Medical workers prepare the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine at the Hyatt Perth quarantine hotel in February. Australia lacks the ability to manufacture mRNA vaccines such as the one made by Pfizer, leaving the country entirely reliant on imports. Photograph: Josh Fernandes/AAP
Medical workers prepare the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine at the Hyatt Perth quarantine hotel in February. Australia lacks the ability to manufacture mRNA vaccines such as the one made by Pfizer, leaving the country entirely reliant on imports. Photograph: Josh Fernandes/AAP
That is where we will leave the blog for Wednesday. Thanks for following along. Here’s what made the news today:
Victoria announced plans to build a $50m mRNA vaccine manufacturing facility. It comes as the federal government is still considering the business case for building mRNA manufacturing capability in Australia, amid issues with sourcing enough Covid-19 vaccines this year.
The federal government has closed a loophole which would have allowed Australians travelling to New Zealand in the new trans-Tasman bubble to travel to other countries.
Activists have failed in their latest attempt to stop the duplication of a highway through part of western Victoria they say contains culturally significant sacred trees.
People used early access to super as part of the pandemic relief to make mortgage payments or pay household bills, according to the ABS.
Former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins says she is still waiting to organise a meeting with the PM two weeks after it was offered, but Scott Morrison says it is “in process”.
The government has closed a loophole that would have allowed Australians to use New Zealand as a stepping stone to travelling to another country following the opening of the Trans Tasman travel bubble.
On Monday, health minister Greg Hunt amended the biosecurity legislation to specify that Australians could not go to any country other than New Zealand. Unlike Australia, New Zealand does not have an outbound travel ban.
A health department spokesperson:
Travellers should be aware that international travel to any other country, except New Zealand, continues to pose a significant risk to public health, and for that reason outgoing travel to other countries remains restricted.
“Australians considering travel outside of Australia or New Zealand are still required to apply for an exemption from the outgoing travel restrictions through ABF, and ensure they review the information available on Smartraveller relevant to their destination.”
Hunt made amendments to explicitly state that the exemption to the ban on overseas travel only applied for a person leaving Australia to travel to and stay in New Zealand, “not where the traveller intends to travel to New Zealand for the purpose of, or with the intention of, travelling to a third country”. You can read the explanatory statement on the changes here.
The New South Wales health department says it is investigating potential transmission of Covid-19 between people staying in hotel quarantine at the Mercure hotel on George St in Sydney’s CBD.
The returned travellers arrived on 3 April on the same flight, and stayed in adjacent rooms.
All three, two of whom are members of the same family, tested negative on day two tests, but then tested positive later on.
The two family members were in one room on the 10th floor of the hotel, while the third person was in an adjacent room. The first two tested positive on days seven and 10, while the third tested positive on day 12.
Genomic testing shows they share the same viral sequence for the B1.351 variant of concern, first identified in South Africa.
NSW health is now contacting people who were staying on the same floor between 7 and 12 April but were subsequently released from hotel quarantine, telling them to get tested and isolate until 14 days from the day they left quarantine.
Hotel staff who worked on the floor are being tested and are self-isolating.
The three cases have been transferred to special health accommodation, where they will remain until no longer infectious.
Here’s a bit more on the head of Dfat’s comments regarding Australia’s approach to Myanmar, via AAP.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Frances Adamson told the Asia Society on Wednesday the situation in Myanmar was “one of the sharpest challenges our region faces”.
“Where the human rights of people are undermined or violated in our region, Australia will continue to voice our concerns,” she said.
Adamson described it as “a security, political and humanitarian crisis that is not only catastrophic for the people of Myanmar but imperils regional stability and enmires ASEAN in issues that divert attention from the priorities of economic recovery and strategic agency”.
“We’re engaging with our international partners to respond and doing what we can to support the people of Myanmar through our development program, without in any way conferring legitimacy on the military authorities,” she said.
Myanmar has been in crisis since the military seized power from Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in February.
The nation has seen a series of protests against the coup despite a brutal crackdown by the junta on dissent.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners says 738 people have been killed by security forces since the coup and 3,300 people are currently in detention, including 20 who have been sentenced to death.
