Good morning,
We are limping towards the finish line of the year – just one more day to go.
Caitlin Cassidy here to guide you through this morning’s news – and all eyes are on the national cabinet who will be holding a snap emergency meeting today to grapple with rapidly rising Covid cases across the country.
New South Wales recorded a dramatic jump in Covid cases yesterday, detecting 11,201 infections and three deaths, while Victoria recorded 3,767 cases and five deaths.
It was the first time cases have jumped beyond 10,000 in a single state and a national record for Covid infections. There are predictions daily case numbers could rise beyond 100,000 in the coming weeks.
The prime minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday announced the national cabinet meeting, which will focus primarily upon settling a uniform national definition of close contacts.
Under the proposed definition, a close contact will be dramatically changed to be someone who has spent four hours or more with a confirmed case in a household or household-like setting.
Prof Nancy Baxter, the head of the University of Melbourne’s school of population and global health, told ABC radio this morning the definition wasn’t fair and would overwhelm our healthcare systems.
It comes with testing centres overwhelmed amid shortages of rapid antigen tests, which have doubling in price in some stores amid concerns of price gouging.
Let’s get stuck in.
