NSW records 11th death of outbreak – as it happened

And with that, we’ll be closing the blog for today.

Thanks as always for reading, and thanks to Matilda Boseley for running the whole thing for the first half of the day.

We’ll be back tomorrow with all the news as it happens.

Here’s what happened today:

• NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian confirmed that the state would extend its lockdown by another four weeks – but would lift restrictions on many construction sites outside of Covid hotspots.
• She also said a “singles bubble” would be introducd and that Year 12 students in hotspots would be able to return to school for face-to-face learning, and would be vaccinated with Pfizer.
• The state recorded one new death and 177 new locally acquired cases of Covid. Of those, 68 people were in the community during their infectious period and the isolation status of 62 cases remains under investigation.
• The federal government announced an extra $200 a week for people on welfare payments who had lost more than eight hours of work in the NSW lockdown.
• And it also lifted the maximum disaster payments up to $750 a week – the equivalent of jobkeeper previously.
• The prime minister, Scott Morrison, likened the vaccine take-up to “gold medal run” at the Olympics, but the treasurer Josh Frydenberg refused to say it was “a race”.
• Morrison also said the vaccine rollout will be essentially complete by the end of the year, and lockdowns will “become a thing of the past” by Christmas.
• Victoria recorded one new Covid case who was not in quarantine. The person was a traffic controller at the drive-through testing centre in Moonee Valley. There were eight other cases, who were in quarantine.
• Queensland recorded one local Covid-19 case, and 19 on a cargo ship.
  
• Queensland confirmed its border remains closed to Victoria and SA.

A man has been seriously injured by a shark in Western Australia, according to the state’s SharkSmart site.

“A male fisher has received injuries after being bitten by a Lemon shark at approximately 8.00 pm on Tuesday 27 July,” it said.

The site confirmed today that the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development is “currently involved in assisting with a shark bite incident at Varanus Island near Onslow.”

Channel Nine is reporting that the man in his 30s has been seriously injured and is in Exmouth hospital. He is expected to be flown to Perth tonight.

NSW parliament will likely not sit in August due to Sydney’s lockdown and the potential of regional MPs seeding coronavirus in their communities, AAP reports.

The Speaker of the lower house, Jonathan O’Dea, on Tuesday agreed to postpone August sitting dates after a request from Gladys Berejiklian.

That request followed chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant’s advice that both houses be deferred until at least September.

“In addition to the heightened risk of Covid-19 transmission in parliament itself, there is a risk of seeding Covid-19 to regional communities when MPs and staff return home,” Dr Chant said in a letter to health minister Brad Hazzard.

Mining giant Rio Tinto will return $US9.1 billion in dividends after recording its most profitable six months on the back of surging iron ore prices, AAP reports.

The world’s largest iron ore miner reported underlying earnings of $US12.2 billion ($A16.55 billion) for the six months ended 30 June, more than double from $US4.75 billion a year earlier.

The result was slightly ahead of analysts expectations for a $US12 billion profit.

And here’s the video of Scott Morrison comparing the vaccine take-up to a gold medal run at the Olympics earlier today:

1:21

Reviews of rapid Covid-19 tests in Australia have found markedly different results in their effectiveness, but experts say the New South Wales government’s decision to employ them in schools and essential workplaces will help to control the virus.

Michael McGowan has this story after NSW announced that rapid tests would be used during Sydney’s continuing lockdown.

Australia’s sharemarket has fallen from record highs yesterday, as a coronavirus lockdown extension for NSW dimmed the mood of investors, AAP reports.

The ASX200 on Wednesday had its biggest loss in more than a week and all share categories bar property were lower. Information technology shares fell most, by 2.13%, following losses on Wall Street.

A four-week extension for the lockdown in Sydney and surrounds will hamper plenty of businesses in the short term.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed lower by 52.1 points, or 0.7 %, to 7379.3.

Researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute have been awarded a prize for their work in sequencing the full Sars‐CoV‐2 virus last year, and then sharing it with the world within 24 hours.

The researchers isolated the virus from the first patient diagnosed with Covid-19 in Australia, and swiftly shared it with the world.

They have now been awarded with the Medical Journal of Australia’s national prize for excellence in medical research.

