And that's a wrap
We will leave our live coverage of the coronavirus crisis in Australia there for today. You can continue to follow our ongoing global coverage here.
This is where things currently stand:
- Victorians have turned out in droves to get a Covid-19 test after the state reported a rise in locally-transmitted infections in some local government areas in Melbourne. The queues for drive-through testing sites were up to three hours long.
- NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned her constituents against travelling to the Victorian hotspots, and to reconsider travelling to Melbourne at all, after the Australian Health Protection Principle Committee yesterday recommended that people in the six local government areas identified as hotspots reconsider any planned travel to other areas.
- More than 1m people live in those six areas. This is what the AHPPC recommendation means.
- The Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, said he had put off plans to announce an indicative date for lifting the hard border because of the Victorian outbreak. He said WA will move to phase 4 restrictions, which lifts almost all mass gathering bans and means major sporting venues can fill to 50% capacity, on Saturday.
- Queensland also said its border will remain closed.
- The Ruby Princess inquiry has heard that a passenger whose friend died of Covid-19 was told three times by the ship’s medical staff that she “only [had] the flu”.
- The bidding for Virgin Australia is down to its final two bidders, with a preferred bidder to be selected by 30 June.
- And a high court inquiry has found that former high court judge Dyson Heydon sexually harassed six junior legal staff at the court. Heydon denies the claims.
Stay safe, cancel unnecessary travel into and out of Covid hotspots, and if you’re in Victoria (or anywhere in Australia) and you have cold or flu like symptoms, stay at home and get tested as soon as possible.
Updated
Australia is bracing for a second wave of job losses among professional services after Deloitte announced it would shed 700 staff.
As Anne Davies reports, Deloitte had already reduced staff salaries by 80% for the majority of its 10,000 staff. It comes a week after PwC announced it would sack 400 of its 8,000 staff, and KPMG cut 200 staff and implemented a 20% pay cut for the next four months.
Other firms have furloughed workers, cut partner draws, and encouraged staff to take pay cuts.
A reminder that if you are not in one of the Covid hotspot suburbs of Melbourne you can now go to the snow.
The ski season officially opened in NSW and Victoria today, with social distancing rules in place and a requirement for pre-purchased lift tickets at some resorts.
There’s a reduced capacity at all resorts — no more cramming nine people into a dorm room — and no group lessons.
Updated
In other news, the Age and the Sydney Morning Herald have lost two of their five new emerging culture critics, less than two months after the appointments were announced.
Jack Callil and Bec Kavanagh announced their joint resignation this afternoon, saying they had resigned “in opposition to the lack of diversity in the selection, which resulted in an all-white group of peers”.
They wrote:
This selection fails to reflect Australia’s diverse literary community, and is a missed opportunity to support non-white voices in arts criticism in Australia.
Hi all, I'm resigning, with @beckavanagh, as an emerging book critic for @theage/@smh, an initiative generously funded by @CopyrightAgency and @JN_Institute. The selection of all-white critics fails to reflect Australia's cultural diversity. Our full statement is below. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/77Rz4WGE4W
— Jack Callil (@Jack_Callil) June 22, 2020
Hi friends. I am resigning, with @Jack_Callil, as an emerging book critic for @theage/@smh, an initiative generously funded by @CopyrightAgency and @JN_Institute. The selection of all-white critics fails to reflect Australia's cultural diversity. Full statement below. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/XoPxAD7tKp
— bec kavanagh (@beckavanagh) June 22, 2020
The Age and the SMH were criticised for selecting an all-white cohort. Callil and Kavanagh said their decision was not due to any external pressure, but was an act of solidarity.
Updated
More on that story from Christopher Knaus, here.
Former high court judge accused of sexual harassment
The high court has investigated allegations of sexual harrassment made by six complainants against former high court justice Dyson Heydon.
In a statement, chief justice Susan Keifel said the investigation, which took several months, found that six former judges’ associates were harassed by Heydon.
Keifel said:
The findings are of extreme concern to me, my fellow justices, our chief executive and the staff of the court. We are ashamed that this could have happened at the high court of Australia.
We have made a sincere apology to the six women whose complaints were borne out. We know it would have been difficult to come forward. Their accounts of their experiences at the time have been believed. I have appreciated the opportunity to talk with a number of the women about their experiences and to apologise to them in person.
The inquiry made six recommendations, which the court has adopted.
Heydon served on the high court bench from 2003 to 2013, and in 2014 was appointed to run the royal commission into trade union governance and corruption.
He has denied the claims, and issued the following statement through his lawyers, Speed and Stracey, to Nine newspapers, which broke the news.
The statement said:
In respect of the confidential inquiry and its subsequent confidential report, any allegation of predatory behaviour or breaches of the law is categorically denied by our client.
Our client says that if any conduct of his has caused offence, that result was inadvertent and unintended, and he apologises for any offence caused.
We have asked the high court to convey that directly to the associate complainants.
Updated
Meanwhile, the newly announced Greens senator for Victoria, Lidia Thorpe, has been speaking to ABC24. Thorpe is a former state MP for the Greens, and was the first Aboriginal woman in the Victorian parliament. She is the first Aboriginal person to join the Greens federal caucus, and brings the number of Indigenous MPs in federal parliament to five.
She told host Patricia Karvelas that her goal remains a national treaty with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Victoria initiated a treaty process in 2017, and the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria has this month agreed to pursue a “mandate for framework negotiations that seeks both statewide and local Treaties”.
Said Thorpe:
I think we need a treaty in this country. Something that unifies us as a nation. We are a divided nation I think and a treaty is a true mechanism to unite us and to also address the many injustices that the first people of this country experience every day.
She said she supports the Uluru Statement from the Heart but she has a different order or priorities. The Uluru Statement promotes constitutional recognition, then a process of truth telling, then a treaty or agreement-making process.
Thorpe says the order should be “truth telling, treaty and then constitutional recognition”.
I don’t think that we should be going into the Australian Constitution until we have gone through a proper treaty process. So I do not agree with constitutional recognition in any way shape or form until we talk about treaty first.
That is a potential conflict with the official Australian Greens policy, which is wholehearted support for the Uluru Statement, but it has been Thorpe’s consistent position for decades so it shouldn’t be a shock to anyone. Thorpe said “it is just the sequence that differs,” but conceded that could potentially defer a referendum or a voice for years.
She said:
I think we need to go around this country and talk to people about a treaty and what they would like to see in it and the referendum could be whether this country is ready for a treaty or not.
The Uluru Statement was also the result of months of consultation in cities and regional areas around the country.
Updated
Ruby Princess passenger learned of the outbreak from the media
Another passenger on the Ruby Princess has said she was told a test was too expensive when she asked for one on board.
