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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Calla Wahlquist and Amy Remeikis

Queensland man dies from Covid-19 as NSW warns of fines or jail– as it happened

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Recap of the day's coronavirus news

This is where we will leave our rolling coverage for the night. You can follow our ongoing global coverage here.

To recap on what happened in Australia today:

If you want a summary of the day’s news in Australia, read this.

Thanks for your company. We will see you in the morning.

Updated

Queensland Health issued this statement about the 68-year-old man who died from Covid-19 on the Darling Downs.

The 68-year-old man had a serious underlying medical condition before contracting the virus, Queensland Health offers its sincere condolences to his family.

The man’s family remain in isolation as close contacts.

It’s the second death from Covid-19 in Queensland after a 77-year-old Sunshine Coast woman with an underlying medical condition passed away in Sydney.

We’d also just like to correct our earlier post, which said the man was 69 years old. Our apologies.

Updated

Queensland man dies from Covid-19: report

A Queensland man has reportedly died from Covid-19. It brings the number of deaths from the disease in Australia to nine.

No new people will be placed on the cashless debit card until pressure on the Centrelink system is relieved, the social services minister, Anne Ruston, has said.

In a statement released a short time ago, Ruston said the government was “placing a temporary pause on placing new eligible participants” on the card in existing trial sites. The card operates in the East Kimberley, Ceduna, the Goldfields and Bundaberg/Hervey Bay.

She said this would help Services Australia focus its resources on processing new claims for welfare payments, as more than 2.6m people try to access Centrelink services because their employment has been shut down by social distancing restrictions.

Said Ruston:

The government’s absolute priority is to make sure eligible Australians can access the financial support they need as we face of devastating job losses across the country.

We remain committed to the cashless debit card trials which are aimed at reducing social harm associated with drugs, alcohol and gambling addiction and helping people to manage their finances.

However, during this challenging time we must make difficult decisions about how to best prioritise Services Australia’s workforce.

People who are already on the cashless debit card will continue to have the bulk of their income quarantined – including the $750 coronavirus supplement.

Updated

Forty-six new cases in Queensland, bringing state total to 433

Queensland has released its nightly update, adding 46 new cases of Covid-19 and bringing the state total to 433. That sounds like a lot, but it’s a significant decrease in the number of new cases from Tuesday, when the number of cases went up by 78.

Twenty of the new cases are in the Brisbane area, bringing the total number of cases there to 228. Eight are on the Gold Coast, bringing the number of cases there to 87.

The Queensland border will be closed to non-essential travel from 12.01pm.

“Anyone trying to enter Queensland particularly by road on the Gold Coast can expect significant delays from tonight,” the state disaster coordinator, deputy commissioner Steve Gollschewski, said in a release issued earlier today.

Anyone who enters Queensland after 12.01pm must isolate for 14 days, unless they’re an exempt person.

Updated

Meanwhile, the Tasmanian parliament is currently considering legislation that includes a moratorium on rental evictions for non-payment of rent while the state-of-emergency declaration remains in place.

The amendments are included in the Covid-19 disease emergency (miscellaneous provisions) bill.

They state that a person cannot be evicted because of failure to pay rent. A person can still be evicted at the end of a lease.

However, the amendments also say that either an owner or a tenant can apply to the residential tenancy commissioner for a fixed-term lease to be terminated, without penalty, if allowing it to continue would cause “severe hardship to the owner or tenant”. The severe hardship must be caused by the coronavirus.

That application to terminate can be appealed, but if not appealed it comes into effect within seven days.

Updated

Local government elections in NSW have been postponed, AAP reports:

A total of 126 councils were scheduled to hold elections in September to appoint councillors and in some cases mayors.

However, following the outbreak of Covid-19, the elections will now be postponed, likely until 2021.

Local government minister Shelley Hancock confirmed the decision on Wednesday.

“To provide certainty to councils, communities and potential candidates, the NSW government has made the decision to postpone the September local government elections in the face of the Covid-19 crisis,” Ms Hancock said in the email seen by AAP.

Updated

As you read this, the national cabinet is meeting. Again. On the agenda tonight is the possibility of offering some rental relief, which we understand may not be finalised until Friday, as well as ongoing conversations about resourcing the Australian health system.

But unlike last night, Scott Morrison is not scheduled to hold a press conference after the meeting. We are not expecting new social distancing rules or shutdowns to be announced at this stage.

Updated

The National Covid-19 Coordination Commission has released its first media statement.

The commission’s newly-appointed chairman, Neville Power, a former chief executive of Fortescue Metals and chairman of Perth Airport, said his aim was to help “businesses, jobs, and livelihoods through the Covid-19 pandemic”.

He said:

The role of the commission is to minimise and mitigate the impact of the coronavirus on our businesses, our communities and our people.

I was honoured to have been called upon by the prime minister for this important role. I see my job as working closely with businesses to prioritise and solve problems to support as many businesses and jobs as we can.

Where there is a workforce that is no longer gainfully employed, we want to find a place where that workforce is needed. Where there is idle equipment, we want to find a way to repurpose it. And where we have capacity in our supply chains, we want to make sure it is fully utilised.

Power said the commission would work closely with chief medical officer Professor Brendan Murphy and the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee.

It would be “mobilising and coordinating public, private and not-for-profit effort”, Power said.

Updated

Rules around childcare attendance loosened

The education minister, Dan Tehan, has also spoken to Radio National.

On childcare, Tehan revealed children will be allowed “an additional 20 absences” between now and 30 June, allowing parents to keep their children home for social distancing without penalty in terms of losing their place or subsidy. That brings the total number of allowable absences to 62.

Asked if the government could waive the gap between subsidies and childcare costs, Tehan did not rule it out.

On schools, Tehan referred to constructive discussions between the Australian Education Union and Scott Morrison on Wednesday.

He didn’t give away the outcomes, save to say:

We want to make sure teachers who are teaching in schools at this time are not vulnerable to the coronavirus. Teachers of a certain age, with respiratory issues or other medical issues, are more vulnerable than fit, healthy and younger teachers.

Updated

Foreign minister Marise Payne is on Radio National to discuss the travel ban and difficulties Australians are having returning from abroad.

Payne said that “as of 1200 hours” Australian citizens and residents could not travel overseas, subject to a limited list of exemptions for people ordinarily resident overseas, and essential workers including freight and the ADF. There was also a discretion for medical treatment, compassionate grounds and aid workers.

Payne said the charter flight aiming to bring Australians back from Peru had not left, explaining the severe restrictions on travel Peru has imposed, with only four flights a day leaving from one military airport. Payne revealed the government was working with a company called Chimu to get a flight out on Friday, but warned that not all Australians would be able to come back on the first flight.

Payne said the options for Australians overseas had been “diminishing”, which is why Dfat advised on 13 March that Australians should reconsider the need to travel, and on the 17th asked Australians to return home.

She said:

This is an unprecedented scale of global interruption – and no matter where you look, it’s getting bigger not smaller.

There have been 18,500 calls since 13 March to Dfat’s consular emergency call centre.

Payne suggested the government was leaning on airlines and insurers to be reasonable in pricing and payouts, and left the door open to helping stranded Australians pay for flights, with prices shooting up to thousands of dollars for economy flights.

Updated

The ADF has reportedly issued a call to reservists asking if they are able to help respond to Covid-19.

A breast cancer screening program in Victoria has been suspended to protect staff and clients from exposure to the coronavirus, and to allow medical staff at the clinic to help with surge demand in public hospitals.

In a statement, BreastScreen Victoria said all appointments at its 42 statewide clinics, including the mobile screening service, had been cancelled from today and no new bookings will be taken.

It said:

The closure will also allow BSV to release clinicians to support Covid-19 surge demand; reduce the demand on personal protective equipment which would otherwise be required if we continue to operate, and to reduce the demand on the acute sector from referrals for treatment.

BSV has carefully considered the clinical risks around temporary closure and for clients with no symptoms, the risk of developing breast cancer during this short period is very low. We recommend that clients have a breast screen every two years, and most women who attend a breast screening receive an all-clear.

All clients will be contacted to re-schedule their appointments once it is safe to re-open. Any clients who have been called back for additional tests (assessment) after screening will receive further information about their appointments.

Anyone who notices a change in their breast conditions in the meantime has advised to contact their GP “without delay”.

Updated

More than 280,000 people have already lodged an ‘intent to claim’ a welfare payment at 2.30pm today, the government services minister, Stuart Robert, has said.

As Centrelink and the MyGov website faced a third day of massive demand, Robert also announced Services Australia was currently training 1,500 new staff, who were scheduled to start from Monday.

Said Robert:

We urge people who are already on a payment not to contact Services Australia at this time so we can focus on supporting people who are now out of work.

If you’re already on a payment that is eligible for the Economic Support Payment or the Coronavirus Supplement you do not need to do anything – you will get paid automatically.

The government announced from today it would allow people to register their interest to apply for a welfare payment. The Intent to Claim function means that an applicant will be backpaid from the day they contact Centrelink, rather than when they complete their claim.

Robert said the agency was further upgrading MyGov’s capacity, after it experienced outages over the past two days.

Today, we have facilitated 2.6 million logins to myGov.

To put this in perspective, the previous busiest day for myGov was during the July 2019 taxtime period, where the peak was 1.8 million logins in one single day.

Robert said claimants no longer have to provide separation certificates to apply for Jobseeker Payment, an issue that has been raised with Guardian Australia as recently as Wednesday afternoon.

He said:

We’re both discouraging people from visiting service centres while also providing information to people in queues about the other ways to access support.

People can lodge an intent to claim through myGov in minutes and Services Australia will contact them to help finalise their payment. They do not need to come into a service centre to obtain a CRN or provide Proof of Identity documents.

If people have any trouble claiming JobSeeker Payment, they should call us on 132 850 and we can help finalise details over the phone, however, there may be a delay.

We’ve extended Services Australia phone line hours (all times local): Monday to Friday from 8am to 8pm and on weekends from 9am to 5pm.

You will recall that, as per the new rules announced by Scott Morrison last night, all weddings conducted in Australia after midnight tonight will be restricted to five people, including the couple and the celebrant.

Well, it has been reported – although these photos are hardly conclusive, and I don’t know when the wedding was originally planned for – that Bindi Irwin, who I have just learned is 21 years old, has bumped up her nuptials to get around the guest limit.

As Hack’s Shalailah Medhora notes, the bans on mass gatherings and other social distancing rules are already in place. So if it’s an outdoor gathering, as this image suggests, Irwin’s guest list will be capped at 500, including staff, and all guests will be required to stand 1.5m apart like they are on the tarmac in a classic Backstreet Boys video clip.

Indoor gatherings are limited to 100 people, or four square metres of floor space per person, whichever limit is hit first.

Updated

South Australia has recorded 27 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number of cases to 197.

And the state’s chief health officer, associated professor Nicola Spurrier, has told anyone who was at a particular Barossa Valley winery on 14 March to self-isolate and get “promptly tested”.

Two of the people who tested positive – a 68-year-old man and a 76-year-old woman – are in intensive care.

Spurrier said authorities in SA were also managing two clusters of infections, the largest of which, with 25 people testing positive to Covid-19, were passengers who had returned from the Ruby Princess cruise ship.

The other cluster is at Lyndock Hill Winery in the Barossa Valley.

I would like to urge anybody who was at Lyndock Winery on after 14 March to isolate themselves and to get promptly tested. Lindock Winery has has been closed and there are a number of staff who have indeed tested positive.

Among the new cases are a young woman who attended a lecture at the University of South Australia’s Magill campus “whilst infectious”, Spurrier said.

This is a really important message to people and I have said this before: if you are sick and feeling unwell at all, you are not to go out to attend classes or lectures if they are still being provided, to attend work if your workplace is still in operation, or go and see people who are vulnerable. You must stay at home. Stay well away from everybody.

Spurrier said SA had conducted more than 20,000 tests for Covid-19, and authorities were in daily contact with 1,300 people who are contacts of known cases to check if they have developed symptoms.

Updated

Supermarkets in New South Wales will be able to trade 24/7 to “guarantee communities have access to essential goods at all times during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the NSW government has said.

Planning minister Rob Stokes said the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 was amended today to override normal planning controls restricting hours of operations.

He said:

The focus of our first order is giving people flexibility to visit their local supermarket, pharmacy or corner store at any time of day if those retail premises choose to operate for extended hours.

This means the community will have access to food, medical supplies and essential household goods whenever they need it.

Stores will also be able to dispose of their waste at any time of day, rather than during restricted hours, to dispose of the significant and sudden increase in stock.

Updated

Horse racing has been suspended in Victoria because a member of the industry is being tested for Covid-19.

In a statement this afternoon, Racing Victoria said all race meets scheduled for today and tomorrow had been suspended while they await the test results.

The person was on the same flight as a confirmed case of Covid-19, on 12 March. They were notified of the risk by Victorian health authorities today, but do not currently have any symptoms.

At this stage, the suspension only affects three race meets — Sandown today, and Kilmore and Pakenham tomorrow.

Racing Victoria said:

Those people who have had close contact with the licensed participant are being contacted throughout this afternoon.

In the event that the participant’s test is negative, RV will be seeking to resume racing. A further update will be provided tomorrow on the progress of the test and whether racing can resume on Friday.

I am going to sign off now, and hand you over to Calla Wahlquist.

I’ll be back early tomorrow morning. Take care of you.

New Zealand warned of this about 48 hours ago – it looks like it is moving to its “Alert 4” level, which means residents must stay inside, while all public spaces are closed. Grocery shops and petrol stations remain open, but that is about it.

The national cabinet will meet tonight, to discuss, among other things, the rental assistance package.

That was meant to be last night’s discussion, after the states were told to go away and see what they could come up with, but was pushed to tonight.

We understand there will be NO press conference this evening, with any announcements to come tomorrow.

Pushed on the terminology of “government largesse”, in a time of economic crisis, because of a pandemic, Eric Abetz says:

Well, let’s get this into perspective. When businesses are asking for 80% of their wages bill to be covered by the taxpayer, I think that can be seen in that context.

In relation to people seeking to survive, the government has, of course, made the very appropriate decisions, in relation to enhancing the payments with not only one-off payments but enhanced regular payments for the next few months or so.

