new guidelines to serve “as the basis for policies for the public health management of the COVID-19 pandemic in a domestic context.”
The Federal Government has accepted the advice, noting it has secured more than 151 million booster doses for delivery over the next 12 months.
“Under the new advice, a person is ‘up to date’ if they have completed all the doses recommended for their age and individual health needs,” Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt said.
“ATAGI recommend that everyone aged 16 years and older receive a booster dose three months after their primary course, to maintain the best protection and an ‘up to date’ status.”
Under the new guidelines, anyone aged 16 and older will also be considered “overdue” for a booster shot six months after receiving their second jab.
In the event more than six months pass, ATAGI says the vaccine can still be “given safely and effectively.”
It also suggested that any state or territory planning to adopt the new definition should allow until the end of March to sufficiently implement the changes.
However, the shift will not apply to international arrivals.
“Appropriate vaccination requirements relating to international border settings are outside the remit of ATAGI and are a matter for other government policies,” ATAGI said.
The Federal Government has mandated booster shots in the aged-care sector, delegating power to states and territories to mandate it in other settings.
Children will continue to be considered ‘up to date’ without a booster, while severely immunocompromised people aged five years and older will require a third primary dose to meet the definition.
National Cabinet noted that the Omicron wave has peaked in most states and territories, as cases have fallen by 20 per cent since peak levels in mid-January.
Hospitalisations have fallen by 63 per cent since then, and ventilated cases have dropped by 54 per cent.
More than 9.5 million booster doses have been administered to 46.3 per cent of Australians.
ATAGI acknowledges that advice may change as the pandemic evolves.
Updated at 11.04am AEDT on 11 February 2022.
SA to ease restrictions on hospitality and fitness industries from midnight
Hospitality and fitness operators will be able to welcome more punters and clients back from tomorrow after the South Australian government announced a fresh batch of eased restrictions today.
As part of the state’s plan to ease some restrictions every fortnight, the South Australian Premier Steven Marshall says density limits for gyms and hospitality venues will ease at 12.01am tonight.
Fitness businesses will move from a one person per seven square metre rule to the more lenient one person per four square metre rule.
Meanwhile, hospitality venues will be able to seat more people outdoors, with bars, pubs and clubs soon able to move to the three people per four square metre rule.
The 50 per cent density limit on indoors will remain, but standing consumption of alcohol in an outdoor setting will be permitted.
The Premier also announced home gatherings will be allowed to host 50 people, up from a current limit of 10.
“[The COVID response committee] had three meetings this week and we feel very confident this further easing of restrictions is not going to put undue pressure on our hospital system in South Australia,” Premier Marshall said.
“This will ease the burden on households and businesses, particularly the fitness sector, the hospitality sector, the catering sector in South Australia.”
Marshall also announced that new guidance about the capacity of office buildings will come into effect from Monday, encouraging offices to permit up to 50 per cent of the workforce at once.
However, the Premier noted the wearing of masks in an office environment is still “strongly recommended”.
“This is still a highly transmissible variant,” the Premier said.
“We want to make sure that we can do everything we can to ease those restrictions but not have a second wave in South Australia.”
South Australia today recorded 1,639 new cases of COVID-19 and seven deaths of people with the virus.
Updated at 3.56pm AEDT on 10 February 2022.
Omicron grinds down café spending in CBDs with recovery to pre-COVID levels unlikely
Weekday café transactions in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are below 40 per cent of pre-COVID levels as the Omicron outbreak reinforces remote working arrangements, but a senior economist at ANZ (ASX: ANZ) believes structural changes in the workplace mean they are unlikely to hit pre-pandemic rates even when conditions improve.
ANZ Research senior economist Adelaide Timbrell says café transactions in Sydney are currently at 36 per cent of pre-pandemic numbers, versus 31 per cent in Brisbane and 28 per cent in Melbourne.
"This data does show that there is some structural change in the way people are working, and the strongest evidence of that is actually in the period between the second wave of COVID in 2020 and the Delta outbreaks in the second half of 2021," Timbrell explains.
"You can see that particularly in Sydney and Melbourne café transactions didn't get up anywhere near where they were in 2019 which means that even when there really wasn't much of COVID within those cities, or any COVID risk in some parts of that period, people still weren’t coming back into the office.