Lynda De Lamotte, who is an asthmatic who previously had a heart attack, said she asked for a test for “the virus” after she developed a sore throat on board. But she was told by guest services: “Well it’s quite expensive and if you have only got a sore throat, probably not.”
“We asked how much did it cost, and she said she didn’t know,” she told the NSW special inquiry.
De Lamotte later tested positive for Covid-19.
She said she only found out other passengers had tested positive for Covid-19 by watching the news on TV. After asking Princess Cruises, she said they took three days to get back to her.
De Lamotte also said staff on the ship said that it was “virus free”. She said announcements were made thanking passengers for keeping the ship “virus free”.
Counsel for Princess Cruises, David McClure SC, suggested to her that these announcements were about encouraging practices to keep the ship virus free.
“No it was more backing us for doing the right thing, helping keep the ship virus free,” De Lamotte said.
Updated
Michael Kaine, the national secretary of the Transport Workers Union, says the union will “assess the final offers” made by the two bidders for Virgin Australia, which are to put in their final bids today.
He said they “will be examining details indicating how they will engage with workers, allow a long-term future for the airline and return it to its fullest possible capacity”.
Kaine added:
The intervention by bondholders in the Virgin voluntary administration process is unsettling and indicates the vacuum left by the Federal government’s refusal to get involved.
The government has failed to provide any certainty about interim or long-term funding for the airline and this has allowed anonymous bondholders to step in and try to stage a coup ... the government has provided no indication on its plans for the airline and how jobs and regional service in Australia will be protected. It won’t even assure workers that they can get jobkeeper past September when international air travel will still be at zero and domestic travel will still be curtailed.
Governments around the world have made major interventions in their aviation industries, such as Germany, France, Portugal, Hong Kong and the Netherlands. These governments continue to subsidise wages, take equity stakes in airlines and pump billions into a sector that they know is a key gateway to their economic recovery.
Scott Morrison keeps saying he wants a strong second airline in Australia but to achieve this he and his government must now act with targeted intervention before it is too late.
Updated
Let’s just go into a bit of detail about what that WA announcement means.
Phase 4 will come into force on 11.59pm Friday 26 June.
That means:
- All existing gathering limits and the 100/300 rule removed.
- Gathering limits now only determined by WA’s reduced 2-sq-m rule.
- The 2-sq-m rule will include staff only at venues that hold more than 500 patrons.
- Removal of seated service requirements at food businesses and licensed premises.
- No requirement to maintain patron register at food businesses and licensed premises.
- Alcohol can be served as part of unseated service arrangements.
- All events permitted except for large-scale, multi-stage music festivals.
- Unseated performances permitted at venues such as concert halls, live music venues, bars, pubs and nightclubs.
- Gyms operating unstaffed, but regular cleaning must be maintained; and
- The casino gaming floor reopening under agreed temporary restrictions.
- Major sport and entertainment venues can open at 50% capacity. (That’s 30,633 at Optus Stadium, 10,150 at HBF and 7,150 at RAC Arena.)
- People must keep up physical distancing wherever possible, and good personal hygiene.
- Depending on infection rates, phase 4 will be replaced by phase 5 on 18 July.
- Phase 5 will mean the removal of the 2-sq-m rule and the removal of the 50% capacity limit for major venues.
- The hard border will remain in place until phase 6, the date for which has not been set.
Updated
McGowan was asked if he would stop Victorian footballers from coming in to WA to play AFL games.
He offered the sacrilegious reply:
What we are dealing with here is bigger than football, and football needs to understand that they need to fit within the rules. They need to understand we are trying to protect the health and wellbeing and economy of Western Australia and they need to work within that.
There are things that are more important than football out there, as many people might be surprised to learn.
Police commissioner Chris Dawson said he had told the AFL to “carefully consider which clubs will come over here”.
The first to return to play in Perth will be WA clubs Fremantle and West Coast. The positive test from an Essendon player on the weekend has caused some concern about the success of the AFL’s quarantine and testing rules.
Dawson said:
We must be satisfied that any quarantine arrangements and any protocols are adhered to.
Updated
Mark McGowan says WA “did the right thing” by keeping the hard border in place.
We have ensured that the rate of infection coming from interstate is severely reduced, and therefore we are better able to protect West Australians. The thing about Covid-19 is once it gets away from you it is very hard to put the genie back in the bottle, and what we are trying to do is stop the virus coming back into Western Australia.
We’re pretty confident we have no community infection in Western Australia. The only way it can get in is from elsewhere, and our interstate border arrangements allow us to protect our citizens as best we can. It also allows us to better open our economy.
He says that from Saturday, WA will have “the most open, the most active, the most vibrant economy in the country, by not just a country mile, but 100 country miles”.
We are miles and miles in front of the other states and we are able to do that because we have the comfort of knowing that we can protect our citizens from infection from elsewhere.
Updated
About 500 people are arriving in Western Australia every day by air, WA police commissioner Chris Dawson says.
Still more are arriving by road or sea.
At the moment about 943 people are quarantined in hotels in Perth.
Updated
A handy and frankly bragging graphic from WA explaining its phase 4 restrictions.
— Gemma Varone (@gemvarone) June 22, 2020
Earlier, McGowan said that if “Victoria has taught us anything, and the last few days, it’s that the worst thing that could occur, right now, as the reintroduction of harsh restrictions for the community”.
He said:
It would devastate the local economy, more jobs would be lost, it would hurt small businesses, and be very difficult for many of us to handle. That’s why I won’t be pressured into making a rushed decision on our hard borer, against our health advice, we won’t risk that.
Our hard border has been in place unashamedly to protect the health and well-being of west Australian’s first and foremost, it has allowed us to confidently ease restrictions, more than any other state, by a long way, and open up our local West Australian economy.
The current situation for Victoria is dire, it’s extremely concerning. Spike in cases there is being closely monitored here.
WA has no new Covid-19 cases, and only three active cases. They’re all in hotel quarantine.
WA will not announce open borders date because of Victoria infection spike
Western Australia premier Mark McGowan said he had intended to announce today that the hard border between WA and the eastern states would have been lifted on 8 August.
But Victoria changed all that. Because Victoria has seen a spike in cases through locally-acquired transmission, McGowans says, he will not “be setting a tentative date for phase 6 [hard border removal] at this point”.
I had planned to announce a tentative date for the removal of WA’s hard border as part of our roadmap today. However, with the situation evolving and Victoria, based on our health advice, we have decided to put that on hold.
The tentative date was going to be on 8 August, but right now, it would be irresponsible of me to earmark that date as our potential opening with the rest of the country. Throughout this crisis I have communicated clearly and openly with the public of WA. I would like to give an indicative date today but if I did, it would be against our health advice and quite frankly it probably wouldn’t hold.