So let’s keep those two separate and, of course, those outside the Centrelink offices, our hearts go out to them, we feel for them and this is something nobody predicted. But the national cabinet, which consists of ministers and the prime minister, are working through this together in a way that I think is a great credit to them all.

Updated

Liberal senator Eric Abetz, is talking to Patricia Karvelas on the ABC. He is asked about the call for the UK’s wage guarantee to be applied to Australia (the unions are banding together to call for up to 80% in wages to be subsidised by the government, to keep employees on) and says, “I’ve never known a business or a union that does not want some form of government largesse.”

So the government I think is handling this in the right and appropriate manner.

That is, to take it step-by-step, day-by-day, on the advice that is the best available, be it medical or economic, from our chief medical officers or from the Treasury department.

Look, I’ve never known a business or a union that does not want some form of government largesse.

What you have to have here is a cool head, practical head and ensure that there will be money to go around at the end of this as well.

We don’t know how long this is going to last for.

Therefore prudence is the best approach and I think our national cabinet, which, might I add, is dominated by Labor. There are five Labor representatives and four Liberal representatives. They have, I think, to their great credit, worked together for the benefit of the makes, coming out with a decision on a daily or two-daily basis and I that’s what we ought to be doing. Not trying to second-guess.

Updated

In the United States, the NYT has reported the Senate and White House have agreed on a $2 trillion stimulus plan, with a hope it will be enacted “in days”

The retail association lobby group head, Russell Zimmerman, says there is a further issue for fashion retailers, as Australia begins to emerge from the Covid-19 crisis.

There’s not going to be a lot of spare money, if I can put it that way, to go out and buy the retailers.

A lot of the retailer also have received an incredibly large amount of winter stock.

They probably won’t, or probably not, they will not have been able to sell that and by the time this is all over, it will be summertime.

What will they do with the millions and millions of dollars’ worth of stock that’s on their shelf, can’t sell it because we’ve gone into a summer season, and then the retailers won’t be able to buy the stock for summer either.

We’re in a very precarious position.

The Australian stock market leapt suddenly in last-minute trade to close up 5.5% on Wednesday.

Earlier, the market opened strongly after extraordinarily surges on Wall St overnight, before drifting lower during the afternoon.

Buy-now-pay-later outfit Afterpay, which has been smashed by the coronavirus outbreak, surged a third to become the biggest gainer among top 200 companies.

Australia’s flag carrier Qantas recorded the second-biggest rise, of 26%, after successfully raising a $1.05bn line of credit by mortgaging some of its planes.

Updated

Russell Zimmerman says some retailers would prefer if the government just shut down the sector, full stop, while the Covid-19 crisis happens:

There’s a large number of retailers, particularly in the clothing, footwear and personal accessories that would like to see the industry closed down. I hear clearly what the prime minister said last night on TV.

He was very clear that ‘be careful what you wish for and we have to try to keep industry going’.

There’s a balancing act for the prime minister to do here. If he wants to keep retailing open, that’s fine: If he wants to keep the jobs there, that’s fine. If he hopes that the industry is going to be able to afford to pay those people, I don’t think that’s going to be possible moving forward.

Updated

The executive director of the Australian Retail Association, Russell Zimmerman, says there needs to be a special bailout package for Australia’s retail sector. He tells the ABC:

We are asking for an underwriting of a line of credit for retailers, subject to the criteria being determined, to ensure a continuation of trade.

We’re asking for guarantee of rent payments from retailers to landlords by the federal government identifying rent reduction measures in conjunction with the landlords and also asking for an Australian retail industry rescue package taskforce with the SDA, ARA, the government and all relevant bodies to assist.

Updated

Queensland is preparing for its border lockdown at midnight.

From AAP:

Motorists need to be patient at border crossings where priority will be given to essential service and emergency vehicles, says State Disaster Coordinator Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski.

He says they are still working through the logistics of supplying passes to residents along the NSW-Qld border, in particular those in Tweed Heads and Coolangatta where only a street divides the states.

The border crossing ban includes pedestrians.

“Even people with an exemption, it is going to take time to get across the border. There will be lengthy delays. My plea is to show patience,” he said.

“Vehicle passes to cross the border ... won’t be ready tonight

“The same exemptions apply whether you are walking across the road, walking across the border at Tweed Heads or coming in on a boat.”

He said police officers will be stationed at passenger arrival gates at Gold Coast Airport to brief passengers on their obligations, if required to self-isolate, and determine if they meet criteria to be exempt.

Kristina Keneally is speaking to ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, and again says the government needs to simplify its message:

The government needs to send a clear and simple message. The more people stay home, the fewer people who will die.

And the press release:

The Public Health Act 2010 (NSW) provides NSW police with the power to enforce these orders. It is an offence for a person to fail to comply with an order, and severe penalties apply.

Following the NSW government’s recent amendment to the legislation, police will have the additional power to issue penalty infringement notices (PINs) to anyone found to be in contravention of a ministerial direction.

PINs carry on-the-spot fines of $1,000 for individuals and $5,000 for businesses.

This is in addition to the existing enforcement powers available to officers, which include issuing court attendance notices with a maximum penalty of up to $11,000 and/or six month’s imprisonment for individuals.

So under those new restrictions, if police found people gathering inside a shop, outside of the one person per 4sqm rule, they could fine the business $5,000 and the customers $1,000 each.

Updated

NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller says those who don’t isolate for 14 days when ordered to, and are found outside the house, you can be fined $1,000 and possibly charged and face six months in jail.

Also under enforcement – public spaces which have been banned, operating businesses which have been shut down, and gatherings in numbers outside the allowable groups.

Extra police have been put on to enforce the new measures.

Updated

NSW announces on the spot fines/jail terms for breaking new restrictions

The NSW government has authorised its police to fine people or corporations or businesses for ignoring the physical distancing rules.

The police minister, David Elliott, says following on from the prime minister last night, the parliament has introduced new penalties for breaking social distancing laws.

We need to kill this virus before it kills us.

... Not only will you be liable for an on-the-spot fine if you are found guilty of any offences related to social distancing, you could find yourself in jail for up to six months.

You could find – there will be an increase in police paroles including the increase in that I just mentioned and, of course, it will also mean random checks for people whose intelligence we have received may be in breach of the quarantine laws or any other laws that we have brought about in the last couple of days.

This government doesn’t like introducing this sort of legislation. In fact, we made sure there will be, in many respects, a sunset clause on it.

But it is quite clear from the behaviour of the beachgoers on Saturday in Bondi, it has been quite clear to me over the last couple of days with photos and media reports of people who have been blatantly ignoring the law that we have to keep going one step further.

Updated

Michael Gunner says the new restrictions will be enforced with “common sense”.

A simple rule can be too blunt and you need flexibility at the state level to manage that. The hairdressers one is a bit unique.

Now, I just want to be clear on this, we have asking people to have their hair cut quickly. I am not going to arrest people for having 31 or 32 minutes to a hair cut and I don’t want to be the guy who sentences every woman in the Northern Territory to a short back and sides.

We are now discussing it with other chief medical officers and discussing that. We are trying to be as practical as possible in how we go about saving people.

I’m, I guess I’m bringing a sense of Territory common sense to the decisions. I am not the only one, I don’t own common sense but we are working to get a good result for the country or the territory that sees people’s lives practically saved.

Updated

The jobs Michael Gunner are talking about, are in the industries which have to continue – which include agriculture (Queensland is doing something similar)

It is a bit of a gut punch when you see the people at the Centrelink queue.

My parents taught me the dignity of a job.

You want to go to work.

We moved around chasing work. I went to nine different schools chasing work.

Sometimes mum was the sole bread winner. Dad did everything, digging holes for Newcrest, a hotel cleaner. He did what he had to do.

But there were times when dad had to go on the dole and there was a sense of shame and I want to say to my Dad who was humiliate because he was in the Centrelink queue and he didn’t have a job. It’s not your fault.

Our country is going through a massive shock wave right now. We’ve got leaders across this country making decisions how can we save lives.

We won’t get everything right. But we’re trying as hard as we can to control coronavirus in the Northern Territory and people don’t die, to control coronavirus in this country and people don’t die.

So, I’m sorry, some of the decisions we’ve made have seen people out of work. We have made the decisions seriously, with deep consideration to save lives.

It is at the heart of it. It is what drives National Cabinet, how to save lives and get through the next six months and follow medical advice.

We are trying to create you a job right now in the midst of this and there will be jobs available on the other side of the six months. The Northern Territory will still be here in six months time. What I’m doing an everything I can to to make sure you are with me in six months

The NT chief minister is addressing media, and says the territory government is doing what it can to help people into new jobs, following the shut down of entire industries overnight:

For those who don’t know where their next dollar is coming from, we want to find you work. We have worked with the chamber of commerce and have a new jobs hub in the territory.

Go there, please,list yourself as a casual worker who is available.

Employers are going to go there and say we are looking for workers and try to make it as quick and easy to get to a job.

The farmers federation are flagging 2,000 jobs picking fruit this year. I know a lot of people, fruit picking ain’t what they want to do but it is a job and we will help you get the job if you want the job. We want to make it quick and easy. There is hope now. We will get through this. We will get to the other side. All we’re asking right now is be the best Territorians you can be.

Australian Academy of Science calls for Covid-19 modelling to be released

The academy says it is time to get more scientists on board:

The academy’s fellows are doing all they can to contribute their scientific expertise to help decision makers, directly or indirectly, in the national and global interest. Indeed, their lifetime work is today paramount to the efforts to understand Covid-19, to chart its evolution and to find anti-viral treatments and ultimately a vaccine that will restore our wellbeing and way of life.

Australia must make full use of leading scientists’ expertise to deepen our understanding of Covid-19 and to sharpen our response. That is why the Australian government must make public the scientific evidence that is informing its thinking. Importantly, the open publication of data and evidence supporting government decisions will allow all scientific knowledge to be brought to bear to solve this global crisis.

A model for Australia to follow is that adopted in the UK, where the scientific evidence supporting the UK government response to Covid-19 is published by the UK Government Office for Science, led by the chief science adviser.

Adopting such a model will place in the public domain the scientific evidence that is shaping the recommendation of the health and medical professions advising Australian governments. It should include findings and results of published and unpublished data.

In addition, in a fast-moving situation such as this, transparency must be at the core of government responses. It is critical that the public has confidence that governments are basing their decisions on the most up-to-date scientific advice and evidence.

While Australian governments have correctly been listening to and acting on the advice of health and medical professions and rightly taking into account the economic impact of their actions, more could be done by publishing the data and evidence underpinning their response.

The academy calls on the Australian government to publish the scientific evidence that is supporting its decisions so the scientific knowhow of the nation can be brought to bear.

Only science will solve this.

Updated

The Australian National University (ANU) is shutting its campus as of Monday.

It does not plan on reopening it until 27 June. At least.

Updated

NSW Health has put out its official announcement for the day, laying out cases.

There have been NO new cases from the Ruby Princess cruise ship (the first time that has happened in days).

As at 8pm Tuesday 24 March 2020, an additional 211 cases of Covid-19 have been diagnosed since 8pm 23 March, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in NSW to 1029.

New South Wales has received its first cases of Covid-19 in children under 10 years old, with a two-month-old boy and a seven-year-old girl testing positive. The two children are unrelated and the cases are separate.

The two-month-old boy was already in home isolation as a close contact of an adult diagnosed with Covid-19 and the baby is presently displaying only mild symptoms.

The seven-year-old girl was also in home isolation as a known close contact of two adult cases. She did not attended school while symptomatic.

There are currently 10 Covid-19 cases in our intensive care units and of those cases, only four require ventilators at this stage.

There have been no increases in cases diagnosed in NSW from the Ruby Princess. Presently the number of confirmed cases is 105 in NSW [revised down from 107].

The Sydney Church of Christ service on 8 March at Ryde Civic Centre attended by more than 300 people now has 13 positive cases. Identified close contacts are in self-isolation.

There has been one new confirmed case in both the Quakers Hill and Bankstown Opal Care facilities. NSW Health is following up all close and casual contacts of both confirmed cases and both facilities are in lockdown.

Updated

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is also allowing medical tech companies to start talking to each other to ensure supplies reach where they need to be:

Medical technology companies will be allowed to work together to coordinate the supply and potential manufacture in Australia of ventilators, testing kits, personal protective equipment and other medical equipment needed to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The ACCC has granted interim authorisation to the Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA) to allow its members and other groups, such as suppliers or distributors of medical equipment, to share information between each other, co-ordinate orders and supply requests, prioritise requests and jointly tender to supply Covid-19 medical equipment.

“Our decision will help companies urgently address potential shortages or other constraints on the supply of crucial medical equipment,” ACCC chair Rod Sims said.

“This supports government efforts to ensure governments and health services are able to provide a coordinated response to the pandemic.”

The interim authorisation allows MTAA members and others to coordinate the manufacture and supply of equipment, and exchange information so that potential supply shortages can be addressed more quickly.

Updated

WA restricts alcohol sales

Western Australia is restricting its alcohol sales, because it can’t have its police and emergency services responding to alcohol-fueled instances while they are trying to keep the border in lockdown and ensure people are self-isolating.

The new alcohol restrictions are:

Any person, per day, may purchase one carton of beer or one carton of cider or premixed spirits,

OR

three bottles of wine,

OR

one litre of spirits or one litre of fortified wine.

Buyers may purchase a combination of any two of those packages.

The WA police commissioner, Chris Dawson, said:

This is a sensible precaution while we’re in a state of emergency. This is all about public safety and assurance. We know it’s a stressful time for our community and we don’t want people buying to excess. We have seen that happen with other foods and supplies and I have had reports of people filling shopping trolleys right up with alcohol, and this is a sensible precaution.

WA is keen to stress this is not prohibition, as residents can still buy up to 100 standard drinks a day under the new restrictions.

Updated

Of the 205 cases in WA, 47 caught the virus on a cruise ship.

Western Australia has had another 30 people diagnosed overnight with Covid-19, bringing the state’s total to 205.

Eight of those cases are in regional WA.