"We can even see in the Brisbane CBD where there really wasn’t any COVID for most of 2021, but it was still showing less café transactions on weekdays in the CBD."
Brisbane experienced a much deeper drop in café spending early in the year, which Timbrell notes is explained by the Queensland capital's relative lack of outbreaks compared to larger southern cities before Omicron.
"That’s why the Omicron dip actually went a lot lower in Brisbane because people had not become accustomed to that risk, and it’s something that may take a little bit longer to come back up," the economist says.
"Brisbane has had less of that shake up of the status quo. It had less months where there was widespread working from home, which means fewer people are likely to shift their working preferences and their working style as a result of COVID."
There are huge swings in the Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide data because of short, sharp lockdowns throughout 2021. In the case of Perth and Adelaide, their spending rates compared to 2019 are relatively better at 69 per cent and 71 per cent respectively.
"If we look through those short-term changes, what we're seeing is that smaller CBDs, because they didn’t have that forced experiment of a long lockdown where a lot of people are working from home, they're less likely to have as big of a structural change," Timbrell says.
"The bigger the city, the more likely we are to see more people working from home compared to pre-COVID.
"If we look at Adelaide for example, or Perth as well, what we see is that the number of people who are working from home and the number of café transactions haven’t really changed as much, compared to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane."
The economist does however believe that as the health risk situation improves, rates are likely to go up but will be short of 2019 levels for "quite some time". In the pandemic thus far, the best percentage achieved last year was for Sydney, rising above the 80 per cent mark.
"I think it's very possible that it will get back to that 80 per cent level in Sydney. There's no reason why if we do see a reduction in cases that we won't see an increase in office occupancy, and that economic activity in the CBD," Timbrell says.
"What we are unlikely to see, though, is right back up to that 100 per cent of pre-COVID level."
When asked whether employer in-office working mandates could turn the tide, Timbrell said the current labour market dynamics more broadly were working in favour of employees, and survey data indicates they would like to continue working from home.
"There are going to be different dynamics from business to business about how much employees are expected to go into the office. One piece of data that I think's really relevant to that is the unemployment rate and under-utilisation rate from December," she says.
"The unemployment rate is now down at 4.2 per cent, and the rate of people who either are unemployed or don't have enough hours at their current job is actually at a 13-year low.
"What that means is employees have more bargaining power than they have in the past."
She believes this means employers may face a talent exodus if they do not go along with employees’ wishes to work from home at least a few days a week.
"Of course it depends on the business and the industry, but when there are so many jobs out there and so few unemployed people, there do tend to be some changes in that bargaining behaviour," she clarifies.
In other data, she adds discretionary spending is improving across several categories as expected following the slow start to the year due to Omicron, but the most encouraging statistic relates to accommodation spending.
"One thing that jumped out at me a little bit was that accommodation spending is actually now a little bit above where it was in January 2020," she says.
"Obviously, two years’ worth of inflation means we’re not exactly where we were, but when we look at the data on accommodation, what we are seeing is that people do have some appetite to travel within Australia.
"That is a really positive thing for domestic tourism, because 75 per cent of Australia's tourism money actually comes from Australian residents travelling within Australia. Seeing those accommodation numbers is a really good sign for that."
"There does tend to be a bit of a lag between when you're allowed to travel somewhere and when people actually start doing it. We saw that when we had the Australia New Zealand bubble, but it really didn't have as much demand as some people were expecting," she says.
"We're not exactly expecting a huge rush out the gate when it comes to people coming into Australia, particularly for holiday-related or business-related tourism, but we will see a build in international tourism through the year, especially if those borders do stay sustainably open."
“Welcoming the world back to Australia”: International border to reopen on 21 February
Australia will reopen to all fully vaccinated visa holders on the 21 February 2021, meaning tourists, business travellers and other visa holders will finally be able to enter the country.
Announced today by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the change will be a welcome boost to the struggling tourism industry which in 2018/19 generated more than $60 billion for the Australian economy.
Under the revised border rules, all eligible visa holders will be able to enter Australia as long as they have received two doses of a Therapeutic Goods Administration-recognised vaccine.
