Authorities worried thousands could have been infected in Victoria due to 10 days between viral exposure of first case NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian provides a COVID-19 update at a press conference at St Leonards in Sydney, on 1 January 2021. Photo: AAP/Mick Tsikas
1 January 2021 12:26pm
As Victoria shuts its border with New South Wales at 11.59pm tonight, people queue up in the thousands in a last attempt to get through.
Health Minister Martin Foley asked motorists to be prepared for delays and to be patient. Anyone who is in border checkpoint queues at 11.59pm tonight will be let through, but anyone trying their luck in the morning will be denied.
Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is likely to begin its Australian rollout sooner than expected, but Scott Morrison has warned COVID-safe practices will remain.
Australians are expected to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine from mid to late February, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said. Mr Morrison said high-priority groups, including healthcare and quarantine workers among others, would receive the treatment first. He hoped the initial phase would start with about 80,000 inoculations a week. However, Mr Morrison said this timeline with depend on a number of factors including final approval from the Therapeutic Good Administation, and delivery of the vaccine from the supplier. He said the Pfizer vaccine would only be delivered and released once TGA approval was given, which he anticipated would occur by the end of January.
Anyone arriving from NSW to Victoria on Friday will need a border pass and will then have to self-isolate for 14 days. Victorians who miss that deadline will be turned back at the border or forced into hotel quarantine.
Victorians are being told if they try to cross the border after midnight tonight, police will turn them back.
The message from the health dept is there is no capacity to put hundreds of people in hotel quarantine because they elected to come home late. Emma O Sullivan (@emma os) January 1, 2021
At Cann River, about 40km over the border in East Gippsland, Hop Inn Motel owner Barry Barker took 300 calls on New Year’s Eve from people looking for a place to stay. Calls were still coming in at 2am on Friday.