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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Michael McGowan, Ben Doherty, Josh Taylor and Matilda Boseley

Western Australia records two new Covid-19 deaths – as it happened

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What we learned today

I’ll leave it here for tonight. The blog will be back tomorrow, of course. In the meantime, you can follow our rolling international Covid-19 coverage here.

Here’s what we learned today:

Updated

Straight-shooter chief medical officer Brendan Murphy was asked by a reporter Tuesday whether the modelling “indicated anything about the relative effectiveness of different measures” employed in Australia.

Murphy replied: “It doesn’t, unfortunately.”

Malcolm Farr on the government’s release of Covid-19 modelling earlier today, which he calls one of the “odder moments of the public debate” on the virus.

Updated

AAP reports that despite the Northern Territory having dodged “a lot of bullets” in avoiding community transmission of Covid-19, the territory’s chief health officer says a short-term lockdown of the affected area might have to occur in the event of an outbreak.

There have been 28 cases of Covid-19 in the Territory, all related to international or interstate travel, making it the lowest per capita rate and the only Australian jurisdiction to so far record no deaths or community transmission.

However, a cluster of cases in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia, with a large, vulnerable Indigenous population bordering the NT, spooked government and health officials last week.

“With that outbreak in the Kimberley region last week, we dodged a lot of bullets in that the cases there did not make their way into the Northern Territory,” the NT chief health officer, Dr Hugh Heggie, said.

“They are advising people that they should not be travelling, but it is a reality that people particularly from remote (Indigenous) communities will travel across borders without a visible line. Sometimes it’s a back road and it still has to be acknowledged that there is a risk.

“We have to manage very carefully people who are mixing in other places.”

Updated

Queensland’s opposition leader, Deb Frecklington, has committed what Nine News is calling “a big virus no-no” – touching lots of things in a supermarket.

She’s been criticised for “handling 20 different supermarket products and placing them all back on shelves” in a video encouraging people to buy local products.

Updated

All Australian year 12 students will graduate in 2020 despite the interruption of Covid-19, after education ministers ruled out a “year 13” to complete their studies in 2021.

Here’s my colleague Paul Karp’s wrap on the outcome of today’s meeting of education ministers, which agreed that every student will receive an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank in 2020.

Updated

FluTracking, a national online surveillance system that tracks symptoms of Covid-19 and the flu, has found historically low reporting of respiratory and cold-like symptoms in recent weeks.

The system, which has run for the past 14 years, surveys tens of thousands of people in Australia and New Zealand.

It’s coordinator, the University of Newcastle public health physician Craig Dalton, said the latest weekly surveys suggested social distancing was having a positive impact not just for the rate of Covid-19 infections but for common flu symptoms such as cough and fever generally.

“The social distancing the community have taken up leads to less opportunities to transmit virus between people, so few people are infected and fewer people get sick. The rapid social distancing by the general community may have averted a public health disaster,” Dalton said.

“We mustn’t relax our vigilance, but these initial findings are early reassuring signs that social distancing is working. We have to continue with strong social distancing measures and aggressive case identification, contact tracing and isolation as well.”

The number of people participating in the FluTracking survey has surged during the pandemic. Some 5,000 new people have joined the survey in the last two weeks and more than 60,000 responses are being received in Australia each week.

The survey has also found that of those surveyed who had contracted Covid-19, 27% reported a change in their taste or smell. Dalton said that was “a new emerging symptom of Covid-19” which could help alert doctors to the possibility of an infection.

Updated

The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, remains in intensive care with Covid-19, but without the need for a ventilator.

Here’s the latest from the mother country:

Updated

Greens leader Adam Bandt is unhappy at Labor’s decision to push ahead with a Senate select committee into the government’s response to Covid-19. The Greens had wanted a joint House and Senate oversight committee.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions has released a statement about the jobkeeper legislation released by the minister for industrial relations, Christian Porter, on Tuesday.
The ACTU reeled off a series of safeguards in the bill, to be debated by parliament and passed with Labor on Wednesday. The bill is:

  • Strictly time-limited
  • Applies only to employers eligible for the jobkeeper payment
  • Protects the rate of pay for workers ensuring they are properly paid for all work undertaken at the legal hourly rate of pay, not artificially capped at the $1,500/fortnight wage subsidy
  • Allows variation in working conditions only after consultation and in many cases requires the agreement of employees; and
  • Allows any dispute to be arbitrated by the Fair Work Commission to ensure reasonableness and fairness

The ACTU secretary, Sally McManus, said:

We remain opposed to the restrictive eligibility rules which exclude millions of workers, in particular many casuals and visa workers who have lost or face losing their jobs because of the pandemic.

“They should also be eligible to receive the payment as they face no less a financial struggle and should be supported to keep their jobs and connections to employers for when this crisis is over.

“We will continue to campaign to have these workers covered by the jobkeeper payment.”

Updated

Two more people die in Western Australia.

Western Australia recorded two new Covid-19 deaths, bringing the total number of deaths in the state to six.

The WA health minister, Roger Cook, has told the media that a man and a woman, both in their 70s, died overnight.

The woman died at the Royal Perth hospital. Cook said she had recently returned from overseas and had been staying in a Perth hotel as a part of mandatory quarantine.

The man was a passenger on the Artania cruise ship. He died at Joondalup health campus.

Six people have now died of the deadly virus in WA hospitals, including two foreign nationals from the Artania. It is the second death in WA related to the Artania cruise ship.

Updated

We told you earlier that Facebook will now remove posts on its site falsely claiming a link between coronavirus and the rollout of 5G networks across the world.

Now, our colleagues in the UK report that Whatsapp, the Facebook-owned messaging app, will impose a strict new limit on message forwarding in an effort to slow the dissemination of fake news on the platform.

The prudential regulator has written to banks and insurance companies telling them they need to cut or put off paying dividends to their shareholders due to the coronavirus crisis.

