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What we know today, Friday December 10

South Australia has recorded eight new cases of COVID-19 today, including two suspected cases of the Omicron variant.

Dec 10, 2021, updated Dec 10, 2021
Cars queuing on Wakefield Road for the drive through COVID-19 testing centre in Victoria Park this week. Picture: Tony Lewis/InDaily.

Cars queuing on Wakefield Road for the drive through COVID-19 testing centre in Victoria Park this week. Picture: Tony Lewis/InDaily.

Eight new COVID cases, including two suspected to be Omicron

South Australia has reported eight new cases of COVID-19 today, including two suspected cases of the Omicron variant.

SA Health said this afternoon that today’s cases were three men aged between 20 and 90, four women aged between 20 and 60, and a child.

“Of these cases, one case acquired their infection overseas and has been in quarantine since their arrival and four cases acquired their infection interstate,” SA Health said. “Two of today’s interstate cases are suspected to be the Omicron variant.”

Two cases were locally acquired and were close contacts linked to the Norwood cluster. Another case was also locally acquired but the source of the infection was yet to be identified.

Premier Steven Marshall said earlier today that concerns about new SA cases overnight had prompted testing “to see if they could be our first cases of Omicron”.

“We don’t have any confirmation so we’re taking it very cautiously,” Marshall told radio FIVEaa on Friday.

“It hasn’t moved as quickly as we were thinking it might but we still have very little information on Omicron.

“Sometimes when you get a new case it takes some time to get that assessment, I think they call the genome sequencing, so we can know exactly what strain it is.

“We did get a couple of cases overnight and we are testing those to see if they could be our first cases of Omicron.”

It remains unclear if the possible spread of the new strain to SA could disrupt the state’s plans to lift more local virus restrictions later this month or early in January based on the vaccination rate hitting 90 per cent.

School graduations, Melbourne flight among latest SA exposure sites

SA Health has listed two school graduations and a flight from Melbourne as COVID-19 exposure sites, after South Australia recorded seven new cases on Thursday.

In an update issued late yesterday, SA Health said the Lakes Resort Hotel in West Lakes has been identified as a close contact exposure location for a year 6 graduation event involving students and families.

Anyone fully vaccinated who was there on Monday, December 6 from 6:15pm to 9:20pm is required to quarantine for seven days, while unvaccinated contacts need to quarantine for 14 days.

Meanwhile, the Our Lady Queen of Peace School in Albert Park has been listed as a close contact exposure location for staff and students from Monday December 6 to Wednesday December 8.

Catholic Education South Australia said the western suburbs school would remain closed on Friday, after it shut on Thursday to allow for cleaning and contact tracing.

The school’s year 6 graduation liturgy event on Tuesday, December 7 from 6pm to 8:30 pm has also been listed as a close contact exposure location for students and families.

As of Wednesday, 538 close contacts are quarantining in South Australia, according to SA Health data, down from nearly 1300 earlier in the week.

Health authorities also on Thursday listed another interstate flight as an exposure location.

SA Health said anyone seated in rows 19 to 23 on Virgin Flight 233 from Melbourne to Adelaide, which arrived at 5:05pm on Tuesday, December 7, is required to quarantine for seven days.

Everyone else on the plane is asked to quarantine until they receive a negative test.

A quarantine until negative test order is also in place for the Quest Hotel on Franklin in Adelaide, for patrons who were there from 6:30pm to 7:00pm on Sunday, December 5.

Latest vaccination data shows 83.1 per cent of South Australians aged over 12 are fully-vaccinated, while 90.7 per cent have received one dose.

Pfizer vaccines for children gets final tick

Children as young as five will be able to get a COVID-19 jab from January 10 following final approval from Australia’s immunisation advisory body.

The federal government late on Thursday accepted the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation’s recommendation to expand the jab program to children aged between five and 11.

The vaccines to be made available to about 2.27 million children contain one-third of the standard Pfizer dose.

Bookings will open in late December and jabs will be rolled out from January 10 following child-specific training for healthcare workers and batch testing by the medicines regulator.

“This will bring great relief to so many mums and dads, who now have a choice on what’s best for their kids,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday.

“They can have peace of mind knowing this has the tick from the best medical regulators in the world.”

Health Minister Greg Hunt encouraged all parents to get their children vaccinated against COVID-19.

“Vaccinating children can also help reduce community transmission and help prevent children passing the virus on to younger siblings, grandparents and the wider community,” he said.

GPs, pharmacies, state-run clinics and Aboriginal health services will deliver doses, with individual jurisdictions responsible for any school-based vaccine programs.

Premier Steven Marshall on Thursday said SA Health has done the requisite “capacity planning” to manage a surge in demand at the state’s vaccine clinics on January 10.

Guilty verdict in SA cold case murder

Matthew Tilley with police leaving the Adelaide Airport in 2019 after his extradition from Victoria. (AAP Image/Kelly Barnes).

