More than 16 million Australians are under stay-at-home restrictions with Victoria having joined Sydney, parts of regional NSW and southeast Queensland in lockdown.
A record 319 new local infections and five deaths were recorded in NSW in the 24 hours to Friday evening, in the wake of the nation’s top doctor calling for a circuit breaker to halt the virus’ spread.
At least 83 cases were in the community while infectious and as investigations continue into the isolation status of a further 98 NSW cases.
Victoria reported 29 new locally acquired infections on the second day of its statewide lockdown on Saturday. All are linked to current outbreaks but were not in quarantine during their infectious periods.
There were four new cases in Melbourne on Friday.
The likelihood of southeast Queensland’s restrictions easing on Sunday is firming with all but one of 13 new cases announced on Saturday in isolation while infectious.
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said on Friday he was concerned there was no sign the NSW outbreak was heading towards zero.
“There is clearly a need for a circuit-breaker,” he told reporters.
He listed increasing the speed of people being diagnosed, better compliance with public health measures and higher vaccination rates as key to case numbers falling.
“NSW needs to stay the course and look for those new ways of increasing and improving that situation.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and state and territory leaders on Friday confirmed their approval of a series of phases, starting with a 70 per cent full vaccination rate, to put the country on a path to “live with this virus”.
They also encouraged employers to make use of existing laws to vaccinate workers, rejecting the need to legislate protections.
“Ultimately employers need to consider these matters and make their own decisions, remembering we do not have a mandatory vaccination policy in this country,” Mr Morrison said.
West Australian Premier Mark McGowan expressed concerns NSW could be about to ditch the zero-case approach.
“We can’t have one state surrendering. That would be debilitating for the entire nation, dangerous for the health of the people in that state and it would mean that we would continue to have interstate borders for the long term,” he said.
“We don’t live with it, we don’t tolerate it, we don’t have it linger, we suppress it and we get rid of it.”
Part of the solution will be the broader use of rapid antigen testing, which return results within 15 minutes.
However health experts have advised for the tests not to be seen as a substitute for the higher-confidence testing of PCR tests.
Professor Kelly said he was “much less concerned about southeast Queensland” where controls appeared to be working.
Victoria’s outbreak was showing “strong signs of coming to an end” but he remained concerned about outstanding unlinked cases.
Vaccine co-ordinator Lieutenant General John Frewen said there was “real momentum building” in the rollout, with almost 13.3 million doses delivered, taking the fully vaccinated rate to 20 per cent.
By the end of next week he expected the number of pharmacies involved to rise from 300 to 700.
Aged care staff will receive coronavirus vaccines through workplace clinics ahead of a looming deadline for immunisation to become mandatory in the sector.
Despite being in the highest priority group for the rollout, which started on February 22, just a quarter of workers in the sector were fully vaccinated two weeks ago.
Of Australia’s 933 coronavirus deaths, 655 have been aged care residents.
The Doherty Institute, which provided the advice that led to the national strategy, has been tasked with looking at the potential impact of open borders on vulnerable people.
By Paul Osborne and Matt Coughlan in Canberra, AAP
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