Australia news live update: NSW records 92,264 Covid cases as rapid test backlog counted; 53 deaths reported nationwide; Qld scraps border rules

The ACT has recorded 1,020 new Covid-19 cases today but this does not yet include results from at-home rapid tests.

The Herald Sun is reporting the crowd capacity at the Australian Open will be halved under new restrictions in an attempt to slow the spread of Omicron across Victoria.

It says all tickets that have already been sold will be honoured, even if the event goes over 50% capacity, but all further sales will be limited to stay within the new restrictions.

This has not yet been independently confirmed by Guardian Australia and I’ll bring you more updates as soon as I can.

Queensland health minister Yvette D’Ath has addressed a statement published by a minor Queensland nursing association overnight that suggested unvaccinated nurses were being welcomed back into the workforce in Queensland.

She has stated unequivocally that this is untrue:

I have seen reports overnight from the nurses professional association of Queensland who have put out statements on social media saying they welcome the government’s position to allow unvaccinated healthcare workers back into the workforce.

I want to make this clear that that’s not correct.

We are not, nor are we considering welcoming back unvaccinated healthcare workers into the health system. At all.

I hope that the NPAQ immediately clarifies that statement putting on social media.

Unvaccinated staff aren’t able to work in our hospitals. The only staff unvaccinated he will be allowed into our hospitals were still not allowed in clinical settings are those who have been granted exemptions, which there are very few, and there are those who are seeking exemptions currently. Those people aren’t allowed to work in the workplace unvaccinated so I want to make that very clear.

John Gerrard:

There are 530 cases in hospital, a slight rise from from yesterday, from 525 ward patients, and 26 inpatient intensive care patients in hospital at the moment.

It’s not a great difference since yesterday but we shouldn’t read too much into changes on a day-to-day basis. We need to look at trends. There were 33,849 tests performed yesterday by Queensland Health facilities.

Queensland chief health officer Dr John Gerrard is giving details on those six Covid-19 deaths overnight. He says none of these people had received a booster shot:

Two people in their 70s, three in the 80s and one over the age of 90.

All had underlying medical conditions. Three of them were in residential aged care. Five them were double vaccinated, one was unvaccinated and none had received a booster.

Our thoughts are with their families and loved ones today. Out of respect for families, I won’t say anything more clinically about these patients …

Sometimes it’s difficult to work out if an individual patient has died from or with Covid or to what extent the virus has played a part in their death. So from now on, our reporting will simply report the death that is, just that individuals that have had a positive Covid test around the time of their death.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says from 1am Saturday all of Queensland border requirements will be scrapped as the state heads towards 90% full vaccination:

Anyone coming domestically across into Queensland, either by our road or by air, they do not have to show that they have had their border pass, they don’t have to show that they have had a rapid antigen test but this is the time and the time is now right as we head towards hitting that 90% next week. In terms of international travel, we will wait until that is formally declared.

Annastacia Palaszczuk says there are 556 people in hospital, 26 in ICU and 10 ventilated in Queensland.

Queensland has recorded its deadliest day in the pandemic, with six deaths and 14,914 new cases.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is speaking now:

When you think about during the whole two years of the pandemic, we lost seven people, to lose six in one day is a big shock and we are, our thoughts are with them. It’s quite upsetting …

Can I please express my deepest sympathies to the families of the loved ones that are passed away, these are people that make people’s grandparents, brothers, sisters, uncles and I think this will be a very difficult time for families at the moment? Unfortunately, we are in a pandemic but still, a very, very sad day for these families. The six people who have lost their lives are aged between their 70s and the 90s.

Police have descended on Parliament House after a Sovereign Citizen protest gathers outside.

More updates to come:

My colleague Ben Butler compiled this comprehensive overview of the supply chain problems that will exercise our state and federal (and territorial) leaders when national cabinet meets today.

A good place to start is finding more truck drivers, which is at the heart of the problem, says Nathan Roost, a partner at EY who specialises in supply chain operations:

Of late, the challenge has been road transport because of the shortage of truckies, but also the state-by-state differences in how each jurisdiction is handling Covid, and the restrictions to get you in and out.

The global nature of the constraints are also exacerbating the strains:

There’s tremendous demand right around the world. Sometimes we don’t get allocated what we want because the US or Europe are more important and a bigger market for some of these multinationals.

