Australia news live update: Tasmania mandates masks indoors; NSW reports record 2,566 Covid cases; Victoria reports 1,240 | Australia news

More on the positive Covid case linked to the second Test at Adelaide Oval:

Queensland has recorded 42 new Covid-19 cases, more than doubling its daily number in 48 hours, AAP reports.

Chief health officer Dr John Gerrard said of those cases 24 are still under investigation, one was overseas-acquired, seven were linked to interstate travel and eight are contacts of known cases.

Two of them, though, had no known link or travel history.

After 20 total cases on Friday, and 31 just 24 hours ago, Gerrard expected the number to continue to surge after Queensland opened its borders to fully vaccinated interstate travellers on Monday.

He said the new cases were “spread right across the state” with remote northwest town of Mount Isa the latest to be affected.

“It is likely most Queenslanders will be potentially exposed to this virus in the coming weeks,” Gerrard said.

“Forty-two may seem like a relatively small number but this is double the number we saw just 48 hours ago. If this rate continues, we will see significant numbers in January as predicted.”

Gerrard said no one was in intensive care, with only one of the 42 new cases showing symptoms after 18,312 tests in the last 24 hours.

But he said the “moderately unwell and breathless” woman was unvaccinated.

Gerrard said Omicron was emerging as the dominant strain in Queensland at a much faster rate than expected.

Four people have died following a plane crash near Redcliffe this morning.

Police and emergency services responded to reports a small plane crashed in waters off the coast of Redcliffe shortly after 9am. A multi-agency operation is under way with Queensland water police officers and divers along with the forensic crash unit assisting other agencies, including the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, as investigations continue.

There is no further information about those on board at this stage, Queensland police said in a statement.

The families are asking media to respect their privacy during this difficult time.

A positive Covid case among a member of the English media is causing some chaos on the first morning of the Adelaide Test, the Australian reports.

Nine new cases of Covid-19 have been reported in the Northern Territory.

Territory health minister Natasha Fyles said the lockdown in Tennant Creek may be extended, with no final decision made. The lockdown was announced on Friday and was due to end at 5pm on Monday.

But this was “likely” to be extended, with health authorities continuing to discuss the situation, Fyles said. As of Sunday afternoon, 236 close contacts in the Northern Territory have been identified.

Of the nine new cases, two are in international travellers in quarantine at Howard Springs. Seven are local cases in the Tennant Creek and Barkly regions.

Fyles:

So, considering these case numbers in Tennant Creek, we are actively considering extending that lockdown, but we haven’t made a final decision on that.

We will get more information from our health teams … and that decision will be made tomorrow. But it does look likely that we will extend that lockdown.

Of the new Tennant Creek infections, four are in residents from the Wuppa town camp. These include a woman in her 60s with vulnerabilities, and she has been transferred to Tennant Creek hospital. A woman in her 50s from the camp is also very unwell and has been transferred to the same hospital. A man and a woman in their 40s from the same town camp have been transferred to the Alice Springs hospital.

Fyles:

We also have additional cases, a male and female in their 20s, and they’re at the Tennant Creek hospital. Then we have a child who is from Tennant Creek and is a known household contact. We believe that all of these cases are linked to the Katherine cluster, so we’re working through that in terms of the genomic sequencing and trying to establish that link.

In the meantime Wuppa town camp residents have all been tested and are isolating.

Northern Territory police apprehended two young women yesterday evening after they absconded from quarantine in Howard Springs a few hours earlier.

The teenagers from Katherine were nearing the end of their quarantine period and had returned negative test results on their last test. They absconded from the centre at 3.30pm.

Police resources used to locate the pair included a drone, police dogs and CCTV operators. Police apprehended the 16-year-old girls in Bakewell about 7pm and they were taken back to Howard Springs.

As I mentioned earlier Tasmanian premier Peter Gutwein has announced masks will be mandated indoors.

At a press conference, Gutwein said masks would be mandatory for all indoor settings including offices, restaurants, pubs, clubs, public transport including taxis and ridesharing, retail settings and supermarkets:

In terms of the mandate, it is a strong recommendation that from today that you start wearing your mask indoors. But it won’t be mandated until Monday night and, importantly, I’d encourage everybody to fall into line with this, do the right thing, and let’s keep our community safe as we move forward.

A light aircraft has crashed off the end of a runway and into the water off the coast of Redcliffe in Queensland.

Tasmania is mandating masks indoors as the state records three new Covid-19 infections after reopening its border, AAP reports.

It takes the number of active cases in Tasmania to seven.

One of Sunday’s new cases was a woman who arrived in Launceston from Sydney on Wednesday and visited a number of retail venues. Another was a man who arrived in Hobart from Melbourne on Friday and the third was a family member of a previously confirmed case.

Premier Peter Gutwein told reporters:

What we’re seeing occur at the moment is not unexpected. We said that we would see Covid in the state.

