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Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell says a tendency to impose snap lockdowns by state premiers is motivated by a lack of confidence in their state’s contact tracing mechanisms. Greater Brisbane will emerge from its snap three-day lockdown at midday today after the state recorded just one new community acquired case which health authorities have linked to one of the known clusters. Mr Clennell said "privately in the federal government there was a view there shouldn’t have been this lockdown”. “Certainly, the view of the federal government is the only one who can be relied upon in relation to this is NSW." He also pointed to Western Australia which locked down Perth after just one case of community transmission was reported. However Mr Clennell pointed out the federal government was demonstrating very little resistance to "overkill" lockdowns by state governments due to electoral concerns. “We’re facing a tight federal election. The public want caution around th

Live Performance Australia CEO Evelyn Richardson says the “significant challenge” facing promoters and producers of live entertainment is they are unable to get insurance against COVID shutdowns. This comes after the Byron Bay Bluesfest music festival was cancelled less than 24 hours before opening due to a COVID case reported in the region. “Clearly this is an enormous blow for the promoter, but also for the region, all of the flow on accommodation and tourist costs and so on,” Ms Richardson said. “It’s significant that the risk is being taken by the promoter … last year for example Bluesfest was able to get insured but this year with COVID nobody can get insurance. “That’s the significant challenge, not just for Bluesfest but for any promoter or producer that’s looking to … get a show on stage right now. “And that’s not just an issue in Australia, that’s a global issue. Promoters and producers can still insure for other things that might impact on their events but any kind of communi

Local Tina Scott captures house fire in Moss Vale. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3uhLXbP

Queensland’s chief health officer has conceded she is “concerned” about the more than 80 “extraordinarily high-risk patients” currently in hospitals. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk today announced there were 82 people currently in hospital with active cases of COVID-19. Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said she is concerned about the “amount of virus each person has”. “We know the risk is extraordinarily high and we are getting more and more of these extraordinarily high-risk patients in our hospitals,” she said. “It is so easy for one tiny, tiny error to lead to contamination of a healthcare worker. It is a concern that we’ve got so many infectious people in our hospital system." from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/2QMDAX0

Aussies who are keen to go on a cheap holiday this year should check out Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Australia websites to score the Morrison government's first round of the 800,000 half price flights which dropped at midnight. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/2PGZLxo

French President Emmanuel Macron announced a nationwide closure of school for at least three weeks, in a bid to fight rising COVID-19 cases. In a live address on March 31, President Macron said schools across the country would transition to remote learning from April 5. According to local news reports the number of COVID-19 cases in France doubled since February “with the number of patients in intensive care units surpassing 5,000 on Tuesday.” Macron also said that classes would remain open for the children of key workers. Students would be set to return to school by May 3. Credit: Emmanuel Macron via Storyful from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3fxsUWG

The Greater Brisbane lockdown will be lifted in the coming hours after Queensland reported one locally acquired case. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3u15Ymx

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young says the new locally acquired case reported in the state is the “perfect case” because the person has been in quarantine during their infectious period. “We only had one community-acquired case overnight in Queensland and that was the perfect case, if I could describe it as that,” she said. Dr Young said the positive case, who attended the party in Byron Bay, went into quarantine upon returning to Queensland and tested negative on Monday night. “Then they were tested again Wednesday morning when they were positive,” she said. “So they have been in quarantine during their infectious period, so no risk at all”. Dr Young said some restrictions such as wearing masks indoors will remain in place for 14 days, but she does not believe the lockdown - which will be lifted from midday - is required any longer to manage the spread. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/31Bju4i

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young says she does not believe it is too great an ask to impose state-wide restrictions as a precautionary measure after recording one new infection overnight. Greater Brisbane will leave its snap three-day lockdown at midday, however, restrictions on gatherings and a mask mandate will remain in place for the next two weeks. “I genuinely believe that wearing masks, sitting down when you’re eating and drinking, protecting our most vulnerable and limiting people to 30 in their home is actually not a big requirement for the safety if gives us,” Dr Young said. “That’s why I think those restrictions need to be in the entire state, otherwise we would have to not allow people from Greater Brisbane to leave for 14 days and I don’t think that is reasonable.” from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/39wZpR0