People attend sit-in protest and prayer ceremony for those who have died during protests against Myanmar’s military coup in Kyat Sar Pyin Quarter, Dawei, Myanmar. Photograph: Dawei Watch/Reuters
When the discussion moves to climate change policy, Peter Khalil brings up the PM having a go at people who live in the inner city:
“He couldn’t help himself – he had to whack so-called inner-city elites at wine bars, sipping lattes. He is unwilling to move on climate change. He is only moving because the Biden administration is making a call on this and showing leadership internationally, including engaging with China on commitments and trying to work cooperatively together on what is a global issue.”
Dave Sharma, who represents the very inner-city seat of Wentworth, says the comment was “common sense”:
“I think it was making a pretty commonsense observation that the whole of the country needs to get behind this effort. Our emissions footprint, our high-intensive industries like heavy, natural resource extractions are in our bush areas. If we don’t have our fellow Australians in heavy industry areas onboard, this effort will fail.
To go to Peter’s point, we had Peter’s own resources spokeswoman out there saying how much she loves coal and they’d never shut down a coal mine. Labor recognises you have to take the whole country with you on this.”
On ABC News, Liberal MP Dave Sharma is asked about the comments from Wang Xining, the deputy head of the Chinese embassy in Canberra, that Australia’s relationship deteriorated with the Huawei ban. He said he took note of the remark:
“It is clear that China remains unhappy with our decision to exclude Huawei from our 5G network. That was taken for good reasons around national security and sovereignty. A lot of nations have followed our lead around the world. Just as China see those elements as critical infrastructure under its own control as well. I didn’t think it was a watermark or landmark speech.”
Labor MP Peter Khalil said he was surprised by the remarks:
“It demonstrates almost a psychological insight into a very hypersensitive world view where around every corner they see an enemy or competitor, thinking that everyone is sort of around, when all we’ve really wanted to do for decades, really, is to partner with China and have a constructive, mutually beneficial relationship, particularly on trade and on economic matters, which we have largely had.
“You see this kind of additional aggression from China, particularly in the last couple of years, with the wolf warrior, the sort of wolf diplomacy, and the very aggressive stance taken against many countries – not just Australia, by the way, but some of the Scandinavian countries have been punished by China as well. I think we need to work hard to build that relationship and give them the confidence we’re not out to slaughter them. We want to have a partnership.”
In case you wanted more photos of Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton,getting his first AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine shot at one of the new mass vaccination hubs.
Today, @VictorianCHO, Brett Sutton, rolled up his sleeve to receive the COVID vaccine at our high-volume COVID-19 Vaccination Centre at the Royal Exhibition Building. [1/3] pic.twitter.com/VFgHdVVJZy
The federal department of health has commented on the man in Brisbane who went to hospital after receiving the Pfizer vaccine. It says:
“The department of health’s Vaccine Operations Centre [VOC] is aware of reports of an adverse event following immunisation in Queensland. The VOC is working closely with QLD Health to investigate these reports.The department of health does not comment publicly on details of individual adverse event following immunisation reports submitted to the TGA, in order to protect patient confidentiality.
“We take all reports of adverse reactions very seriously and they are reviewed through the appropriate channels. The head of the TGA has recently noted that there are over 50 blood clots per day in Australia and cautioned that no presumptions should be made about the causation or nature of events which follow vaccination until such time as there has been an investigation.”
South Australia Health has identified a suitable Covid-19 quarantine site for international students but the state government is still working through issues with the commonwealth to allow their return, AAP reports.
Chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said a team within the department had been looking for a suitable site after the successful isolation of seasonal workers from overseas in the state’s Riverland region.
“We do have somewhere that we feel is suitable. It’s somewhere that will be safe and suitable for students,” she told ABC radio on Wednesday.
“We’ve looked at the ventilation and such like. My team are putting together a report that will come to me.”
SA has been working on the return of international students for some time but efforts have largely been hijacked by Covid-19 outbreaks either locally or interstate and other logistical issues.
SA health minister Stephen Wade said it remained something the government was exploring with other agencies as well as federal authorities.
“Universities have a strong interest in trying to have a pathway for international students to return,” he said.
“To be frank, the commonwealth is being quite rigorous in what it’s expecting of states to support such a program.
“So we continue to work through those issues.”
Wade said any return of students would also need to “synchronise” with the academic year.