Those that have not will be subject to relevant state or territory quarantine requirements which differ nationally. In addition, unvaccinated travellers must provide proof of a medical reason that they cannot be vaccinated.
“I know the tourism industry will be looking forward to that,” PM Morrison said.
“Over the next two weeks they will have the opportunity…to be gearing up to welcome international visitors back to Australia.
“Our borders will be open from the 21st of February, and welcoming the world back to Australia.”
Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews said the new border rules will aid in the recovery of Australia's tourism industry which has been particularly hard hit by a lack of international visitors.
"We all understand that the tourism industry in Australia has been dealt a tremendous load through COVID," Andrews said.
"But as of the 21st of February we will be welcoming back to Australia international visitors and that is going to be such a welcome relief for many tourist providers all around Australia."
The announcement has already been welcomed by major industry players including Flight Centre Corporate managing director Australia James Kavanagh, who called it an "absolute game changer".
"This is a truly momentous day for businesses big and small – it is they who will lead this country’s economic fightback – and there is no doubt this is an absolute game changer when it comes to Australia being open to the world once again,” Kavanagh said.
“It has been a long time coming but the critical part is once we open to the world, we stay open, and that will naturally inject real confidence into people wanting to travel. Confidence is already rising in the leisure space across the world – now it is time for that happen in the corporate space.
“There is no doubt visas, exemptions, and quarantine have all been a big hindrance to the corporate world – and although we expect some meetings and events to still exist in a virtual of hybrid manner – now is the time to get on planes to see colleagues, clients, and potential new customers."
The Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC) said it was "ecstatic" at the international border reopening, noting the announcement gives "much-needed certainty to airports, airlines, tourism operators, and everyone involved in the international visitation industry".
"More importantly, today is an extraordinary day for families and friends who have been apart throughout the pandemic, as they can now reunite on their own terms with their loved ones," BAC said.
"After a challenging 24 months, BAC is more than ready to move forward with its partners to rebuild tourism across the state and reconnect Queensland to the world."
Peak body Australian Tourism Export Council said the news means businesses can breathe a sigh of relief and begin rebuilding their markets.
"Australian tourism businesses will rejoice in the news that our borders will reopen to all international travellers on 21 February,” ATEC managing director Peter Shelley said.
“It’s been a long hard and desperate road for every tourism business across the country and we have lost many along the way, but this news will give those who have survived a clear target to work towards and a start point for the rebuilding of the industry.
“With close to two years with our borders closed our industry has lost tens of billions of dollars in export revenue and we welcome the border reopening as an opportunity to regain some of Australia’s tourism market share."
He also said that the industry's next challenge will be to meet demand successfully, "and that will involve tourism businesses rebuilding their lost capacity, product, service skills and supply chains".
“Given the tourism industry has taken a devastating hit to its skills base, experience, expertise and global sales networks, we urge the Government to outline a significant funding commitment to our industry in next month’s budget as a sign of its support for what has been a hugely valuable economic contributor for more than a decade," Shelley said.
Updated at 2.29pm AEDT on 7 February 2022.
New Zealand borders to progressively reopen to the world from 27 February
New Zealanders living in Australia will soon be able to make their way home without having to spend two weeks in a government-run quarantine facility after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today outlined a five step plan to reopen the nation to the world.
Borders will reopen progressively, first to New Zealand citizens travelling from Australia on 27 February, all Australians and travellers from visa waiver countries in July, and ultimately to the rest of the world in October 2022.
PM Ardern said the gradual relaxation of the nation’s ‘Managed Isolation and Quarantine’ (MIQ) program is appropriate now, but notes it has allowed New Zealand to remain safe during the global pandemic.
“MIQ meant not everyone could come home when they wanted, but it also meant that COVID could not come in when it wanted to either,” she said, speaking today at a Business NZ event.
“That’s meant we have been able to build our defences to become one of the most vaccinated countries in the world.”
NZ’s five-step program to reopening its borders is as follows:
Step 1 - from 11.59pm, 27 February 2022
The following fully vaccinated people can enter New Zealand from Australia and self-isolate upon arrival:
New Zealand citizens and residents
Other eligible travellers under current border settings.
Unvaccinated travellers, and those who do not meet New Zealand’s vaccination requirements, who are eligible to enter New Zealand will continue to enter MIQ.