Company boards should also “appropriately limit” executive bonuses, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority chairman, Wayne Byres, said in a letter to deposit-taking institutions and insurers, sent on Tuesday.

Apra’s decision follows bans or limits on dividend payments overseas. They are banned entirely in New Zealand and most big UK banks have agreed not to pay them after a request from the Bank of England.

Byres told banks and insurers Apra had given them room to spend capital on shoring up the economy during the pandemic.

“In this context, Apra expects ADIs [approved deposit-taking institutions] and insurers to limit discretionary capital distributions in the months ahead, to ensure that they instead use buffers and maintain capacity to continue to lend and underwrite insurance,” he said in the letter.

“This includes prudent reductions in dividends, taking into account the uncertain outlook for the operating environment and the need to preserve capacity to prioritise these critical activities.

“During this period, Apra expects that ADIs and insurers will seriously consider deferring decisions on the appropriate level of dividends until the outlook is clearer.”

Dividends should only be paid after “robust stress-testing”, agreed by the regulator, and at “a materially reduced level”, Byres said.

Updated

You may have seen that earlier today the Australian Bureau of Statistics released new trade figures for February.

It doesn’t make for pleasant reading. The data shows exports fell $1.8bn or 5% and imports declined $1.5bn or 4% compared to January. Some industries were hit particularly hard. Australia’s tourism-related exports – which includes education services – plunged 15%, a reflection of the early decision to close the border to China.

Labor’s shadow minister for trade, Madeleine King, has said it’s likely those figures will continue to fall once March data is released, “given the severe interruptions to supply chains and an expected decline in domestic demand”.

“But as I have said previously, Australia’s export sector will be crucial for the economy in the grim weeks and months ahead,” King said.

“It is vital for the economy that our national borders remain open to trade, assuming that we can do so with the highest health protocols in place.”

Updated

Good evening. Thanks to Ben Doherty, both for his coverage and for his bad Doctor Who jokes. I’ll be with you through the rest of tonight.

If you missed it earlier today, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, addressed the media after the latest national cabinet meeting. Morrison told journalists Australia was making “significant progress” in flattening the spread of Covid-19, but urged vigilance over the upcoming Easter holiday.

“We must keep the tension in the cord,” Morrison said.

Updated

I’m signing off now, handing over to my colleague, Michael McGowan. Thanks to all for your feedback and comments. Stay safe. Wash hands. Stay home.

Meanwhile in the UK … as ever with Daleks, old mate’s gonna struggle with stairs.

Updated

How refreshingly straightforward politics is in NZ … a spade there is a spade, not a “single-operator manual earth-restructuring implement” (thanks Bill Bryson).

Stay at home: save lives. Very simple.

A reminder, the Easter Bunny – and the Tooth Fairy – are officially considered essential workers in New Zealand (for children who lose a tooth eating chocolate).

Updated

A final update from the Doherty Institute’s modelling press briefing:

Prof James McCaw, professor of mathematical biology and infectious diseases epidemiologist, University of Melbourne, says the team has started new work “in the last few days” to provide Australian governments with short-term outlooks on transmission, future load on the health system, and potential responses.

He says it’s like pivoting from long-term climate outlooks to daily weather forecasts.

McCaw says there was a lot of talk six weeks ago about whether the nation could go into a four-week lockdown, which he did not see as a realistic long-term solution.

“It’s almost impossible to imagine this virus going extinct globally, which means it’s here to stay.”

He says the transition to it not being a huge driver of complete societal change is a very difficult thing to work through.

“Luckily in Australia we can talk about that. We’re in a position of calm, not crisis.”

Updated

The Labor opposition in NSW wants an independent and public inquiry into the disembarkation of passengers from the Ruby Princess. The cruise ship, which docked at Circular Quay in Port Jackson last month, is the original source of more than 660 infections in Australia, and at least 13 deaths.

The Ruby Princess is currently docked at Port Kembla, south of Sydney, and NSW police are conducting a criminal investigation into how it was allowed to dock in Sydney and its passengers disembark.

Updated

Facebook to remove all posts falsely claiming link between Covid-19 and 5G networks

Facebook will now remove posts on its site falsely claiming a link between coronavirus and the rollout of 5G networks across the world.

The company has already been taking down posts that encouraged users to deface or damage telecommunications masts in response, but now the company is going one step further to remove any post linking the coronavirus pandemic to 5G.

Still, 5G misinformation groups are rife on Facebook, generally. Even searching “5G’ on Facebook brings up local opposition to it.

YouTube has also been forced to pull down similar content of late, with a video circulating purporting to be from a former executive of a UK telco talking about the (false) link between 5G and coronavirus.

Updated

Twitter (that bastion of reason and rationality - Eds) lit up with outrage with suggestions NSW Health was no longer going to report the cases associated with the disastrous decision to allow the Ruby Princess to dock in Sydney on 19 March.

The speculation of a cover-up was prompted by a comment at Monday’s briefing that because of the police investigation, the department had to be cautious about what it said about the Ruby Princess.

The cruise ship has been the largest single source of cases in NSW and over 660 in Australia. But it turns out, we will still get numbers for the Ruby Princess.

“Current confirmed Covid-19 cases in NSW for passengers on the Ruby Princess, which docked 19 March, is 377 patients, (359 passengers + 18 crew members),” a spokesman for NSW Health said this afternoon.

“The number of people in the community connected to NSW Ruby Princess passengers confirmed as having COVID-19 is currently 12.”

“There have been six deaths reported in NSW from people associated with the Ruby Princess.”

He said the department would continue to provide Ruby Princess numbers while cases continued to grow but given the 14-day isolation period for passengers from the Ruby Princess was now complete it was likely case numbers would stabilise unless there was community spread.

The spokesman said the department would, however, be cautious about talking about the decision-making around the disembarkation.