Easter church services across Queensland have been given the greenlight by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk after the state recorded just one new locally acquired infection on Thursday. “This is really important for many people across Queensland and, of course, those services and the Easter Mass can go ahead,” she said. Greater Brisbane will emerge from its snap three-day lockdown at midday today, however, some restrictions will remain in place until April 15. People attending religious services must abide by the one person per two square metre rule and are being asked to wear masks in crowded settings. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/31DxMRP

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AGL Energy has announced a major restructure which will split its coal fired power business from a carbon neutral business. AGL has struggled with falling wholesale electricity prices and over the past year its share price has dropped 40 per cent. The coal business alone would be Australia’s largest electricity retailer and would include all of the company’s coal fired power plants while the carbon neutral business would include gas fired power, solar, wind and energy. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3rGWA5X

Health authorities are urging people to not pick or eat toxic mushrooms, warning recent rain has created “ideal conditions” for the growth of the poisonous fungus in Melbourne and regional Victoria. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3dfdzHy

At least one home and two barns were destroyed by the Schroeder grass fire west of Rapid City, South Dakota, by Tuesday, March 30, officials said. Officials said there was an “intense structure fire” overnight Monday into Tuesday, resulting in the loss of one home on Blue Sky Road. The Pennington County Sheriff’s Office said it was expecting road and neighborhood closures to extend into Tuesday night. Footage shared on Facebook shows damage caused to a home in Rapid City. As of Tuesday morning, the fire was zero percent contained, but officials had not issued any new evacuation orders. “There is still active fire burning,” the sheriff’s office said on Facebook. Credit: Pennington County Sheriff’s Office via Storyful from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3wg1BWX

Dairy Farmer Sue McGinn told Sky News the New South Wales floods were a “catastrophe” for her dairy farm, devastating pastures and destroying paddock feed. “It’s a catastrophe here, we’re just managing on a day to day basis,” she said. “Our farm was completely inundated, from the Belmore at the front and then from the Hastings River, Moira River water networks at the back. “We’re actually still 50 per cent underwater … 10 days on and what we’re finding is just completely devastated pastures and we’ve got no paddock feed at all to feed our dairy stock”. Ms McGinn said her farm had just done its best four months of production in the lead up to the floods but now it could take at least six months to recover. “We would normally be planting our winter grasses but instead we’ve just got silt and basically brown, sticky, smelly mulch where pastures once were,” she said. “I have heard people say you wouldn’t be a farmer for quids, but someone has to feed the nation, we love what we do, we’re g

Australians are being urged to donate blood to combat a drop in supplies as the Australian Red Cross says the response to their appeals is not meeting demand. Blood donations were hampered in the past year due to COVID-19 and more recently by flash flooding in New South Wales. More than 8,000 donations of O Negative blood were needed but only nine per cent of Australians carry the blood type. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/2PK00I8

Victoria’s vaccine rollout is facing fresh scrutiny amid revelations two of the state’s largest vaccination hubs are operating well below peak capacity and turning away eligible patients. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3dnqneP

A photographer was seen scrambling away from lava spilling out of a volcano on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula on Monday, March 29, video shows. Oskar Einarsson said he visited the Fagradalsfjall volcano on Monday, capturing this footage of a photographer quickly grabbing his tripod to run away from the nearby lava and flames. Einarsson’s footage also shows glowing trails of lava spreading across the ground at night. The Icelandic Meteorological Office said Monday marked the volcano’s ninth day of eruption. Credit: Oskar Einarsson via Storyful from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3ulWv9V

A man has escaped a shocking crash after his car – which he was driving at high speeds along a quiet road – collided with a parked car before flipping and sending both cars crashing into a block of units. The incident occurred on Tuesday afternoon and the driver of the Corolla was taken to hospital in a stable condition. Emergency services were quick to respond, however, the rescue was very difficult. NSW Fire and Rescue Inspector Chad Wallace said the technical rescue was the most complicated he had seen in his 20 years of experience, “and definitely the most complicated we’ve seen here in Wollongong.” The building was left with significant structural damage. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3udaRt5

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Daryl Somers has claimed "cancel culture" has killed TV comedy, but is Hey Hey It's Saturday what we want to go back to? from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/2PFzy2a