Step 2 - from 11.59pm, 13 March 2022
The following fully vaccinated people can enter New Zealand from anywhere in the world and self-isolate upon arrival:
New Zealand citizens and residents
Other eligible travellers under current border settings.
Skilled workers earning at least 1.5x the median wage.
Travellers on a working holiday scheme.
Partners and dependent children of New Zealand citizens and residents, provided they meet the usual visa and vaccination requirements. A family group does not need to travel to New Zealand together.
Unvaccinated travellers, and those who do not meet New Zealand’s vaccination requirements, who are eligible to enter New Zealand will continue to enter MIQ.
Step 3 - from 11.59pm, 12 April 2022
The following fully vaccinated people can enter New Zealand from anywhere in the world and self-isolate upon arrival:
Current offshore temporary visa holders with a valid visa who can still meet their visa requirements.
Up to 5,000 international students for semester 2
Step 4 - July 2022
The following fully vaccinated people can enter New Zealand and self-isolate upon arrival:
All travellers from Australia.
Visitors from countries who do not need a visa (visa waiver visitors)
Travellers arriving under the Accredited Employer Work Visa categories.
Step 5 - October 2022
All visa categories will reopen in October 2022, including visitor and student visas.
Victoria partners with Lumos to manufacture 50 million RATs locally
Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has announced today the state will work alongside Lumos Diagnostics (ASX: LDX) and its delivery partner Planet Innovation to tackle the critical shortages of rapid antigen tests (RATs) across Australia.
The partnership is subject to the company’s COVID-19 RAT CoviDx receiving approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), but once approved will give the green light to establish a $17.2 million manufacturing facility in Victoria to produce a million RATs from April.
Manufacturing would ramp up to three million a month after July, with full production from October onwards of up to 50 million RATs per year.
As a result of the agreement, approximately 70 ongoing jobs will be created.
Shares in LDX have spiked on the news, up by 15 per cent to $1.075 per share at 1.13pm AEDT.
“Manufacturing rapid antigen tests in Victoria will protect and secure the state’s supply chain and create local jobs,” Victorian Premier Dan Andrews said.
“Being able to scale up production so quickly shows the strength of Victoria’s advanced manufacturing capabilities."
Lumos is already making RATs for Canadian and European markets and has established manufacturing facilities in Florida and California. The company plans to use existing supply chains to replicate its US output in Victoria.
“To these guys and their staff, we’re very grateful for your skill for your expertise. This is a very valuable commodity - perhaps never been more valuable,” said the Premier.
In FY21, Lumos reported a $25 million in annual revenue, representing a 198 per cent increase year-on-year (8.4 million).
EBITDA also increased by 36.6 per cent, reaching $16.4 million compared to $12 million in FY20.
Lumos Diagnostics executive chairman Sam Lanyon has confirmed CoviDx has been submitted to the TGA for approval.
“We’ve got an active application - that's where we're at right now. We're feeling quietly confident. Our products have [been] approved in other regions,” Lanyon said.
“We expect to have an approval imminently.”
Victoria recorded 14,533 new cases of COVID-19 today. Of those, 768 are in hospital.
Fresh calls for national border relaxation emerge amid reduction in COVID hospitalisations
Tourism industry leaders and peak bodies have renewed calls to relax international border restrictions for would-be visitors as the number of people in hospital suffering from COVID-19 complications continues to decrease this week.
The travel sector is calling on the Federal Government to permit international tourists into the country, with many expressing frustration at the current settings despite widespread infection of the coronavirus nationally.
Pressure has been mounting from peak bodies like the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which have declared that ongoing border restrictions in Australia must end if the tourism sector is to make a meaningful recovery anytime soon.
Specifically, the ATEC said maintaining international border closures is “no longer a sensible or viable approach” for the industry which is suffering from a total lack of customers.
“Australia now has a higher COVID infection rate than the UK and the US but we continue to maintain our border closures to these international visitors, applying huge economic stress to businesses across the country,” ATEC managing director Peter Shelley said.
“Given every person arriving in Australia has to be fully vaccinated and tested, there simply is no greater health risk which would result from reopening our international borders, rather it would provide a huge relief to an already burdened and struggling tourism sector.
