Positive, vaccine still at least a year away

today as state authorities said schools with confirmed cases would immediately need to shut for a day.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the students only have a mild case of the virus which has little impact on the young.

Australia’s three deaths from the virus were aged 95, 82 and 78, while 22 of the 92 reported cases have recovered.

In Western Australia, a woman in her 60s has contracted the virus from her husband after he returned from Iran, making her the state’s first person-to-person transmission of COVID-19.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations says a vaccine is a year away and called on the Federal Government to help further fund research.

The Federal Government has put $2 million towards a local fund to develop a vaccine and has so far pledged less than $5 million to CEPI.

CEPI chair Jane Halton, a former federal health department head, says about $3 billion is needed so multiple versions of potential vaccines can be developed.

University of Queensland researchers have chosen a vaccine candidate for preclinical work while a US team is gearing up for trials, but more are needed.

“While you have something in the lab that looks good, either you can’t actually get it to generate the outcome in a human being that you want, or it proves not to be safe or it proves hard to manufacture,” Ms Halton said.

“So you need a series of candidates to ensure you end up with one, or preferably more, actual vaccines.”