Updated

Mark McGowan:

As you already know, another ship, the Vasco De Gama, is due to arrive on Friday, carrying 950 passengers and 550 crew; 800 Australians, including 200 West Australians, are onboard; 109 New Zealanders are onboard.

The remaining are from other countries, including 33 from the United Kingdom.

We are currently determining, with the commonwealth, if some of the international passengers are in fact permanent residents of Australia.

Fremantle is the final port of call for this cruise ship.

It has always been the plan for passengers to disembark in Fremantle.

At last night’s state disaster council meeting, we finalised a plan to deal with this fast-evolving situation. The plan is this: all crew and foreign nationals will remain on the ship until arrangements are made to fly them directly out of the country.

They will not be allowed to disembark at any time, unless it is to travel under strict supervision directly to the airport, or they need urgent medical attention to survive.

Passengers who need to travel home to New Zealand will also remain on the ship and a plan is being worked up with the New Zealand government to get those passengers back home as safely as possible.

All Australians, including the West Australians, will be immediately transferred to Rottnest Island for 14 days of self-isolation.

In the last two days, we have cleared the island of visitors and made arrangements for accommodation, catering and security.

We are exercising the Rottnest option now for two reasons: one, to protect the safety of the Australian passengers; and two, to protect the West Australian community from any possible infection, transmission from this cruise ship. This is an evolving situation and it is rapidly changing.

Updated

The WA premier lays out the new cruise ship guidelines:

Last night the ship requested assistance with health assessments and Covid-19 testing.

Health department officials are now on board providing medical checks and testing. We will receive that advice later today.

I have been in contact with the federal government, as has the police commissioner, for immediate assistance to deal with these two cruise ships.

We have seen what has happened in Sydney Harbour. It was a complete and utter disaster. I will not allow that to happen in WA. There are no circumstances where we will allow passengers or crew to wander the streets in our state.

Updated

Mark McGowan, the premier of Western Australia, has an update on cruise ships due to dock in Fremantle, or in the case of the international ship the Magnifica, have already docked.

The Magnifica left Fremantle yesterday after refuelling.

Overnight I have been advised the Dubai government has told the ship it won’t be allowed to dock in Dubai.

The ship headed back to Fremantle and, under our direction, is being held offshore at anchor.

No passengers will be allowed to disembark in Fremantle. I cannot be clearer.

We will allow it, we will require it to remain at anchor until the ship leaves.

I repeat: no-one will be allowed to disembark unless a passenger is in a life-threatening emergency, where they will receive medical attention.

Last night we were advised that the Artana cruise ship, which was due to arrive at Fremantle for refuelling only, is now reporting illness on board.

The latest advice I have is around 25 passengers and crew have reported respiratory symptoms.

I also understand one passenger who is no longer on the ship tested positive with Covid-19. There are more than 800 passengers on board and 500 crew. There are no Australians on board. The ship is required to remain at anchor off our coast.

Updated

There are growing concerns about the viability of local government elections in Queensland scheduled for this Saturday.

Two state byelections – for the seats of Bundamba and Currumbin – will also take place.

The state premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has said the elections will continue, based on health advice. Large numbers of people have pre-polled and more than 100,000 people have applied for a postal vote.

“If anyone is feeling unwell they should not attend,” Palaszczuk said at a press conference this afternoon.

Concern remains that border closures and orders to self-isolate will actively disenfranchise people who had not applied for a postal vote before the deadline.

Trina Massey, the Greens candidate for Brisbane’s central ward, told Guardian Australia that if the election were to continue, deadlines for phone and postal voting should be extended.

We have strong concerns that certain demographics will be especially disenfranchised during this election, particularly voters under 30 who are so worried about job losses and paying the rent that they don’t even realise there’s an election on, and voters aged 60-plus who are more likely to be completely self-isolating.

The state government has said clearly that the election is still going ahead and it seems there’s nothing we can do about that, other than to remind people that who they vote for in the next few days will end up leading the city for at least the next four years during a very tumultuous period.

Electoral law expert Graeme Orr said elections would be valid, even if people were actively disenfranchised, because Australians do not have a constitutionally-protected individual right to vote.

I had expected they would postpone them by now and converted them to all-mail. It does seem that there will be a record low turnout.

Updated

The local government election in Queensland, and the two byelections, both scheduled for this Saturday, WILL go ahead, Annastacia Palaszczuk says.

If you feel sick, she tells voters, stay home.

Updated

The event that has resulted in 17 more cases of Covid-19 in Queensland was a 50th birthday party at Noosa.

Annastacia Palaszczuk:

My understanding was it was one party and then what happened was some of the workers continued to work and they didn’t know at the time that they had been infected and it has become a cluster, but people had then gone to other parts of the state and interstate.

I think this is a really clear example everyone about why we can no longer have parties.

The time for parties has to stop now. I want it to be a strong message for all age groups out there: you cannot do this, guys. You cannot do this now and in the foreseeable future. The time for partying will be when we get through this coronavirus. This is a very clear example of what not to do.

Updated

The Australian market has been sliding back all day after a strong start that saw the benchmark ASX200 index jump 5.8% at the opening bell.

Shortly after 2pm the index was up by just 2.3% compared to Tuesday’s closing price, driven down by a steady stream of company announcements revealing the damage the coronavirus crisis is doing to the economy.

So far today ASX-listed companies have announced the dismissal or stand-down of almost 24,000 staff, including 8,000 stood down at Virgin Australia, which has reduced its operations to almost nothing, and 8,100 at Star Entertainment, which has shut its casinos in order to comply with new social distancing rules.

In addition, Crown Resorts stood down 10,000 employees on Monday, according to the United Workers Union, and Qantas did the same to 20,000 staff last week.

With dole queues stretching around the corner in some suburbs, the job losses in the listed sector are clearly just the tip of the iceberg.

Updated

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says a “cluster” of people have been infected from one event – people going to dinner at a Noosa restaurant, called Sails, on 14 March.

We now know that there has been a cluster of 17 people that have tested positive from this one event.

That event, my understanding is, was on 14 March. That 17 also includes four staff members.

Now, what is very important is I hope people can understand from events such as this, where people are congregating closely together and interacting, that this is how coronavirus can spread.

We have seen that, of course, in other cases, such as cruise ships and, of course, other events that have happened in other parts of our state.

But it is a very clear signal to everyone that this is now not the time to socialise, it is the time to keep your distance.

Updated

To recap that, there are now 2,252 cases across Australia, which includes the overnight spike in NSW cases.

Updated

'This is a wake-up call'

On the person in their 30s in the ICU in Victoria, the deputy chief medical officer says it is a “wake-up call” that the novel coronavirus is not just an illness that impacts the elderly:

I think it’s a real wake-up call. I’m obviously not going to talk about that specific case, but young people ... it’s pretty clear the very, very young don’t get sick a lot.

Of the countries that we have been able to get data from, and it’s very much reflected in the Australian data, about 2% [of cases] are up to teenage years.

A large number of the cases, mostly mild, are in those middle-year age groups, and the others are 60 and above.

But that does not mean that there are not severe cases in the middle ages. So 30-, 40-, 50-year-old people have been in ICU in other countries.

There is one case now in Australia. This is a wake-up call. No one is immune to this. Many of us will get sick from it.

Some of us will get severely sick and end up in hospital. Some will need to be in intensive care.

And some of us, as we’ve seen already, unfortunately, will pass away from this disease.

So it’s a real wake-up call for the individual health, but also to take our responsibility to others.

This is a great opportunity for Australians to pull together to defeat this thing.

Updated

On the Queensland local government elections going ahead (and two byelections) this weekend, Dr Paul Kelly says:

Obviously, local government elections in Queensland are a matter for the Queensland government to consider, not me. And I’m here to give the health advice.

So the health advice, the health component of that I will give is that if this was going to go ahead, that would be a potential for a major mixing event.

So first thing, anyone who is sick should not be going to vote, at least in person. Second of all, people should keep their distance. And third of all, probably if the voting, as part of that, if the voting area is full of people, perhaps come back later.

The Queensland chief medical officer has given the same advice. The elections are going ahead, but pre-poll has been opened for longer hours (and there were some postal vote changes).

Updated

Dr Paul Kelly says he believes there have been too many voices:

Again, we’ve heard a number of competing voices over the last 24 hours or so.

I think that it needs to be very much clarified. All of the expertise, and that includes the Victorian chief health officer on the AHPPC [medical expert panel], agrees on what has to be done to defeat this virus.

That’s what I was talking about before.

We’ve turned off the tap at the border.

We’re increasing our hygiene messages. We’re increasing social distancing; decreasing the ... numbers of interactions.

All states and territories and all of the federal government about the measures. What is at dispute is essentially two schools of thought.

One is: go hard and go fast. And the other one is about scalable proportional response. I’m a scalable, proportional responder – so is the rest of AHPPC.

Victoria wants to go faster and further and that’s their choice. They’re the democratically elected government of that jurisdiction.

So they can do that, but the measures that we’re proposing are the same measures. It’s just putting them in faster.

Updated

'We are trying to turn off the tap'

Dr Paul Kelly goes on to why the physical distance measures, and social restrictions, are so important:

There’s been some confusion over the last 24 hours about why some things are in and why some things are out in terms of closures and so forth.

It’s very clear to me, and I want to make it clear to the audience and to the Australian people about what we are trying to achieve here.

This is an infectious disease. It is spread from person-to-person.

That spread happens when we are close to a person that is sick.

And if that happens, on average, a sick person, and we know this clearly now, will infect somewhere between two and three, or properly closer to three others on average.

Just imagine that – if we did not take any of the measures about social distancing and decreasing the mixing that we do on a daily basis, then one person with the disease not taking any of those social-distancing or hygiene messages seriously will infect three people.

Every one of those three people if they do not take those messages seriously will infect another three people and so on.

Within a month, one person will result in 400, on average, 400 other people.

That is the disaster situation we’ve been seeing in other countries. That is what we are trying to prevent.

Updated

Deputy chief medical officer Dr Paul Kelly goes on to break down those cases:

But what do we know about the cases? So far as has been reported elsewhere in the world, the majority of cases are mild.

In fact, out of all of those 2,252 cases, only 197 of them, less than 10%, have been hospitalised because they are sick.

Others early in that case series were hospitalised for reasons of isolating them from the rest of the community but only 8.7%, 197 cases, are in hospital.

We are not overwhelming the system.

Further, it continues to be less than 20 cases, in fact, 17 cases, are in intensive care and some of those as we know unfortunately now, eight have died, 0.4% of cases have died, 17 in intensive care.

I will not go into details of those because of privacy issues but I can talk about the people that have died and it is unfortunate we had another death in the last 24-hour is.

All of those people who have died had been over the age of 70 and the majority are in their 80s and even 90s.

Updated

Australia has seen a steep jump in total Covid-19 cases with 2,252 cases diagnosed since yesterday.

NSW has seen the biggest increase, with 212 cases diagnosed in one 24-hour period.

Updated

There is still no need to panic buy.

Updated

Landlord lobby groups are trying to get ahead of the government’s next announcement on rental relief (the national cabinet is meeting on that tonight, after delaying it from yesterday).

Property Club, which is one of Australia’s largest independent property groups with members owning more than 40,000 rental properties, today warned that any moves to force Mum and Dad landlords to forego rent to assist tenants by the government would have a devastating effect on them.

Troy Gunasekera, national manager for Property Club, said his members were deeply worried about the expected announcement tonight by the government on plans to compensate tenants from the financial effects of coronavirus.

Our members are average wage earners who have already been financially crippled over the last three years by new rules imposed by APRA that has made them pay principal and interest loans rather than interest only and resulted in their mortgage repayments jumping by 60%.

Updated

The Queensland police say they expect long traffic delays and “a very challenging couple of days” as they establish procedures for crossing the state border, which will close at midnight tonight.

The state disaster coordinator, deputy commissioner Steve Gollschewski, said the management road crossings were “an area of great concern”.

There’s a lot of planning we’ve been putting in place ... to how we can manage those [traffic] flows,” he said.

We’re working on an exemption process so people can more seamlessly access their exemption and [be] given a sticker. That is not going to be ready for tonight.

People can expect very, very long delays.

My plea to the community is to show patience. If you have to cross the border we will proritise people who [are medical and emergency services workers]. To those people who do not need to travel, don’t do it.

This will be a very challenging couple of days in particular. But to reinforce why we’re doing this, we’re doing this to stop the spread of the coronavirus. It is not about doing anything other than that.

... We are planning for months of this. Not just a couple of weeks. Our planning around this is to sustain this for six months

Updated

Victoria has also updated its Covid-19 case numbers:

The total number of coronavirus cases in Victoria is 466 – an increase of 55 from yesterday.

The total number of cases includes 271 men and 191 women (with four cases under investigation). People are aged from preschool age to their late 80s.

At the present time, there are eight confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Victoria that may have been acquired through community transmission. Currently 12 people are in hospital, including two patients in intensive care.

One hundred and twenty eight people have recovered.

More than 25,500 Victorians have been tested to date.

Of the total 466 cases, there have been 386 in metropolitan Melbourne and 47 in regional Victoria. A number of cases remain under investigation.

Updated

Anthony Albanese continues:

It seems also to me that the government needs to announce what it’s doing today and to foreshadow what will happen later on so that people can plan for it.

Quite frankly, the announcement of five people at weddings, 10 people at funerals, other numbers at different activities, is just causing confusion out there. Hairdressers are saying they can’t function with a 30-minute limit, and will be better off simply being told that they need to close.

Schools are getting confused messages that students shouldn’t be at school and that parents should keep kids home, but they’re all open for anyone who wants to go.

The prime minister’s statement last night that the entire workforce were essential workers, was designed with politics in mind rather than designed with healthcare and the economic impact in mind.

It’s time the politics was put aside.

It’s time to deal with this health emergency, deal with all of its consequences and have clear and consistent messages, and implement them in a way which is easy for the community to understand.

Updated

Anthony Albanese is speaking in Sydney.

He says the government needs to start making its messages clearer:

What the government needs to do is to adopt some very clear principles and one of those is not that there is a tension between dealing with the health issues and the economic issues.

That is a false distinction.

Let’s be very clear, the government has a responsibility to deal with this health emergency.

That is the first priority.