Updated

An update from a modelling briefing from the Doherty Institute:

From the Doherty Institute:

Doherty Institute researchers have released their work on Covid-19 modelling to the general public. These models have been utilised by the commonwealth government in the public health response to Covid-19.

It’s important to note the modelling is based on preparedness scenarios to inform planning, they are not predictions. It informs the actions taken to slow the spread and prepare the health system.

From Guardian Australia’s Daniel Hurst:

Prof Jodie McVernon, director of Doherty epidemiology, said the work that the Doherty Institute had done for government began with previous research on influenza pandemic.

She said those models had been repurposed to inform the Covid-19 response plan. Initially it started with data from Wuhan, but it became clear this disease was well beyond the experience of influenza pandemic. It was later expanded to take in other international data.

“The model is clearly very theoretical,” McVernon said. For example it assumed infections uniformly across the country.

“The purpose was to allow an estimate of the impact of different types of measures.”

It was clear early on that unmitigated spread of the virus would be “well beyond any high-income country’s health system capacity”.

The government has emphasised that the measures taken so far had been effective in slowing the spread.

Updated

More sad news, another landmark event in Australia’s arts calendar, the Melbourne International Film festival, has had to cancel its 2020 edition.

Updated

On Monday we reported on a plan by Centre Alliance’s Rex Patrick to attempt to force parliament to sit sooner than 11 August by passing a motion that it continue to sit unless the government and opposition agree otherwise.

Asked if Labor will vote to schedule more parliamentary sittings, Anthony Albanese said:

Well ... we voted for that last time ... we’ve already done that. That remains our position, that that should occur. But the truth is though it’s up to the government at any time if the House of Representatives sits. And the prime minister can write to the speaker at any time to cancel sittings. We think it would’ve been better to keep the parliamentary sitting schedule as it was. And if need be the speaker could be written to and those parliamentary dates not be proceeded with.

The manager of opposition business in the Senate, Katy Gallagher, poured cold water on the idea the Senate could sit without the House:

I think there are some issues around the House not sitting and the Senate sitting. But there are procedural limitations with regards to the government and their control of the program … You could quite easily be faced with the Senate sitting without any business coming forward, the government not bringing a program forward, and people raising questions about ‘well, what good is that?’

So, basically, Labor will keep scrutiny on the government through a Senate select committee on the Covid-19 response, but the idea Labor and the crossbench could team up to force parliament to return has been dismissed as impractical.

Updated

China has reported zero daily deaths from coronavirus for the first time since January. My colleague Helen Davidson writes that while the milestone is significant, it comes as the nation struggles with ongoing outbreaks, including in the original hotspot, Wuhan, where dozens of residences have been locked down again.

Updated

Border Force commissioner Michael Outram has responded to Guardian Australia’s report earlier today of legal action that could block the government from evicting cruise ships from Australian waters.

APT Touring has brought the federal court lawsuit over a ship it operates, the Caledonian Sky, which is currently moored in Darwin, but if it succeeds it could knock out a determination issued by health minister Greg Hunt on 27 March that ordered all foreign cruise vessels to leave Australian waters as soon as possible.

Asked by Guardian Australia’s Malcom Farr if he was aware of the lawsuit, Outram said the ABF was “working through that”.

“But let me make clear the government’s policy intent here is that all cruise ships that are in Australian waters that are not flagged or registered in Australia are to depart Australian waters and we’re working to achieve that outcome.”

Asked whether the case could have wider implications, he said that “every ship’s individual”.

“But what I would I say is this: all of the ships we’re focused [on] here are either registered in or flagged in another country.”

He said he had considered applications by cruise operators who wanted to keep their ships in Australian waters – and rejected them all.

When the determination was made there were 20 cruise ships in Australian waters.

“Thirteen of those 20 have left, or are in the process of leaving today, Australian ports and seas,” he said.

“And by Thursday we expect a further four to have departed.”

He said this removed about 13,500 workers from Australian waters, who, if they had become sick, would have been “a big strain on the Australian health system”.

Updated

Research from the Australia Institute suggests that Australia’s private health insurers are set to make savings of between $3.5bn and $5.5bn – around half of their benefit payouts – over the next six months.

This is because distancing measures, stay home advice to older Australians and closures mean visits to dentists, physios and other providers covered by extras payments will drop considerably.

Consumer advocacy group Choice are asking health funds to “stop charging people for services they can’t get”, and calling on health funds to reduce premiums by 50%.

“Health funds must urgently take action to make sure people aren’t paying for services they can’t access,” says Choice health insurance expert Dean Price.

“We urge the industry to do the right thing for people and reduce their premiums by 50% across the board and more where possible. We will call out any private health insurer who is ripping people off by making them pay the full price but only getting half the service.”

Updated

Few queues for supermarkets with social distancing customer limits ahead of Easter weekend

In a bit of good news, it appears Coles is not suffering from lengthy queues after imposing strict customer limits inside stores.

Yesterday Coles and Woolworths both placed limits on how many people could be inside their supermarkets at once.

These limits are determined store by store, based on size, in an attempt to ensure supermarkets are not inundated over the Easter weekend.

This means customers may be required to queue outside before they enter, however, for Coles at least, these lines don’t appear to be lasting too long.

“On Monday, the first day of the new measures, we had queues at less than 5% of stores at some point in the day, excluding the customers waiting for us to open either at 7am for Community Hour or 8am when we let everyone else in,” said a spokesman for Coles.

“The queues moved quickly and customers weren’t kept waiting for more than a few minutes.”

“Our modelling is that 87% of stores won’t have a queue outside, and those that do will have a queue on average ~7% of the time. It’s really only our busiest stores, at their busiest times of day. Most people will not even see a queue.”

Updated

Speaking of indefatigable, a doff of the facemask to sports editor Mike Hytner for filing a sports post when there is no sport being played. The marriage of reality TV and rugby league that is ‘NRL Island’: these are strange days.

