Commonwealth Department of Health COVID-19 update for today September the 3rd.
My name is Alison McMillan and I'm the Commonwealth Chief Nursing and Midwifery
Officer. So today I can report that we've seen
127 cases reported in the last 24 hours that
brings us now to more than 26,000. It's actually 26,027
in Australia since the commencement of the pandemic.
We see 12 new cases in New South Wales, three of those are overseas acquired,
seven locally acquired where their contact is
confirmed and two locally acquired where the
contact has not yet been identified. Victoria has reported
113 new cases, 43 of those locally acquired
and 70 currently under investigation. Queensland has two new cases both of
those under investigation. Sadly we have seen 15 further deaths
reported in the last 24 hours, all of those in
Victoria and sadly that brings us to 678 deaths in
Australia. Since the commencement of the pandemic.
We have 391 people in hospital currently diagnosed with COVID-19 and 26 of those
are being cared for in our intensive care units across the country.
We've seen now more than 6 million tests nationally since the commencement of the
pandemic and again it's important for me to
remind everyone that if you have any symptoms at all
however minor please do stay at home and get tested.
It's important probably for me to remind everyone also
in case you didn't know that it's Father's Day this Sunday.
And again this year like every other is going to mean that for all of these
important milestones we see each year we're going to have to do this
a little differently. It's important you follow the current
restrictions that exist within the state and territory where you live.
But remember also these are the times when we need to protect the most
vulnerable. So if your father lives with you within
your household then a hug is okay but other than that you're going to need
to find new and different ways to greet each other
and greet those you love particularly all the fathers out there
to whom we are so grateful for the great love and care they provide to all of us.
So a reminder - follow those rules and
restrictions that exist in your state and territory
and think of new ways to show your love for your dad
in this continuously challenging year of 2020.
So, I'm happy to questions and I
think Dana, you have my first question?
Reporter: Thank you. I've actually got 2 questions. The first one is about
healthcare worker infections in Victoria, which are remaining quite high.
This has raised concerns that total numbers are going to plateau
and delay the state's path out of lockdown. Is the AHPPC Infection
Control Expert Group looking at ways to further improve infection control,
such as [indistinct] and respirator masks [indistinct]?
Thank you Dana, yes, yes the infection control expert group that provides
advice to AHPPC. We continue to monitor healthcare worker infections and of
course we are very concerned about any infections with our frontline workers
wherever they are. We continue to review all of the evidence
around the world and we continue to work with frontline workers
so that we can understand some of the challenges they've faced.
As we know our healthcare workers do put themselves at the front line
and for that we are internally grateful. The numbers
are flattening down and we would expect
to see some numbers continue given how many we saw.
And we know that sometimes it can take up to 14 days to see
someone develop symptoms. And so we'll continue to monitor this but again
I on behalf of the Health Department in the Commonwealth but on
on behalf of all health professionals are internally grateful for the
amazing work that our health professionals do out there every day
and putting themselves at risk to save others.
Thanks Dana, you have a second question?
Reporter: Yeah, thank you. The other one's just about the aged care death
figures that are now being reported through the Victorian Aged
Care Response Centre. Now those are being based on Victorian numbers,
but it seems that there's a- some sort of a delay in the numbers being
uploaded which resulted in incorrect figures being given in Question
Time earlier this week. I'm just wondering, what's causing that glitch, given
that the new system was supposed to improve the accuracy
of this reporting mechanism?
Yes Dana, I think I can say that the everyone's working extraordinary hard to
improve the accuracy of this data. We are working both at the Commonwealth and the
state level as I'm sure you can appreciate
this is a complex issue of identifying people
across the system and making sure that the two
numbers of figures do reconcile. I think we're a lot closer
to getting a complete reconciliation but it's going to just take a little longer
to complete that process but I can assure you Dana, there is no
intent to be anything other than completely transparent with these
figures and we are all committed to doing that and we'll
continue to work hard together so that we can make the system very
clear.
Tamsin you've got a question for me?
Reporter: Hi, yes. Thanks for taking my call. I have 2
questions as well, if that's all right.
Sure
Reporter: Just following on from Dana's question about the data,
I was just wondering if you'd able to speak to the importance of
reconciling this data and if you had any idea when that
process would be completed?
Tasmin the two data sets are being worked through. I
can't give you a deadline when that will
completely resolve. We had to go back some significant time
as you can appreciate. And the people sadly do pass away in a whole
range of places and therefore being able to
make sure that we collect every single piece of information does take time
and ultimately the final arbitrator of of the cause of death and obviously
every death is a tragedy, is that of the coroner. So these
final figures ultimately will be the determination of the coroner
and that often does take some extended time but again we are committed to
ensuring that we have consistent data because
it's important for us in understanding the impact of this pandemic on
such a vulnerable population.
You have a second question Tasmin?
Reporter: Yeah, thank you. While obviously I don't like, wouldn't
expect you to comment on what will be discussed at National Cabinet
tomorrow. I was just wondering if, but from a health perspective,
is there a safe way to move farmers between areas of
no COVID cases if it was to cross a border?
Yes Tamsin, I think it's fair to say that we've all seen some challenges
across the country in the movement of agricultural workers
across state borders. We know the importance of agriculture both to
in our national priorities and for our
economy. Certainly my understanding is the Department of Agriculture has been
working extremely hard to come up with some processes and
systems that will make it as simple but as safe as possible in this
movement of people across borders. But that is a matter for National
Cabinet, so I'm not in a position to be able to comment other than to say
AHPPC has been consulted on the health aspects of that.
Thanks Tamsin. And Kate. Katie, sorry. Katie.
Reporter: Thank you very much. That's alright. The West Australian
Premier said he won't agree to a hotspot [indistinct] because it's
less effective than a hard border closure. Is this the case?
Are hotspots more risky than blanket border closures?
Thanks Katie. I think it's fair to say Dr Coatsworth dealt quite significantly
with the definitions of hotspots yesterday.
Obviously the priority about hotspots is
and its use is really about what are you intending to use it for.
Therefore the definition is important and so definition of hot spots can be
relative to a local response. Obviously there's no cases in Western
Australia at the moment and so that's not relevant.
It may be the determination of the what's allowed to move across the
particular border as we know Western Australia has their hard
border closure at this point in time or it may reflect how a national
response is done. So I know again that the determination
and discussion around hot spots is going to be done
at National Cabinet tomorrow. So I'm going to leave it to
the Premiers and others to make the final comment and that
it's not for me to comment at this point in time.
Reporter: Just quickly, on agricultural workers as well. [Indistinct]…
concerns have been raised regarding getting ag workers to rural
and regional areas.
Again it's more a point of the for
the Department of Agriculture to deal this rather than
a health issue Katie.
So I'll leave it at that thank you.
Thank you for your time this afternoon thank you.