Then, it needs to deal with the economic consequences of the health emergency and the appropriate response.

It needs to be done in that order. It seems to me that the government hasn’t got that sense right, and that’s resulting in some actions which are confusing.

Updated

Looks like some Australians have been very, very lucky in getting in before Qantas stops flying internationally.

As Ben Doherty reports:

Nearly 300 Australians have boarded a Qantas jet at Honolulu airport for a flight bound for Sydney.

These are the Australians who were on board the Norwegian Jewel cruise ship, the hapless vessel that sailed halfway across the world, being rejected from four countries (including NZ and Australia), before being allowed to dock in Hawaii.

There were no recorded cases of Covid-19 on the ship.QF6034 is due to depart Honolulu shortly for the 10-hour flight to Sydney.

The Victorian health minister, Jenny Mikakos, says two of the state’s coronavirus patients are in the ICU – including someone in their 30s.

I won’t be getting in the habit of providing age details but I thought it would be useful to stress to you that one of those individuals is actually in their 30s and the second is in their 60s.

I make this point just to stress that Covid-19 is not an elderly person’s disease.

We have had many people overseas in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s ending up in ICU beds because of their diagnosis of Covid-19 and I wish those two individuals well and a speedy recovery but this does make the point that this virus can strike down quite young people as well.

Updated

Support for flights to help Australians overseas only on a case-by-case basis ‘where feasible’

This has just come from Marise Payne’s office;

The government has strongly urged, and continues to urge, Australians overseas who want to come home to return as soon as possible. We acknowledge this is difficult for many.

Limited commercial flights are still operating from some countries and cities but we are aware that in many countries they are no longer an option. We urge Australians who do have access to these opportunities to act quickly.

The government thanks Qantas and Virgin for their willingness to engage on continued services to key hubs for the purpose of bringing Australians home, where existing commercial flights are exhausted.

Last night, the government also agreed to consider, on a case-by-case basis, supporting our airlines to operate non-scheduled services to less central locations to bring Australians home. These will only be done where it is feasible, where all other commercial options have been exhausted and where local authorities will permit such flights.

We do not have plans for assisted departures, such as those conducted to the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak, Wuhan in China and Japan.

As many travellers are doing, it may be necessary for some Australians to stay where they are overseas, and as far as practicable remain safe and comfortable, including by following the directions of local authorities. Given the unprecedented scale of the global interruption to travel, the options outlined will not return all Australians travellers home.

For those of you who may be overseas in coming weeks, Australia’s diplomatic missions around the globe will do whatever they can to provide you with regular advice and support. This will include information on local restrictions, food and necessities, and other support. Please ensure you sign up to their social media accounts, as well as Smartraveller.

Updated

The government has announced new childcare information, for anyone wondering what Covid-19 means for childcare centre arrangements and their supplements:

Families using childcare now have 62 days available to them for absences. They will continue to receive the child care subsidy if their child is absent from care for any reason for these days.

Families will be able to use the additional 20 days of absences this financial year. Beyond 62 days the government has waived the requirement to produce medical evidence if a child is absent due to Covid-19 reasons.

Families will now be able to access an additional 20 days of childcare this financial year while still receive the child care subsidy to support families impacted by Covid-19.

Families will be able to access a total of 62 days of allowable absences as well as additional absences, where a child is ill, quarantined or unable to attend childcare due to Covid-19, and without the medical evidence usually required.

The government has also waived the requirement for services to enforce payment of out-of-pocket fees by families for childcare services who have been directed to close on public health advice as a result of Covid-19.

The current expert medical advice is that the childcare sector remains open except where individual services have been directed to close by health authorities.

Updated

The deputy chief medical officer, Dr Paul Kelly, will be holding a press conference at 1.40pm.

I am still getting messages from people, who are repeating the claim that Covid-19 is a “mild” disease.

Under the World Health Organisation, yes it is categorised as “mild”. But pneumonia is also considered “mild”.

Not everyone will develop the respiratory distress that can come with this virus, but enough do to make it exceptionally serious.

Stay inside to save the lives of people you love and people you may never meet. It is as simple as that.

Updated

Information on elective surgery cancellations

From the PM’s office:

The national cabinet is acting on the advice of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee that from 11.59pm (local time) on 25 March 2020, all non-urgent elective surgery will be temporarily suspended. Only Category 1 and some exceptional Category 2 surgery will continue until further notice.

This will apply in both the public and private health systems.

The commonwealth’s Department of Health has ordered over 300m additional masks with 30m expected in the next two weeks, and 1m surgical gowns are on order to build on Australia’s stockpile of medical protective equipment. Australian manufacturers have also been engaged to ramp up local equipment production.

By cancelling certain elective surgeries, the national cabinet is acting to preserve resources including protective equipment to help prepare public and private health services to prepare for their role in the Covid-19 outbreak.

Every patient waiting for elective surgery is assessed by their treating medical professional as Category 1, 2 or 3 per the following definitions:

• Category 1 – Needing treatment within 30 days. Has the potential to deteriorate quickly to the point where the patient’s situation may become an emergency

• Category 2 – Needing treatment within 90 days. Their condition causes pain, dysfunction or disability. Unlikely to deteriorate quickly and unlikely to become an emergency

• Category 3 – Needing treatment at some point in the next year. Their condition causes pain, dysfunction or disability. Unlikely to deteriorate quickly.

Decisions on the category of patients are at the discretion of their treating medical professional.

Australia’s health system will continue to ensure that any patient in need of urgent attention will receive treatment.

By taking these actions as well as the work to date to stop the spread of coronavirus, we can protect lives and we can save lives.

Updated

And on the Border Force boss Michael Outram’s press conference this morning, Kristina Keneally said:

We see today the Australian Border Force out speaking to their actions around the cruise ship. I see that the Commander Michael Outram of the Australian Border Force has said that the operation was successful. Well, the operation might have been successful but the patient has died.

The reality is people were allowed to get off a cruise ship. The border security measures that the commonwealth government put in place failed the Australian people. And it does need to be asked, what is the advice the Australian Border Force is getting from the commonwealth?

The Australian Border Force are not doctors; they implement the health advice they are provided. And just like the Australian people, the Australian Border Force are getting mixed messages when it comes to the steps they should take to protect Australians health and their lives. So the commonwealth needs to sort this fast.

Updated

Labor also wants the prime minister to accept some responsibility for what happened with the Ruby Princess.

Kristina Keneally:

We have worked with the government to support their health messaging even as we have called for more to be done and more to be done more quickly. But when we look back at this coronavirus crisis, we will see that the Ruby Princess cruise ship is a tipping point. Let’s understand what this one ship has brought to Australia’s shores. We have now 133 passengers and counting from the Ruby Princess cruise ship that have tested positive for coronavirus. The Ruby Princess cruise ship coronavirus cases account for 10% of the cases in New South Wales and, quite tragically, there has already been one death.

Now, on the 15th of March, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced to the Australian public and I quote, “The Australian government will also ban cruise ships from foreign ports arriving at Australian ports.” Those were the prime minister’s words.

He looked the nation in the eye and said there will be no more cruise ships. Except there was. There was another cruise ship – the Ruby Princess. It disembarked 2,700 people just four days after the prime minister made that statement. Just four days later, 2,700 people disembarked that cruise ship and now we have seen the disastrous results. As I said, 133 passengers and counting already tested positive. And as these people got off these cruise ships, they spread right across the country.

They went into taxis and public transport. They took domestic flights, they interacted with friends and neighbours They went to shops. Yes, they were directed to self-isolate but they were allowed to travel freely across the country. It is gobsmacking that we are in this circumstance today.

Updated

Here was Dan Andrews this morning, warning Victoria would go it alone, if necessary, in putting in further restrictions.

One of these reasons people are likely clamouring for access to the Jobseeker payment is about how suddenly their income has dried up.

Although the government’s decision to allow people to register their intent to claim a payment is aimed at reducing queues outside Centrelink’s offices and on its phone lines, it will not necessarily help people who might need income immediately.

The commonwealth and state governments are yet to agree on measures to protect tenants worried about being unable to pay their rent.

It’s important to note that people will be back paid to the day they tell Centrelink they intend to claim a payment.

But it appears people are being told they may have to wait at least two weeks for their claim to be processed.

The government had previously indicated claims could be processed in five days. “I’m saying … you put your application in, and then it takes about five days, I’m told, by the minister for government services,” Scott Morrison said this month.

Updated

ACT chief minister Andrew Barr has indicated that further restrictions are likely, and the ACT will follow New South Wales’ lead.

In a statement, he said:

I have outlined that the ACT will be following the directions from national cabinet, but we will also be aligning with NSW wherever possible on the shutting down of non-essential services to protect public health.

We simply can not afford to have different rules for Canberra than the rules in our surrounding region.

Given the situation in NSW, we can expect that it’s only a matter of time before these further restrictions come into place. They will be tougher and they will hurt. But they will save lives.”


Barr assured Canberrans that essential services will remain open - but was notably strict on the rules of social engagement:

I can assure Canberrans that we are working desperately hard to ensure they have access to the services they need – supermarkets will stay open as will pharmacies, petrol stations, banks, post offices and animal welfare services. We will keep the power on, and the water running.

We will do this so Canberrans can stay at home, and that’s what we all need to do now. For the foreseeable future there is no social occasion, no party, no celebration or family get together that is a higher priority than the lives of the people around us.

The sacrifices we are making now will be difficult, and we will need to adapt.”

Updated

For anyone who was wondering, here is the official release on the new Covid-19 commission set up by the government:

Today I [Scott Morrison] announce the creation of a new National COVID-19 Coordination Commission (NCCC) that will coordinate advice to the Australian Government on actions to anticipate and mitigate the economic and social effects of the global coronavirus pandemic.

The Commission will ensure the Government receives the most comprehensive advice to meet the challenges ahead to cushion the economic impact of the coronavirus and help build a bridge to recovery.

This is about working cooperatively across private-to-private and public-to-private networks to unlock resources, break bottlenecks and fix problems so Australian families, businesses and communities are supported through the challenging months ahead.

Mr Neville Power has been appointed Chairman and brings both high level business expertise and a strong commitment to social issues.

An Executive Board of Commissioners, will advise the Prime Minister on all non-health aspects of the pandemic response. The Board will work in tandem with the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Brendan Murphy, who continues to lead the Commonwealth’s health response.

The National COVID-19 Commission Executive Board includes leaders across the private and not-for-profit sectors: Mr Greg Combet AM, Ms Jane Halton AO, Mr Paul Little AO, Ms Catherine Tanna and Mr David Thodey AO (Deputy Chair).

They will be joined by the Secretaries of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Mr Philip Gaetjens and Home Affairs, Mr Mike Pezzullo.

We have some medical bodies quick off the mark welcoming the decision to cancel all but the most urgent elective surgeries.

The Australian Society of Anaesthetists says it will give staff and hospitals a chance to prepare better for what is coming:

The only way Australian hospitals can effectively prepare for an influx of patients is if we have the time to devote resources to this preparation,” ASA president Dr Suzi Nou said.

We are happy that the government has responded to our calls for the postponement of non-urgent elective surgery and welcome the news that all elective surgery expect for category one and urgent category two procedures will be cancelled.

Our doctors will be on the frontline in providing life-saving treatment to critically ill patients in the rapidly worsening pandemic, and we believe that the health system is not yet ready to cope with the likely massive demand for our services if more is not done to ‘flatten the curve’ or slow down the rising numbers of critically ill patients who will require intensive care.

Updated

In news which will surprise no one, former SA senator, and failed political party leader, Cory Bernardi, is suffering from a severe case of Relevance Deprivation Syndrome, and just told any poor soul still subscribed to his newsletter that Donald Trump is right, and shutting down the economy is a worse cure than the pandemic.

Do what the rest of us do, and ignore him. No doubt he is calling his friends at Sky After Dark and letting them know he is available for comment whenever they need.

Also confusing, this is what Scott Morrison said on Sunday 22 March about localised lockdowns:

But more stronger measures will be coming and they will be coming in more localised areas to deal with outbreaks.

Those decisions will be being made by state premiers and chief ministers as they apply to their individual jurisdictions.

And this is what he said today, in response to Dan Andrews saying stronger lockdowns would be coming for Victoria:

But be assured that if additional measures are required for different parts of the country, there would be no resistance to that occurring.

Why it would be hard for some Australians to get their heads around is why a particular measure might be introduced in Melbourne, but not in Adelaide.

And that could cause some confusion for people living in Adelaide.

It could also mean that if some states were to go ahead and other states were forced to follow, then that could cause needless economic loss in those states as well.

But Morrison also does explain why these dual messages are coming through:

See, we’re managing two crisis here.

An economic one and a health one.

And they’re impacting on our country in different ways across the country.

And that is the main point of why we are seeing states pulling in one direction and the federal government slower to react. The feds are responsible for the economy, and can see what is coming on that. The states are responsible for service delivery, including hospitals, and can see the looming crisis there.

Morrison doesn’t want to lock down things until he absolutely has to, under the health advice. The states want to get as far ahead of things as they can, to try and stretch out hospital resources.

They are working together, but top of mind are two very different things.

Updated

It’s not clear what Scott Morrison is talking about when he says that paying people 80% of their income, as is being done in the UK, is impractical.

Morrisson claims doing this would involve building an “entirely new payment system”, and says it’s better to pay people through the existing tax system, as was done during the global financial crisis.

However, the Taxation Office has a very good idea of how much money most workers are being paid. Some of its data might be a bit out of date, but for the majority of pay-as-you-go taxpayers, it should have reasonably good numbers.

Indeed, during the GFC the ATO used earnings figures to taper off the amount handed out in cash stimulus payments.

The ATO’s data collection abilities have only gotten better since then, as anyone who’s done their tax return in the past couple of years and been confronted with all their regular income and bank account details already filled in would know.

Updated

The other interesting point of that press conference is the consistency of the national cabinet.

It has gone from being in absolute lockstep, to splits emerging between Victoria and NSW (that happened just a few days ago, when Victoria moved on schools and let it be known it would be pushing for more restrictions, and NSW said it would also be pushing for more restrictions, but ultimately pulled back on schools)

Scott Morrison has now acknowledged that split (he didn’t really have much choice, given that Dan Andrews laid it out this morning, that Victoria would be going much, much stronger, and without the rest of the country, because it was at a different point on the curve)

Morrison just said:

Ultimately, the national cabinet is not a compulsory mechanism. That’s not now a federation is built and not what our constitution provides for.