We’ll know a lot more about the feasibility of the ‘NRL Island’ concept later this week, after the league’s innovation committee meets on Thursday to discuss the idea of placing the entire cohort of players in an isolated “bubble”, potentially at a luxury Queensland resort, in a bid to rescue the suspended season. Larissa O’Connor has more on that here.

Former NSW captain Paul Gallen doesn’t think it can work – he said players could not be expected to come out the other side as “normal human beings” – but the concept is gathering momentum and the AFL is also now exploring the option of putting its players in a quarantine hub and playing out a modified form of its season.

It doesn’t take Paul Gallen – or for that matter the AFLPA president Patrick Dangerfield, who has expressed doubts over the viability for his code – to point out the potential pitfalls of such a scheme, but the concept of creating centralised hubs does appear to be gathering support in some quarters.

Carlton coach David Teague said earlier today he was “all for” the idea as long as it meant the season could get back up and running, while Sydney coach John Longmire said his club was “open to anything”. Collingwood president and AFL coronavirus cabinet member Eddie McGuire had yesterday proposed a four-hub plan across three states.

The coronavirus pandemic has thrown sport across the globe in financial crisis and while the men’s competition scrambles to save its season, there has been concern over the future viability of the entire women’s competition.

But Susan Alberti, the respected women’s footy pioneer, said today she was confident the AFL had put too much time and effort in getting the AFLW up and running to let it fall over now.

“The AFL are absolutely committed to the AFLW ... it’s been a long time in the planning, it’s here now, and it’s not going away,” Alberti told SEN.

“It was quite sad how [the season] ended [without a premier being named], that’s unfortunate, but they’ll come back bigger, stronger and better next year.

“The growth that I have seen in the game in the last few years has been remarkable. We’ve got around 600,000 young women playing our game now and it’s not going away, it’s just going to get bigger and bigger. It just takes time.”

Updated

I’ve just been through the latest data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Covid-19’s effect on business.

It shows an extraordinary impact on the hospitality sector, in particular. The pandemic has forced a staggering 70% of businesses in the hospitality sector to reduce the hours of their staff and 43% to either sack workers or place them on unpaid leave.

More broadly, two-thirds of businesses across all sectors reported taking a hit to revenue or cash flow due to Covid-19.

One in 10 have had to pause operations entirely.

The ABS data is based on a survey of 3,000 companies in the days after the government’s tough social distancing restrictions were announced on 29 March.

Updated

Government to support Senate select committee inquiry into Covid-19 response

Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, and manager of opposition business in the Senate, Katy Gallagher, will stand up at 2.40pm to announce a Senate select committee into the government’s response to Covid-19.

This was on the cards for a few days – with the Greens, Centre Alliance and Jacqui Lambie all calling for more scrutiny – but the new development is that the government has signed up to support it.

The committee will have broad terms of reference – encompassing both the health and economic aspects of the response – and will last for two years. Gallagher will chair it.

Of course, a committee does not replace regular sittings of parliament – so it’s possible there could still be fireworks about why parliament is adjourned until 11 August when parliament resumes briefly on Wednesday.

Updated

Tasmanian passenger from Ruby Princess dies

This is Ben Doherty here, my thanks to Josh Taylor and all of my indefatigable colleagues for their earlier work.

Post the prime minister’s press conference, there is sad news to update. Matilda Boseley reports:

Tasmania has recorded its third Covid-19 death.

A man in his 80s died at the North West Regional Hospital today.

He was a passenger on board the Ruby Princess. This brings Australia’s death toll to 46.

Updated

Will the future modelling include underlying assumptions? Morrison says the public is getting “everything we’ve got”.

And that’s it for now. I am handing over to my colleague Ben Doherty.

The six months timeline was based on early work done, and the length of time the Australian government was able to provide support, Morrison says. He says it was important to have a realistic timeframe.

He says Australia is the only country to the best of his knowledge to be thinking in terms of it running for six months at this stage.

The $130bn jobkeeper package buys Australia the next six months, he says.

Asked how many people would need to be immune in the community to prevent transmission, Murphy says some say 50-60% but he stresses Australia is not pursuing a path of herd immunity.

Murphy says testing people with acute respiratory symptoms in cluster areas makes more sense than testing asymptomatic people more broadly, except for those in aged care facilities because of how much devastation the virus can wreak on people living in aged care.

Updated

More modelling to be released 'in coming weeks'

Murphy says more modelling will be released “in coming weeks”.

Morrison says decisions need to be based on the right data, and we need to trust the science and research, and not force them to meet arbitrary deadlines.

“There is no map for this. We are in uncharted territory ... what we have is time.”

Morrison says the national cabinet will look at all the information, and some states and territories might ease their restrictions before others.

He says NSW and Victoria, and South East Queensland might wait to see how trials go elsewhere before easing restrictions given the bigger impact in those areas.

Updated

Murphy says modellers have the data on nearly 6,000 cases, and once there is something useful, it will be provided to national cabinet and the public.

It’s too early to tell on trend data, but we will have much better data in the next week to 10 days, he says. There’s still a lot of noise in the data from returning travellers.

Updated

Murphy says the people who don’t know they have coronavirus are why states like NSW are broadening testing in hotspot areas.

He says fewer people are turning up to get tested because the flu is not spreading as much this season as in the past, so people don’t have symptoms.

Brendan Murphy says national cabinet will be presented with various scenarios on ways out of this crisis, including waiting for a vaccine or keeping the borders closed until there is one.

Scott Morrison says if the scenarios go beyond the government’s ability to support it for a period of time (for example, beyond the six months for the jobkeeper payment) this would not be supported.

Updated

The modelling being released now won’t show when we relax social distancing measures, Murphy says – that will come in the next round using Australian data and it’s too early to say when that will happen.

Updated

Future modelling will be based on actual real-world data from Australia on the recorded cases, Brendan Murphy says.