An indicative date will be set in the future when it is safe to do so. When we provide that date it will take into account the locally acquired infection rates in the eastern states. To be clear, the WA hard border will only be removed when the chief health officer of Western Australia is confident the spread of the infection is controlled in the Eastern States. Our position is crystal clear on this.
Updated
McGowan says phase 4 will be in place for three weeks.
On Saturday 18 July, phase 5 will be introduced. That will mean the removal of the 2-sq-m rule, all other major gathering rules, and the 50% capacity rule for major events.
After phase 5 comes phase 6. The hard border will be removed in phase 6, as will travel restrictions into remote Aboriginal communities.
Updated
McGowan says the phase 4 restrictions also remove the seated-service requirement for food businesses and licensed premises.
Yes, that means from Saturday we can all enjoy a drink standing up at the bar.
Businesses will no longer be required to maintain a patron register, with the only exception being large-scale music festivals or unseated performances.
Major sporting and entertainment venues will operate under a 50% capacity rule, so from Saturday places like Optus Stadium will be able to hold events with 50% capacity plans.
But the hard border remains in place.
Updated
WA to ease restrictions to phase 4
Western Australian premier Mark McGowan has told reporters in Perth that his state will move into phase 4 on Saturday.
All existing gathering limits will be removed and replaced with the 2-sq-m rule. In all other states it’s 4 sq m.
Updated
Ruby Princess passenger told 'it's only the flu'
A passenger on the Ruby Princess whose friend died of Covid-19 was told three times by the ship’s medical staff that she “only [had] the flu”, even though she had tested negative for influenza, a special inquiry has heard.
Josephine Roope and Lesley Bacon were both passengers on the ship between 8 and 19 March. Bacon became ill on board, was taken immediately to hospital via an ambulance and later died.
Roope told the special inquiry there was “no mention” of coronavirus from the ship’s staff, doctors or nurses. She said that when Bacon became ill during the journey, she spoke to the ship’s senior doctor, Dr Ilse von Watzdorf, who told her: “Just the flu, nothing to worry about.”
Roope added that von Watzdorf did not tell her that, at that point, Bacon had tested negative for the flu.
After she was told that Bacon would immediately be taken off the ship on an ambulance, she said that staff continued to tell her: “It’s only the flu.”
Roope said:
I think I have that memory [of von Watzdorf saying] ‘there’s nothing to worry about’.
All I want to know if why did we not get tested? And why did we not go through customs.
She also said NSW Health told her not to get tested for Covid-19, despite being a close contact of Bacon, until she developed symptoms. She said she had still not been tested as she had not developed symptoms.
Updated
And on that note, I will hand you over to the indefatigable Calla Wahlquist, who has come from covering the bushfire royal commission to keep you updated for the rest of the afternoon.
Thanks again for joining me - I will be back tomorrow morning. Get some rest and take care of you.
Updated
Meanwhile, while that was happening, the Age has reported the AFL has decided to ban contact training for large groups after Essendon’s Conor McKenna tested positive for Covid-19
And a reminder, Professor Brendan Murphy will be stepping aside as chief medical officer at the end of this week.
He was supposed to take up the health department secretary role earlier this year, but stayed on as CMO to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. He’ll start in his new role next month, and deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly will serve as interim chief.
Updated
On the international death rate, Brendan Murphy says he still believes it has been under-reported:
So, at the moment, I still think the best estimate is around 2% is the death rate, and that’s why while the international death rate is around 5%, I think there is substantial under detection of cases around the world.
And NSW shouldn’t be thinking it is immune to what is happening in Victoria, the chief medical officer says (same with all the jurisdictions):
It’s always possible in any state, and New South Wales has always been very open that they had, until recently, community transmission, and they don’t know that they don’t have it.
So we are always telling people that they must practice those personal responsibility things, so if you are going to a pub or a club, and even if there are large numbers, you must make sure that your contact details are left.
You’ve got to practise those personal distancing, those hygiene practices. Those concerns will be with us for the duration.
Updated
Is there a threshold for a further two-week quarantine?
The chief medical officer:
Again, there is no magic, or it is not a total number, it is a rate of rise of cases. It’s the number of community transmissions, it’s the number of people that don’t have an identified contact, so it would be an overall assessment. And ... it would be the capacity, physically, to localise the outbreak. That has always been part of our national cabinet strategy.
If you had a couple of hundred cases in a small geographical area, that area might well be physically locked down. That has always been part of our strategy.
Updated
The Black Lives Matter protest question pops up.
Brendan Murphy:
There were two reasons for us strongly recommending against these events. One was the risk of spreading. But the other is, it does send a very difficult message to the rest of the community who are obeying all of the restrictions and the density rules, to see people gathering in large numbers in a situation where you can’t track who you have been next to.
And there is always the potential that people seeing that sort of gathering may have felt less compliant with the regulations in the other aspects of their life, so we still are very strongly discouraging these sorts of events.
Updated
On the state’s planning to reopening their borders, Brendan Murphy says he sees no reason to change tact:
Unless they have got cases in their state I don’t see any reason for them to change their plans.
Why is NSW doing better at limiting community transmission than Victoria?
No way to tell, says Brendan Murphy, but probably a great deal of luck:
I think there is a lot of luck in this. Both Victoria and New South Wales had by far the largest number of initial cases from return travellers and both New South Wales and Victoria have been our concerns in terms of community transmission.
Community transmission has been present in both of those states.
New South Wales have, very fortunately, been in a much stronger position in recent weeks. It is not really possible to say why they have managed to bring community transmission under better control than Victoria, there could be a lot of reasons for that.
The geography, the tomography from where the outbreaks are, but I think the most important thing is that both states have really good public health responses. New South Wales has had to do responses like Victoria, remember the Bondi beach outbreak, they set up pop-up clinics, they ramped up their response and brought it under control, that is what Victoria is doing now.
Updated
The chief medical officer also recommends people in the hotspot areas stay away from regional areas.
Brendan Murphy:
There are concerns. School holidays are always a concern for travel, from the normal place of residence to another place where you might [be] infected ... That’s why the recommendation has been made that people in those hotspots in Melbourne, although there are relatively low numbers of cases in each of those hotspots, nevertheless we don’t know if there might be more.
That’s why the recommendation is people from those areas don’t travel, to interstate, to family groups, and don’t travel to the regions in Victoria, especially if they were going together in a large group of people.
Updated
No 'second wave' definition
There is no definition for a “second wave”.
Brendan Murphy:
There is no definite definition of that. If this outbreak escalated and we had several hundred cases, that would be the sort of situation where I would be extremely concerned.
But there is no official definition of a second wave, it’s a concept where the outbreak is such that you don’t think the public health measures can easily control it in the short term. There is no specific definition.
