- New South Wales recorded its tenth day with no new cases of locally acquired COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. Two cases were detected in returned travellers in hotel quarantine. Following the low case numbers, Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced several changes to restrictions, including 30 people permitted in a household gathering, 300 people permitted to attend weddings and funerals and no caps on number of people in hospitality venues and places of worship so long as the four square metre rule is applied.
- A new 24-million-dollar advertising campaign is being rolled out to encourage Australians to get the coronavirus vaccine, ahead of next month's mass inoculation program. The Therapeutic Goods Administration earlier this week approved the Pfizer [[Fy-zah]] vaccine for use in the country. Burnet Institute epidemiologist, Professor Mike Toole says Australia has the luxury of being incredibly thorough with its approval process -- thanks to its very low case rate. Professor Toole says, "At this time in the pandemic, I think Australia has the advantage of having very few cases, at the moment it's just in a handful of suburbs in Sydney, and so we can look at the rest of the world and learn from their experiences. So quite rightly they are rolling the vaccine out very fast, and they can afford perhaps to take a few risks, that's not the case in Australia." The ad campaign will run across traditional and social media, and provide information about the safety, efficacy and availability of vaccines.
- Australia recorded a ninth consecutive day of no new locally acquired coronavirus cases yesterday. However, Residents of Sydney’s southwest and seven regions in Queensland are being urged to get tested for COVID-19 after fragments of the virus were detected at wastewater treatment plants. The affected areas in Queensland are Condon, in the Townsville region, Cairns South, Cairns Marlin Coast, Nambour, Maroochydore, Pulgul in the Hervey Bay region, and Yeppoon. Four new infections were detected in hotel quarantine: two in New South Wales, and one each in Victoria and Western Australia.
