Date all Aussies will be vaccinated by

Denmark will cull its mink population of up to 17 million after a mutation of the coronavirus found in the animals spread to humans, the prime minister said.

Health authorities found virus strains in humans and in mink which showed decreased sensitivity against antibodies, potentially lowering the efficacy of future vaccines, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said.

“We have a great responsibility towards our own population, but with the mutation that has now been found, we have an even greater responsibility for the rest of the world as well,” Ms Frederiksen told a news conference.

The findings, which have been shared with the World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, were based on laboratory tests by the State Serum Institute, the Danish authority dealing with infectious diseases.

The head of the WHO’s emergencies programme, Mike Ryan, called on Friday for full-scale scientific investigations of the complex issue of humans – outside China – infecting mink which in turn transmitted the virus back to humans.

“We have been informed by Denmark of a number of persons infected with coronavirus from mink, with some genetic changes in the virus,” WHO said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

“The Danish authorities are investigating the epidemiological and virological significance of these findings.”

Authorities in Denmark said five cases of the new virus strain had been recorded on mink farms and 12 cases in humans, and that there were between 15 million and 17 million mink in the country.

Outbreaks at mink farms have persisted in the Nordic country, the world’s largest producer of mink furs, despite repeated efforts to cull infected animals since June.

Denmark’s police, army and home guard will be deployed to speed up the culling process, Ms Frederiksen said.

Christian Sonne, professor of Veterinary and Wildlife Medicine at Aarhus University, said in an email he believed culling the herd now as a precautionary measure was a sound decision and could prevent a future outbreak that would be more difficult to control.

Prof Sonne co-authored a letter published in the journal Science last week calling for the cull.

“China, Denmark, and Poland should support and extend the immediate and complete ban of mink production,” Prof Sonne and his co-authors wrote last week.

Tougher lockdown restrictions and intensified tracing efforts will be implemented to contain the virus in some areas of Northern Denmark, home to a large number of mink farms, authorities said.

“The worst case scenario is a new pandemic, starting all over again out of Denmark,” said Kare Molbak, director at the State Serum Institute.

Minks have also been culled in the Netherlands and Spain after infections were discovered.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has admitted relations between her and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk are still frosty.

Ms Berejiklian this morning described the Queensland and WA premiers as being "stubborn" as they fight to keep their hard borders in place.

"I don't want to see any state in Australia put up borders. I think we learnt enough with dealing with the virus and the consequences to take proactive steps so we can prevent that type of activity into the future and that's certainly what I do, what we try to do in NSW, is learn from every new development, take that forward and protect our citizens," she told ABC News Breakfast.

"But also to protect their jobs, their livelihoods, their economies. We've got no international students, no international travellers and markets are disrupted.

"We have to rely in each other in Australia to the short and medium term, but you can't when some state premiers are being so stubborn."

Ms Berejiklian admitted she talks to Ms Palaszczuk in National Cabinet – but that was as far as their communication goes.

"I can do what I can. I try. I'm someone who works with everybody. I like to bring people together. But when the other person or people are very, kind of, set in their ways, it's very difficult to change their course," Ms Berejiklian told the breakfast program.

"But I hope the announcement we made yesterday encourages both the WA Premier and the Queensland Premier to follow suit because the devastating impacts of job losses in March, April, May next year, I worry about the June quarter next year unless we take action now."

In great news for Victoria, the state has notched up another day with no coronavirus cases – the sixth in a row.

Yesterday there were zero new cases and zero lives lost. The 14 day average is 1.4 and there are 2 cases with an unknown source. More info here and also later today: https://t.co/pcll7ySEgz #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/YvGacx1fiV

— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) November 4, 2020

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Health Minister Greg Hunt has provided his most optimistic update of when Australians will be vaccinated against COVID.

"It is absolutely clear that we are on a path to having vaccines for all Australians during the course of 2021," Mr Hunt told Sunrise.

Australia has now secured access to four vaccines being developed after signing an international agreement for two new promising developments this week.

Both are in phase three trials.

Mr Hunt said all four were "looking very promising and positive in terms of their results".

"What we are doing is making sure that we have the best protection for Australia and for Australians," he added.

"We now have what are called two protein vaccines, one viral vector and one mRNA.

"135 million units of vaccine are potentially available for Australia, with the most likely timing being the first quarter, probably March, for the first vaccines to roll out."

While Mr Hunt said the vaccine rollout was "all dependent on the clinical trials and the regulatory approvals" he was becoming "cautiously but progressively more hopeful about access for all Australians throughout the course of 2021 to vaccines".

Mr Hunt said the first vaccines would "likely" be available in March.

"If they were available earlier they would be made available earlier, if it takes a little bit longer that would be the case," he said.

"But that remains the guidance and that would start, not surprisingly, with health workers. And also the elderly, if there are approvals within the particular vaccine categories following the tests for the elderly."

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is doing the breakfast TV rounds this morning, hoping her border announcement yesterday will push the rest of Australia to reopen.

Ms Berejiklian said the harsh lockdown in Victoria had "pretty much eliminated" coronavirus from the state, giving her confidence to reopen the border.

NSW will reopen to all of Victoria on November 23, two weeks after Melbourne reunites with regional Victoria.

"We think that's adequate time. The health experts certainly believe that was the case and I wouldn't have made the decision if they hadn't supported me in that," Ms Berejiklian told ABC News Breakfast.

"I'm very comfortable with the decision we have taken, but any decision like that comes with a risk.