Their winning study is online and free to access.

The Peter Doherty Institute is a joint venture between the University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

The NT government has to pay out a $35m class action settlement to young people mistreated while in youth detention.

The amount of the historic settlement can be revealed today after the government this week failed in its federal court bid to suppress the figure.

Two applicants, Aaron Hyde and Dylan Jenkings, launched a class action in 2016, claiming they were assaulted, abused and falsely imprisoned while in youth detention facilities in Darwin and Alice Springs, and covers anyone who was mistreated while in an NT youth detention centre between August 2006 and November 2017.

“Only the people who have walked in my shoes know what we’ve been through,” Hyde said. “I hope this settlement leads to change to create a better system for the younger mob.”

It’s estimated about 1,200 young people could be eligible for a share of the compensation.

“No amount of money will undo the ongoing harm caused by these abuses, but it is an important acknowledgement of the pain caused to hundreds of young people,” Maurice Blackburn principal lawyer Ben Slade said.

“While in detention, these young people were subjected to appalling treatment that included excessive force, handcuffing, strip searching and isolation in cells.

“These young people may have broken the law, but they did not deserve to be broken by the law.”

The NT government does not admit that officers acted illegally, but it has previously apologised for the way young people were treated in youth detention. A federal court hearing to approve the final settlement is scheduled for 8 November in Darwin.

28 Jul 202102.26 EDT

ACOSS welcomes $200-a-week boost to welfare payments

Luke Henriques-Gomes

The Australian Council of Social Service has welcomed the $200-a-week boost to welfare payments for people who’ve lost more than eight hours of work, but criticised the government for failing to provide help to others who need it.

Scott Morrison announced today the government would reverse a decision to exclude people in locked-down Sydney who are already on existing payments from receiving additional Covid supports.

The Australian Council of Social Service, chief executive, Dr Cassandra Goldie, said:

Thank you to everyone locked down and locked out of paid work - and our member organisations on the frontline - who have spoken out about why the government’s lockdown support must include people with the least.

It’s because of you that today the government has announced this welcome $200 weekly payment for people in lockdown on social security who have lost eight or more hours of paid work a week.

We will continue to urge the government to extend support to everyone struggling, especially those with the very least, who had less paid work or none, despite trying to find it.

The lockdown prevents everyone on social security payments from being able to find paid work – they all need this support.

Goldie accused the government of “abandoning those who need the support the most”. She said:

For all its talk of us all being in this together, the government is dividing communities by providing financial support to some and leaving others who have the least behind them facing destitution on $44 a day.

Youth Allowance is even less, at $36 a day. Most people’s rent alone is far more than $36 a day.

The Greens senator Rachel Siewert said the payment was a “step in the right direction” but still not enough.

Continuing to punish people on income support payments in the midst of a pandemic is twisted and cruel.

If we want people to be able to eat, clothe and pay their bills, they need a payment of at least $80 a day.

Josh Frydenberg has declined to describe the vaccination rollout as “a race”, but said “we’ve got to do it as quickly as possible”.

He is asked by the ABC’s Patricia Karvelas about the prime minister’s earlier comments today, where he likened the vaccination take-up to “a gold medal run” at the Olympics. Morrison of course previously said the vaccination rollout was “not a race”.

Karvelas: “So let’s settle this – is it a race?”

Frydenberg: “Well, I firmly believe the quicker we get people vaccinated the faster we get out of this crisis.”

Karvelas: “So it is a race?”

Frydenberg: “From here on, we’ve got to do it as quickly as possible.”

He adds that Australia had weathered the pandemic well compared with other countries.

“We’ve done well to avoid the fate of other nations in terms of loss of life ... Other countries have done it [vaccinations] faster than us but their circumstances have also been different.”

Frydenberg is asked: “The economy is forecast to contract in the September quarter ... should we be prepared for a recession?”

He says:

Seeing our two biggest states in lockdown over the quarter is going to have a significant economic impact. So I won’t be surprised if the September quarter comes in negative.

A definition of recession is when you have two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

That is something we will obviously do our best to avoid and the quickest way to avoid that ... is to see New South Wales get on top of this outbreak and to come out of lockdown.