Which seems to make the national cabinet more of a suggestion box, then a cohesive unit of leaders.

Updated

Scott Morrison finishes with this last bit, which is why things are so confused:

But we must have an orderly transition that ensures that workers and, as I said last night, an essential worker is a worker with a job, because I don’t want any parent to have to choose between putting food on the table for their kids, and for their kids getting an education.

That is not a choice I want any parent in this country to have to make.

Asked again, if he thinks NSW and Victoria will move forward with more strict restrictions of movement, as telegraphed publicly by Dan Andrews this morning, and privately by NSW through certain media outlets, Scott Morrison says:

Ultimately, the national cabinet is not a compulsory mechanism. That’s not now a federation is built and not what our constitution provides for.

It is, I think, the preference of all of the national cabinet that wherever possible, they can move together and they can move together in a consistent way.

But there is also an important discussion about where other states are under more extreme circumstances.

Measures that may be required there more urgently may be less urgent in other parts of the country.

So there is a real discussion about how those issues can be addressed, but I can assure everyone that no measure has been restrained from in any state and territory. If any state and territory felt that they needed to take those more urgent, to do it in partnership with the states and territories.

On the issue of schools, I can say that this morning, but this morning with the national education union [actually called the Australian Education Union], we’re working through those issues and the points that I’d make briefly about that to you is simply this – that we recognise absolutely just how important teachers are in dealing with this crisis.

When I think about teachers, I’m thinking about them in the same way that I’m thinking about paramedics, about nurses, about doctors.

I’m talking about the upgrades of Centrelink and things like that.

These critical people in our community at this time, and it is very important that we work with teachers to ensure that their workplace health and safety is being addressed as we manage this very difficult issue.

School is not as usual any more.

That’s clear. We all accept that. And school won’t be as usual going into the future. That’s important.

Updated

And then we get back to some confused messaging.

Scott Morrison on who should go to work today:

Well, you’re suggesting that I should close down businesses where there’s no medical advice that should?

I don’t understand why you would cause that harm to a business and their workers and livelihoods for the sake of a message convenience. I think that that would be quite reckless.

What we’re seeking to do is put in place measure on a scalable basis.

Last night, I gave a very clear list of those businesses that were unable to continue in their premises because of the risk of the spread of coronavirus.

Now, our advice is not to extend that more broadly within the retail sector. People can still go to their car .

They can still do those things where it is else in for them to do that.

And those businesses are expected to put in place the arrangements I talked about last night which is the four square metres per person - how many people can be in that premises, and what I was trying to stress last night is that the Government is taking these decisions, together with the states and territories, very seriously.

We are not going to do things to a business or someone’s job and livelihood where, at this stage, that may not be necessary.

So when we do make those decision and if we do make those decisions, you can have the confidence that it’s not being done in some cavalier way to just suit the convenience of messaging.

I want to protect Australians and make this as clear as I can.

On the question of mixed messages, Scott Morrison says:

The most urgent message that we’re getting for people to stay home is to stay home if you’re sick.

That is the most important urgent message.

It is also important that people should stay home when they’re in self-isolation, and as I said last night, our preference and our instruction is more generally – stay home unless you’re going out for essentials.

But the most dangerous thing that you can do, and we know of people who are sick and have sought to go to pharmacies. And that is very dangerous. And so the most important part of the message that we’re seeking to get out is that message.

There will be more messages.

He then has a bit of a swipe at the media:

I mean, just last night, you were chiding the government for not having a text-messaging service and here it is first thing this morning and I knew that that was taking place.

So I’d ask the media to be patient.

We’re obviously getting to the issues and I appreciate that there will be criticism from time to time.

But that message is very clear – the message we gave last night was very clear.

There will be more messages that come out using those sort of mechanisms, and we are further upgrading that capability.

Updated

Asked about whether or not we will see states act out on their own (as Dan Andrews previewed this morning), Scott Morrison says:

Well, the preference of all states and territories is to ensure as much consistency as possible, because it is absolutely true that the situation in New South Wales is different to that in Victoria, and to that of Western Australia.

And in particular, the Northern Territory and Tasmania.

And where possible, they are seeking to ensure a consistent approach, but the issue of hitting higher thresholds and other measures is a matter that is being discussed by the national cabinet.

But be assured that if additional measures are required for different parts of the country, there would be no resistance to that occurring.

What it would be hard for some Australians to get their heads around is why a particular measure might be introduced in Melbourne, but not in Adelaide.

And that could cause some confusion for people living in Adelaide. It could also mean that if some states were to go ahead and other states were forced to follow, then that could cause needless economic loss in those states as well.

See, we’re managing two crisis here. An economic one and a health one. And they’re impacting on our country in different ways across the country

Updated

Has the government’s plan caused more job losses?

Scott Morrison:

I don’t accept that at all and that is not the advice of Treasury either. That is completely inconsistent with the advice Treasury. See, what we’re doing is keeping as many businesses as we possibly can open, and then what we’re doing for those businesses that close because of the many measures in fact, that we’re putting in place, we are ensuring a stronger safety net for all of those who are impacted by that.

Businesses will close because of the restrictions we have put in place. There will be no jobs in those businesses.

And so, what we want to ensure is that the Australians who are affected by that, and the businesses, indeed, affected by that, that they can get a lifeline and a safety net that will help them through. Because if you lose your job and you earn $150,000, or if you lose your job and you earn $50,000, or your job is at risk on those two different levels, then I’m ensuring that both of those people get the same support.

Updated

Asked about whether or not Australia will do what the UK is doing, in terms of guaranteeing 80% of the income, to ensure businesses keep people on, Scott Morrison says:

Two things, we are already providing money to businesses through the BAS arrangements.

And one of the weaknesses of the system that you’re advocating for is that it has to build an entirely new payment system for that to be achieved.

Which is never done quickly and is never done well, and that will put at great risk the sort of resources we’re trying to get to people.

The best way to get help to people is through the existing payment channels – through the existing taxing arrangements.

That was the lesson from the GFC.

Of all the money that went out in the GFC, and I’m not making a partisan point here – the key lesson was, you must use existing channels for getting money to people, because that is the most effective way for that to occur. To dream up other schemes can be very dangerous.

Updated

Queensland has released a new public health alert:

Four staff that served patrons at Sails Restaurant in Noosa last week have tested positive for novel coronavirus (Covid-19) and are now being managed by relevant hospital and health services.

These staff members worked at the restaurant on Wednesday 18 March 4pm–11.15pm and Thursday 19 March 3pm–10pm while unknowingly infectious.

Queensland Health is calling for people who attended the restaurant during those times to monitor their health for 14 days from those dates and see a doctor immediately if they develop any symptoms.

If you need to see a doctor, call ahead and advise of your symptoms and exposure so staff can prepare for your visit.

While the risk is very low, some patrons could potentially have been exposed.

There is no risk to anyone who has been to this restaurant before or after this period.

Sails Restaurant has been closed since 23 March.

Anyone with questions or concerns can contact 13 HEALTH.

Updated

All elective surgery (outside urgent electives) will be postponed from tonight

Scott Morrison says the national cabinet has taken on board the medical experts recommendations to stop all non-urgent surgeries, to free up hospitals, staff, and resources, for what is coming:

From today, midnight, March 25, until further notice, all elective surgery other than Category 1 and urgent, and I stress, urgent Category 2 cases will be suspended.

This will apply in both the public and the private hospital system. Cancellation of elective surgery will allow the preservation of resources like personal protective equipment and allow health services to prepare for their role in the Covid-19 outbreak.

Now, this had already largely been implemented for Category 1 and Category 2, and what this means is a further scaling back of those elective surgeries in Category 2.

Updated

There is now a new commission – the Covid-19 Coordination Commission – which is designed to “better coordinate work between the private and public sector” as this crisis rolls on.

Updated

The prime minister is now explaining what each of the coronavirus cabinets are doing.

He also has to explain what the medical panel is.

That is because the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) has a very confusing name, and is referred to by its acronym and not explained who these people are.

For the record, the AHPPC is Australia’s health experts.

The prime minister says he has never seen state and territory leaders work together like they are at the moment.

But he adds that we have to also expect that while they want consistency, the states and territories are also in different places with the Covid-19 crisis and will have different needs and reactions – he mentions the NT and it’s Indigenous population, but that is also what Dan Andrews was talking about.

Updated

Looks like Scott Morrison has seen some of the confusion (it would be hard to miss) and says he won’t hold a late-night press conference after this evening’s national cabinet meeting.

These are very difficult changes that we’re asking Australians to make.

I want to assure all Australians again that these decisions are not being made by premiers and chief ministers and myself lightly.

We are very mindful of the impact. We are also very mindful that you’re receiving a lot of information – and we are moving as quickly as we can – but also seeking to be understanding of the need for Australians to be able to absorb this information. And make the changes in their daily lives.

And to talk to their family and friends and their employers and others about that.

Updated

Nearly 300 Australians who were on board the Norwegian Jewel cruise ship have been allowed to disembark in Honolulu.

After several delays to their charter flight home, they have been driven straight to the airport for repatriation. Currently, the group is in buses at the airport, waiting, the Guardian understands, for final permission for the flight to land in Australia. We will keep you posted.

Updated

And Shane Warne is not alone here:

There is still a lot of confusion over what an “essential” worker is, not helped by the prime minister’s message that “if you have a job, you are essential”.

Updated

There seems to be a lot of complaints coming through that the government’s text message with coronavirus information appears as though it is coming from “Telstra”.

Most other agencies seem to be able to say it is from them – such as the ATO (and let’s not forget Labor’s Medicare message appeared to come from “Medicare”) so it shouldn’t be too hard to have a government message come from Aus Gov.

Updated

The ACTU is demanding a wage subsidy of up to 80% for Australian workers (like the UK has done).

Updated

Labor’s Jim Chalmers spoke to Melbourne ABC radio this morning about some of the gaps in the coronavirus supplement:

First of all, in terms of what was proposed our suggestion was to inject a sense of urgency. It’s a bit troubling to us that some of these payments won’t reach people for another five weeks when it comes to business. Some of the payments don’t happen until July …

... That’s a concern to us. We’ve put forward those concerns in a constructive way. We need to inject more of a sense of urgency. There are still gaps in what’s being proposed. For example, for New Zealanders living in Australia there’s still an issue. There’s still an issue for people who might not be eligible because of how much their spouse earns. There are still gaps like that in the system so we’re concerned about that as well. Most of all, one of the things that people are really noticing in the last couple of days is that Centrelink hasn’t been geared up to deal with the massive demand that we’ve seen.

Updated

Unions are urging the government to allow local clothing and textile manufacturers to pivot their businesses into supplying medical items and personal protective equipment to save jobs.

The industry is “holding on for dear life” amid widespread job losses, the union said, and is eager to save its staff by transitioning into the production of some PPE and medical items, stocks of which are under immense pressure. The federal government has moved to boost domestic production of PPE, but shortages are continuing to be felt across the health sector.

The CFMEU’s secretary for textile, clothing, and footwear, Jenny Kruschel, said the industry was able to produce surgical gowns, face masks, clinical waste bags and waste bag closure devices.

“Using existing [textile, clothing, and footwear] supply chains, capabilities, skills and manufacturers’ expertise is the most efficient and effective way to deliver these vital supplies, allowing medical professionals to get on with their jobs and if done right it will save jobs,” Kruschel said.

“It should be a no-brainer and we are hoping common sense will prevail and these businesses and workers will be given the opportunity to deliver these orders.”

The World Health Organization has urged nations to lift their domestic production of PPE by 40% and end export restrictions, and Australia’s industry department has issued a request to local companies to indicate whether they can help produce PPE.

The department had received more than 130 responses by Monday.

Updated

Star Entertainment Group, which runs casinos in Sydney, the Gold Coast and Brisbane, will stand down 8,100 of its 9,000 employees due to the coronavirus crisis.

This brings the total number of people stood down by ASX-listed companies alone this morning to almost 23,000 – and that’s not the full picture, as some companies haven’t given stand-down figures when cutting operations.

Nor does it include the vast job losses in non-listed companies.

Airline Virgin Australia and retailer Mosaic have also stood down all or most of their workforces this morning.

Star’s rival Crown Resorts has also stood down workers – we are chasing numbers but the company employs about 18,500 people.

Last week Qantas stood down 20,000 of its 30,000 staff.

Updated

Google says coronavirus has been the most-searched term in Australia for more than a month, with interest first spiking in late January, and surging in early March.

Coronavirus-related searches have increased 420% in the past month.
The trending questions for the past seven days include:

  1. How to apply for coronavirus supplement
  2. How to access super coronavirus
  3. Will coronavirus go away?
  4. How many cases of coronavirus in Melbourne?
  5. How many people have died from coronavirus in Australia?

Searches regarding mortgages are at their highest point in 10 years, with searches relating to deferrals up 3,200%, while freezing home loan repayments is up 2,300%.

After prime minister Scott Morrison mentioned barre as one of the banned activities in his press conference last night, it became the top trending search topic for the past 24 hours.

Updated

Yes, I know, I made a mistake with the Border Force commissioner’s name. It has been fixed. Like everyone, I am not running on a lot of sleep at the moment, and I apologise.

Labor has accused the government of mixed messages amid confusion over welfare recipients mutual obligations.

The government last night said it was suspending obligations amid Centrelink and MyGov service outages, but the opposition pointed to a tweet from Services Australia that contradicted that message.

“In what is a confusing time, job seekers need clear and consistent communication about their mutual obligation requirements,” said Labor frontbenchers Brendan O’Connor and Linda Burney.

“While we welcome the temporary lift of mutual obligation requirements while the MyGov website buckles under pressure, it would be more realistic to extend this suspension beyond a mere one-week period.

“Across the country, we have seen large queues form outside Centrelink shopfronts; MyGov has crashed; and Australians are waiting hours on the phone to speak to someone at Centrelink.”