If it’s predictable, supply chains work fantastically … If demand is peaky, if demand is unpredictable, then that causes all kinds of havoc both for the manufacturers but also for logistics companies. It’s going to be a difficult six to eight weeks.

Roost adds that we’re all more conscious of the need to ensure we have resilient workforces and not just flashy new equipment.

Still, despite the strains we can expect for a while, he is confident that the enormous pent-up demand – aided by huge government spending and low-interest rates – will power the economy over these speed bumps:

There’s a shock, clearly in the short term, but I think longer term the economic momentum will remain somewhat positive.

We are just standing by now to hear from the Queensland premier with the state’s Covid-19 update.

Victorian Liberal MP James Newbury is trying to label Daniel Andrews’ rule allowing asymptomatic close contacts to go to work if they are deemed essential as a “soft lockdown”.

… OK.

Here’s what we know about the Covid-19 numbers so far today:

NSW

Cases – 92,264

• RAT – 61,387 (from 1 January)
• PCR – 30,877

Hospitalisations – 2,383

Deaths – 22

Victoria

Cases – 37,169

• RAT – 16,843
• PCR – 20,326

Hospitalisation – 953

Deaths – 25

Anthony Albanese:

This government, when they announced some testing for free for concession cardholders, then went out afterwards and told pharmacists that they were on their own accessing the tests to be made available for concession cardholders.

It is just extraordinary the arrogance of this government and as I said, I think Australians are getting to the point whereby they want a government that actually governs and governs in their interest. Not one that always says, “I don’t hose,” or “it’s not a race’ when it comes to access to the vaccines, or, “I don’t drive a delivery truck.” Enough of the photo ops, enough of the photo ops, this bloke needs to do his job.

OK, we’re heading up north to check out what’s going on with Labor leader Anthony Albanese, who is speaking now in Rockhampton.

When the public hears comments like “the health system is under strain” or “hospitals are at breaking point”, it can be hard to grasp what it means.

NSW Health’s critical intelligence unit now says the share of intensive care beds taken up by Covid patients has increased from one-fifth a week ago to one-third in just a week.

Normally there’s not a lot of spare capacity to treat people in bad car accidents or who have heart attacks or other health events needing such care, so a shift of that proportion in one week rings alarm bells.

But within the wards of our hospitals, the strain is, if anything, more acute. A senior nurse in one of Sydney’s most prominent and typically well-resourced hospitals tells us nurse-to-patient ratios are soaring to dangerous levels.

Patients in the high dependency unit of this hospital would normally expect one nurse for every three patients. That’s now about one to five, and rising.

Resuscitation efforts usually involve as many as eight staff to bring somebody back to life; that’s now more like two or three now because of Covid curbs and staff shortages.

And this unit is taking Covid patients when they didn’t have them before, even during the Delta surge because of inadequate equipment to limit the airborne spread of Covid. Staff fear for the safety of non-Covid patients who have little immunity left.

Read more here:

Related: Covid patients occupy one in three ICU beds in NSW as nurse shortages soar

If you know more please contact [email protected]

Daniel Andrews has been asked if he thinks Novak Djokovic will have his visa revoked, but the Victorian premier is trying to make it clear that this is the federal government’s problem, not his:

I’m not a punter, I’m not a betting person, what I’d say to you is those matters are for the federal government, I don’t issue visas, they do. I leave it to them …

That tournament is a lot bigger than any one person, it’s got a grand slam for a reason, it’s better than any one person. Just like the safety of our community is bigger than any one person.

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says his government has no plans for additional business supports to help make up for the loss of customers and staff shortages Omicron has caused:

There are significant supports for those who are waiting for a test result, there are significant supports for those who lose hours of work … I’m not here to make further announcements and business support.

Businesses are open, there is no lockdown or restrictions … We have provided Victorian taxpayers, have provided to Victorian businesses, the best part of $10bn of business support so that very significant.

And I’m not here to make any further announcements about that.

The glaring shortages of rapid antigen tests have been well-documented.

But it appears shortages of PCR supplies are now also hampering testing efforts in Australia. ACT Health last night announced it was shutting down roughly half of its PCR testing centres due to what it described as “unavoidable supply issues”:

Shortages are being experienced across the country whilst demand for COVID-19 testing remains high.