At the moment I have great confidence in the Victorian response. This obviously was of concern. They are responding very effectively and we need to watch things over the next few days to see how it happens, but the early signs are that it is not escalating at the moment.
We have to make sure it is brought under control.
Updated
Will Australia be beefing up its quarantine procedures?
Professor Brendan Murphy:
Every state and military is looking at the hotel quarantine. There has been a very small number of breaches considering the vast bulk people going through.
We are reviewing our national strategy in hotel quarantine over the coming weeks. The military has been a resource the prime minister has offered to each state and territory through the pandemic whenever they need help. The ADF has been there, they set up Howard Springs quarantine in Darwin and ran it extremely well. They have been a great resource.
At the moment no state or territory needs the resource but that offer’s there.
Updated
Brendan Murphy:
As I think we have said on many occasions, with our suppression strategy – that is the national strategy, to suppress this virus, to very, very low levels – we have achieved elimination in some parts of the country for periods of time. But we know that’s a very precarious situation, there is always a risk of importation of the virus and further cases across Australia.
We know that this virus is escalating around the world, over 150,000 new cases around the world each day.
So the risk is there for the long-term. We have done so well in Australia, and our strategy always envisaged we would get some outbreaks. This outbreak for Victoria did concern us, no question about that. The rate of rise and the fact it was community transmission, late last week, caused significant concern. And that’s why AHPCC [expert health panel], with the blessing of the Victorian government, has put in that warning about avoiding those local government areas in metropolitan Melbourne where there are currently active cases.
The testing remains very strong, we have done 1 million test across the population of 26 million, which is pretty impressive. But it is absolutely crucial that in every part of the country, even those parts of the country where there are no known active cases, if people get symptoms, develop any of those upper respiratory symptoms we have talked about for so long, that they go to one of the many places they can get tested and be tested.
Updated
Brendan Murphy gives national Covid update
We don’t get the national updates every day any more, and when we do, it is usually a deputy chief medical officer.
But chief medical officer Brendan Murphy is standing up today to give the update, which makes sense, given all the attention on the uptick of cases in Victoria. He says:
It’s still too early to say how the Victorian outbreaks are going. But they are throwing every resource at this, their public health response is extensive, there is substantial testing happening in those hotspot areas, they are tracing very large numbers of contacts – several hundred close contacts of cases – and responding in a way that I have every confidence they are doing everything they can to bring these outbreaks under control.
Updated
We should be hearing from Professor Brendan Murphy very soon.
Updated
Two final bids for Virgin
The Joint Administrator and Deloitte Restructuring Services partner Vaughan Strawbridge (fancy title – basically just means in charge of the Virgin administration) has released a statement on the two bids for the stricken airline:
With aviation around the world in the middle of a Covid-induced restricted operations, today we’ve reached another important milestone in our rigorous and competitive sale process, with Bain Capital and Cyrus Capital Partners submitting their final and binding offers.
Both have previously flagged some of their thinking around a future-state carrier publicly, including operating a smaller, single-branded domestic and short-haul international airline that also has growth potential. Ultimately the size of the airline will be dependent on the timing and level of demand by customers as travel restrictions are eased.
Since confirming them as our preferred bidders, we, our advisors and the Virgin management team have spent the last three weeks working closely with their teams to enable them to complete their due diligence and be in a position to submit their offers today.
They’ve also engaged closely with the range of groups that have an interest in the outcome of the process, from federal and state governments and unions to creditor groups that include airports and aircraft financiers.
As I’ve previously said, both Bain and Cyrus have done an enormous amount of work to get here today, are well-funded and are enthusiastic supporters and see real value in this business going forward.
On the basis of their public statements, both bidders are committed to seeing a strong, competitive and sustainable Virgin Australia operating into the future, employing many thousands of Australians and supporting the tourism industry and state and national economies.
Both bidders have also already received FIRB approval, and we would like to acknowledge the assistance of the federal government on this front.
Updated
Coupla things from the #Canberra COVID-19 briefing:
— Anna Vidot (@AnnaVidot) June 22, 2020
* "significant degree of non-compliance" at large hospo venues this wknd. Warnings will be forthcoming. Fines? TBC.
* CHO "strongly discouraging" travel to/from Vic LGAs with outbreaks now or upcoming school hols.#covid19aus
On non-compliance, ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith:
— Anna Vidot (@AnnaVidot) June 22, 2020
"This is disappointing." And, Vic "is a reminder to us that there is a risk that we will have to go backwards and tighten restrictions if we don't all play our part in working to reduce the spread of COVID-19."
Updated
I know there is a lot going on, and things have been moving quickly and we can’t answer all your questions – but some we can.
Thanks to those who have checked.
Updated
I am still getting concerned messages from people who have logged on to social media to claims the Google-Apple exposure framework for Covid apps is “government tracking”.
You may even have gone to your settings and found the notification.
Just another reminder that this has been part of the framework which was set up. It is not tracking you. And it has been reported on since May.
Google and Apple issued a joint statement about it in May:
One of the most effective techniques that public health officials have used during outbreaks is called contact tracing. Through this approach, public health officials contact, test, treat and advise people who may have been exposed to an affected person.
One new element of contact tracing is exposure notifications: using privacy-preserving digital technology to tell someone they may have been exposed to the virus. Exposure notification has the specific goal of rapid notification, which is especially important to slowing the spread of the disease with a virus that can be spread asymptomatically.
To help, Apple and Google cooperated to build exposure notifications technology that will enable apps created by public health agencies to work more accurately, reliably and effectively across both Android phones and iPhones. Over the last several weeks, our two companies have worked together, reaching out to public health officials, scientists, privacy groups and government leaders all over the world to get their input and guidance.
Starting today, our exposure notifications technology is available to public health agencies on both iOS and Android.
What we’ve built is not an app – rather, public health agencies will incorporate the API into their own apps that people install. Our technology is designed to make these apps work better. Each user gets to decide whether or not to opt-in to exposure notifications; the system does not collect or use location from the device; and if a person is diagnosed with Covid-19, it is up to them whether or not to report that in the public health app.
User adoption is key to success and we believe that these strong privacy protections are also the best way to encourage use of these apps.
Today, this technology is in the hands of public health agencies across the world who will take the lead and we will continue to support their efforts.
Updated
“Congestion-busting beauty”:
Today I joined the first drive through of the NorthConnex tunnel in Sydney with @GladysB and @M_McCormackMP.
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) June 22, 2020
It’s 9km of congestion-busting beauty. It will be life changing for the area, helping to get families home sooner and safer, and take thousands of trucks off local roads. pic.twitter.com/EIKup21JhW
Updated
And the good folk at AAP have listened to Mark McGowan speak to Perth radio 6PR about the border plans for WA:
Western Australia’s hard interstate border closures look likely to remain in place while Victoria grapples with a spike in coronavirus infections.