Updated

Queensland saw another 46 people diagnosed with Covid-19 overnight, bringing its total cases to 443.

It’s border closes from midnight tonight, to all non-residents and those without an essential travel reason.

The NSW teacher’s union is calling for all schools to be closed:

Updated

The Australian Medical Association is now calling for stricter restrictions. The president, Dr Tony Bartone, had recently called for his organisation to get behind the advice of the chief medical officer.

Now he wants the government to extend the restrictions it has put in place, including the stronger measures from last night. That includes the closure of schools:

Governments have confused recent social isolation messaging to the public, and different positions taken by different governments have created public anxiety. We need strong consistent messages from all levels of government.

International experience, the efforts of several states to limit travel, escalation in community transmission, and public flouting of existing measures means further home isolation is needed.

Acknowledging debate about evidence of exactly where and when expanded social isolation should commence, the AMA offers strong support for new measures of governments to expand home isolation for students and workers not essential to defeating Covid-19.

It is a big call for governments to direct the population to cease work, suspend schools, and only leave home for essential needs, but the AMA will back governments in making this call.

New Zealand has adopted broad community isolation measures. The United Kingdom has instructed its population to stay home except to shop and seek medical help.

It’s time for governments to act on their local evidence, while avoiding further confusion, to increase home isolation. More people need to be at home to flatten the escalation curve.

Updated

Qantas has raised $1.05bn by mortgaging some of its planes, the company says.

The move extends the length of time the airline can spend in its state of near-shutdown due to the coronavirus crisis.

Before today’s move, analysts estimated Qantas had at least six month’s worth of cash, and perhaps as much as 12 month’s worth – the new money pushes that timeframe well out.

Qantas stopped almost all passenger operations last week, standing down 20,000 of its 30,000 staff, although its cargo flights continue.

Updated

This “prank” did not land well. From NSW police:

A man has been charged after allegedly deliberately coughing on a NSW police force employee while pretending to be infected with Covid-19 at Coffs Harbour.

About 2.30pm yesterday (Tuesday), police will allege a man entered Coffs Harbour police station and approached a 71-year-old female general station officer.

Police will allege in court that the man deliberately coughed on the woman and claimed he had Covid-19, while a friend filmed the incident.

While inquiries were being made regarding the man’s claims, the police station was closed, and the necessary isolation protocols were put in place.

Upon further inquiries, it was revealed the man did not have the virus.

Officers from Coffs/Clarence police district arrested a 21-year-old man at the station, where he was charged with stalk/intimidate intend fear physical harm, and resist or hinder police officer in the execution of duty.

The Coffs Harbour man was granted strict conditional bail and is due to appear in Coffs Harbour local court on Wednesday 6 May.

Updated

There is another cruise ship due to arrive in WA tomorrow, Michael Outram says:

There is one coming into Western Australia from tomorrow. Eight hundred Australians, and about a hundred Kiwis, I think.

But there are a lot of ships on our waters and what happened is that they would ordinarily come into port, they get often go to an airport and go home.

You saw the announcement by the government in relation to the ban in terms of empty ships in our waters.

This is a placated business, some of those are flagged in other countries, some have got a home port in Australia.

Carnival Cruises, their head office is in Sydney.

It would be hard for us to say to them, take your ships away. We are working with industry to take their ships out of Australian water intake the back to their home port.

Border Force will take the ship’s master at his word about whether or not there are flu-like symptoms on board, rather than just assume there is:

These are Australians who have been at sea for four weeks. They were stranded off the coast of south-east Asia, put on to another vessel, they have done longer in self-quarantine than probably anybody in Australia, so no it is not true to say that everybody on the ship is necessarily bringing disease to Australia.

Some of these cruises around the world will be free of disease because they have been at sea for so long, so what needs to happen is the passengers and crew need to be tested properly.

Updated

Will Border Force be standing staff down, given the international travel bans?

Michael Outram:

We won’t be standing staff down, we expect to lose 30 or 40% of our people because of what is going to happen to our country over the next few months.

People want to stay at home, look after their parents or their kids. Kids may not be in school. That is the first thing.

Secondly, we still have, unfortunately, people trying to bring drugs into Australia. With fellow people trying to bring firearms into Australia and there may be other options and roles that the Border Force may have to perform to help us get through this, and I am all for that.

If I am asked to do something else, then I think me and my officers are up for that.

Updated

Have protocols changed? Well, it looks as though there will be another question asked:

The difference is that my officers will say to the master to be absolutely certain, ‘Has anyone on this ship or had flu-like symptoms?’ If the answer to that question is yes, we will not let anyone off until we have spoken personally with the Department of Health.

Updated

Michael Outram says there is nothing more he could have done to stop the ship from coming into port:

In what sense? To say that the boat couldn’t come into the country. I couldn’t, because vessels that were already on the water coming to Australia at the time of the ban could continue their journey to Australia, because otherwise, imagine.

The ship left Sydney on a round-trip cruise with Australians mostly on board, so if we had made a decision that it couldn’t come back to port in Australia, where with those Australians have gone? …

Pandemics on cruise ships are, frankly, a disaster, and I did speak with the Cruise International Association at about the time it was implemented, and many cruise ships at that time were trying to get into port to basically disembark the crew and passengers.

They weren’t continuing, they were trying to get back to get the passengers off, so even the ships in the South Pacific region, they didn’t continue want to Fiji and Vanuatu, they came back to port.

Updated

He then gets even more blunt:

The protocol worked very well. What broke down in this case was, health officers, trained doctors or nurses didn’t get on board the vessel, swab passengers and take their swabs for results, which is why when they spoke to New South Wales Health government on Friday night, said the way that vessel was handled was done very very well, and had that occurred in this case, what happened wouldn’t have happened.

He says there was nothing more his officers could have done, and that there is no allegation of anything they did wrong:

Our six officers boarded that ship, I have no information in front of me other than accusations about we didn’t do something right, I have no information, factual information at all that says my officers did not equip their responsibilities on the customs arc for immigration or that the New South Wales health department had cleared to disembark.

Updated

Michael Outram says it is not for Border Force staff to physically check if people are well:

If you had to satisfy yourself about the health and quarantine status of people in a vessel, that is one says, and the Health Department and the biosecurity offices do that, my officers are not trained to take temperatures or medically or as biosecurity officers, that is exactly what is being applied during this pandemic rises.

But my officers still need to make sure that people who are coming into Australia, whether they be true with maritime crew visas all passengers who are not Australians, and it is that entitled them to be here, we still have to do that to make sure people are entitled to come into Australia.

And of course that information, for them to carry out contact tracing and make sure they are not bringing in contraband or whatever.

Updated

The Border Force boss says that there was a cruise ship which arrived in Victoria a few days before the Ruby Princess arrived in Sydney, where Victorian Health decided to keep people onboard until a check was made:

A group ship came into a port in Melbourne only a few days before the Ruby Princess, Victoria Health were advised by the ship that there were passengers onboard with flu-like symptoms.

This ship came in to port, there are three red lights on, Customs, immigration and human biosecurity.

My officers were satisfied that there was no contraband onboard and my officers were satisfied there was nobody onboard with fever problems.

But Victoria Health was keen to hold the vessel there because they wanted to board the vessel and take swabs from the passengers.

Victoria Health held the vessel in the port of Melbourne while they took swabs and they asked us to hold all the passengers and crew until all the results were known.

So you still have one red light. We held them for the day on the test results came back negative and they were allowed to disembark.

Updated

Border Force blames NSW Health for Ruby Princess

Michael Outram then explicitly blames NSW Health for allowing the passengers to disembark:

My messages is we all have clear and distinct responsibilities of the border, it is not an amorphous concept. We have to work together closely to make sure things don’t fall through cracks, but we have to be clear about who is responsible for what …

The decision to allow them off in relation to the health and biosecurity issue was one of the New South Wales Health …

I’m not here to apportion blame, we are all here together in Australia. We don’t need to blame by the public need to know facts.

People can make their own minds up about what went wrong and no doubt further down the track there will be lots of inquiries about what happened and who was in whose emails.

But for now I would like to carry on working with the state and territory health departments, the police, governments, industry and others and our communities to get through this really difficult time.

Updated

And he finishes his statement with:

So, the vessel came into port on March 19

They felt the vessel was low-risk and there was no need to attend the vessel, but our six officers wore masks and gloves nonetheless.

There were number of passengers in their cabins. The Department of agriculture officials advise my officers that New South Wales Health had conducted a risk assessment, had rated the risk is low and that health officials would not be attending the vessel. As a result of that information. All of the passengers were given a green light to disembark.

He continues:

On March 18 2020, at 5.17pm, they stated, “The New South Wales health panel has assessed the Ruby Princess as not requiring onboard health assessment in Sydney.”

New South Wales Health requested the Ruby Princess send the 15 samples to New South Wales Health lab for Covid-19 testing and attach lab forms as required.

New South Wales Health stated to the Ruby Princess: “You are free to disembark tomorrow. “However, in accordance with the Australian government guidance, all passengers must go into self-isolation for 14 days.”

New South Wales Health provided further information on self isolation requirements. They asked to know when the results of this testing was received. New South Wales Health was advised that passengers were isolated with flu-like symptoms and, on March 18, the Department of Agriculture informed through Ruby Princess that a risk assessment had been conducted, and that it was low risk.

New South Wales Health was deciding not to board the vessel and attend, and that they had also given clearance for all passengers to disembark the vessel.

That red light has just gone green.

Updated

Michael Outram on who is to blame for allowing the Ruby Princess passengers off the boat:

We in the Border Force do not have expertise in health or in biosecurity. So I’ll lead you through some facts about the events regarding the Ruby Princess.

The Ruby Princess departed Sydney on March 8 2020 on a round-trip journey to New Zealand. They went by Napier in New Zealand and arrived in Sydney on March 9.

On the 17 March 2020, New South Wales Health requested the following information from the Ruby Princess’ senior doctor.

Estimates on arrival into Sydney, a log of details of passengers and crew presenting with fever or acute respiratory symptoms or both, travel histories, and whether glucose were conducted and the results.

They requested that any passengers or crew with flu-like illnesses were isolated and provided with hand rubs and masks and that an announcement be made.

On March 18, at 9.39 a.m., the senior doctor on the Ruby Princess notified the Health Department with the following, they had collected viral swabs for a few cases of febrile influenza, negative test, and that those people had been isolated. They also requested a transfer for other passengers who had unrelated illnesses.

Updated

The Border Force commissioner, Michael Outram, says he feels the need to come out and face the media, because of the criticisms his agency and staff have faced over the cruise ship issues, particularly the Ruby Princess.

Border Force and NSW Health have been engaged in a blame game since passengers were allowed to disembark from the vessel last week. It has since been found that Covid-19 was present on the ship and more than 130 cases of coronavirus around the country can be traced back to the ship.

It is very rare that Outram speaks, no matter how much Border Force is in the news, or how many questions are lobbed at it, over its activities.

But for this, he holds a media conference.

Penny Wong (who missed Monday’s parliament sitting, after waking up feeling unwell and self-isolating – she has since tested negative for Covid-19) says the government needs to get better at communicating its messages to people.

She also told the ABC that the government needed to act faster:

The trajectory we are on in terms of how many days, three days for the doubling of cases, it is a trajectory we have to get off, and we do need to act and we need to act now and I suppose the one thing I would say is if in doubt, do more.

And if we have to do more, let’s do it now.

Ultimately, they have to act and should act on the basis of medical advice but we do know that we have to get off this trajectory and we do urge the government to make sure that they do now what they need to do rather than delaying.

I did note that the prime minister last night, Mr Morrison, was unfortunately as clear as mud.

We got a catalogue of things that Australians shouldn’t do anything would be much better if we had clear and consistent information to Australians across the country so people are clear about what we have to do to protect ourselves, our families and each other in the unprecedented crisis.

The what we have consistently says as people should act on the basis of medical advice.

That is what governments should do.

We have also said that governments, if they believe that more will have to be done, that we would urge them to do that now rather than delay, but we do have to get off the trajectory we are on.

Updated

In case anyone missed it (because things are moving quickly) you do not have to line up or call Centrelink if you need to register for benefits.

That includes if you have never dealt with Centrelink before and previously needed a CRN.

You DO NOT need that now.

As of this morning, there is a new button on the MyGov website, after you have logged in:

The fastest way to claim a Centrelink payment is through your online account. You can do this if you’ve linked Centrelink to myGov.

If you haven’t linked Centrelink to myGov and your circumstances are affected by coronavirus (COVID-19), you can register your intention to claim a payment. You only need to do this once.

We’ll let you know the next step to make your claim.

Click on that button and you will be able to register your intent to claim.

Centrelink will then contact you back.

Updated

The public service union wants all non-essential public servants to be able to work from home:

There are of course key front-line services including Services Australia where working from home is a more complicated proposition, but even in these workplaces there needs to be social distancing and sanitation enforcement, and working from home should be properly considered.

CPSU National Secretary Melissa Donnelly said, “Last night the Prime Minister told the nation that working from home should be strongly encouraged and undertaken where possible. This morning we continue to deal with APS agencies dragging their heels on implementing these arrangements. It is just shocking that they are ignoring this for their own work force.”

“The CPSU is calling on the Morrison Government to ensure all public sector workers who can, must be allowed and supported to work from home. We must flatten the curve, and this move is critical.”

“The Australian Tax Office are ready to move most functions to remote work but are dragging their feet due to the mixed messages from the Prime Minister. Conversely, we are seeing agencies such as the NDIA and the Ombudsman moving all to public interactions to phone but are blocking staff from remote work.”

“Where services cannot close, social distancing must be enforced, even if this means moving workers or call centres to other buildings, nothing should be off the table.”

South Australia is setting up a “health heroes hotel” which will be open to healthcare workers to sleep in if they don’t want to – or can’t – go home.

When it comes to isolation for travellers, or those thought to be exposed to the virus, Dr Nicola Spurrier said there wasn’t enough being done by some people:

It’s no point just doing it for a couple of days and then thinking that you might just drop down to the shops or go and meet some friends. That’s not on. Because what will end up is we’ll have more people in intensive care. It is everybody’s responsibility in our community.

