Australia Covid live news update: Tasmania lockdown begins; ACT expands NSW travel; PM and Perrottet at odds over borders

Queensland health authorities will provide a Covid update outside Bunnings Underwood at 11am DST.

The ACT border zone has been significantly expanded.

The Queensland government is warning the wet season may impact the vaccination rollout with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting the potential for floods and cyclones this summer.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk:

Severe weather could make it difficult for many Far North Queenslanders to get vaccinated this summer.

I’m urging all Queenslanders – but particularly those in the Far North of our state to get vaccinated now.

Health minister Yvette D’Ath said health experts were concerned about the ramifications of severe weather on the vaccination rollout due to the increased likelihood of La Niña development in the tropical Pacific Ocean.

We all know that Queensland is prone to floods and cyclones each year, which often means widespread damage, interruption to services and road closures – and often our northern and central Queensland communities are worst impacted due to cyclones and flooding.

Right now, we are offering as many vaccination clinics as we can in rural and remote communities across the state – but there may come a time this summer when it’s not safe or possible to get our vaccination teams into certain communities due to severe weather or natural disasters.

There’s absolutely no reason to delay the vaccine – Covid-19 will come to our regional communities, it’s just a matter of time.

Over in the UK, Conservative MP David Amess has been stabbed to death.

He is the second MP to be killed in just over five years, after the murder of Jo Cox.

Hello everyone, it’s Caitlin Cassidy here, up and ready to guide you through this weekend’s news after a whopper Friday.

NSW premier Dominic Perrottet yesterday made quite a stir when he announced international travel would resume in Sydney without quarantine for vaccinated travellers from 1 November. NSW recorded 399 Covid-19 cases yesterday.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, later clarified that while he welcomed the announcement, the quarantine-free travel would only apply, at least in its initial stages, to returning Australian citizens, permanent residents and their immediate family members. He reiterated the decision for opening borders lies with the commonwealth, not state governments.

Morrison also, at long last, announced he would be attending the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow next month. Presumably, a climate plan, and whether the commonwealth will be committing to net zero by 2050, will be revealed before then.

While the ACT wakes to its second day of eased Covid-19 restrictions, Hobart today enters its first full day of a three-day shutdown to contain the threat of a Delta outbreak. No further cases have been reported in Tasmania since an interstate traveller who breached quarantine tested positive to the virus. The ACT recorded 35 cases and one death yesterday.

Over in Victoria, the state recorded 2,179 local Covid-19 cases and six deaths as health minister Martin Foley announced fully vaccinated people in NSW will now be allowed to enter Victoria without quarantining for 14 days from 19 October, provided they test negative to Covid-19 upon departure and arrival.