Covid update: Cases surge and new restrictions announced

Its been another jam packed day of Covid news and press conferences across the country with Queensland to return to Stage 2 restrictions and a surge of cases in Victoria.

Queensland has recorded six new cases overnight and new restrictions will be introduced for parts of Queensland.

Thursday 30 September – coronavirus cases in Queensland:

6 new locally acquired cases – 4 cases are linked to the aviation cluster.#covid19 pic.twitter.com/UqKwDhdJee

— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) September 30, 2021

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said authorities are “not too concerned at this stage”, according to ABC News.

Restrictions are set to tighten in Queensland with the Premier announcing the introduction of stage two restrictions from 4pm Thusday via Twitter.

“From 4pm today, restrictions will be tightened in the Local Government Areas of Brisbane, Gold Coast, Moreton Bay, Logan, Townsville and Palm Island.” she said.

The restrictions include a maximum of 30 people at public and private gatherings. Restaurants and cafes will return to the one person per 4 square metre rule. Weddings and funerals are restricted to 100 people and 20 people can dance at a wedding.

Aged care, correctional centres, hospitals, and disability service providers will close to visitors.

New South Wales has recorded 941 new cases in the past 24 hours to 8pm last night, six deaths were recorded overnight.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian suggested the government was considering bringing some freedoms due to come into effect in December forward, according to 7 News.

“I want to foreshadow, whilst we won’t announce anything today, that the government is considering bringing some things forward to 80 per cent double dose,” she said.

“There are a number of people in the community who have asked us to consider certain things and health is considering those things and if it’s safe to do so we’ll be able to resume some of those activities at 80 per cent as opposed to December 1.”

NSW recorded 941 new locally acquired cases of #COVID19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night. pic.twitter.com/J1Y6sCXesf

— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) September 30, 2021

Victoria’s case numbers have surged to 1438 overnight as Premier Daniel Andrews urged Victorians “do the right thing” as cases spike overnight according to 9 News.

COVID-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar said the AFL grand final parties were largely responsible for the surge in cases.

“The contact tracers tell us that there have been significant numbers of social gatherings on Friday and Saturday, over a long weekend. Grand final parties. Other social gatherings, barbecues, backyard visits,” he said.

“This has generated significant case load.”

Reported yesterday: 1,438 new local cases and 0 cases acquired overseas.
– 34,323 vaccines administered
– 65,497 test results received
– Sadly, 5 people with COVID-19 have died

More later: https://t.co/OCCFTAtS1P#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/odC4gg8pEf

— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) September 29, 2021

ACT reports 31 new Covid cases overnight and one life lost.

ACT COVID-19 update (30 September 2021):
◾️ New cases today: 31
◾️ Active cases: 246
◾️ Total recovered cases: 588
◾️ Total cases: 835
◾️ Negative test results (past 24 hours): 2,177
◾️ In hospital: 10
◾️ Lives lost: 1 pic.twitter.com/cXG9Vy252y

— ACT Health (@ACTHealth) September 30, 2021

Western Australia, Tasmania and South Australia are yet to provide a Covid update at time of publication.