This has obvious consequences for those who cannot find a rapid test but are symptomatic or are at high or moderate risk of exposure. I’ve asked other jurisdictions whether they are also experiencing PCR supply shortages.

Daniel Andrews says the government is also providing a supply of booster vaccines to help ensure supermarket staff are able to keep operating:

The other thing I should note just by way of example, we will provide a booster, a third shot booster supply to Woolworths and to Coles and to that sector and they will run booster clinics inside their business, so we are taking the booster program to them …

We will provide them with the supply and they will most likely engage a private provider to administer the vaccine. We do not have the staff to do it ourselves because we are doing kids and boosters more broadly.

That is another example of something spoke about yesterday and something we have agreed to do where we will take the booster program to them and that means they can get a higher rate of staff who are boosted and that is really important to drive down infection.

Reporter:

Were the supermarkets able to give you a forecast of how long it will be like this in terms of the supply shortage?

Daniel Andrews:

No. They are working as hard as they can and we are doing what we can to support them and obviously, they are assessing things daily, weekly. It is different in different parts of the state, different in different parts of the country as well, although these challenges are national they are not just challenges that Victoria faces.

Andrews has clarified that those tests will be used in cases where the government is the employer.

He is asked if the government will be supporting other large employers, such as Coles or Woolworths, with getting tests:

If and when we can help, obviously we will but that is and there are lots of different ways in which we provide that support and I think businesses genuinely appreciate and understand that not only is the government grateful to them, the community is grateful to them for the extra effort they are going to with the challenges and the pressures they are under but they also appreciate that there is only so much the government can do.

Daniel Andrews has been asked if it will be the workplace or the essential worker who will be required to produce the rapid antigen tests when coming to work from close contact isolation, and what will happen if neither can get their hands on any:

National cabinet today I think we will talk about those issues, because they are hard to find.

There are 10m to be released from the national medical stock while Victoria would expect to get pro-rata, so about 2.5m.

They are different to the at-home kits, they are involved but they can take the of some of the kids that we have been using in different settings and that will free up some kits for these sorts of purposes.

Good news for Victorians awaiting a PCR test result, Jeroen Weimar says most are now coming back within two days:

Sixty-nine per cent now of PCR test results are coming back within 48 hours and over half are coming back the next day.

There is still work to do, it is still is short of the [time frames] we believe we should be at.

The slow recovery of the last seven days is directly associated with the introduction of rapid antigen testing into testing centres and there are now 64 testing centres that are able to offer rapid antigen tests to those they deem appropriate.

Here is testing commander Jeroen Weimar giving us the nitty-gritty details of the new essential services quarantine exemptions:

The premier outlined the sectors – emergency services, corrections, transport and freight distribution, etc. It is important to understand that it applies to those vital workers within those sectors. Those undertaking critical roles within the sectors, it is not an open slather for everyone in the sector.

It applies to close contacts of a Covid-positive case. Somebody who lives with somebody who already has C0vid and what we allow for is for that person to leave the normal seven-day quarantine and attend work for the critical work function. For the rest of the time they will be in quarantine. They can go to work and do the critical work and then they are returning to quarantine. Unable to do other social activities during the seven-day period.

It requires an individual to undertake a daily rapid antigen test before attending for work on that test must be negative and they need to be asymptomatic … they are required to wear a mask through the entire length of their duties at work, preferably an N95 mask.

Employers will be required to ensure that people are able to take separate meal breaks …

Clearly, if they become symptomatic in that time if they become positive during that time then they have to start a seven-day quarantine period as per normal.

Andrews says that the lack of delivery drivers has become the most critical bottleneck in the food supply chain across the state.

I had a meeting with supermarket CEOs yesterday and gave them a chance to reflect on some of the challenges that they are facing, we are a in ongoing contact and deep engagement with that sector and so many others but it was important to hear first-hand, and not the first time I have done – a bit important to hear first-hand about the challenges they are facing.

Last week was distribution centres and bottlenecks there, this week it is truck drivers and a shortage of those to move. There is a lot of stock in many different parts of their round but challenges are not so much about the availability of stock it is about moving the stock from one part of the country to the other. We continue to work with them and the unions to try and do whatever we can to ease that pressure.

These announcements, those made on Monday and the fact that we added to the list today, will support many different businesses in many different sectors to try and balance or deal with the challenges that we all face at the moment.