“The hermit kingdom approach to protecting our borders is no longer viable and we need urgent clarity from the Government on when we can welcome international visitors, and it needs to be immediate.”
Similarly, the IATA has called for removing all travel barriers (quarantine and testing) for fully vaccinated travellers, and enabling quarantine-free travel for non-vaccinated travellers with a negative test result.
The peak bodies have been backed by corporate heavyweights too, with Qantas (ASX: QAN) and Flight Centre (ASX: FLT) co-signing the message to the Federal Government, also noting the move would reignite global business and supply chains.
Jürgen Himmelmann, the CEO and founder of worldwide online youth travel marketplace Global Work and Travel Co, has gone one step further, labelling the current restrictions as nonsensical.
“The tourism sector has been closed to international tourists for just under two years now and much of the rest of the world has been allowing overseas visitors back in,” Himmelmann said.
“Opening the international borders to at least the fully vaccinated should be a government priority right now. And the reality is that the Omicron variant is well and truly out in the Australian community, so what’s the point in keeping our borders closed? It makes no sense.
“The virus doesn’t have a nationality, it’s the same thing everywhere these days. It’s time to move forward.”
Global Work & Travel Co CEO Jürgen Himmelmann
When questioned by the press about the Federal Government’s position on potentially relaxing international border restrictions even further, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said decisions would be made looking at hospitalisation rates.
“I just want to be confident that before we take that decision that we are confident about the situation that our hospitals are in, which have been performing extremely well under great pressure,” the PM said.
“As we’ve seen the peaks of Omicron…then that is starting to open up that opportunity, so I’m optimistic about that but cautiously optimistic.”
The PM’s comments come in light of decreasing hospitalisation rates nationally, with 4,667 people currently admitted to hospitals across Australia.
This is 560 people less than a week ago, and reflects the gradual drop-off in new daily cases being reported around the country; yesterday there were 35,198 new COVID-19 cases in Australia compared to 46,872 on 27 January.
However, hospitals are still under strain, especially in Victoria where the state’s health system is operating under Code Brown rules.
Despite that, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews today said he was “optimistic” about the Omicron situation in his state.
“We’re seeing improvements across the board,” Andrews said.
“We’re on that more optimistic trajectory, but there is still significant pressure on our health system.”
If the call to relax border restrictions is not heeded soon by the Federal Government, peak body Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA) has asked for more monetary support for the sector generally.
AFTA is pushing for a $190 million Travel Sector Skills Retention and Recovery Package, including the immediate release of an estimated $66 million already allocated to the sector but so far unspent.
In addition, AFTA has proposed a Travel Industry Job Starter Package, similar to the International Aviation Support Program, which would provide a payment of $10,000 per new or re-engaged employee by a travel business.
“A third of our Sector has been lost due to almost 700 days in lockdown as a result of the Federal Government’s international travel ban,” AFTA CEO Dean Long said.
“We need Government support to rebuild that workforce and skills lost so we can meet this increasing corporate and consumer demand, especially as international travel normalises.
“Our ask of the Federal Government is simple – please support us so that we can keep supporting travelling Australians.”
Updated at 12.53pm AEDT on 2 February 2022.
Rent relief extended for commercial tenants in Victoria
Victoria recorded 11,311 new COVID cases and 34 deaths on Monday, as the state government introduced new regulations under the Commercial Tenancy Relief Scheme to support struggling small and family businesses.
The regulations follow the Victorian governments’ decision in January to extend the rent relief scheme for two months until 15 March.
Businesses with a turnover of $10 million or less and have suffered a decline in turnover of at least 30 per cent due to COVID will be eligible for support.
Under the scheme, landlords must provide proportional rent relief to commercial tenants in line with any reduction of turnover against pre-pandemic levels.
For example, a business whose turnover in January 2022 is 40 per cent less than in January 2020 can only be charged 40 per cent of its rent.
Of the balance, at least half the rent must be waived, with the remainder deferred. The freeze on rent increases will continue.
“Small and family businesses are going through a challenging period due to the Omicron wave and that’s why we are extending the Commercial Tenancy Relief Scheme,” Minister for Small Business Jaala Pulford said.
“The new regulations will help to ease the financial burden for many small and family businesses that are facing hardship caused by the pandemic.
