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Victoria records six local COVID-19 cases as statewide lockdown begins
ABC News: John Graham, file photo
)IN BRIEF: VIC Health Minister Martin Foley has warned the state is in a “precarious position” after it recorded six new locally acquired cases, including one in a student at a specialist school in Melbourne’s west.
All of the new cases are linked to previous cases but were not in quarantine while infectious.
COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said there was a $400 isolation payment available for people who needed to miss work to have a test, and $1,500 available to people who had to isolate.
Who said what:
“We will do everything we can to ensure that you can isolate safely and effectively,” he said.
“I know that all of us Victorians are fed up, we’re tired, we’ve all had enough of these lockdowns and the restrictions that we’re placing on our day-to-day life, but we know that it works.”
Masks could be needed in Queensland until Christmas to avoid lockdowns, CHO says
ABC News: Curtis Rodda
)IN BRIEF: All the new cases are household contacts and directly linked to the Delta outbreak that started at Indooroopilly State High School, in Brisbane’s inner west.
Just two were infectious in the community for one day, during the south-east Queensland lockdown.
Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Young said a decision to lift the lockdown would not be made until Sunday morning.
She said masks were critical with the Delta variant and they could be mandated until Christmas.
Who said what:
“We can’t use the same strategies we used last year, we’ve really got to ramp them up,” she said.
“If we want to try to avoid lockdowns, we’re going to have to get used to wearing masks. Hopefully it won’t be through till Christmas, but it could be.”
NSW records 291 new COVID cases
ABC News
)IN BRIEF: It’s NSW’s highest daily total of the pandemic — and health authorities conceded hospitals were “stressed” as the state’s Delta crisis deepened today.
Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant apologised to the family of a woman in her 60s who died yesterday after contracting the virus from an employee at Liverpool Hospital, which is at the centre of an outbreak.
Ninety-one of today’s cases were in isolation for their infectious period. Forty-eight were in isolation for part of their infectious period and another 48 cases were infectious in the community.
Australia wins silver medal in women’s beach volleyball final
Getty Images: Elsa
)IN BRIEF: Australian pair Taliqua Clancy and Mariafe Artacho del Solar have won a silver medal in the women’s beach volleyball, going down in the final to the USA pairing of Alix Klineman and April Ross.
It’s America’s fourth gold medal in women’s Olympic beach volleyball.
For Australia, it’s the first time in 21 years the country has been represented on the podium in the sport.
Australia won its first medal in boxing in more than 30 years
Pool/Getty Images: Luis Robayo
)Harry Garside, 24, from Melbourne took on Cuba’s Andy Cruz in the men’s lightweight boxing semi-final, hoping for a place in the gold medal fight.
Garside fought well but couldn’t match the two-time world champion, with all five judges handing the first two rounds to Cruz.
Despite the loss, Garside automatically collects a bronze medal, because boxing doesn’t hold a fight for third and fourth places.
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Quinn will make history at the Tokyo Olympics as the first transgender medallist
AP: Fernando Vergara
)IN BRIEF: History will be made on day 14 at the Tokyo Olympic Games, regardless of who wins the women’s football final.
Quinn, Canada’s midfielder, who goes by one name, is about to become the first openly transgender, non-binary athlete to win a medal.
Whether it is a gold medal after an upset of the heavily favoured Sweden, or settling for silver, Quinn’s appearance on the podium will be a watershed moment for the Olympics.
Sticking with women’s football … Donald Trump blames ‘Leftist Maniacs’ for USA’s bronze medal at Tokyo Olympics
Getty Images: Zhizhao Wu
)IN BRIEF: Former US president Donald Trump has lashed his country’s women’s football team for being too “woke” after they won bronze at the Tokyo Olympics.
The number-one ranked Americans suffered a shock 1-0 loss to Canada in the semi-finals, before beating Australia 4-3 to claim bronze.
Who said what:
“If our soccer team, headed by a radical group of Leftist Maniacs, wasn’t woke, they would have won the Gold Medal instead of the Bronze,” Mr Trump said in a statement released on Twitter by his chief spokeswoman.
America has a vaccination rate that’s the envy of the world. Delta coronavirus is still surging
AP: Susan Walsh
)IN BRIEF: Seventy per cent of American adults have now received at least one COVID-19 vaccination. A tick over 60 per cent are fully vaccinated.
Australia has been neck-deep in its fight with the Delta variant of coronavirus for a while now, but the battle in the US is just heating up.
Almost all emperor penguins will die if no changes made to greenhouse gas emissions, study warns
Supplied: Gary Miller
)IN BRIEF: Emperor penguins will become effectively extinct by 2100 if Antarctic sea ice continues to decline at current rates due to global warming, a new report predicts.
Australian Antarctic Division seabird ecologist Barbara Wienecke, who co-authored the paper that appears in the journal Global Change Biology, said the finding was “absolutely devastating”.
Who said what:
“Under the worst scenario, we could indeed lose 98 per cent of them by the end of the century,” Dr Wienecke said.
Here’s what’s still to come at the Olympics tonight:
- Australia’s Kelsey-Lee Barber, Kathryn Mitchell and Mackenzie Little will go for gold in the women’s javelin final from 9:50pm AEST.
- Jessica Hull and Linden Hall will run in the women’s 1,500m final from 10:50pm AEST.
- Australia’s team will swim in the technical routine from 8:30pm AEST.
- The following don’t involve Australians, but they are still worth watching: 4x400m relay heats from 9:25pm AEST, the men’s 5,000m from 10:00pm AEST, the women’s 400m final at 10:35pm AEST and the men’s and women’s 4x100m relay from 11:30pm AEST.
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We’ll be back on Monday to catch you up on the important and interesting news to start your week.
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