Daniel Andrews has confirmed that Victoria will extend the ability for essential workers to forgo close contact isolation if they are asymptomatic to the emergency services, education, critical utilities, custodial facilities and transport and freight sectors:

Cabinet have made a number of decisions last, yesterday afternoon and into the evening to add to that list and I am pleased today to be able to announce that, based on the hard work of our public health team, we are able to add to the list of food and food production, food distribution. We can also add emergency services, education, critical utilities, custodial facilities, transport and freight.

So all transport and freight, not just food production or food-related transport and freight, those sectors will join the food sector in a broad sense.

They will be exempt if they are playing a critical role, they will be exempt from having to do home isolation. They will need to take a RAT test for five days and if that is negative they can proceed to do that critical work that we need them to do and, in those circumstances and given where the pandemic is up to where our broader context, that is a safe setting and critically important that they play those key roles in those industries and the food sector more broadly.

Andrews has confirmed that of the state’s 37,169 cases, 16,843 were from positive rapid antigen tests.=:

Beyond that, a further 20,326 people received a positive PCR result from 62,406 results. That came to us yesterday. It gives us the total new number of cases, a new case tally of 37,169 and that takes the total number of active cases across the state that we know of through self-reporting rapid antigen tests and laboratory-confirmed PCR tests to 221,726.

Daniel Andrews:

Now there are some 953 people in hospital, that is steady on yesterday: 111 people in ICU, 29 on a ventilator.

Sadly, 25 people with Covid-19 have passed away and of those, 17 passed away in the last two days.

Of course, we send our very best wishes and our condolences to their families. This will be an incredibly difficult time for them.

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews is speaking now. He says vaccines are “nowhere near” as effective at preventing the spread of Omicron as they are with previous variants:

Nothing is more important at this stage in our fight against this global pandemic than those who are eligible for a third dose or a booster going to make an appointment and honouring that appointment, getting a booster.

That is what will give you greater protection, not just against severe illness and critical illness but also transmission of the virus and that is the Omicron challenge. We see small numbers of people who are gravely ill, that is a good thing, but the vaccines used to this point are nowhere near as effective at stopping Omicron from being transmitted as they were at stopping Delta cases.

That is a challenge we all live through at the moment, that is the challenge that industry and everyone faces.

Speaking of Novak Djokovic, The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre has joined forces with the Visa Cancellation Working Group, Refugee Advice and Casework Service to call for an “urgent inquiry” into Australia’s visa cancellation process following the fall out from the tennis star’s case.

Sanmati Verma, deputy chair of the Visa Cancellation Working Group said in a release issued this morning, that most people whose visas are cancelled are not given adequate time to respond:

There has been a huge increase in visa cancellation since 2014. The Novak Djokovic case has thrown light on the longstanding unfair and arbitrary use of the Commonwealth’s cancellation and detention powers.”

Most visa holders whose visas are cancelled on arrival are denied time to provide a response and the chance to get advice from a lawyer. Many are turned around at the border quickly while in immigration clearance with little or no recourse to redress, even if they face serious harm in their home country.”

The board of troubled casino empire Crown Resorts says it’s ready to accept a takeover bid by Blackstone after the private equity group sweetened its offer.

If it goes ahead, the takeover would see billionaire James Packer finally end his association with Crown (and trouser a fat payout for his shares).

In a statement to the ASX, Crown said Blackstone had increased its offer by 60c a share, to $13.10. This is a premium to yesterday’s closing price of $11.63.

There’s a bit more to be done to get the deal over the line – Blackstone needs to conduct additional due diligence work and make a binding offer. From Crown’s statement:

Should Blackstone make a binding offer at a price of no less than $13.10 cash per share then, subject to the parties entering into a binding implementation agreement on terms and conditions acceptable to Crown, it is the Crown board’s current unanimous intention to recommend that shareholders vote in favour of the proposal in the absence of a superior proposal and subject to an independent expert concluding (and continuing to conclude) that the proposed transaction is in the best interests of Crown shareholders.

© Provided by The Guardian
Crown’s businesses include Melbourne’s Crown Casino. Photograph: James Ross/AAP

Weimar:

Yesterday we allocated 65,000 rapid antigen test through our 64 centres and in the first week we have allocated 180,000 rapid antigen tests through those centres and that has become an important platform for us to ensure we can enable effective testing across the wider community.