Masks will be mandatory across all indoor settings, public transport and ride shares from 12.01am on Tuesday. Gutwein said:

We’ve done this before. It’s important. In fact, a lot of Tasmanians are already doing it.

Slightly more than 91% of Tasmanians aged 16 and older are fully vaccinated.

There are lengthy delays at the Covid testing sites in Launceston, according to police.

In particular, the site in Henry Street, Launceston is experiencing a back-up of traffic. Motorists are requested to avoid the area if possible. Police request that people lined up for the site pull over to the far left hand side of the road.

I thought I’d take a quick look overseas as Omicron continues to spread worldwide.

The Omicron variant has now been detected in 89 countries.

In London, mayor Sadiq Khan has declared a “major incident” to help ease the pressure on the capital’s hospitals amid a surge in cases being driven by Omicron. On Friday, Britain reported the largest 24-hour increase in the number of new cases since the pandemic began.

A major incident enables different public agencies to share information more closely but also acts as a warning that emergency services and hospitals are unable to guarantee their normal level of response due to unusual circumstances.

Although there has been some early data to suggest Omicron may cause milder disease than Delta (though there is not enough data to say for sure), what we know is Omicron is definitely highly infectious.

Milder but highly infectious viruses can still cause a lot of stress to health systems if they spread to the most vulnerable too quickly. Even a milder virus can cause severe disease and death, especially in immunocompromised people, or unvaccinated people with co-morbidities.

That’s why governments around the world are moving to slow the spread even in highly vaccinated populations, and even amid suggestions the virus may be more mild.

The World Health Organization said this weekend:

There are still limited data on the clinical severity of Omicron. More data are needed to understand the severity profile and how severity is impacted by vaccination and pre-existing immunity.”

But the WHO warned that with cases rising so rapidly, hospitals could be overwhelmed:

Hospitalisations in the UK and South Africa continue to rise, and given rapidly increasing case counts, it is possible that many healthcare systems may become quickly overwhelmed.

UK scientists have called on governments to bring in restrictions now or face up to 2m daily Covid infections as Omicron spreads. Due to the rising cases, Germany and France have implemented travel restrictions banning tourists from the UK.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands will spend Christmas in lockdown. Non-essential shops, bars, gyms hairdressers and other public venues will be closed until at least mid-January, the BBC reports, while two guests a household will be allowed – four over the holidays.

I’ve wrapped up all of the information from the NSW press conference which took place this morning, where NSW premier Dominic Perrottet rejected enforcing mask mandates despite the state setting another record for daily Covid infections – 2,566 new cases were reported today.

Leading epidemiologists have called for masks to be reintroduced to indoor settings such as retail in NSW, and have expressed concernabout mask mandates lifting as the Omicron variant appears to be partly driving a spike in cases.

Victoria was due to lift mask mandates for retail settings earlier in December but has delayed doing so due to Omicron and rising case numbers.

Today Perrottet emphasised vaccination and booster shots as key to keeping hospital admissions down:

What’s key to us is personal responsibility. Vaccination has been key, booster shots are crucial to keep people safe, and as we move through the next phase, case numbers will increase. That is the new normal.

We’ll continue to monitor the situation. It’s a time for calm. But it’s also an important time to go out and get your booster shot. Because vaccination here has been key to New South Wales’s success. That’s not on the government, it’s on the people and our fantastic health teams.

World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week warned governments against becoming complacent about Omicron, even if it turns out to be milder than Delta, saying its infectiousness alone is enough to overwhelm health systems:

Omicron is spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant. Surely we have learned by now that we underestimate this virus at our peril.

You can read the full report on the NSW press conference here:

That wraps up my time on the blog this morning. And that’s my last live blog for the year! Thank you so much for joining me on Sundays over the last few months.

I’m handing over to the brilliant Melissa Davey, who will keep bringing you the news this afternoon.

Let’s take a look back at what we learnt at this morning’s press conference with health minister Greg Hunt.

Hunt says it is unlikely Australia will follow the Netherlands and impose significant lockdowns to suppress surging Omicron infections.

Asked about the prospects of fresh statewide lockdowns given the new restrictions in the Netherlands, the federal health minister told reporters in Canberra the circumstances in Europe were quite different to Australia.

Read the full story from Guardian Australia political editor Katharine Murphy.

Further to my last post, NSW police believe the missing swimmer is a 19-year-old man.

A PolAir helicopter crew and police divers have joined the search for a man who went missing while swimming at Lennox Head, New South Wales, on Friday.

Officers attached to Richmond police district were called to Seven Mile beach by a woman, who reported she’d seen a swimmer in difficulties in the surf about 6pm.

NSW police said officers were on site within minutes and immediately coordinated a search.

Personal belongings were found unattended on the beach near the surf club and, about 7pm, a man approached police at the scene with concerns that his 19-year-old son had not returned from a swim.

The search resumed at 6.30am.