Early indications are positive, he says, but we must not be complacent.

Community transmission will be the focus of the modelling – the infectivity rate, where infections are occurring.

He says returned travellers in quarantine hotels are still becoming ill with Covid-19.

“We are not in any way out of trouble at the moment but we are in a relatively strong position to keep the pressure on,” he says.

The tools Australia is using are working and can be scaled up and down as needed.

Updated

In theory we have the tools we can dial up to suppress the outbreak to manage within our resources, Murphy says.

But he says Australia is doing even better than the best case theoretical modelling scenario right now.

If there was an uncontrolled pandemic and 23 million people were infected at the same time, Murphy says, it would have been a “horrendous scenario”, with demand for 35,000-plus ICU beds every day.

The would be beyond the realm of Australia to cope with, he says. He stresses that this is a highly artificial, unreal scenario.

Updated

We are flattening the curve, Brendan Murphy says.

Modellers have the Australian data now and will offer predictions based on this data.

Updated

On the modelling, there are two papers from the Doherty Institute, on:

  • Whether we have the right tools to manage the worst-case scenario.
  • The risk of people travelling to Australia from other countries.

Murphy stresses they’re highly theoretical and not based on Australian data, but based on countries that have had significantly worse experiences with Covid-19 than Australia.

Updated

Murphy says renal transplants have been stopped in Australia owing to virus risk but it is hoped that can start again as soon as possible.

He says GPs are worried people that are too frightened to go to the doctor. He says this is concerning because people with chronic conditions need regular checkups. He says telehealth consultations are one option, and people shouldn’t neglect general health conditions.

Updated

The chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, says as of this morning there are 5,844 confirmed cases, fewer than 100 people in ICUs and fewer than 40 people on ventilators.

The big concern is the 500 community transmissions: we don’t know where they contracted the virus.

“That is why we cannot relax what we have been doing,” he says, but he adds that there have been impressive reductions in infection rates.

Updated

Schools were discussed at national cabinet and will be discussed on Thursday after education ministers meet today.

Scott Morrison says it was not unexpected that Victoria would announce its plan today as schools near the term 2 start date.

He says from the commonwealth’s point of view, it’s up to the states, but it wants to ensure parents can still send their children to school if they can’t keep them at home.

He says he doesn’t want students to lose a year of their education.

Updated

On the commercial tenancies code, Morrison says the national cabinet has agreed that a mandatory code will be legislated and regulated by the states and territories.

The code will apply if the tenant or landlord is eligible for the jobkeeper program, where they have a turnover of $50m or less.

Landlords must not terminate a lease or draw on securities. Tenants must honour leases.

Landlords must reduce rent in proportion to lost turnover, and it can be a waiver or deferral, he says.

There will be a binding mediation process.

Updated

Morrison says the modelling will not show predictions, and media should not report it that way because that would be misleading.

He says the data will help plan the way out.

Updated

Morrison says Australia’s coronavirus modelling will be released later today:

You will have what we have... it is the full complement of what we have available to us.

He says it is theoretical and is not based on case data, and does not predict what will happen in Australia in terms of how many people will contract the virus or will die from the virus, or how long it will last in Australia.

This modelling, he says, draws on a broader international dataset, and proves the theory of flattening the curve – which is what is happening:

Controlling the spread, boosting the capacity of our health system, and buying time, giving us the opportunity for more choices.

Updated

“We must keep the tension in the cord,” Scott Morrison says. Easter will be critically important, he says, telling people to stay at home. If people do not stay at home this weekend it will undo all the work that has been done, and “potentially worse”.

“You must follow these very helpful and straightforward requests we make of you.”

Updated

Morrison extends his concerns and support to the UK PM, Boris Johnson, who is in intensive care.

Updated

Scott Morrison says Australia is making significant progress and we have avoided the thousands or tens of thousands of cases that could have happened with community transmission.

The daily growth rate has been brought down but we must hold the course, he says. We must lock in these gains. It is providing us with much-needed time. We have so far avoided the horror scenarios we have seen overseas.

Updated

And here’s the PM’s press conference.

Updated

We are still waiting on the PM’s press conference – it’s slightly delayed.

Updated

The industrial relations minister, Christian Porter, has held a press conference to give further detail on changes to law to implement the $1,500 fortnightly jobkeeper payment. A proposed final draft has now gone to the ACTU, Labor and employer groups ACCI and AiGroup.

The main proposed changes are:

  1. Employers would be allowed to activate a “jobkeeper enabling stand-down” and alter their employees’ hours of work if the employee can’t be usefully employed at their full hours as a result of Covid-19.
  2. Employers will be able to alter the usual duties and location of employees’ work, provided it is safe, reasonable, inside the employee’s competency and the employer’s usual scope of work.
  3. Employers and employees can agree to vary the days worked, and agree to use up annual leave while the employer is claiming jobkeeper and paying it on to the employee. This must be by agreement, but an employee cannot “unreasonable refuse”. Employees must keep at least two weeks annual leave in the tank as well.

All three elements are reviewable by the Fair Work Commission, a crucial safeguard.

Asked if the government has an estimate of how much of the $130bn wage subsidy employers could use to pay down leave entitlements, Porter said whether people are at work or taking leave, the subsidy will “save that business and help that employee by subsidising their wage”.

Labor quibbles with this element of the package, because they believe it turns the wage subsidy into an employer subsidy.

Attorney general Christian Porter at a press conference in Parliament House on Tuesday.
Attorney general Christian Porter at a press conference in Parliament House on Tuesday. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Porter was not pleased with that.

He said:

I don’t accept it’s a saving. Employers have no business. They’re not doing very well at the moment. We’re in the middle of an economic challenge like we’ve never seen before. The $1,500 payments help the employee stay engaged to their employer, help the employer pay their employee. Whether or not they’re paying their employee in a business with next to zero work to be on leave or doing something else for a couple of hours a week. Does it really matter that much? If it saves the employee’s job and helps keep the business afloat. Is this really Labor’s argument about this?