That is also enabled the development and use of daily rapid antigen testing results and can I thank the 112,000 Victorians who have uploaded a positive result over the first few days, the first week that we have had the platform.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull is getting stuck into the Morrison government nice and early this morning, asking for an explanation as to why Australian rapid test technology has been used overseas but not on home soil:

deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce raised some eyebrows this morning when he told Nine’s Today that people should not panic about Omicron as it was like a “mild flu” for the double vaccinated:

It’s everywhere. It’s in Queensland, NSW, it’s – the place is alive with it. We are lucky it’s a mild case … for people who have been double vaccinated. And I’ve had it and it’s like a 2.5 out of 10 flu for a couple of days. That’s how I experienced it.

Presenter:

That is not for everyone, though, deputy prime minister. It’s a lot worse for a lot of people.

Joyce:

I know. I know. For some people … And, yeah, and for some people it can kill you. I am not putting aside the seriousness of it for some people.

But, you know, why do I say that? I say that so we don’t have this sort of complete panic because it’s – I’d be worried if the flu breaks out because a lot of people haven’t had the flu for a couple of years. We haven’t been in touch with it. And, you know, that will have a serious effect as well but we can’t shut down the country over that and we’ve got to move on.

With rapid antigen tests, we are bringing in tens of millions of these rapid antigen tests.

Just to clarify, Victoria has actually recorded 37,169 new Covid-19 cases overnight. The number in the 60,000s was the number of PCR tests conducted.

Apologies for that.

NSW Health has published details on how many of the cases reported today were part of the rapid antigen test backlog.

It says 61,387 positive RATs have been logged, dating back to 1 January. Of those, 50,729 were from the last seven days.

Victoria has also published its daily numbers (it started working through the RAT backlog several days ago). The state has recorded 37,169 new cases and, sadly, 25 deaths.

NSW has reported a record 92,264 cases of Covid-19, however, it’s important to note this number includes a backlog of tens of thousands of positive rapid antigent test results dating back to 1 January.

Sadly, 22 people have died in the latest reporting period.

Federal health minister Greg Hunt says nearly 350,000 Covid-19 vaccines were administered in Australia yesterday, including 254,112 booster shots.

We are standing by for those Victorian and NSW Covid-19 numbers to come through in about 20 minutes.

Remember, we are expecting a big jump in the NSW numbers as the state begins working its way through the backlog of positive rapid antigen tests.

An Extinction Rebellion activist whose home was raided by Western Australia’s counter-terror police over a chalk message has had the case against her thrown out by a Perth magistrate.

Rosa Hicks was one of six people arrested after a group of activists used washable chalk paint to write messages on a pedestrian bridge in Perth within view of Woodside’s headquarters to protest against the company’s development of the $16bn Scarborough gas project.

Hicks was not involved in applying the paint, arrived after the protest had started and took photos on someone else’s phone. She said she had not taken any active part and was very conscious of avoiding any violation of the conditions of her visa.

You can read the full report below:

Related: Extinction Rebellion activist has chalk message case thrown out by Perth magistrate

Just jumping back to Anthony Albanese for a moment – the Labor leader has labelled the Novak Djokovic saga an “international embarrassment for Australia”:

How do you get a visa in the first place?

Australia has a policy of not allowing unvaccinated people into Australia. The government is yet to explain how that occurred.

And this has been a debacle yet again, a government sitting back, waiting for a problem becomes a crisis before it acts.

This is an international embarrassment for Australia. Everyone knew about Novak Djokovic and the Australian Open. It’s not like we didn’t know when the date was. It’s been the leading sports story in the world for many months. How is it that it came to this?

Sydney Festival chair David Kirk says that the board “missed” that the Israeli embassy would be sponsoring the festival, a fact that led to dozens of acts pulling out.

He promised that a “comprehensive review” would now take place:

There is a lot of work for us to do after the festival … We’re intending to undertake a comprehensive review of everything that was done in the lead-up to this festival and what may have caused us to be in a position where artists felt unsafe.

Andrews:

They are important additions to make sure that whether it is waste or power, gas, all the way through to law enforcement at present, all of those sectors, they need to continue, regardless of the fact that we are in a global pandemic and have a variant of concern and exempting those workers, not all workers in those businesses but those workers is that make those sectors, exempting them from home isolation requirements is a commonsense way in which we can keep those services and important parts of our economy and society as close to normal as possible.