A man arrested in Victoria has been found guilty of a nearly 30-year-old cold-case murder in Adelaide, after a DNA match was found from a discarded coffee cup.

Matthew Donald Tilley, 49, had been on trial in the South Australian Supreme Court over the 1993 stabbing of Suzanne Poll.

Poll, 36, was found in the rear of a stationery store in Salisbury where she worked, with at least 18 separate wounds.

After deliberating for more than four hours, a jury returned its guilty verdict on Thursday night.

Opening the crown case last month, prosecutor Carmen Matteo said improvements in DNA techniques ultimately resulted in Tilley being charged.

She said a DNA profile originally extracted from a man’s blood at the murder scene returned a familial match with Tilley’s brother in late 2017.

That ultimately led detectives to travel to Victoria to question the accused and after noticing him discard a disposable coffee cup, they retrieved it and brought it back to Adelaide for testing.

That returned a match with a further test after Tilley was arrested in 2019.

Matteo said an autopsy conducted on Poll’s body found that she died from massive blood loss following the attack in the store.

On the prosecution case, she was killed by a man who entered close to closing time.

In Tilley’s defence, his lawyer argued that a key question for the court was whether the evidence had been properly preserved over almost three decades.

After the guilty verdict, Justice David Peek imposed the mandatory head sentence of life in prison.

A future court hearing will set a non-parole-period.

SA home quarantine restarts after traveller backlash

Photo: Stephanie Richards/InDaily

Home quarantine for approved international arrivals in South Australia will resume from today, following complaints from travellers about being directed into medi-hotels despite having pre-approval to isolate at home.

In a statement yesterday afternoon, SA Health said all double-vaccinated international arrivals would be allowed to quarantine for 14 days at home from Friday, provided they had pre-approval, suitable accommodation and downloaded and used the HealthCheck SA app.

However, those who travel from Africa or the Middle East must quarantine in a medi-hotel, due to concerns about the omicron COVID-19 variant.

The clarification followed a SA Health review into airport processes in response to complaints from overseas travellers arriving in Adelaide who had been directed into hotel quarantine despite having approval to isolate at home.

Adelaide doctor John Meegan told InDaily his family was left shocked when his son Xavier, 25, arrived last Thursday night after two years in Europe and was abruptly sent to the Playford medi-hotel.

Former Prime Minister Julia Gillard and South Australian Senator Natasha Stott Despoja were also caught up in the confusion and sent into hotel quarantine despite having approval to quarantine at home.

SA Health also said yesterday that those who are COVID-positive, close contacts or directed by SA Health to quarantine in a medi-hotel wouldn’t have to cover the cost of their accommodation and meals.

Unvaccinated interstate arrivals who are allowed into SA have to isolate either at home or in a medi-hotel, depending on their origin of travel.

Meanwhile, today is the cut-off for Education Department staff to have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and evidence of a second dose booking.

A department spokesperson told InDaily staff vaccination data would be reviewed and released early next week.

“We are confident in our ability to staff public schools from the start of the 2022 school year,” they said.

-Stephanie Richards

Call for royal commission-like probe into Australian media ownership

A Senate inquiry has called for a royal commission-like probe into the the concentration of media ownership in Australia and whether a new independent press regulator is needed.

Handing down the findings from a year-long probe into media diversity on Thursday, the Environment and Communications Committee found Australia’s media laws are “weak, fragmented and inconsistent”.

Backing calls from former prime minister Kevin Rudd, the Labor and Greens majority committee recommended “a judicial inquiry, with the powers of a royal commission”.

It would consider whether a new independent media regulator was needed to “harmonise news media standards and oversee an effective process for remedying complaints”.

“Large media organisations have become so powerful and unchecked that they have developed corporate cultures that consider themselves beyond the existing accountability frameworks,” the inquiry report said.

The inquiry also urged the government to guarantee sustainable and adequate funding for public broadcasters the ABC and SBS.

Australia has one of the world’s most concentrated media ownership markets with seven of the 12 national or capital city daily newspapers owned by Murdoch’s News Corp, according to a recent fact check.

That’s nearly 60 per cent of the metro and national print media market.

the Greens & Labor members of a Senate committee into media diversity have called for a "a judicial inquiry, with the powers of a royal commission" into media ownership

Liberal senator Andrew Bragg dissents, calling it "absurd"

report: https://t.co/5VyB7zdGEH pic.twitter.com/onmIenYpC2

— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) December 9, 2021

The government has yet to formally respond to the report. But in a sign it might dismiss the recommendations, Liberal senator and committee deputy chair Andrew Bragg published a statement on Thursday calling the report a “shameless political stunt which should not be taken seriously”.

“The recommendations are aimed at one particular organisation which has a large exposure to newspapers [News Corp],” Bragg said.

“Assessing media concentration by looking at the ownership of newspapers in the digital age is deeply embarrassing and [a] totally inappropriate measurement.”

