Australia news LIVE updates Victoria lockdown likely to be lifted as NSW COVID cases continue to soar

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NSW Health authorities listed just over 20 new exposure sites late last night.

Anyone who visited the Campsie Centre Shopping mall in Sydney’s south-west from Wednesday, July 14 to Saturday, July 24 is considered a close contact and must immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days regardless of the result.

Other high-risk venues include:

The Campsie Growers Market;

The World of Fruit in Campsie;

Man Hing Chinese Takeaway in the same suburb;

Produce Pet and Garden Supplies in Enfield in Sydney’s inner west; and

The Triple 333 Medical Centre in Merrylands in Sydney’s west.

For the exposure windows and a full list of venues, visit the NSW Health website.

The head of Sydney Catholic Schools has called for formal year 12 examinations to be abandoned and HSC results to be based on school assessments instead, saying remote learning is disadvantaging the city’s worst-off students.

The call has been backed by the head of Catholic Education Parramatta, Greg Whitby, who says authorities must make a decision on formal exams and a mark based on assessment was a “practical, sensible alternative”.

The head of Sydney Catholic Schools says traditional HSC exams should be abandoned this year.Credit:Janie Barrett

However, assessment experts say formal exams should be kept alive as long as possible and the examining authority says they will “go ahead”.

Read the full story here.

The Andrews government will tighten border controls as the state prepares to slowly ease out of its fifth lockdown and scrap the five-kilometre restriction on movement.

With Victorians in NSW to be locked out for weeks, the public health team is focused on ensuring the thousands of workers who cross the border each day pose minimal risk of spawning another COVID-19 outbreak and further lockdowns.

A Victoria Police checkpoint at Chiltern on the Hume Highway earlier this month.Credit:Jason Robins

A government source, speaking anonymously to detail the plans, said the government would tighten the rules around border crossing for permitted workers and establish additional testing requirements in coming days. “It’s all about protecting [against] further incursions,” the source said.

Meanwhile, there are no new exposure sites overnight in Victoria for the third day in a row.

More on this story here.

Good morning and thanks for your company. It’s Tuesday, July 27. I’m Broede Carmody.

Here’s everything you need to know before we start our rolling coverage.

Sydney is set to give the green light to walk-in AstraZeneca appointments at mass vaccination clinics. It comes after NSW recorded 145 new, locally acquired cases of coronavirus yesterday. At least 76 were infectious in the community. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says that number needs to be close to zero before NSW can come out of lockdown. Sadly, two more people have died. In total, 10 people have died as a result of NSW’s current outbreak.

Victorians are set to learn if they’ll come out of lockdown today. The five kilometre restriction on movement is set to go, schools and gyms are likely to reopen and hospitality businesses are expected open back up but with strict density limits. However, masks will remain in place and home visits are set to remain off the table for some time. Yesterday, Victoria recorded 11 locally acquired cases. However, authorities say they were all linked to existing outbreaks and in isolation for their infectious periods.

There are now just over 50 exposure sites labelled as high risk in Queensland. It comes after state health authorities revealed a fully-vaccinated man who recently returned from China tested positive to the virus. The source of transmission remains under investigation (it’s not yet known if the man acquired the virus in China, in hotel quarantine or in the Queensland community). Authorities are also trying to track the movements of a man who illegally drove from NSW into the Sunshine State.

And Adelaide is on track to come out of lockdown tonight. But some restrictions remain in place. Masks will remain in settings such as shopping centres, home visits will be capped at 10 and there is a one person per four square metres rule for hospitality and one person per eight square metres for gyms. Yesterday, South Australia recorded just one new case of COVID-19.

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