The opposition leader has been asked how he plans to win back Queensland in the upcoming election.

Anthony Albanese:

By being concerned with their interests – by listening. I have spent a lot of time in Queensland as the Labor leader but before that for many years. I think Queensland has trusted me to be able to deliver …

We are campaigning on … a better life with working families, with cheaper childcare, with dealing with Medicare and strengthening it, not undermining it like this government has done. Affordable housing. The second issue is that of secure work.

Anthony Albanese:

People knew as part of the national plan that we would face increased number of infections and therefore increased pressure.

But we have had now a circumstance whereby people can’t get access to their booster shots, they can’t get access to rapid antigen tests, and the government said pharmacists should go out and find them themselves. An extraordinary comment or position for the government to take.

And of course we know that there isn’t food on supermarket shelves in places right around Australia at the moment. And parents are under pressure because they were told their children could be vaccinated at this time and so many of them have struggling to get appointments.

© Provided by The Guardian
Labor leader Anthony Albanese has accused the Morrison government of ‘extraordinary complacency’. Photograph: Darren Pateman/AAP

Anthony Albanese is laying the blame of Australia’s Covid predicament squarely at Scott Morrison’s feet:

How is it we have got to this point? The rapid antigen tests were approved last September.

The national plan made it clear that once we opened up there would be an increased number of infections and we needed to make sure we planned for it. We needed Scott Morrison to do his job.

But he just went through saying we will all be together [at] Christmas, it will will all be right, without putting in place mechanisms required.

And in the tender that was bought by the government, some $62m of RATs that have been purchased, it was because of urgent and unforeseen circumstances … Why wasn’t there a normal commercial operation.

Well, this was foreseen.

Federal opposition leader Anthony Albanese is up on ABC now, and he has kicked off the morning by slamming the Morrison government for not buying rapid tests en masse earlier:

Working people have been saying that they needed access to testing, for example, for months after months. The Transport Workers’ Union wrote to the government last September about supply chains and the disruptions that could occur if they didn’t get access to rapid antigen tests and now we know this government only ordered en masse rapid antigen tests this week. It’s extraordinary their complacency.

We have had a grand slam of failures from this government, whether it’s tracing, testing, and quarantine. On each occasion they wait until … a problem becomes a crisis before Scott Morrison acts.

Further to our piece on traders on Melbourne retail and hospitality strip Chapel Street declaring a “code red”, a spokesperson for the Victorian minister for small business, Jaala Pulford, tells Guardian Australia she will meet with traders this afternoon.

Related: ‘Code red’: Melbourne businesses say Omicron wave more damaging than lockdown

National cabinet will meet today to discuss measures to increase the labour supply as a wave of staff shortages caused by the Omicron wave wreaks havoc across the Australian economy.

But so far states and the federal government appear to have little appetite for the cash handouts for which businesses are asking, with Scott Morrison calling for “patience”.

And at the Victorian state level, government sources indicate there’s a reluctance a return to the disaster payments or business grants handed out during the Melbourne lockdowns last year.

Figuring out who is eligible would be a problem, but one big issue appears to be who would pay for it. The state budget has already been blown up by Covid and proposals by traders that Canberra fund half seem so far have fallen on deaf ears.

Related: From empty shelves to cancelled festivals: how Omicron is wreaking havoc across Australia

Novak Djokovic could face a fine or even prison in Serbia after his admission that he broke isolation while he had Covid last month, lawyers have said, as the Serbian prime minister warned his behaviour appeared to be “a clear breach” of the rules.

The 34-year-old Belgrade-born tennis player is chasing a record-breaking 21st grand slam victory at the Australian Open beginning on Monday, but could yet be deported by the government which is unhappy with his medical exemption from inoculation.

Djokovic on Wednesday acknowledged that he knew he had tested positive when he attended a newspaper interview and photoshoot in the Serbian capital on 18 December, saying in a statement on social media he had made an “error of judgment”.

You can read the full report from Jon Henley and Milivoje Pantovic below:

Related: Novak Djokovic faces fine or prison for breaking isolation while Covid positive

Well, scratch that, Victor Dominello has just told Sunrise that the number of positive antigen tests registered with the NSW government is now up to 82,000:

As it goes, it is 82,000, but that is 82,000 over 12 days.