Updated

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, will hold a press conference in about 15 minutes’ time. This is after this morning’s national cabinet meeting.

There’s expectation we could get the modelling of coronavirus cases in Australia today.

Updated

APT seeking to stop cruise ships being forced to leave Australian waters

APT Touring has taken legal action seeking to strike down a federal government order that all cruise ships leave Australian waters as soon as possible due to the coronavirus pandemic.

If successful, the move would deal a major blow to the government’s approach to the pandemic.

APT’s vessel, the Bahamas-flagged Caledonian Sky, is now moored in port at Darwin, but during a brief federal court hearing this morning it emerged that its legal action could affect all cruise ships now in Australia.

These include the virus-riddled Ruby Princess and several other large cruise ships operated by the multinational company Carnival.

On 27 March the federal government made a determination under the Biosecurity Act ordering the operators of foreign cruise ships “as soon as reasonably practicable”.

This morning, judge Angus Stewart said because APT was arguing for orders about this section of the determination, the case “potentially affects all foreign cruise vessels in Australian territory and not only the particular vessel otherwise directly affected by this case”.

APT and Border Force have been contacted for comment.

The case is to be heard next Wednesday.

Updated

All ships will be gone from Queensland tomorrow, via AAP:

All cruise ships will leave Queensland waters by Wednesday to limit the spread of COVID-19 across the state.

Nine cruise ships had been off the coast and the four that now remain have been ordered to move out of Queensland waters by one minute before midnight on Wednesday.

Health Minister Steven Miles says four of Queensland’s five fatalities from the coronavirus were from people who had been on cruise ships.

Passengers account for 119 cases of the virus in Queensland and a further six people have caught the virus from them.

“We need to stop these cruise ships coming into Queensland and bringing the virus with them,” Mr Miles said.

The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, is talking about the agreement between the unions and the government over the changes to industrial relations legislation to allow the jobkeeper payments.

He says the safeguards protecting workers will be in the legislation. The opposition and the crossbench are still waiting to see the legislation before parliament sits tomorrow to pass the package.

He also says it’s not practical for parliament to sit regularly because of all the flights needed to be organised to get there at this time.

But he says there will be a Senate select committee reviewing the government’s coronavirus response.

Updated

The Australian Taxation Office is making it easier for people to claim working-from-home expenses during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now all you will need to do is log all the hours you work at home from 1 March, and claim 80 cents an hour for that time.

People who don’t wish to do a claim that way can still do it the old way, and the ATO has said it will review this new method after this financial year.

Updated

In South Australia it is OK to do driving lessons with someone in your household.

Updated

Nine is reporting that two police officers in Sydney were fined for attending an event in the CBD on Saturday night.

Updated

The Australian Bureau of Statistics is reporting that two-thirds of Australian businesses have reported a downturn in their turnover or cashflow as a result of Covid-19.

That’s where I leave you for this morning. My colleague Josh Taylor is now on deck and will keep you up to date with any Australian Covid-19 news that might arise.

Updated

NSW Labor has called for a more extensive investigation into the handling of the Ruby Princess cruise ship.

The ship docked in Sydney on 19 March and 2,700 people were allowed to disembark even though some showed symptoms of Covid-19. There are now more than 600 cases associated with the ship, and 13 deaths.

NSW police launched a criminal investigation on Sunday.

The state’s opposition leader, Jodi McKay, today said:

We absolutely support any investigation into criminal behaviour. But, as we’ve said for a week now, we believe there needs to be a public, transparent inquiry with the powers of a royal commission.

It’s essential that this inquiry is arm’s length from government and leaves absolutely no stone unturned ...

This is a matter of public trust and I can say to you that the trust of the community has been overwhelmingly broken.

Updated

Summary

If you are just joining us now here are a few key things that have happened this morning.

  • South Australia has recorded its first Covid-19 death. A 75-year-old Adelaide man is said the have contracted the disease interstate.
  • Victoria recorded 33 new cases, a jump up from yesterday’s 23 and Sunday’s 20. There has been talk of Victoria flattening the curve; this slight uptake could be a bump in the road.
  • Victorian schools will reopen next Wednesday but the vast majority of students will be asked to learn from home. Children of essential workers and students for whom online learning isn’t an option are still able to attend school campuses.
  • NSW recorded three deaths overnight, bringing the state’s total to 21.
  • Parliament will meet tomorrow, with Anthony Albanese saying Labor will support the jobkeeper payment scheme despite concerns some casual workers will be excluded.

Updated

Scott Morrison has tweeted his well wishes to Boris Johnson. The British prime minister, who has Covid-19, was moved to intensive care overnight.

Updated

Here is a little more information about those NSW overnight Covid-19 figures I mentioned earlier.

There are now 2,686 cases in the state, an increase of 49 from yesterday, with 229 people being treated in hospital, including 37 cases in intensive care units and 24 requiring ventilators.

NSW recorded another three deaths overnight, bringing the state’s total to 21.

Updated

One thing to look out for today is the federal government releasing its modelling on different Covid-19 scenarios.

This may give the public a better sense of how different tactics work in dealing with the pandemic, including potential death tolls.

But the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, warned that these models shouldn’t be taken as law and are only tools the government is using to estimate figures.

The important thing to remember about modelling is that modelling doesn’t predict the future. It presents you with certain potential scenarios, depending on the assumptions that you input into the model ...

And it’s very important to release that sort of information in the right context. In particular in the middle of a crisis.

Calla Wahlquist and Daniel Hurst have this report on a University of Sydney model that suggests we could see new cases reduce to almost zero by July.

Updated

There has been a lot of talk about Covid-19 treatments, cures and wonder drugs, but by far the most talked-about is hydroxychloroquine.

Oliver Milman takes you through why this anti-malaria drug might not be the miracle solution some are describing it as.