“I would like to acknowledge and thank those commercial landlords who continue to do the right thing by their tenants during such challenging times.”
Eligible commercial landlords will continue to receive support from the Victorian Government, with more details on a new round of the Commercial Landlord Hardship Fund to be announced shortly.
The expectation remains for landlords and tenants to negotiate in good faith with the Victorian Small Business Commission (VSBC) in place to offer free mediation if required.
The Commercial Tenancy Relief Scheme was first launched in 2020, before it was reintroduced in July 2021, and has provided financial relief and rent protections for thousands of Victorian businesses.
Newer businesses that weren’t operating in 2020 will also be protected, with special arrangements to calculate their turnover impacts.
The VSBC advises struggling businesses to pay as much rent as they can afford while contacting an accountant, business adviser, or mentor for advice and potentially negotiating a new rental agreement.
Tenants can apply to the VSBC for a binding order for rent relief if their landlord fails to respond or sufficiently respond to the VSBC or doesn’t engage in mediation in good faith.
Full details of the scheme, including eligibility, are available on the VSBC’s website. Tenants and landlords can contact the VSBC for further information on 13 87 22 or visit vsbc.vic.gov.au
$1b shot in the arm for Omicron-hit businesses in NSW
The NSW Government is shoring up its support of struggling small and medium businesses across the state that have been hardest hit by the Omicron wave with a new financial package worth $1 billion.
Among the initiatives announced over the weekend, eligible businesses will receive financial support to buy rapid antigen tests (RATs) for employees, along with a direct cash injection directed at supporting payrolls to assist businesses to keep their workers employed.
Premier Dominic Perrottet says the program will also extend the Commercial Landlord Hardship Grant to March 13 and deliver additional funding for the performing arts sector. The move comes as COVID-19 case numbers in NSW continue to fall.
“This targeted package provides support for businesses who experienced cashflow issues and the immediate economic impacts of the Omicron outbreak,” says Perrottet.
“NSW is tracking better than expected and confidence is returning. And as we did with earlier recoveries, we will come through this recent challenge stronger than ever.
“We’ve got the backs of businesses, as we have throughout this entire pandemic.”
Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW Paul Toole says the support package provides a state-wide response to the Omicron wave, targeting those businesses that need it the most.
“Our regions have felt the impacts of Omicron, and it’s critical we give them a helping hand to recover and get local economies humming again,” he says.
The Small Business Support Program has been aimed at businesses with annual turnover of between $75,000 and $50 million that have experienced a fall of at least 40 per cent in turnover in January and are likely to be similarly affected in February. The support will cover up to 20 per cent of the weekly payroll of an eligible business.
The program will deliver a lump-sum payment of the weekly payroll with a minimum payment of $500 per week and a maximum payment of $5,000 per week.
Meanwhile, the government is increasing the rebate on existing small business fees, charges and RAT by 50 per cent from the current $2,000 limit to $3,000. Businesses with employees will be able to use the rebate to obtain RATs for testing workers.
The government says the aim is to support worker availability by reducing costs to small businesses and enabling healthy staff who have been exposed to COVID-19, but test negative, to return to work.
“We know that the over 800,000 small businesses in NSW are the lifeblood of local communities and that many of these businesses experienced challenges due to the Omicron wave of the pandemic,” says NSW Small Business Minister Eleni Petinos.
“This package will help relieve some of the costs of small business including keeping workers safe, assist with cash flow and support small businesses to continue trading.”
NT cuts booster eligibility to three months, imposes snap lockdown
Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner has announced from Monday the interval between receiving a second jab and booster will be reduced to three months, as the Central Australian town of Ampilatwatja enters a 48-hour snap lockdown from 2pm today.
The announcement comes after the Territory recorded 940 cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night. As part of the lockdown, masks must be worn outside of the home at all times and only essential workers who are fully vaccinated can continue to go to work.
“From 2pm today Ampilatwatja will enter a 48-hour lockdown to allow us to test the community and try to contain it as much as possible,” Gunner says.
During the lockdown, residents must stay at home and are only permitted to leave for the following five reasons:
Medical treatment, including COVID testing or vaccination.
For essential goods and services, like groceries, medications or power tokens. Only one household member should visit the store, once per day.
For work that is considered essential.