We expect to get a high number given that we have provided for people to put their data from 1 January. This is not just people putting in data from yesterday, it is people having rapid antigen tests on the second and third and fourth of January, putting that information in and getting it together. They are high numbers.

New South Wales residents have rushed to post positive results from rapid antigen tests since the start of the year, as the state government admits it will be “almost impossible” to apply fines for non-compliance, reports AAP’s Jack Gramenz.

By Thursday morning, more than 78,000 people had uploaded positive results from tests taken since 1 January, customer service and digital minister Victor Dominello said.

This is a jump of about 25,000 from the 53,000 results posted by Wednesday afternoon.

The reporting system for positive RAT results went live on Wednesday morning and while the requirement only became mandatory on the day, NSW residents have been asked to add tests taken since the start of the year.

From January 19, the government will begin imposing a $1,000 fine on anyone who does not report their positive RAT result.

Dominello admitted to the Nine Network that will be very difficult to do but the government had to send a message that reporting a positive result was important.

It’s almost going to be impossible in many ways to enforce …

But the majority of the states and territories in the country have gone down the path of issuing a fine or putting a fine in place – Tasmania, South Australia, Northern Territory, ACT – and some have chosen the other path of just saying please do it.

© Provided by The Guardian
NSW minister for customer service and digital Victor Dominello. Photograph: Joel Carrett/AAP

Dominello said registering a test result was mainly about connecting infected people with any healthcare need they might need or federal government financial assistance.

The number of Covid-19 cases in NSW is expected to spike as the government begins adding RAT results to standard PCR test results.

NSW Health will provide an update on infection numbers at 9am on Thursday.

Hash Tayeh has been back behind the counter at the burger chain he founded, Burgertory, for the first time in three years as he struggles to keep the business going in the face of the Omicron wave.

He has been doing night shifts at his outlet on Chapel Street in Melbourne, a fashionable shopping and entertainment strip which local traders say has been overwhelmed by Covid-related staff shortages.

The pandemic taught him to “just never get too comfortable and always be humble”:

So I was helping them take orders, take out the rubbish, mop the floors, do the dishes – wherever they needed me.

Two hundred and sixty of Burgertory’s 400 staff have had Covid.

You can read the full report below:

Related: ‘Code red’: Melbourne businesses say Omicron wave more damaging than lockdown

Good morning everyone, it’s Matilda Boseley here on the blog with you, ready to bring you all the day’s news (as well as milking the fact that I now have Covid-19 for sympathy as much as humanly possible).

Now we are all bracing for a tidal wave of cases from New South Wales this morning as today is the first day rapid antigen tests will be included in the daily numbers. It’s expected that the sizeable backlog of positive results will result in a record high.

In the afternoon we also have a national cabinet meeting to look forward to. The main things on the agenda: students’ return to school for the 2022 year, and food supply chain security.

Leaders will also hear from Treasury officials on the economic reasons to keep schools open.

It’s expected the list of sectors classified as essential will also expand after the national cabinet meeting, to keep supply chains moving.

This all comes after Australia’s leading medical advisory group recommended this week that food and grocery workers be able to return to work after being a close contact of a positive Covid case, provided they then return a negative rapid test.

A similar proposal could be laid out for other sectors classified as essential, which could include road, rail and air transport, mental health, education and energy supply.

It’s expected transport and logistics workers will be prioritised.

Meanwhile, ministers have flagged the possibility jobseeker recipients could be deployed into workforces that are facing staff shortages.

A plan to increase the hours international students are able to work to 40 hours a fortnight is also being considered as a way to alleviate pressure on sectors hardest hit by the virus.

National cabinet will also settle on a date for when concession cardholders can access free rapid tests from pharmacies.

So as you can see there is plenty to get through! So why don’t we get cracking!

If you are among the tens of thousands of people who will be testing positive to Covid-19 on a rapid antigen test today, you’d better get up to speed on what to do next.

Check out our TikTok below that explains how to register your positive result with the government.

If that link doesn’t work for you, you can also check out the video here:

A Spanish radio station is reporting that the Spanish government is now investigating to see if Novak Djokovic entered Spain illegally at the end of last year, after the tennis star’s visa saga in Australia revealed he had travelled to the country.

Guardian Australia has yet to independently confirm this.