Updated

There have been reports this morning of a “deal” between the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the industrial relations minister, Christian Porter, on changes needed to implement the $130bn wage subsidy jobkeeper payments.

Guardian Australia understands that negotiations are still ongoing but talks have been constructive. As Labor has already indicated it will support the package it seems a foregone conclusion that changes will be made through the Fair Work Act rather than award by award.

What has changed is the ACTU believes Porter has strengthened a clause allowing Fair Work Commission oversight of financially distressed employers’ decisions to cut or increase workers’ hours to make their hours match the $1,500 fortnightly payment.

The ACTU is still pushing for increased eligibility for casuals, which Porter has so far refused to do. I do not expect an ACTU statement endorsing the particular legislation parliament will consider on Wednesday.

Guardian Australia understands that Porter has ruled out changes to the Fair Work Act that go beyond implementing jobkeeper, so some of employers’ more daring ambit claims to suspend unfair dismissal laws have not been taken up.

Updated

This blog is looking at all the Covid-19 related news but there is, of course, another huge news story in Australia today. George Pell’s conviction has been quashed by the high court of Australia.

My colleague Luke Henriques-Gomes has all the details in another live blog.

Updated

My colleague Christopher Knaus has this report on the government’s callout for local companies to supply Covid-19 testing components.

Here’s a bit more information about the NSW healthcare funding the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, announced earlier.

The total package will provide $104m in funding for the NSW healthcare sector.

Here is a breakdown of where that money will go:

  • $58m for health worker accommodation
  • $25m for medical research and vaccine trials
  • $11m for commercialisation of research products
  • $10m of funding to partner with industry to boost domestic supply chains.

In a statement, the premier’s office specified that last $10m would go towards “working with NSW engineering, electrical and manufacturing businesses to urgently undertake pilot projects to produce ventilators and other critical medical equipment locally”.

Updated

The National Catholic Education Commission says it’s worried that staff from low-fee Catholic schools will miss out on jobkeeper payments.

Its executive director, Jacinta Collins, said:

In low fee schools, staff salaries make up the majority of school expenditure, so a loss of even 15 or 20% of fee income – well below the required 30% threshold – will have an enormous impact on our staffing provision at a time when schools are being asked to deliver both onsite and remote learning.

Jobkeeper doesn’t solve the challenges low fees schools are experiencing; we need a solution that works for the whole sector.

We are ready to work collaboratively with the government, and the rest of the sector, to come up with something effective and fair.

Updated

I know plenty of us have been reaching for the pinot when five o’clock hits but be careful, the habits you pick up in isolation might be tough to break when the country opens back up.

Brigid Delaney has the full report:

Updated

Tasmania has recorded three new cases overnight.

The state total now sits at 89, including six healthcare workers.

The premier, Peter Gutwein, says 34 Tasmanians have since recovered.

Updated

Just on the deaths from overnight.

So far we know of:

  • Two deaths in NSW, bringing the state total to 21
  • One death in Victoria, bringing the state total to 11
  • One death in South Australia, the first in the state

This brings our national death toll to 45.

Updated

There are several cruise ship now floating in Queensland waters.

The state’s health minister, Steven Miles, said in a press conference this morning that they would soon be on their way.

The cruise ships will be required to leave Queensland waters by midnight tomorrow night.

Currently we have four ships in Queensland waters, two of which have refuelled and are on their way to rendezvous and then out of Queensland waters.

One cruise ship is currently in the Brisbane port, fuelling up, and when it leaves today, the last one, Pacific Dawn, will come in to fuel and bunker up and will leave tomorrow.

Updated

South Australia records its first Covid-19 death

A 75-year-old man from metropolitan Adelaide died last night in the Royal Adelaide hospital.

Updated

For more information about schools and their role in the Covid-19 crisis, check out this report from Sally Weale.

Victoria’s education minister, James Merlino, says the government will work with families to ensure all students have the capacity to learn from home.

The vast majority of students, the vast majority of staff, will be working remotely, and we’ll have small numbers of staff and small numbers of students at each of our schools across Victoria ...

We’re gonna make sure that every child, every student, gets the support that they need. And that will be in the technology space – we’ve got around 4,000 sim cards, a thousand dongles, we’re working with internet providers ...

Every child that needs a laptop or a tablet will receive one. Every child.

Updated

Victorian schools to reopen but students urged to learn from home

Victoria’s schools will open for term 2 next Wednesday, but the premier, Daniel Andrews, has urged students to learn from home if possible.

School is going to look very different in term 2. If you can learn from home, you must learn from home.

He said there would be significant changes to year 12’s VCE studies but the Victorian government planned for all assessments and exams to be completed this year.

We’re not about years 13 or people repeating. We think that we can get this done.

Updated

Victoria records another death, bringing the state total to 11

Details of this 11th death have not yet been released.

The premier, Daniel Andrews, says the state recorded 33 positive cases overnight, a rise from the previous two days.

Updated

My colleague Michael McGowan has this report on last night’s Q+A where health workers said they were struggling to source personal protective equipment.

Updated

Mathias Cormann said although the government had moved to adjourn parliament until August it could be recalled if necessary.

We have said that we would be prepared to explore the manner and the form in which the parliament might be able to come together. But that is not entirely straightforward.

But it’s not as if we’re not able to bring the parliament back together if that is required, to deal with urgent matters. As we are doing now.

And we reached agreement with the opposition when we last sat, on the circumstances and the processes to use if the parliament had to be recalled.

Updated

The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, told ABC the government had not moved to include casual workers who have been with a company for less than 12 months in the jobkeeper payment program.

No changes to what we’ve announced. Long-term casuals, these are casuals that have been with the same employer for 12 months or more, will be covered by the jobkeeper payment ...

And if you have been working for less than 12 months and you are out of work, and then, of course, you have the opportunity to apply for jobseeker payments.

