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Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says it's still too early to know whether the state will emerge from lockdown as planned.
Authorities have been optimistic in recent days that the state's fifth lockdown will end at 11.59pm on Tuesday, citing a downward trend in the number of people in the community while infectious.
Victoria recorded 11 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases on Sunday, all of which were linked to known outbreaks and were in quarantine for their entire infectious period.
It brings the total number of active cases in the state to 179, of which 17 are in hospital including two people in intensive care.
Mr Andrews said the state's strategy was working but authorities wanted more testing data before deciding if the lockdown will end on time.
"These numbers are the trend that we wanted to see, these numbers are more than promising, but we just have to wait and see what comes through tomorrow and Tuesday to be certain that we can ease restrictions," he told reporters on Sunday.
"I will foreshadow, there will still be rules after midnight Tuesday, it'll be important that we all follow them."
There are more than 22,000 people self-isolating across the state after being deemed close contacts of positive cases, while there are more than 380 exposure sites.
Thousands of those close contacts are in the process of being cleared after a day 13 negative test, the state's COVID-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar said.
He said a "small minority", however, were testing positive late in their quarantine period.
"But it is an important minority because that is how these dying embers catch fire again," Mr Weimar said.
"The risk for us is that we do all the hard work, we get the thing under control and we leave some dying embers out there. We have to get them completely doused down before we open up again."
Mr Andrews expressed his dismay at anti-lockdown protesters who gathered in Melbourne on Saturday but said he was reasonably confident it would not become a super-spreader event.
"We don't want to see people out and about selfishly putting their point of view ahead of the health and wellbeing of others," he said.
"Everybody is entitled to an opinion but you're not entitled to put other people in danger and that's what yesterday was about. Ultimately, selfish behaviour that puts many other people in real danger."
Mr Weimar described protesters as a "small minority having a self-indulgent tantrum".
The premier said it had been a difficult task to shut down the mass gathering without that in itself becoming an infection control nightmare.
"People understand that Victoria Police did their very best," he said.
"But you know, we can't vaccinate against selfishness and these people should be ashamed. Absolutely ashamed. It's just wrong."
Fines were issued to 73 people as a result of the action. Police are reviewing hundreds of hours of footage from social media, CCTV and body-worn cameras and more fines will follow.
VICTORIA'S 11 NEW COVID-19 CASES:
* Four linked to Ms Frankie restaurant (three patrons and one household contact)
* Three linked to Trinity Grammar (one student, one parent and one household contact)
* One linked to Bacchus Marsh Grammar (household contact)
* One linked to the West Gate Tunnel (household contact)
* One linked to Young and Jackson (household contact)
* One linked to AAMI Park (household contact)
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The federal government will send thousands of extra Pfizer doses Sydney's way as adults of all ages in Australia's largest city are also being urged to "strongly consider" AstraZeneca.
The move comes as thousands of angry, unmasked people defied stay-at-home orders to march through the centre of Sydney on Saturday and NSW recorded 163 fresh virus cases, the most since its first wave in 2020.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian declared she was "utterly disgusted" by the protest action and promised the full force of the law would be brought against those involved.
Dozens had already been arrested and some 90 infringement notices issued by late afternoon with a police strike force formed to find and punish the rest.
Protesters and police also clashed on Melbourne's streets.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd meanwhile said another 200,000 Pfizer doses would arrive in NSW this week.
"The Commonwealth will be providing a sustained weekly increase of an additional 20,000 doses to general practices and an additional 20,000 doses to NSW government clinics on an ongoing basis," he said.
The prime minister's office told AAP the extra vaccines were in addition to 150,000 more Pfizer doses already sent to NSW.
Also on Saturday, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation issued a statement saying all people aged 18 years and above in greater Sydney "should strongly consider getting vaccinated with any available vaccine including COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca".
The risk of infection in NSW combined with the scarcity of Pfizer supplies means all adults should consider the benefits of earlier protection, ATAGI said.
Many of Sydney's latest community cases were not isolating while infectious and authorities have spent the past two days asking other states to sacrifice their own Pfizer doses for the worst-affected suburbs.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and other state leaders, however, have made it clear state allocations won't change.