Premier Mark McGowan and health minister Roger Cook will make a coronavirus announcement on Monday afternoon.
It is likely to relate to a further easing of restrictions within WA, where there are just three active cases, rather than the state welcoming back interstate visitors.
The outbreak in Victoria, where Covid-19 case numbers are at a two-month high after six days of double-digit growth, has reinforced WA’s reluctance to reopen borders.
Mr McGowan said health officials were closely monitoring the situation in Victoria, telling 6PR radio:
Clearly it makes you have second thoughts.
Particularly because this community spread in Victoria has now been going on for about a week and they can’t track it down.
They’ve actually shut down parts of their economy they had reopened. So that’s the risk– if you get the virus back, you then have to start shutting down again.
The premier has also shut down talk of a travel bubble with South Australia and the Northern Territory. He said based on commonwealth advice it would breach the constitution if WA reopened to some jurisdictions but not all.
He said it was particularly concerning Victoria, unlike other states, had patients back in intensive care.
Victoria now has people back in ICU and if the community spread continues, they’ll get a lot more.
Remember a couple of months ago, we were worried our ICUs would overflow and people would be, like in other countries around the world, literally dying in corridors and dying in the streets.
We’ve avoided all of that. It’s very important we continue to just do things right, keep people safe and get our economy within our hard borders up and running.
Updated
Northern Territory Speaker asked to resign after corruption finding
In terms of territory politics, there has been a bit going on in the NT.
As AAP reports:
The Northern Territory Speaker, Kezia Purick, has been asked to resign after she was found to have engaged in corrupt conduct.
Purick was found by the NT independent commissioner against corruption to have interfered in attempts by Country Liberal-turned independent MLA and former chief minister Terry Mills and former deputy chief minister Robyn Lambley to form a new political party.
Purick was a part of the Mills and Giles CLP governments between 2012 and 2016 but had a bitter falling out with Mills and later the party and became an independent.
Mills and Lambley intended to form the North Australia Party in late 2018 to run in the August 2020 election.
Email and text message exchanges published in the commissioner’s report released on Monday reveal Purick colluded with and instructed executive assistant Martine Smith to find out if the North Australia Party was registered as a business or party name elsewhere to try and block it.
The name was registered as a business in Queensland by former Liberal National MP Bruce Young.
Smith contacted him to encourage him to object to the use of his party name, which he did.
However, in a statutory declaration Young said he told Mills he was OK with the use of the name.
Icac found Ms Purick, a CLP-turned independent MLA, had engaged in a series of acts which were corrupt conduct, including breaching the Icac Act in “intervening in the attempted creation of a political party”, contrary to her obligations of impartiality.
When Smith’s actions were publicly exposed, Purick denied any involvement in a statement in parliament to fellow MLAs and in giving evidence under oath to the commissioner Ken Fleming.
Mills has since formed the Territory Alliance Party, which Lambley joined in March, which made a bid for opposition status to replace the CLP as it has more MLAs but was blocked in a vote that the Gunner government allowed.
Chief minister Michael Gunner has recommended she step down but given its strong numbers in the Legislative Assembly it can force her out anyway. He told reporters:
Given the seriousness of the ICAC’s finding I have afforded the Speaker an opportunity to resign from that position today.
In these extraordinary circumstances when parliament returns tomorrow the government will propose that deputy Speaker [Labor’s Chansey] Paech serve as Speaker for the remainder of this term of parliament.
He said the report found potential breaches of the law but not that an offence had been committed.
That will be a matter for the director of public prosecutions [and] the Icac will refer these matters to them for their consideration.
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Western Australia hasn’t laid out a reopening plan, which is why it was singled out there.
But Queensland (due to open borders on 10 July) and South Australia (due to open borders to everyone 20 July) are watching the Covid situation in Victoria closely.
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On the states, such as Western Australia, that are looking at the situation in Victoria as part of the decision to open up their borders (or not), Scott Morrison says:
That’s a matter for the Western Australian premier.
But again, we always said that we were not going for eradication of the virus. Other economies tried that, and their economy was far more damaged than ours.
And so we have to ensure that we can run our economy, run our lives, run our communities alongside this virus. Until there’s a vaccine, then that’s what we have to contend with.
And we can’t just shut everything up forever. The economic impacts of that are devastating.
The states and territories, working together as part of a unified national cabinet, have worked together like I’ve never seen a federation work before.
States will make their own calls, ultimately, in what’s in their best interests. But there will be outbreaks.
There will be cases. What matters is that we’ve built the protections to deal with them, and that’s what I want Australians to have confidence in – there will be cases, but the work is being done to build up our defences.
And that’s why it’s so important that people don’t get complacent. This is, as the premier said, a wake-up call. Australia has fared incredibly well compared to the rest of the world.
But that cannot be cause for complacency.
Covid hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s still out there. And it can still take hold. And so we can’t be complacent about it, and we certainly aren’t, as governments all around the country.
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On the future of jobkeeper beyond September, Scott Morrison says:
The government will be setting out its position on what occurs when those arrangements formally finish in September. That’s when the legislation says they finish.
And so we’re working through those issues right now about how we continue to ensure there’s the fiscal supports in our economy, the demand supports in our economy.
The support that is to help people stay in jobs and get new jobs; put them on a path to jobs ... how we’re working our employment services to get people back into work, where sadly, they may have lost their job.
And as we know, as the figures showed last week – devastating job losses across our economy. And we know that there will be more. And so we’ll keep doing everything that we can to ensure that we can either keep people in real jobs where there is work to do, or where – because of the corona recession – where they’ve lost their job, we can work to get them trained up and skilled to get into a new job.
And that the economy is supported to create those new jobs.
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Scott Morrison is asked whether there should be a federal push for paid sick leave, for people who have to isolate but don’t receive sick leave benefits (Victoria is offering people payments).
Morrison says:
They’re matters for the state to take up. The commonwealth is doing its bit with over $250bn of support that have been put in place into the economy.
And we’ll continue. We’re doing that and we’ll continue to do that as we’ve set that out.
And I know that states and territories have dealt with different challenges in each of their areas as they’ve seen fit to do so.
New South Wales has certainly been providing great support to the economy here in New South Wales. And I know other states have been doing similar things. So they’ll make their own judgements on those, and I welcome them when they do.
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Gladys Berejiklian says her advice is in sync with the Victorian advice:
Well, that’s why the health experts in Victoria themselves have said to all of their citizens of Victoria: do not travel interstate, especially if you’re from the hotspots.