Byron Bay Mayor Simon Richardson says the Bluesfest is still slated to go ahead as Byron Bay has recorded zero cases of COVID-19 so far. Mr Richardson said he hoped the Brisbane lockdown would be the “last reminder of COVID” and said there had been an “intense wait” to hear from health officials. “I guess we just keep waiting for updates, obviously those ticket holders from Brisbane currently aren’t allowed in for the Thursday and we sort of wait and see how the lockdown works for Brisbane and Greater Brisbane area,” he told Sky News. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3cAm6Wm

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Sky News contributor Stephen Conroy says Labor Leader Anthony Albanese’s plan to inject $15 billion in Australia’s manufacturing sector is something “Australia has to look at." “What we’ve seen is the supply chain issues that have been thrown up by COVID, you can’t just make the simple decision ‘let’s just manufacture it in China’,” he told Sky News. “What the COVID pandemic has shown is that Australia has got a very soft underbelly in its ability to look after itself in moments of crisis.” Mr Conroy said Australia’s trading partners can no longer be trusted to honour agreements and pointed to the European Union’s withholding of vaccines to Australia over supply issues and manufacturing needs to be re-established. “In this new environment we have to have manufacturing capabilities so we can support our defence industry particularly, we’ve got to have supply chains in vaccines and pharmaceuticals so that we’re not buying in other countries.” from Breaking National News and Austra

Queensland health authorities have identified two distinct COVID-19 clusters as eight additional cases were recorded overnight Six of the new locally-acquired cases are linked, while the other two under investigation. Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young detailed the genomic sequencing of the new infections, confirming the two under investigation were potentially linked to an older case. She said genomic sequencing identified there were two separate clusters, one relating back to a doctor who contracted the virus treating a positive patient at the Princess Alexandra Hospital. Five of the six locally acquired cases overnight, however, were linked to a second cluster stemming from a nurse – who authorities believed contracted the virus while working at the PA Hospital. Dr Young said the nurse’s sister also became infected, and all new cases linked to the cluster had all attended a party down in Byron Bay – taking the case total in the second cluster to seven. Authorities said testing i

Queensland has recorded eight locally-acquired cases of COVID-19 with 78 active cases of the virus currently in the state’s hospitals. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said six of the new cases were linked, while two are currently under investigation, and two cases overseas-acquired arriving in Queensland from Papua New Guinea. The premier also announced the existence of a further COVID cluster, with one now linked to the Princess Alexandra Hospital doctor and the new cluster linked to the hospital nurse. “The good news is that these cases are linked,” Premier Palaszczuk said. Queensland’s hospitals now have 78 active coronavirus cases in hospital up from five in the past month. The growing cases on Tuesday comes after the Queensland government plunged the entire state into a three-day lockdown on Monday night in an effort to stem the spread of the virus. The premier pointed to the case increase on Tuesday as evidence the lockdown was the right decision to make in the midst of the growing

Two new clusters of a highly virulent COVID-19 strain are potentially running rampant through Queensland, as health authorities confirm they are dealing with two “confusing” clusters. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3cvT7mD

The final allocation of 50,000 $200 vouchers for travel in regional Victoria has been exhausted within just three minutes after being released to the public. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3dfRKYk

Infectious diseases expert Professor Peter Collignon told Sky News snap lockdowns have so far not proven to uncover additional COVID cases which cannot be discovered through good contact tracing. “How extensive and you make these directions and for how long is always a bit arguable, even the value of a short lockdown,” he told Sky News. “As far as I can see, in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane when they tried it before, and … two episodes in Auckland, in none of those episodes has the short lockdown, I think, turned up any other cases that weren’t found by good contact tracing. “The real problem is we’ve got this problem for another year or even two years so if we lock down every time we have a case, for a few days or a week, I’m not sure that’s going to be sustainable. “The benefits from finding more cases which so far we haven’t, does that really outweigh the additional costs that are there?” from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3ryj5

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For rolling coverage watch Sky News Australia on Foxtel or visit www.skynews.com.au. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3aFILzQ

Health Minister Greg Hunt has spruiked the nation’s domestic supply of the AstraZeneca COVD-19 vaccine – saying manufacturing the jab on home soil meant they nearly doubled distribution capabilities. “We just presumed that in an uncertain world there was a risk and that’s why we developed a sovereign vaccine manufacturing capability,” he said. Mr Hunt pointed to vaccine export uncertainty in Europe and across the world. “We have the security and what that security has done as these supplies have come on board we’ve been able to almost double our vaccinations in one week and will continue to grow at a rapid pace." from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3u1MEFR