He hailed a record day of jabs on Saturday, saying Australia was on track to have administered 11 million vaccination doses.
"Yesterday was another record day for vaccinations around the country, almost 200,000 doses delivered in a single day," he said.
Two days after apologising for the nation's underwhelming vaccination rollout, the prime minister was optimistic.
"We've turned the corner, we've got it sorted. We're hitting the marks that we need to make, a million doses a week are now being delivered," he added.
"We are well on our way to where we want to be by the end of the year and potentially sooner than that."
As many in Victoria and NSW face job losses through lockdown, the federal opposition has taken aim at lagging financial support.
Senior Labor MP Chris Bowen said there was anger that JobKeeper, used effectively in 2020 lockdowns, had not been brought back.
"This is a harsher lockdown, with less support from the federal government than we had last year and it's not good enough," he said.
"The payments are not as good as JobKeeper, they're harder to get than JobKeeper.
"It's a complicated situation, and if Scott Morrison thinks it's working come out and check the Centrelink lines in Western Sydney."
The federal government issued a statement on Saturday to say Services Australia staff were working across the weekend to process claims.
The payment is for people whose income or hours of work have been impacted by current lockdowns.
"Since claims opened yesterday, more than 84,000 Victorians have already sought support," the statement from Emergency Management Minister Bridget McKenzie and Government Services Minister Linda Reynolds said.
Applicants are advised to claim payments via the myGov web portal and to call Services Australia for extra help.
Eligible people will receive $600 per week if they have lost 20 or more hours of work, and $375 per week if they have lost between eight and less than 20 hours of work, or a full day of work.
Victoria recorded 12 new locally acquired cases on Saturday, Queensland reported none and South Australia, also still in lockdown, reported one.
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NSW has recorded one COVID-19 death and 163 new locally acquired cases, with 45 of those cases "very worryingly" infectious in the community.
A man in his 80s from southwest Sydney died after contracting the virus, NSW Deputy Chief Health Officer Jeremy McNulty said on Saturday.
"We express our condolences to the man's family," he told reporters.
Greater Sydney and surrounding regions are in lockdown until at least July 30 and three local government areas in regional NSW are under stay-at-home orders until at least July 28, as authorities battle to contain an outbreak of the Delta strain.
NSW Health has linked 87 of the new infections to existing virus cases, but 76 are still under investigation.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard says dozens of the 163 new cases, which emerged after a record 93,910 tests, were out during all or part of their infectious period.
"Very worryingly, 45 were infectious out in the community," he told reporters.
"In other words, 45 people were out walking around and potentially spreading the virus which certainly explains why our numbers are going up."
Mr Hazzard said the new cases were mainly in the southwest Sydney areas of Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Blacktown and Liverpool.
He said tighter restrictions had to be placed on Cumberland and Blacktown on Friday night.
Only authorised workers are allowed to leave those five local government areas.
"We really need our community, particularly in southwestern and western Sydney, to stay at home, to hear the message and stay at home," the health minister said.
"And don't intermingle with family members from other households.
"It will continue to cause massive grief here in Sydney, particularly in western and southwestern Sydney, if family members mix with family members from other households.
"Just please, stop doing it. Stop."
Dr McNulty said 18 cases had been linked to a gathering at Pendle Hill following a family tragedy.
"Families coming together, even in tragic times can actually, when you are naturally grieving, can be a risk where COVID can easily take hold," he said.
Dr McNulty said of the 36 people in ICU on Saturday only one was vaccinated.
Mr Hazzard repeated Premier Gladys Berejiklian's plea for the federal government and other states to send Pfizer vaccines to NSW.
"If we can get the Pfizer that we need, to get it out we'll do everything we can," he said.
"We'll work with our chemists, we'll work with our GPs, we'll work with everybody to get it into people's arms, we just need to get it in order that we can do it.
"At the moment it's like fighting a war with both arms tied behind your back."
The federal government will send thousands of extra Pfizer doses from the national stockpile, in addition to 150,000 extra doses already sent to NSW.