That’s the message from Victoria Health. And that is certainly the message that we endorse, and we say to people here: please, please note that if you have the mildest symptom, you shouldn’t be leaving the house. You should be getting tested. You shouldn’t be travelling anywhere, and especially, unless you know you’re Covid-free, you shouldn’t be travelling outside the state of Victoria.
And that’s certainly the advice coming from the Victorian government itself.
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NSW residents advised to 'reconsider' travel to Melbourne
Gladys Berejiklian is also advising NSW residents to rethink any travel to Melbourne, and only go if they really have to:
At this stage, the advice is do not travel to those hotspots. Do not go to the hotspots. Reconsider your plans. Reconsider what you’re doing.
But certainly, Melbourne is a discretion. We would recommend people not at this stage travel to Melbourne unless they have to. However ... there is a level of discretion there. But the strong recommendation from the New South Wales government, including our health officials is: do not travel to those hotspots at all. And reconsider your travel to Melbourne at this stage.
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Gladys Berejiklian says the New South Wales-Victoria border will remain open:
I’m in regular contact with our health experts. The border between NSW and Victoria will continue to stay open. However, as is consistent with the health advice from Victoria, and also from NSW, nobody from NSW should be travelling to those hotspots at this present time.
And people should consider whether they should be travelling to Melbourne at this point in time whilst community transmission is where it is.
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Scott Morrison says Australia has to learn to live with 'setbacks'
Speaking on the Victorian situation, the prime minister says (again) that Australia needs to expect setbacks from time to time as the economy reopens after the lockdown:
They have localised outbreaks where they are considering stronger measures in the localised area, rather than having it extended across the state.
That’s sensible under the circumstances, and we’d hope that that would mean that some of the restrictions could be eased once the risk has passed.
But this is a practice that’s been placed following other countries. Israel, for example, does exactly the same thing when they have localised outbreaks.
And that’s a way that we live with Covid-19. This is part of living with Covid-19. And we will continue on with the process of opening up our economy and getting people back into work.
But there will be setbacks from time to time, but we have systems to deal with the setbacks.
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Meanwhile, this is happening:
Every extreme example started with one wrong step followed by others. Being on a bad trajectory for an extended period inevitably leads to a very bad spot. While deficits inevitable right now, its wrong to say they don’t matter or that we should just print money to pay back debt.
— Mathias Cormann (@MathiasCormann) June 22, 2020
Imagine being the Finance Minister who looks at this graph and thinks, oh crap, we better watch out for hyperinflation pic.twitter.com/cwKWUrDdsp
— Greg Jericho (@GrogsGamut) June 22, 2020
There is another allowable withdrawal in the next financial year as well.
APRA publishes weekly data on the superannuation early release scheme https://t.co/ZOZcW9cW2h #auspol pic.twitter.com/ScyZFmcNwj
— Political Alert (@political_alert) June 22, 2020
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The increase in cases in Victoria is not good news for the AFL, either.
🚨BREAKING🚨
— FOXSportsAUS (@FOXSportsAUS) June 22, 2020
The Melbourne Storm have been forced to move their next home game due to the outbreak of Covid-19 cases in Victoria. And the impact may not stop there >>> https://t.co/LWoHK1Qu8o pic.twitter.com/l7dv2QB6xK
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The chief health officer, Professor Brendan Murphy, will deliver a national Covid update today.
We’ll bring you that at 2.30pm
Nick Evershed, who is a genius at this kind of thing, has looked at the Victorian cases since May. (As someone who can’t use Excel, despite claiming I can on my résumé, I hold those who can wrangle the data in ways my words can’t in very high regard.)
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Because there are some who can’t stop blaming the protests (despite authorities not tracing cases back there), Victorian chief medical officer Brett Sutton* says:
I don’t think so, I really don’t think so. I think we have had very low levels of community transmission that have been ongoing right throughout from the very beginning, as established in February, and because people are fatiguing about the really clear messages, this is a long battle and a complex one and there is no single silver bullet.
It is re-emerging because people are not doing things as stringently as they might have done a month, two months ago. But I don’t think the Black Lives Matter protest has contributed. We are not seeing people who have clearly acquired it there.
(For the record, the argument now is that because people saw the protests, they decided to stop obeying the rules themselves, because even when it’s not the thing, it is always the thing.)
*I originally mistakenly attributed this quote to Jenny Mikakos. Apologies.
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Victorian authorites tracing more than 1,000 close contacts
And here is why authorities are worried about the new cases in Victoria this past week: along with the new cases come the close contacts – people who potentially could have caught the virus. Mikakos says:
There are over 100 active cases, and when there are that many active cases, we expect there will be over 1,000 close contacts.
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There has been some confusion over the recommendations for travel. Jenny Mikakos says it is not a lockdown, but a suggestion to reconsider travel:
It is a pretty broad-brush description to talk about an LGA, obviously, and there are areas within those that are more of a concern.
But for the purpose of protecting our interstate jurisdictions, we really need to say, look, reconsider travel or don’t make plans to travel into these hotspot areas in particular. Because it would be a very significant thing for there to be re-established community transmission in rural New South Wales or some other parts where that can be avoided.
It is not a lockdown – there are not legal directions that apply to these areas and it is a very broad descriptor.
But it is sensible from a national perspective to say if these areas can be avoided, if people can understand that other parts of the country are less of a risk than these particular areas, then just make a consideration about your travel plans for these areas.
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Just a reminder, those Victorian hotspots have been identified as:
- Hume
- Casey
- Brimbank
- Moreland
- Cardinia
- Darebin
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On the local government areas that have been declared “hotspots”, Jenny Mikakos says:
In the legal directions that have commenced today, we have not issued stay-at-home directions for those hotspot areas, but of course we don’t rule anything out.
We are very concerned about the level of transmission in those particular locations.
We know that some areas in our community have had higher case numbers in recent weeks, and that has particularly been spread through family scenarios, extended family members coming together, visiting each other and spreading the virus across their family members.
But also the risk there is that the family members can transmit that virus to workplaces, to school settings and other locations.
So this is why we have taken a very precautionary approach.
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Victoria records 16 new coronavirus cases
The health minister, Jenny Mikakos, is updating on the coronavirus situation in Victoria.
The state has recorded 16 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours.
They were previously five cases that have been removed due to duplication, so the total is now 1,847, a net increase of 11 yesterday.
Of the 16 new cases, six are linked to known outbreaks, four were detected in hotel quarantine, five detected through routine testing and one is under investigation.
There are also 222 cases believed to be related to community transmission – an increase of 12 since yesterday. So we have 125 of cases in Victoria.
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For those asking about what the RBA governor said about the rates, I have gone back through the interview with the ANU Crawford School leadership forum to find the quote.
Phili Lowe said it was “likely we’re going to see interest rates at their current level for years”.
The current interest rate is 0.25%. For the RBA, that is effectively zero – there will be, at least on all current indications, no further cuts.