Updated

South Australia’s chief medical officer, Dr Nicola Spurrier, says it is beyond time for South Australians to start getting serious about coronavirus:

This is a really important reminder to people – we have people now admitted who are critically ill. So it is so important that if you’ve been asked to stay in quarantine, you must stay in quarantine.

If you’ve been made aware that your business needs to close because of this problem, you must have that courage to close the business.

At this point in time, it is incredibly important for us to stay as well and far away from other people as possible. I need to stress the importance of that. As a community, we’re used to going about our business and moving around and doing as we please. From this point forth, I’m asking you to try to restrict your movements – to stay at home as much as possible. And certainly, if you’re ill, to please stay away from other people and stay at home until you’ve recovered.

Updated

South Australia has its first two patients in intensive care because of Covid-19.

Updated

Scott Morrison modified his language a little when it comes to the Ruby Princess debacle, while speaking to Alan Jones this morning.

He has previously, and repeatedly, shifted blame from Border Force to NSW Health. This morning the NSW premier said all agencies needed to take responsibility and there was nothing more health authorities could have done:

Well, this has been not a good event at all, this has been terrible. There’ve been a series of issues that have been associated with that. There were events in other states and they were managed in accordance with those protocols.

But I think, Alan, when we go through these very difficult issues and these crises, there will be things that won’t go as we all want them to. And what’s important is that everybody learns from that as fast as possible and ensures that these lessons are employed.

Now, that goes to how we can upgrade the Centrelink systems, manage the lines better, manage the call centres and do the things that we’re responsible for and everybody’s doing the same. I know there’s a lot of stress on people and I know you were talking this morning earlier about the mental stress on families and dealing with this, and that is all true.

But the way we get through this is when things happen as they shouldn’t, then we need to act as quickly as we can to rectify it and to ensure that we get back ahead of it rather than dwelling on it. And I think that’s an important way to get through a crisis.

Updated

Two hundred Australians could be forced to quarantine in Italy as the Costa Victoria prepares to dock.

The cruise ship left Mumbai, India, on 29 February for a month-long cruise around the Middle East and Europe. It has been unable to dock in Greece and several other EU countries as coronavirus restrictions tighten.

Passengers have now received word of at least one confirmed Covid-19 case and have been confined to their rooms as the ship goes into lockdown.

The cruise was originally meant to visit Venice but passengers and their family members have been told the vessel will now be docking near Rome.

This may not be the end of their journey. Earlier this week, Australians on board the Victoria’s sister ship, Costa Luminosa, which also had a number of coronavirus cases, were told they could not travel home immediately and had to undergo a two-week isolation period in Italy.

Those without the virus have been confined to a hotel in Rome, unable to leave their tiny rooms, while those tested positive are still onboard the ship in Savona.

Many onboard the Costa Victoria are in their 70s and 80s and at particular risk from Covid-19.

Updated

Border Force’s commissioner, Michael Outram, will be holding a press conference at 10.45 in Canberra.

Updated

ASX opens almost 6% up on hope of US stimulus deal

The Australian market rose 5.81% at the opening bell on Wednesday, following extraordinary gains of as much as 11% on US markets overnight.

With markets extremely volatile, it’s become something of mug’s game to try to explain the latest gyrations.

While some analysts put the US market’s increase down to hopes a long-awaited stimulus package was close to being approved by congress, a more likely – if grimmer – explanation is that traders have reacted with glee to talk from Donald Trump that he might soon lift coronavirus restrictions.

This would cost many lives but get cash moving in the economy again.

On the Australian bourse, the biggest gainer at the open was the debt collector Credit Corp, which was up 39% – a second day of big gains – and the biggest loser was the funeral home operator Invocare, which told the market it would be hit by new restrictions limiting the number of people at funerals to 10.

Updated

The ACCC is keeping an eye on the increases in some supermarket products.

From AAP:

The consumer watchdog believes recent price hikes at the major supermarkets come down to increased costs rather than price gouging.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Rod Sims says the watchdog is keeping an eye on the problem as shoppers scramble to stock up on essentials during the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Sims said people were originally complaining about promotions no longer occurring but reports were now coming in of price rises.

He believes it’s a supply chain issue rather than the supermarkets themselves.

“You might have a manufacturing company, manufacturing some good like pasta or rice, and previously they did it with just one shift,” he told Seven.

“They might now be moving to two or three shifts and that’s of course more expensive.

“That can affect the underlying cost of supply as they’re trying to boost supply to meet this panic demand.”

Face-to-face Tafe classes will stopped from Monday.

Term two will be online.

Updated

Hank Jongen on the new changes – you do not have to line up or queue. You just have to try and get online, register your intent to claim, and then Centrelink will contact you.

Getting on to the website will be difficult but, when you can, the procedure should be slightly easier.

So what I’m trying to say to people is – you don’t need to queue. You don’t need to ring us. You can now lodge your intent to claim through MyGov.

So people, most of the people that we’re now dealing with will have MyGov accounts, because that’s how they will have lodged their tax returns.

If you have a MyGov account, you simply log in and you will see a button that says, “Have you been affected by coronavirus? Do you wish to claim a payment?”

You click on that and it will register your intent to claim with us, and we will then contact you to steer you through the process.

So I think it’s really important, it is true. We’ve had a couple of days, a terrible scenes where people have been queued up outside of our offices.

And where people have been attempting to get through. This capability has just been released I’m told, already. Tens of thousands have been able to register their intent to claim, and it is up and working.

Updated

After Stuart Robert’s “my bad” stuff-up and Anne Ruston’s attempted clean-up, Services Australia has now sent out the agency’s spin doctor to explain exactly what people need to do to access the Centrelink assistance which has been made available.

Hank Jongen says changes have been made to try to clean up the mess, with thousands of people lining up, the call centres clogged up so badly Telstra announced there was an impact to the entire phone network, and the website continually crashing from demand, but that the service didn’t have a lot of time to respond:

Well, I think it’s important to understand that when we normally are faced with change, government usually makes announcements months ahead. We then have time to develop new systems, to test them and release. In this unprecedented situation, we’ve been asked to respond within weeks, and we’re doing that.

Updated

Maybe Daniel Andrews should be writing these.

“You cannot queue for intensive care” is a much stronger, and terrifyingly accurate, statement.

Updated

Scott Morrison is meeting with the education unions today, in a bid to ease fears over the schools remaining open (except in Victoria).

The national cabinet will meet again tonight to discuss the rental relief issues.

Updated

Peter Gutwein, the Tasmanian premier, is outlining even tougher restrictions for the Apple Isle.

ALL non-essential travellers will have to prove they have a place of residence to stay in at Tasmania for self-isolation, or they will be charged by the government for accommodation. If they don’t want to pay, they will be turned back. They will not be able to leave their accommodation or residence. They will receive supplies from the government.

In terms of border restrictions and management, from the day, at all airports and at the TT-Line ferry terminal, additional police will support our biosecurity staff for visitors to our state.

It will be mandatory all non-essential travellers by land or sea receive and sign a notice they understand the rules regarding self-isolation and what their obligations are on the penalties for not abiding. It these will be applied for any non-compliant symbol be up to the maximum allowed of $16,800, or six months in jail.

All non-essential passengers will be instructed to travel directly to their place of residence and if they don’t have a place of residence in Tasmania, they will be instructed to either return to the airport of departure or they will be directed to government provided accommodation for the self-isolation.

And charged a fee for that service.

They will not be allowed to go to a shop or supermarket on the way to their residence or to their government accommodation.

We will provide basic essential supplies at the airport and ferry ports and we will ensure that there is support available for services to be delivered if they don’t have a relative or friend who can deliver supplies to their door.

While in self-isolation, they will be monitored and provided with support. We want to work with people and ensure that they are being provided with the support they will require through this.

However, and I want to be absolutely clear about this, if they do not abide by the rules, if they break the rules, they will be charged with an offence. There are no ifs, no buts, I cannot be clearer.

Updated

More mass job losses

Mosaic Brands, which runs clothing chains including Rivers, Katies and Noni B, will stand down its 6,800-strong workforce because of the coronavirus crisis. It told the ASX:

All team members affected by the store closures will be stood down with access to leave entitlements while the group reviews government support schemes that may be available to them.

The group has recently seen a significant drop in store traffic and revenue, a direct result of the community’s response to the Covid-19 outbreak and the government’s “social distancing” recommendations.

The Group is working with its business partners and is reviewing its cost of doing business, with a view to reducing costs to match expected revenue.

Updated

The hearing implant company Cochlear has become the first company of any size to attempt to raise large sums of money during the coronavirus crisis, announcing today that it will seek $800m from institutional investors.

The offer is underwritten by JP Morgan, meaning the broker has promised to pay for any shares investors don’t want.

Cochlear said its business had been hit by the pandemic and it needed the money to keep its bank debt down. It has also lost a US$270m patent case in the US.

It’s an interesting move, given that experts say markets are all but closed to fundraising.

Updated

From Monday casinos were required to close, including Crown casinos in Melbourne and Perth, which subsequently shut down all of its operations except for hotels.

On Tuesday night Crown staff began receiving the news they had been stood down.

A letter circulated to some staff states “Crown may stand down employees that cannot be used for reasons outside of Crown’s reasonable control. Unfortunately Crown has been unable to identify any alternative work or duties for you ... Crown advises that you will be stood down from your employment with Crown Melbourne Limited with effect from 25 March 2020 until at least midnight 13 April 2020 or as extended by the Victorian Government.

“The standing down of your employment will not break your continuity of your service for the purpose of calculating your employment entitlements.”

Full-time employees will receive the equivalent of two weeks salary, as will part-time employees calculated based on the average hours worked over the previous three months. Casual employees will get a $1,000 gross payment.

“This payment represents a good faith payment which is being provided to you on a discretionary basis to assist you during this period,” Crown told staff.

Initially the Melbourne and Perth casinos operated by James Packer’s Crown Resorts received exemptions from each state’s health authorities to keep operating. On Saturday those exemptions were removed.

Updated

The Australian Society of Anaesthetists has written to the commonwealth chief medical officer and all state/territory CMOs calling for the government to immediately adopt extreme containment measures until the health system is better equipped to manage the Covid-19 crisis.

The ASA’s president, Dr Suzi Nou, said anaesthetists were increasingly concerned around the lack of resources across the country, a lack of training in the use of personal protective equipment and a lack of coordination particularly between private and public hospitals and different medical specialties and nurses:

We have warned CMOs that contradictory and confusing information could contribute to errors in clinical care that may harm patients and healthcare workers and that the misinformation regarding PPE and its availability is eroding morale and goodwill.

Our doctors will be on the frontline in providing lifesaving treatment to critically ill patients in the rapidly worsening pandemic, and we believe that the health system is not yet ready to cope with the likely massive demand for our services if more is not done to flatten the curve or slow down the rising numbers of critically ill patients who will require intensive care.

We must drive behaviour, and we must move early.

Every day without drastic action from now is likely to result in a more severe and extended crisis, owing to the cruel mathematics of pandemics.

Our members are committed to assisting in providing the acute care services required to care for the Australian population.

What is needed right now is immediate action to allow the best access possible for the greatest number of patients.

Instituting containment measures is a proven method of improving actions and ultimately saving lives.

The ASA is awaiting replies from the CMOs.

Updated

Daniel Andrews also asks any employers who have not yet put work-from-home arrangements in place to see if they can do so:

I would congratulate those employers who have put in place arrangements for work from home and I’d urge others who may haven’t thought about these things yet – please spend some time today, this morning, right now, to consider what measures you might be able to put in place so that more of your staff who don’t need to be at work, but still have work to do, could work from home.

That’s what we’re doing in schools, it’s what we’re doing across the public service, every employer has got an important responsibility to do just that.

Updated

'You cannot queue for intensive care'

Daniel Andrews is getting very, very serious about this:

There’s absolutely no need for anybody to be having a party. Parties should not be occurring.

People should be staying in their house and not going to anyone else’s house.

There’s simply no need. Now is not the time to be partying.

No party is worth someone’s life. And that’s exactly what will occur if people continue to go on as usual.

Just not worth it. Not the right thing, not the smart thing.

I hope I don’t have to get to that stage, I really hope we don’t have to get to that stage.

No parties. Very, very simple. No trips to the shopping mall just to hang out.

That is not appropriate. I can’t be clearer. I don’t enjoy having to tell people these things and I don’t enjoy having to speak in these sort of blunt terms, but lives are – are absolutely what this is about – saving lives.

If this gets away from us, our health system will be overrun and people won’t just be queuing for Centrelink payments, they’ll be queuing for heart, lung machines and ventilators and intensive care beds and we know what that means – you cannot queue for intensive care.

Updated

Scott Morrison was on 2GB with Alan Jones this morning.

On the Ruby Princess cruise ship debacle, with so many passengers now testing positive for coronavirus, the prime minister says it is important to learn the lessons from this and all the other stumbles (including the problems with accessing Centrelink).

He says kids should still be sent to school. “There is no message to parents that it’s unsafe.”

Morrison says he’s meeting with education unions this morning to work through practical issues, to ensure essential workers can send their children to school and still go to work.

He says at this stage, with large parts of the economy shut down, an essential worker is any worker who has a job.

Morrison says the virus will end, but until then it will reap “enormous damage”. He says it’s about making sure businesses can start back up. He compares it to putting businesses into hibernation.

“The moral obligation is those employees they have to stand down, they can stand up on the other side, so they can look forward to going back to work.”

Jones asks Morrison why can’t people automatically be flipped on to Centrelink once the ATO realises they’ve lost their jobs. Morrison says it would take six months to a year to re-program the Centrelink and ATO systems to be able to recognise this.

The problem is the capacity of the existing systems to cope with demand, he says. Call centres are now open for 12 hours a day, and Centrelink is recruiting 5,000 people to cope with demand.

Morrison won’t confirm whether the partner pay rate will be increased above $48,000 a year to allow those who lose their jobs to claim benefits if their partners earns above that.

Updated

Victorian premier explains split in the national cabinet

Daniel Andrews then moves on to why NSW and Victoria are pushing for stronger measures than the rest of the national cabinet, including the prime minister.

To put it simply – their states are in a more precarious position.