The prime minister's office told AAP the extra Pfizer doses will arrive in NSW within the week.
The intervention comes after other states and territories pushed back against the NSW government's pleas at national cabinet on Friday to send Pfizer vaccines.
Mr Hazzard isn't aware of the federal pledge, but he scolded other states for not helping NSW as they would do during any other natural disaster.
"I want to remind those other states and territories that last time I looked, we were a 'Common-wealth', we work together," he said.
"And it disturbs me that would appear that all we've ever done to work together has just seemingly been cast aside."
Police issued 246 penalty notices for breaches of lockdown rules in the last 24 hours.
NSW Health also issued alerts for another 46 potential exposure sites across Greater Sydney and a number in the Southern Highlands towns of Tahmoor and Mittagong on Friday night.
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NSW has recorded yet another COVID-19 death and an outbreak-high of 163 new virus cases, while thousands have defied stay-at-home orders to march unmasked in protest through central Sydney.
Some 45 of the fresh locally acquired infections were "very worryingly" in the community while contagious, meaning Sunday's numbers are again likely to be high and restrictions a step closer to being extended.
NSW Deputy Chief Health Officer Jeremy McNulty said on Saturday a man in his 80s from Sydney's southwest had become Australia's latest casualty of the virus.
"We express our condolences to the man's family," he told reporters.
Greater Sydney and surrounding regions are locked down until at least July 30 and three regional NSW local government areas are under stay-at-home orders until at least July 28, as authorities battle to contain an outbreak of the Delta strain.
That didn't stop an estimated several thousand people turning out to protest restrictions.
Police Minister David Elliott condemned them as "very selfish boofheads" in announcing a dedicated strike force of detectives to see to their apprehension and punishment.
Fifty-seven people had already been charged and 90 infringements issued by late afternoon on Saturday. However he said he wanted to see thousands penalised over the action.
Meanwhile NSW Health has linked 87 of the latest virus infections to existing cases but 76 are still under investigation.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said dozens of the 163 cases which emerged after a record 93,910 tests were out during all or part of their infectious period.
"Very worryingly, 45 were infectious out in the community," he told reporters.
"In other words, 45 people were out walking around and potentially spreading the virus which certainly explains why our numbers are going up."
Mr Hazzard said the new cases were mainly in the southwest Sydney areas of Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Blacktown and Liverpool.
He said tighter restrictions had to be placed on Cumberland and Blacktown on Friday night.
Only authorised workers are allowed to leave those five local government areas.
"We really need our community, particularly in southwestern and western Sydney, to stay at home, to hear the message and stay at home," the health minister said.
"It will continue to cause massive grief here in Sydney, particularly in western and southwestern Sydney, if family members mix with family members from other households.
"Just please, stop doing it. Stop."
Dr McNulty said 18 cases had been linked to a gathering at Pendle Hill following a family tragedy.
"Families coming together, even in tragic times can actually, when you are naturally grieving, can be a risk where COVID can easily take hold," he said.
He said of the 36 people in ICU on Saturday only one was vaccinated.
Mr Hazzard repeated Premier Gladys Berejiklian's plea for the federal government and other states to send Pfizer vaccines to NSW.
"If we can get the Pfizer that we need, to get it out we'll do everything we can," he said.
"We'll work with our chemists, we'll work with our GPs, we'll work with everybody to get it into people's arms, we just need to get it in order that we can do it.
"At the moment it's like fighting a war with both arms tied behind your back."
The federal government will send thousands of extra Pfizer doses from the national stockpile, in addition to 150,000 extra doses already sent to NSW.
The prime minister's office told AAP the extra Pfizer doses will arrive in NSW within the week.
The intervention comes after other states and territories pushed back against the NSW government's pleas at national cabinet on Friday to send Pfizer vaccines.
Mr Hazzard wasn't aware of the federal pledge but scolded other states for not helping as they might in any other natural disaster.
"I want to remind those other states and territories that last time I looked, we were a 'Commonwealth', we work together," he said.
© AAP 2021
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