If the Morrison government resists pressure to create a Murdoch royal commission then Labor and the Greens could take the proposal to the upcoming federal election.

Opposition senators strongly supported the probe in Thursday’s report.

UK ministers isolating after Joyce contact

Three UK ministers including Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s second in command Dominic Raab are in self-isolation after coming into contact with COVID-positive Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce.

Michael Gove was the third minister to be revealed to have taken the measure, having met Barnaby Joyce in London on Monday, a spokesman for the communities secretary said.

Raab, who is justice secretary as well as deputy prime minister, and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps also entered isolation having met Joyce this week.

Joyce subsequently tested positive while travelling to Washington DC and is self-isolating for 10 days.

Shapps was forced to pull out of an HS2-related visit to Newton Aycliffe as he was due to mark a major contract signing with Hitachi to manufacture rolling stock.

Sorry not to be travelling to @HitachiRailENG in County Durham today to welcome huge new @HS2ltd rolling stock contract. Have taken precaution of cancelling visit & have taken PCR test after being in contact with Australian Deputy PM this week – who's tested positive for Covid.

— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) December 9, 2021

A spokeswoman for Raab said: “He is getting tested and he is self-isolating while we wait to hear whether the Australian deputy prime minister has Omicron or not.”

Joyce, who is fully vaccinated, said in a Facebook post on Thursday that he had been experiencing mild symptoms and decided to get tested.

He said he will remain in isolation while seeking further advice.

Aussies on top at Gabba as Head posts 152

South Australia’s Travis Head has continued his domination of England’s bowling attack in Brisbane as the Aussie’s tighten their grip on the First Ashes Test in Brisbane this morning.

Resuming on 112 after notching the third-fastest Ashes century late yesterday, Head reached 150 from 143 balls with a four on the leg side off embattled English spinner Jack Leach.

The boundary also brought up a century for Leach as his bowling figures ballooned to 1/101 in just his 13th over.

But the 27-year-old was out the following over bowled by English quick Mark Wood for 152 as his side was dismissed for 425 with an imposing lead of 278 runs.

Australia started the day at 7-343, 196 runs clear of England’s first innings total, helped along by solid knocks from David Warner (94) and Marnus Labuschagne (74).

All of Head’s runs yesterday came in the final session, blazing 12 fours and two sixes after a nervous start.

“I took some chances along the way and I found the first 20 runs really, really tough,” Head, who was still trying to process his whirlwind innings, said after play yesterday.

“The game opened up, I was able to take my opportunity, but that’s not going to happen all the time.”

Supported by the tail, Heads innings this morning at times drew from his T20 and one-day international experience as England spread the field in an attempt to minimise the damage.

But the SA skipper still managed to add four more boundaries including two sixes to his total.

The innings solidified Head’s spot in Australia’s middle order after he narrowly beat Usman Khawaja for a Test recall and the chance to play in Brisbane.

However, his score was seven short of his best Test innings of 161 against Sri Lanka in 2019.

England was 0/23 in its second innings at lunch.

 

Strikers skittle Renegades for first BBL win

Wes Agar celebrates a wicket with teammates as the Adelaide Strikers moved towards a 49-run win over the Melbourne Renegades last night (AAP Image/Matt Turner).

The Adelaide Strikers have knocked off the Melbourne Renegades with a 49-run win at the Adelaide Oval last night.

Chasing 149, the Renegades were bundled out for just 100 in 18.4 overs with Strikers’ star spinner Rashid Khan claiming 2-17 from four overs and Wes Agar taking 3-17 from three.

The Strikers got off to a hot start with the bat and were 0-34 after 17 deliveries after a blazing start from opener Matt Short (32 from 17 balls),

But the home side then lost all their wickets for 115 runs in a slide triggered by Afghan spinner Zahir Khan (2-33).

Zahir dismissed Jake Weatherald (11 from eight) and Short before Renegades paceman Kane Richardson stole the limelight.

The fast bowler collected his milestone 100th BBL wicket by trapping Daniel Drew (12) lbw and then, in his next over, dismissed Adelaide’s top-scorer Jon Wells (37 from 30 balls).

Richardson added two more wickets in the 19th over as the Strikers were bowled out.

The Renegades’ run chase began with a bright partnership of 39 in 4.5 overs by Sam Harper and Mackenzie Harvey.

But Harvey (19) was run out in a horror mix-up with his partner when both ended at the same end of the pitch.

The rest of Renegades – apart from Harper who top-scored with 33 from 31 balls and was the sole batsman to pass 20 – failed to fire.

The specialist batsmen fell cheaply – James Seymour (10), Jonathon Merlo (four), Mohammad Nabi (12) and Jake Fraser-McGurk (three).

They were all dismissed in a match-defining collapse of 5-26 which cruelled any chance of the Renegades repeating their two-run win over the Strikers in Melbourne on Tuesday night.

The Strikers will next face the Perth Scorchers in Sydney on Saturday night.

-With AAP, The New Daily and Reuters

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