Key events
New South Wales records 9 new Covid deaths
9 people with Covid-19 have died in New South Wales overnight, with the state recording 6,979 new cases on Sunday morning, 2,148 people in hospital, and 58 in ICU.
COVID-19 update – Sunday 14 August 2022
In the 24-hour reporting period to 4pm yesterday:
– 96.9% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine*
– 95.3% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine* pic.twitter.com/7DAPCNrXIp— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) August 13, 2022
Victoria records 24 new Covid deaths
24 people with Covid-19 have died in Victoria overnight, with the state recording 3,450 new cases on Sunday morning, 575 people in hospital, 29 in ICU and 6 on ventilation.
3 doses (16+): 69.5%
2 doses (12+): 94.7%
Doses total: 6,334,838Hospital: 575
ICU: 29
Ventilated: 6
Lives lost: 24New cases: 3,450 (Rapid antigen test cases: 2,396, PCR test cases: 1,054)
PCR tests: 9,216
Active cases (all): 29,914— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) August 13, 2022
Good Morning
And welcome to another Sunday morning Guardian live blog.
Federal jobs minister Brendan O’Connor has floated a plan to deal with Australia’s skills shortage by increasing the cap on skilled migrants. The plan, as reported by the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age on Sunday morning, would lift the annual migration cap from 160,000 to between 180,000 and 200,000. The scheme would reportedly include a mechanism to recognise credentials obtain overseas and will be carefully discussed with unions at the jobs and skills summit next month.
New South Wales police are investigating after two women, aged 48 and 36, were shot dead in southwestern Sydney on Saturday night. Emergency services responded to reports of a shooting in Revesby just before 8.50pm where they found the two women inside a car. Both women later died but other other occupants, a man and a woman, were not injured. A taskforce has been established to investigate.
And 60,000 people are taking part in the City2Surf on Sunday for the first time since 2019 as the race returns to its traditional Hyde Park to Bondi route.
I’m Royce Kurmelovs, taking the blog through the day. With so much going on out there, it’s easy to miss stuff, so if you spot something happening in Australia and think it should be on the blog, you can find me on Twitter at @RoyceRk2 where my DMs are open.
With that, let’s get started …