Now, on the issue of timing when we move to that next step – one of the very pleasing parts of last night’s national cabinet meeting was an acknowledgment that states are in different positions.

My job is to flatten our curve, not what’s going on in other states where there are much less cases.

Our challenge is greater.

The challenge in New South Wales – I’m speaking very regularly to Gladys about these issues and we’re in lock step in doing what has to be done – the recognition that stage three will need to occur and stage three may occur in different parts of the country at different times was very important.

That’s one of the reasons why national cabinet will again be meeting – we’re not scheduled to, but we are again meeting tonight, to talk about that and a whole range of other issues.

Stage one was tough.

We said there would be stage two.

I’m being really upfront with Victorians, there will be a stage three, that’s not today but it will occur and when it does I’ll explain it in full, in clear, honest and direct terms.

Right now, the most important thing you can do is follow the advice – wash your hands, cough into the crook of your arm, keep your distance from other people and stay at home.

Updated

Daniel Andrews:

If you can stay at home, you must stay at home. It is very, very simple.

You should not be having friends over for a dinner party, you should not be going out shopping unless you need to.

Shop for what you need when you need it. Kids on school holidays cannot be having friends over.

Kids on school holidays cannot be going to Chadstone or Northland or Southland, that is simply not on.

We got to buy time, we got to buy time so our nurses and doctors are ready. Every country in the world – Europe, whether it be Italy, France, Spain, others – we see those horrifying scenes.

They would give everything today to have had more time earlier on. We’ve got queues at Centrelink offices. That’s heartbreaking.

What we don’t want is queues for people who need a machine to help them breathe. We cannot have people queuing for intensive care beds. That will mean they will die.

Updated

The Victorian premier also warns that “stage three” restrictions are coming.

Daniel Andrews had pushed for further restrictions on Sunday. Last night we saw the national cabinet agree to stricter measures, which he says he is “very pleased about”.

He says there are more to come:

I want to tell all Victorians today there will be a stage three. That’s not to be announced today, that’s not yet determined, but it is coming. There will be a stage three. The exact nature of those measures, the timing of that, when that occurs, I will stand here and I will very clearly and directly explain to every single Victorian what they need to do at that stage.

Updated

Daniel Andrews says Victoria now has 466 positive Covid-19 cases, which is an increase of 55 from the day before.

Updated

Scott Morrison further confuses things while speaking to Alan Jones, on Sydney radio 2GB.

You know who is an essential worker? Anyone who has a job.

As people are trying to work out what “essential” means, as they try and go about their life, marketing phrases like that don’t help.

Updated

Greg Hunt is speaking to ABC Breakfast.

He’s asked about people being confused about the new, extreme physical distance measures – but still being able to be close to their hairdresser, for half an hour. He doesn’t really explain it:

Well, the first thing that has been introduced overnight is this extreme social distancing.

It’s expecting and saying that people should stay at home unless they’re going for essential services and shopping, unless they’re going for medical services or to work or for exercise or children to school.

And what we have done is on the medical advice taken the steps that we think are essential and it’s about limiting the gatherings in public, limiting the gatherings even in the home and we feel that this is – I mean, it’s such a weighty decision, but it is so contrary to who we are as a people, but so fundamental to our future.

So I recognise the challenge in that. In addition, extra measures with regards to services that are – are regarded as social gatherings, but whilst allowing the underpinnings of food supply of people obtaining essential services to continue and then the travel bans, we had already banned foreigners coming into Australia and required everyone coming in to go – returning Australians to go into self-isolation.

Now, we’re putting in place, as of midday today, a travel ban for Australians going overseas other than for essential travel or compassionate reasons.

Updated

Airline Virgin Australia will stand down 8,000 of its 10,000 staff, after slashing its domestic flights by 90% due to the coronavirus pandemic, the company told the exchange.

This follows rival Qantas’s decision to stand down 20,000 of its 30,000 staff last week after similar cuts.

“During the stand-down, team members will be able to access accrued leave entitlements, but for many team members, leave without pay will be inevitable,” Virgin told the ASX.

“The group is working with more than 25 partners to identify short- and long-term redeployment options.”

It also wants to close its New Zealand cabin crew and pilot base and its Tigerair Australia Melbourne pilot base.

“We are now facing what will be the biggest grounding of aircraft in this country’s history,” said the airline’s chief executive, Paul Scurrah.

“From the end of this week, we will begin repositioning and grounding more than 125 aircraft in our fleet, suspending almost all our domestic and international flying until at least the middle of June.”

Flights stop on midnight on Monday and will not reopen until at least 14 June. International flights are already cancelled.

Virgin says it will rebook customers on earlier flights for free or they can get travel credits.

Updated

Virgin Australia’s boss, Paul Scurrah, told the ASX:

We are now facing what will be the biggest grounding of aircraft in this country’s history. From the end of this week, we will begin repositioning and grounding more than 125 aircraft in our fleet, suspending almost all of our domestic and international flying at least until the middle of June.

He says “there has never been a travel environment in Australia has restricted as the one we see today” and the airline has had no choice.

To preserve future jobs, the group will temporarily stand down approximately 8,000 of the company 10,000-strong workforce, at least until the end of May.

Updated

Virgin Australia announces it will ground 90% of its fleet

Virgin Australia has told the ASX it will ground 125 of its planes, and reduced its domestic capacity by 90%.

Tiger Air, also run by Virgin Australia, will cease flights immediately.

The airline has told the stock exchange it will be standing down 8,000 of its staff, effective almost immediately.

Virgin Australia employs 10,000 people. It will now only run logistic and freight runs until the travel restrictions are lifted.

Updated

After days of Scott Morrison blaming NSW Health and state authorities for the Ruby Princess debacle, Gladys Berejiklian fired back, saying Border Force needed to take some responsibility:

Every single agency needs to take responsibility on our borders.

Whether it’s a ship at a port, whether it’s a planeload of people coming in from overseas.

We’re still having thousands of people coming in on planes every single day. All authorities have to step up including NSW Health, including all the other authorities involved and what is really imperative at this time and we realised this – is strong communication between authorities and everybody stepping up.

I’m pleased NSW Health has wrapped up what we’re doing here in New South Wales.

This a joint responsibility for all of us whether you’re the traveller or a federal authority or a state authority and it’s really important for all of us to adhere to what we need to do and I’m pleased that everybody is working closer together because the No 1 priority for us is to make sure we contain the disease, we control the spread.

Updated

NSW Health to release report on Ruby Princess cruise ship

Kerry Chant says if NSW authorities had known so many passengers were potentially infected “we would have acted in a very different way”.

There was no recognition that anyone on that ship had Covid-19. The reports of the level of activity and respiratory virus activity on that ship didn’t indicate any pattern of it.

What’s evident from the graph when we’re doing the epidemiological investigation is that there was an upswing in cases that this cruise ship deboarded and disembarked at 6.00 in the morning.

A lot of people had mild symptoms onset on the day they got off that cruise ship.

We will be releasing a report on the cruise ship so we’re transparent to the community, but to be perfectly frank, our focus has been rapidly diagnosing cases amongst the cruise ship arrivals, and also making sure that we identify any people who would have been in contact with those cases in order to close down any transmission in the community.

So the issue is I want to be clear – those people – those cases we’re reporting now were exposed on the cruise ship.

There is no action that NSW Health would have – could have taken to stop those cases.

Our focus now is identifying whether there is any evidence of onboard transmission from those people who have had symptom onset on the day of the cruise or the day after because we take people’s infectious period as 24 hours before symptom onset.

That work is our key priority and we’re working with any states and territories to also follow up passengers.

Updated

The NSW chief health officer says there is no way NSW Health could have known that the passengers had been exposed to coronavirus. Dr Kerry Chant says the passengers developed symptoms on the day they docked and disembarked – and they got off the boat at 6am.

A crew member is thought to have the virus and not known, and passed it on:

The boat came in on 6.00am that morning and their reported symptom onset was – for the vast majority were either that day or subsequent days and so what you are reflecting is the fact that there was clearly seeding and we are particularly concerned that a crew member onboard that ship had the disease and then transmitted it to a larger – potentially that person may have potentially had the spread.

We’re doing a thorough investigation but please be reassured, the community, that these passengers were asked to self-isolate.

We have follow-upped all of the contacts of these passengers as soon as we get a confirmed case, we then ring-fence those cases.

Many of which are still the Ruby Princess passengers who themselves are close contacts, in order to prevent any further spread.

The cases we are reporting now occurred and were exposed on the ship. There is no action that NSW Health could have undertaken to prevent those people acquiring the disease.

What we are working to immediately is to identify that any onward transmission from any contact from those people travelling home.

Now, if symptoms developed in the returning passengers days after they departed, they were then non-infectious when they were travelling home.

These are all under investigation. We’re taking this matter very seriously and we’re doing all we can to make sure that any further contacts of those contacts are again locked down.

Updated

The NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant is called forward to speak on the Ruby Princess cruise ship, as questions continue to mount over why it was allowed to dock and passengers were allowed off, given that Covid-19 was onboard.

Let’s be very clear about the circumstance because I think it is very important that the community understands.

We have followed – we have recognised the Covid-19 was on the ship and we have followed up all of the passengers on the ship.

Those passengers that are recognising symptoms that have been infected on the ship and no action by NSW Health or otherwise could alter that.

So every one who has – including the tragic death of the 77-year-old – that person was taken from the ship to the hospital.

So there’s no issue that that could have been prevented by any action.

All of the people from the ship were asked to self-isolate and that is because they had come from New Zealand and New Zealand had actually undertaken testing for Covid-19 on the ship and there had been no evidence of Covid-19.

Updated

The infections are still mostly stemming from overseas travellers.

NSW will be cracking down on those people who should be self-isolating and aren’t, with the premier announcing an increase in enforcement measures.

NSW records first under-10 Covid-19 cases

The NSW chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, says NSW now has 1,029 confirmed cases of Covid-19. That would be an increase of 116 from yesterday.

Included in that number are two children under 10. They are a two-month-old boy and seperate seven-year-old girl who both contracted it from adults.

Both have mild symptoms and are isolating at home.

Updated

Gladys Berejiklian:

We also appreciate during this time, it has been a time of uncertainty, I appreciate the community wants information, they’re craving information and that’s why the extra 1,000 people we’re hiring through Service New South Wales will help us make sure those communications are done seamlessly, we have people available on the phone to speak to as well as obviously the online and social presence.

That will be enhanced in the coming days and weeks.

Gladys Berejiklian is holding her press conference.

She says the NSW government is hiring an additional 1,000 people for Service NSW to help disseminate information.

Updated

Centrelink launches 'intent to claim' function

Hank Jongen, who is the manager of Services Australia (the department in charge of Centrelink) says the department has set up an “intent to claim” function on Centrelink, so Centrelink staff will contact you, instead of you waiting in line, or on the phone, for Centrelink.

Of course, that means you have to be able to get on to the MyGov site. Which, with more than 2.6 million trying to access it at once, is impossible for a lot of people at the moment.

Still, keep trying.

All payments will be backdated to Monday 23 March.

Updated

Corona cases (as of this morning):

NSW – 913

Victoria – 411

Qld – 397

WA – 175

SA – 170

ACT – 39

Tas – 36

NT – 5

Total Australian cases – 2,146

Deaths – 8

Updated

The Ruby Princess cruise ship story continues to unfold.

As Naaman Zhou reports:

More than 300 people onboard the Ruby Princess cruise ship could have already contracted coronavirus by the time it docked in Sydney, according to an expert in epidemiology.

As of Tuesday, 133 people (107 in NSW and 26 interstate) have been diagnosed with Covid-19 after leaving the ship, which docked in Sydney’s Circular Quay on Thursday 19 March. All 2,700 passengers were allowed to disembark and return home and told to self-isolate.

Assos Prof Ying Zhang from the University of Sydney said it was likely the number of confirmed cases would “double or triple” in the next few days.

That means hundreds of people would already have had the disease on the day it docked in Sydney, due to the virus’s 14-day incubation period.

Updated

Scott Morrison’s main message last night was to “stay at home” unless absolutely necessary:

Stay at home unless it’s absolutely necessary that you go out. Going out for the basics, going out for exercise, perhaps with your partner or family members, provided it’s a small group – that’s fine, but going outside and going out and participating more broadly in the community, unless you’re shopping for basics or there are medical needs or you’re providing care or support to another individual in another place, going to work and where you cannot work from home.

So that is encouraged, strongly encouraged, to work from home where you can do that. Visits to your premises, to your house, to your residence, should be kept to a minimum and with very small numbers of guests.

Updated

This was inevitable – the Tokyo Olympics have been postponed to next year.

They will be called the Tokyo 2020 Games – just held in 2021. All uniforms, banners, and merchandise will carry the Tokyo 2020 logo.

The Tokyo Olympics are to be postponed until 2021 after talks between Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and the International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, led to confirmation of a decision made inevitable by the coronavirus pandemic.

Abe said they had established that cancelling the Games was out of the question, and that Bach had agreed “100%” that a postponement was the most appropriate response to the global disruption.

“We agreed that a postponement would be the best way to ensure that the athletes are in peak condition when they compete and to guarantee the safety of the spectators,” Abe told reporters shortly after his conference call with Bach, adding that the Games would be held by the summer of 2021.

Updated

Good morning

In case you missed it, overnight the government has announced more restrictions after the latest national cabinet meeting.

Scott Morrison announced that real estate auctions and open houses, markets, personal services including beauty salons, food courts in shopping centres, arcades, amusement parks, play centres, community centres, health and fitness, social sport, cultural institutions and swimming pools will all be closed.

Hairdressers can only stay open if customers are limited to 30 minutes (impossible for most women I know, where a toner alone can take 30 minutes).

Weddings are limited to five people – the couple, the celebrant, and two witnesses.

Physical trainers get 10 people, spaced out, because that’s “their business” (and only outside).

All international travel is now banned, except for a few government and aid workers.

Schools are still open, if you choose to send your children in.

Rental relief and commercial arrangements are on the table today. We’ll bring you all of that and more as it unfolds.

You have Amy Remeikis with you this morning, and the entire Guardian brains trust working their hearts out to bring you the most up-to-date and accurate information.

Let’s get into another day of this weird, new normal.

Updated

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