For one hour of outdoor exercise a day within 5 km from your home with one other person or people from your house.
To provide care and support to a family member or person who cannot support themselves. In case of an emergency, including escaping harm from domestic/family violence.
The Chief Minister is also urging people in high-risk workplaces to book a booster shot as soon as they are eligible.
“As we flagged last year, the booster shot will become part of the Territory mandatory vaccination policy for many workers,” Gunner says.
“We haven't gone through all the sacrifice in the past two years just to drop the ball now.”
Employees in the following high-risk workplaces will be required to receive their booster by 11 March 2021 or within four weeks of becoming eligible for a shot:
Hospitals
Healthcare facilities
Residential aged-care facilities
Disability residential facilities
Correctional detention facilities
Family violence shelters
Homeless shelters
Sobering-up shelters
Employees who come into contact with vulnerable people or perform work that is “necessary for the operation and maintenance of essential infrastructure for logistics” have until 22 April to receive the jab.
Gunner says well over half of cases are coming from Darwin and Palmerston.
“We have seen a sharp spike in cases over the last few days, mainly in Darwin, as more and more families returned home from interstate holiday.
“It's not surprising and we can expect that to continue for a few days to a week. This doesn't change our overall settings for the Territory. It just means it’s more important than ever that we stick to the measures that are in place to keep us safe.”
The snap lockdown comes after Milikapiti’s lockdown was extended until 2pm on 30 January.
Lockdowns in Gunyangara (Ski Beach) in East Arnhem, Wurrumiyanga on the Tiwi Islands and Utopia in the Barkly region are set to end at 2pm on 29 January.
People who have left those communities within the last seven days must submit to a RAT test within the next 24 hours unless they received a negative result since leaving.
More than 95 per cent of Territorians aged 16 and older have received two COVID-19 vaccines.
There are currently 4,200 active cases in the Northern Territory and 105 people in hospital. Of those, 14 are on ventilators and three are in ICU.
 "Victorian Government lifts work from home recommendations")
 "COVID isolation time will be cut to five days, mask rules to be removed for domestic flights")
 "Fourth COVID-19 shot approved for over-30s")
 "New Zealand scraps pre-departure COVID-19 tests")
 "Two Melbourne-made COVID-19 vaccines to launch Phase 1 trials")
 "WA to ease COVID restrictions as ICU numbers remain lower than predicted")
 "100 million doses per year: Moderna to construct mRNA manufacturing facility in Melbourne")
 "“We're ready to welcome the world back”: NZ reopening to vaccinated Aussies on 12 April")
 "COVID pandemic 2nd anniversary: 3 things we got wrong, and 3 things to watch out for")
 "SA scraps rules on dancing, density requirements")
 "WA rolls out another $72m business support scheme ahead of \"rockiest month\"")
 "Tenant and landlord relief, alfresco program part of new $67m WA funding for businesses")
 "Australian Clinical Labs lifts profit six-fold on prospectus forecast at $130m")
 "Slater & Gordon injured by lockdowns with $7.5m loss")
 "Welcome back: Australia reopens to double-vaccinated international travellers")
 "Spending vouchers, ventilation upgrades to breathe new life into Victoria with $200m stimulus")
 "Singing and dancing back in NSW from tomorrow as most restrictions ease")
 "Victoria's COVID restrictions to ease as hospitalisation and infection numbers fall")
 "Vital Signs: small businesses need a national support plan to survive shadow lockdowns")
 "Victoria to lift hospital Code Brown alert on Monday")
 "ATAGI recommends three jabs to be considered 'up to date' with vaccines")
 "SA to ease restrictions on hospitality and fitness industries from midnight")
 "Omicron grinds down café spending in CBDs with recovery to pre-COVID levels unlikely")
 "“Welcoming the world back to Australia”: International border to reopen on 21 February")
 "New Zealand borders to progressively reopen to the world from 27 February")
 "Victoria partners with Lumos to manufacture 50 million RATs locally")
 "Fresh calls for national border relaxation emerge amid reduction in COVID hospitalisations")
 "Rent relief extended for commercial tenants in Victoria")
 "$1b shot in the arm for Omicron-hit businesses in NSW")
 "NT cuts booster eligibility to three months, imposes snap lockdown")