But as Lowe also pointed out, that doesn’t necessarily mean that people will feel confident enough to borrow money.
The “shadow” of the coronavirus’s impact on the global economy was likely to stick around for a few years, Lowe said, meaning people would be more risk averse.
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Queensland has reported zero coronavirus cases overnight.
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Palaszczuk announces new first home owner’s grant in Queensland
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced a new first home owner’s grant for people in Queensland:
If you’re a first home owner and looking to buy your first home, now is the opportunity.
We’ve put in place grants of $15,000 and this can be matched with the federal government’s $25,000, which means, as a first home owner, you get $40,000 to buy your first home, your new home.
And if you’re in regional Queensland, it’s an extra $5,000 boost, so up to $45,000. But also too, in regional Queensland, you don’t have to be a first home owner.
If you are looking at building a new home, you can be eligible for that $5,000 grant.
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New South Wales authorities have reported two new cases of Covid in the past 24 hours.
One is a returned traveller in hotel quarantine. But authorities are still tracing the origins of the second case, a man in his 30s from south-western Sydney who has tested positive but hasn’t been to any mass gatherings or travelled, so the authorities are not sure where he was infected with the virus. He is quarantining at home.
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Scott Morrison should be holding a press conference with Gladys Berejiklian soon.
Just awful news out of the UK with a terrorist incident in Reading. Australia’s deepest sympathies are with the victims, their families and friends and the British people who are already dealing with so much during this COVID crisis.
— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) June 22, 2020
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Also continuing today:
The #BushfireRC is back this morning and will spend the next three days examining the role and response of local governments to natural disasters. A spoiler: it varies widely!
— Calla Wahlquist (@callapilla) June 22, 2020
On the witness list today are six people from local governments in three states.
A passenger on the Ruby Princess whose two friends died of Covid-19 said the ship held a St Patrick’s Day party for 400 passengers two days before it docked in Sydney.
Jill Whittemore, a US woman who also contracted Covid-19, told the NSW special commission of inquiry into the cruise ship that she did not remember any announcements onboard telling passengers with a fever, cough or sore throat to go to the medical centre.
On 17 March she attended a St Patrick’s Day party onboard with 400 other passengers. She said:
It was a fairly large lounge but it was full. People were sitting very close together.
Whittemore said neither herself nor her friends had any symptoms, and felt well, and she had not seen anybody wearing masks. She also said she had not heard any announcements that the ship’s medical centre was free of charge for respiratory illness.
She returned to California after leaving the ship on 19 March, Sydney time.
On 19 March US time, she was contacted by NSW Health and told she was a close contact of a confirmed case. She then developed symptoms on 21 March. She tested positive and two of her travelling companions were admitted to hospital and died.
She said nobody from Australia had contacted her after she tested positive to ask about her close contacts.
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In case you missed this yesterday:
Remember the big Black Lives Matter rally in Brisbane 2 weeks ago? The 14 day #Coronavirus incubation period has passed and @StevenJMiles says "we don't believe anyone contracted coronavirus at the rally" @abcnews @abcbrisbane pic.twitter.com/rGf9Our2bY
— Jessica van Vonderen (@jessvanvonderen) June 21, 2020
More cheery news.
Temperatures reached +38°C within the Arctic Circle this Saturday, 30°C hotter than normal. #GlobalHeating is accelerating, and some parts of the world are heating a lot faster than others.
— UN Climate Change (@UNFCCC) June 21, 2020
The #RaceToZero emissions is a race for survival.
Dataviz via @ScottDuncanWX pic.twitter.com/4gGvYC8cnS
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Australia can move out of Covid 'shadow' slowly or quickly, RBA governor says
Philip Lowe says he feels “fundamentally optimistic” about the future, and Australia’s economic downturn has not been as bad in other countries, and not as bad as anticipated. But he also points out that action is going to be needed to ensure the country emerges from the crisis as it should:
I think there is going to be a shadow from this crisis that’s going to last for perhaps years.
I talked about the reasons for that, previously – we can move out of that shadow slowly or we can move out of it quickly …
I fear if we don’t leverage the advances in technology, and we don’t see policy reform, we’ll just go on and meander and kind of helps slow growth and slow growth in incomes.
But it’s not inevitable, we have the capacity to return to strong growth.
And the response that we’ve seen in the past three or four months gives me confidence that we can leverage of those opportunities we have, and Australia has done remarkably well over the past few months relative to many other countries on the health front, the political cohesion, and the economic front, should give us all confidence that we can meet the challenges of tomorrow as well.
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Phil Lowe has also said he sees Australia having it’s current interest rates (0.25%) “for years” as central banks try to negotiate the coming global economic slowdown.
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Philip Lowe is now speaking at the ANU Crawford School leadership panel.
He says the cooperation between the world’s central banks has been “deep and wide ranging” and the main form has been sharing of information.
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Over in the ANU Leadership forum, the panel has learned that Citi, one of the globe’s biggest banks, doesn’t plan on returning staff to its New York office until next year.
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An Australian defence force officer who tested positive to coronavirus while posted in Papua New Guinea is being held in isolation.
The officer, who has been in PNG since January, began self-isolating on 5 June after reporting flu-like symptoms.
The officer will stay in isolation until cleared by doctors, the defence department has said.
“The High Commission has conducted contact tracing and provided this information to the PNG Government,” Defence said.
PNG has recorded only eight cases of Covid-19 but testing rates are low, and there are concerns that an outbreak could quickly overwhelm the country’s health system. There have been no deaths there.
PNG’s state of emergency was lifted last week after a fortnight with no new cases.
Five defence force officers were flown home last month after contracting coronavirus in the Middle East. Defence personnel serving in the region were tested after several local contractors became infected.
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The SDA, which represents retail workers, wants more done to protect those workers from Covid-19 transmission.
Gerard Dwyer, the national secretary, says it is a growing concern
“that lack of effective action by shopping centre operators may be encouraging community transmission of Covid-19 just as there are disturbing signs in Victoria that we may be on the verge of a second wave of this lethal infection”.
“This shortsighted failure invites new government restrictions, jeopardises retail workers’ health and jobs, as well as the future business of shops and the shopping centres themselves,” he said.
“The SDA is writing to the commonwealth’s deputy chief medical officer, the Victorian premier and shopping centre representatives seeking urgent action.
“Quite prudently, the authorities have established Covid testing stations at shopping centres. Retail workers are reporting to the SDA that they have seen shoppers leaving testing stations and going straight into the shopping centre; others have come directly from the shopping centre to the testing centre.
“This is out of line with the recommendations of state and commonwealth health authorities.”