Updated

People with symptoms living in Waverley, Woollahra, Dee Why, Lake Macquarie, Manning, Nowra, Byron and Port Macquarie urged to get tested

The NSW chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, has urged anyone with symptoms in certain areas with high rates of community transmission, to get tested for Covid-19.

We take this opportunity to encourage people to come forward for testing if they’ve got symptoms in the areas Waverley, Woollahra, Dee Why, Lake Macquarie, Manning, Nowra, Byron and Port Macquarie.

In those areas, we have seen a case, or cases, of local transmission where we haven’t been able to find the source.

It is important at this time as we try and suppress the numbers of Covid-19 in the community that we basically elevate and raise testing levels in the vicinity of those areas.

Updated

NSW deaths from coronavirus rise to 21

NSW has recorded three deaths overnight, bringing the state’s total death to 21.

A 90-year-old man who died in Liverpool hosptial was a resident of the Opal Care aged facility in Bankstown. This is the second death at this facility.

An 87-year-old woman also died. She had been a passenger on the Ruby Princess cruise ship.

The third death has previously been reported – a 90-year-old man who was a resident at the Dorothy Henderson Lodge. This is the sixth death from this facility.

Forty-three people have now died in Australia.

NSW has recorded 49 new cases of Covid-19, a decrease from yesterday’s 57.

Updated

Free accomodation and parking for NSW frontline healthcare workers

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has announced a $100m package to support frontline healthcare workers, including hotel accommodation.

She also announced an additional $35m dollars which will go towards Covid-19 research.

They want to protect their families, they want to protect their loved ones, and that’s why we’re offering free accommodation and free parking for our health workers so they don’t have to worry about taking the disease home, and unintentionally passing it on to their loved ones. At least that’s one less thing for them to have to worry about.

Updated

The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, is speaking now at her morning press conference.

She has stressed that physical distancing must continue over the Easter weekend.

As you’ll hear from Dr Chant this morning, the number of new cases in New South Wales continues to stabilise and even decline. However, we are still increasingly concerned about the community-to-community transmission ...

I know for a lot of people, a lot of us had our hearts set on going on holidays or doing something we’d normally do at Easter, and we can’t this year.

Updated

The opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, has criticised the government’s move to adjourn parliament until August.

Parliaments around the world are continuing to sit. And that’s important.

We’re a democracy. And in a democracy, you don’t suspend it. It wasn’t suspended during the Spanish flu, or world war one or world war two.

This is quite an extraordinary decision that the government has made. And I think that Christian Porter, as the leader of the House, his dismissal that government ministers have better things to do than sit in parliament, was a bit breathtaking, frankly, for someone who holds that office.

It can sit in a modified form, of course, as we are tomorrow.

Updated

Shortages of personal protective equipment are creating a “catastrophic” situation among vulnerable Indigenous groups, with some services on brink of closing doors.

You can read the full report by Christopher Knaus and Lorena Allam here:

Updated

Anthony Albanese is speaking now on ABC News Breakfast.

The Labor leader says that, although he is concerned about casual workers, his party will still support the government’s stimulus package.

The changes were always going to go through, and I said we would support the package one hour after it was announced. So that was always our position. We remain concerned that 1.1 million casuals will miss out.

We were against the super changes. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to play a blocking role, because overall, the benefit of having wage subsidies is too important. So we’ll continue to argue our case.

Updated

The big news across the world today is the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, being admitted to intensive care for Covid-19 related illnesses.

A No 10 spokesman said:

Since Sunday evening, the prime minister has been under the care of doctors at St Thomas’ hospital, in London, after being admitted with persistent symptoms of coronavirus.

Over the course of this afternoon, the condition of the prime minister has worsened and, on the advice of his medical team, he has been moved to the intensive care unit at the hospital.

The PM has asked foreign secretary Dominic Raab, who is the first secretary of state, to deputise for him where necessary.

The PM is receiving excellent care, and thanks all NHS staff for their hard work and dedication.

For more updates head to the Guardian’s global live blog.

Updated

Two more Tasmanian hospital staff test positive to Covid-19

Two more staff at a hospital in Tasmania’s north-west have tested positive to the coronavirus, with authorities banning visitors from the facility.

The new cases at the North West Regional hospital in Burnie were confirmed by the state’s public health department on Monday night.

It takes the number of NWRH staff who have tested positive to six, with an inpatient also previously testing positive.

The NWRH has been closed to visitors, as has the Mersey community hospital near Devonport in the north, but exemptions exist on compassionate grounds.

The inpatient had been taken to the Mersey community hospital before he or she tested positive.

Health authorities are working to identify and contact any close contacts of the two staff with the virus.

“We acknowledge the current situation is creating concern, both for staff and for the community,” said the chief medical officer, Tony Lawler.

All emergency patients from the Devonport region will be transported to Launceston general hospital as a temporary measure.

Tasmania has recorded 89 virus cases and two deaths, one of them an elderly woman at the NWRH last month.

– Reporting by Australian Associated Press

Updated

Summary

Good morning and welcome to today’s Australian coverage of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. We will bring you all the latest updates today, including from the meeting of education ministers who will discuss what to do about final-year assessments for year 12 students whose education has been disrupted by the crisis.

Here’s where things landed yesterday:

  • Australia has now recorded 41 Covid-19 deaths after health officials confirmed six new deaths on Monday – three in NSW, two in Victoria and one in Western Australia.
  • A 90-year-old man who died on Monday night was a resident at the Dorothy Henderson Lodge in western Sydney. He is the sixth resident from the aged care home to die after contracting the virus.
  • An 84-year-old man who died in Western Australia had been a passenger onboard the Ruby Princess cruise ship. He is the 12th person who sailed on the ship to die.
  • The NSW government said Airbnb had not been banned in the state, after earlier reports quoted a spokesperson from his office saying the rental accomodation site was now “illegal”.

Updated

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