"When you're dealing with a pandemic and weigh up the economic factors and the health risk, you have to ride that steady balance and I think that's what New South Wales has done.

"I hope my announcement yesterday put a bit of pressure on Queensland and WA to do the right thing. "

Ms Berejiklian said Australia needed to bounce back economically – especially before JobKeeper ended in March.

"I think the biggest challenge we'll face in the new year is, yes, keeping on top of the virus but also looking down potentially hundreds of thousands of job losses once JobKeeper finishes in March.

"I don't want to see a situation where too many households are worrying about their future, their income, their livelihoods. I want to be in a position where we enhance the quality of life of our citizens and that's why we took the decision we did yesterday."

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has dismissed reports she "ignored" advice to reopen the border with regional Victoria three weeks ago.

"That report is completely wrong. The advice I got was in fact the opposite. I was told that opening the borders in stages would cause more stress for people and to wait until we were ready to open the border completely," Ms Berejiklian told Sunrise.

The premier said she had been "joined at the hip since day one" with all of the state's health agencies.

"That is why we have achieved what we have. The health advice is critical to my decision-making and has been critical at this stage. We have been discussing this for two weeks and considering the options," she said.

Ms Berejiklian reminded Australians that Victorian Premier Dan Andrews was only allowed Melburnians to reunite with regional Victoria on November 9.

"We're waiting two weeks after that. We are pleased to announce it yesterday that we want to get people enough time whether you are a business, thinking about a job, seeing loved ones, we need to consider that," she said.

"Because there is no international travel, tourism and hospitality sectors are getting compromised and that's why opening ourselves up at least to all the Australians is a sure sign of doing what we can to enhance the quality of life for our citizens.

"Hundreds of families are worried about their job prospects in the new years and we don't want that stress to perpetuate that if we can do something about it, we should and that's why we took the decision we did and hopefully others will do the same."

The NSW government has decided to implement a new COVID safety rule after encountering situations where venues were flouting the current restrictions.

From November 23, all hospitality venues in NSW will be required to move to a new mandatory QR code check in system.

"There is no reason why within the next three weeks that all businesses shouldn’t have QR codes," Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

"You are allowed to have your own QR code, but we strongly recommend people adopting the Service NSW QR code."

Ms Berejiklian said this will allow contact tracers to track down potential COVID-19 cases more easily.

"You get to a state where enough is enough," Ms Berejiklian said of businesses flouting the rules.

"You don't want a handful of business doing the wrong this to jeopardise the state, and arguably the nation."

It comes as contact tracers are still struggling to track down the close contacts who dined at the Jasmins Lebanese Restaurant in Liverpool after the venue didn't follow the rules by taking down every customer's details.

Premier Daniel Andrews alluded to "significant announcements" relating to the state's COVID-19 restrictions on Sunday.

Mr Andrews yesterday hinted that the state was on the right path to ease more restrictions on the weekend.

"Sunday is going to be an important day. We are on track to make some very significant announcements," he said.

However, Mr Andrews said those announcements would only work if everyone continued to follow the rules, particularly around mask wearing.

"It’s not normal, its COVID normal. And if that means wearing a mask for a little while longer, I just don’t think that’s too much to ask if it means we can have the place open, we can have people back at work and we can start that economic rebuilding for jobs and families," he said.

The rules already flagged to change on November 8 include:

Melbourne’s 25km radius rule being removed.Gyms and fitness studios in Melbourne will open with a maximum of 20 people inside. There must be one person per eight square metres.Restaurants, hotels, cafes and bars will move to an indoor maximum of 40 with 10 people per space, and an outdoor maximum of 70 people with one person every two square metres.For faith gatherings, there will be an outdoor maximum of 50 people plus one faith leader, indoors there will be a maximum of 20 people, plus one faith leader.Funerals will move indoors, with a maximum 20 mourners, and outdoors with a maximum of 50.There has also been some speculation that the government could ease more restrictions around gatherings due to the state's success in keeping the daily virus numbers low.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk yesterday said she would be holding steady on her decision to keep the borders closed to Sydney and Victoria.

Ms Palaszczuk said NSW's decision to open the borders to Victoria on November 23 wouldn't prompt Queensland to ease border restrictions early.

"I’ve said all along we will review those decisions at the end of the month," she told reporters yesterday.

"What is encouraging from Victoria is the really low cases, I think they've had zero for a couple of days in a row*, but of course, they are coming out of lockdown, so we are going to be looking very carefully over the course of November to see how they go."

Today’s new cases were both acquired overseas and detected in hotel quarantine.

— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) November 3, 2020

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Australia has been eagerly waiting for a promising coronavirus vaccine.

And thanks to a recent international deal, our nation has secured access to two new potential COVID-19 vaccines.

The $1.5 billion deal was so Australia wasn’t “putting all our eggs in one basket,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

Australia would be given access to up to 40 million doses of a vaccine produced by US biotech company Novavax and 10 million doses of an alternative drug made by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and BioNTech.

“There are no guarantees that these vaccines will prove successful, however, our strategy puts Australia at the front of the queue, if our medical experts give the vaccines­ the green light,” Mr Morrison said.

“By securing multiple COVID-19 vaccines we are giving Australians the best shot at early access to a vaccine, should trials prove successful.”

It’s hoped both vaccines could hit Australian shores early next year if they pass all their clinical trials.

The Novavax vaccine has been in phase three trials since September in the UK and will likely require two doses.

The Pfizer/BioNTech drug is also in phase three trials.