Over 82,000 aged care residents have now been vaccinated as Australia’s vaccination total hits 541,000. Health Minister Greg Hunt said Australia can only be “fully protected once we are vaccinated” and after nations across the globe are vaccinated. He pointed to the ongoing COVID outbreaks across the world as the number of global cases grows by around 500,000 a day. As part of Australia’s ongoing rollout, 82,500 aged care residents have been vaccinated across over 795 facilities. Over 259,000 vaccines in the past week has also brought Australia’s total national vaccinations to 541,761 as the nation’s GPs continue their rollout program. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3m7vOmf

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is speaking live now. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3syCHzg

It was to be the first holiday in Australia without border restrictions since the pandemic began. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/31qtWf1

Brisbane residents will have access to urgent COVID-19 testing even when asymptomatic as fears grow over a cluster in the city. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3sxiyd4

Paul Murray will bring his popular Sky News Australia program Paul Murray Live Our Town to Cairns, Queensland tonight at 9pm AEDT/ 8pm local time for the next stop on the regional tour. Paul will be live from the tropics speaking to local business owners, tourism operators and government members during the special episode to uncover why Cairns is the perfect place to make use of the Federal government’s recently announced $1.2 billion ‘ticket to recovery’ support package. During the program Paul will explore the holiday incentives on offer to Queenslanders, including the Tourism Tropical North Queensland’s Cairns Holiday Dollars as well as the half price airfares available to Australians from April 1. Paul also looks at how the town is bouncing back following the chaos caused by the stop-start border closures during the pandemic, as well as the long road of recovery ahead for businesses and industries hit hard by the recent floods and Tropical Cyclone Niran. Joining Paul on the program

A heavily pregnant woman was run into with a trolley by a shopper “desperate to get flour” and one-hour queues have been reported as panic buying grips a frenzied Brisbane. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3u15Ymx

Health Minister Greg Hunt has announced he has given the green light for asymptomatic testing to go ahead in Greater Brisbane after the COVID cluster grew to seven cases. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the Greater Brisbane area would be plunged into a three-day lockdown starting tonight In a press conference following the development Mr Hunt confirmed asymptomatic testing was already underway through GP or Commonwealth respiratory and vaccination clinics. Testing will also be carried out in aged care facilities in Greater Brisbane. Mr Hunt also revealed he had authorised the establishment of a Commonwealth and Queensland aged care response centre. “At this stage there are no signs of any infections that have been transmitted to aged care but we’re taking early pre-emptive action to ensure that those protections are in place,” he said. Finally, the health minister backed the message from the Queensland government asking people in affected areas to continue their vaccination pro

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Ochre Restaurant Executive Chef and owner Craig Squire says the three-day Greater Brisbane lockdown triggered by four new cases identified overnight appears to be “overkill.” From 5pm tonight, Greater Brisbane will be plunged into a 72-hour lockdown, with masks also made mandatory across Queensland in a bid to prevent any further outbreaks. “It’s very disappointing news,” he told Sky News. “This is just ludicrous, it’s outrageous.” Probed about the end of JobKeeper as of midnight last night, Mr Squire said while Treasurer Josh Frydenberg “might go on about how good the economy is going in general” it was not the case where his restaurant was in Cairns. “We shouldn’t be left hung out to dry so to speak, we still need support ongoing,” he said. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/31s9NoK

As the economy rebounds from the shock of the pandemic, marketers are pushing to build relationships and find new customers. “Many of our greatest opportunities are found in times of challenge and many in our business community are discovering that right now,” said Sky News host Ross Greenwood. Business Weekend this week spoke to some of Australia's top marketers to find out how they approaching the challenge of holding and building their customer base. from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/3lWNjWo

Vertiv is a global technology company which provides data centres as the resilient backbone of IT infrastructure around the globe. Product Manager for IT & Edge Infrastructure said the problems that Vertiv are solving to make smart places a reality is "ensuring business continuity". “For example apps on phones are always accessible and always on,” he said. “Our solutions better the lives of all Australians by improving the quality of life, mainly through the means of liveability sustainability, efficiency and safety.” from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/39lpwtW

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