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For those wanting to follow along with Phil Lowe’s (very informed and deliberate) musings about the economy moving forward from Covid, you’ll find a link here:
We have been notified that Governor Philip Lowe's panel appearance at the ANU Crawford Leadership Forum will now commence at 9.30 am - https://t.co/NdMxZT92Ho pic.twitter.com/YqZGZWw5qA
— RBA (@RBAInfo) June 21, 2020
There was a lot of furore at the weekend about your Covid app suddenly tracking you. It is not true.
Still getting paranoid messages about the Google-Apple exposure framework being some "government tracking".
— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) June 21, 2020
Quite frustrating given it is very Googleable, I've written several articles about it, I tweeted to correct the record and it's explained in the goddamn settings...
Google and Apple released a joint statement about this in May.
There are several articles about it, including by Josh Taylor, and you can search for more information if you need it.
It’s your choice to download the app or not. But don’t add to the misinformation out there.
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Should people be wearing masks?
Dr Nick Coatsworth:
The masks are an ongoing point of review for the AHPPC. There has been some evidence around the world that masks can be effective in preventing the transmission of the virus but in what we call high prevalence areas where there is lots of community transmission, where you’re likely to encounter someone with the virus, that is where masks can be of value.
At the moment, the most value is maintaining distance, washing hands, downloading the app and staying at home when you’re sick and getting tested. That will give you more proceedings in the Australian context than wearing a mask.
The deputy chief medical adviser Dr Nick Coatsworth said the numbers of positive Covid cases in Victoria had increased, but “remain modest compared to the population of Victoria”, which is 6.4 million.
“Any increase of this sort is a source of concern,” he told ABC News Breakfast.
“Those numbers are confined to largely four or five outbreaks. It does demonstrate that there is ongoing community transmission in Victoria, hence the recommendations to defer travel within and out of the local government areas in Melbourne that we made yesterday.”
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The ACT is moving ahead as planned with easing of restrictions. The territory has not had a new case of Covid in quite some time.
The Australian War Memorial is reopening to visitors who must reserve their slots. Free, time-restricted tickets can be booked on the website. (The Last Post memorial is also back – it’s same deal as the memorial, with visitors needing to book their slots online.)
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Tanya Plibersek appeared on ABC News Breakfast, where she was asked about the easing of restrictions in light of the Victorian situation of increased cases:
It is not about opinions at a time like this. It is about what our health experts advise us. I would advise the Victorian government and the New South Wales government and the federal government to work cooperatively, based on the best medical advice.
I think the one thing we can say for certain is that people can’t relax, they can’t believe for a moment that this health crisis is over.
All of that early advice about washing your hands, staying home if you have any symptoms, going to get tested if you have got symptoms – staying home from work and getting tested if you have symptoms, all of that is just as important now as it was a few months ago.
We cannot relax our vigilance because the cost of a second wave would be catastrophic.
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Also, as a reminder, children aged between six months and five years are eligible for a free flu vaccine.
The ski season is (sort of) open.
As AAP reports:
The ski season is set to officially kick off in NSW and Victoria after weeks of delay due to the coronavirus pandemic.
But it will not be quite business as usual when the mountains open up from Monday, with social distancing rules in place and lift passes needing to be pre-purchased at some spots.
Thredbo in NSW and Mount Buller in Victoria will start operating ski lifts from Monday, while Perisher and Victoria’s Mount Hotham and Falls Creek will start turning lifts on from Wednesday.
Ski resorts will operate at a reduced capacity and group ski and snowboarding lessons are not permitted, while all accommodation and facilities at the ski fields will have screening and safeguards in place.
The late start to the ski season comes days before school holidays in Victoria and a few weeks ahead of NSW school holidays in what will hopefully give the areas a much-needed tourism boost.
Perisher and Thredbo are forecast to receive only a smattering of snow in the coming days, while Falls Creek, Mount Hotham and Mount Buller can expect a bit more powder than their NSW counterparts.
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro on Monday said in a statement rapid COVID-19 testing will be available for those in the Snowy Mountains region.
“Communities in the Snowy Mountains and those on major roads in and out depend heavily on tourism dollars and I know they will be very appreciative of the business brought in by visitors to the region, but it is imperative that we remember to be COVID safe,” Mr Barilaro said.
“While our regional communities are ready to welcome you with open arms, the message remains clear – if you are sick, get tested and don’t travel.”
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There is no evidence the Melbourne Black Lives Matter protest has contributed to the uptick in Victorian cases.
One person who tested positive who had attended the protest was not thought to be contagious at the march and had contracted the virus before the protest.
Another tested positive and then negative.
A third person who tested positive late last week attended the march but also works in retail. Authorities say it is impossible to say where that person contracted the virus.
The two-week incubation period for those who attended the march ended on Saturday. Authorities have linked the localised outbreaks to workers at quarantine hotels and family-to-family transmission.
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What are the cases authorities are most worried about in Victoria?
It’s not the returned traveller cases which are the issue – those people are in mandatory quarantine. It’s a series of clusters of community transmission.
They include the Stamford and Rydges clusters, where the virus has spread among workers at the hotels, which are being used for quarantine, a family cluster at Kielor Downs, which accounts for 11 cases in nine households, and a family cluster in Coburg, which so far has 14 cases.
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The Grattan Institute has taken a look at the possibility of a second Covid-19 wave in Australia. Melissa Davey has taken a look at that:
Workplaces pose a high risk of triggering a resurgence of Covid-19 cases in Australia, which means people should continue to work from home as long as they can, a report from public policy thinktank the Grattan Institute says.
Published on Sunday evening, the report, Coming out of Covid-19 Lockdown: the Next Steps for Australian Health Care, says schools can safely remain open as long as policies are in place to reduce the risk of outbreaks.
It comes as Victoria announced it would extend its state of emergency for at least four more weeks and ramp up its police enforcement of lockdown rules after a spike in Covid-19 cases in recent days.
The rise also prompted neighbouring South Australia to reconsider its decision to reopen its border, while Queensland declared all of greater Melbourne a Covid-19 hotspot.
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Good morning
If you’re in Victoria this morning, chances are you’re feeling a little uneasy – after the government and authorities decided it was too risky to move ahead with the planned easing of restrictions.
As AAP reports:
Victoria confirmed another 19 cases on Sunday, taking to 160 the number of new cases in the state over the past week.
The only other cases reported on Sunday were five in NSW and one in Western Australia.
The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee says outbreaks have been identified in the local government areas of Hume, Casey, Brimbank, Moreland, Cardinia and Darebin.
“The AHPPC strongly discourages travel to and from those areas until control of community transmission has been confirmed,” the committee said on Sunday.
The deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth said the Victorian situation had been discussed at Sunday’s meeting of the AHPPC.
He said after the update from Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, the panel had “every confidence” the outbreak would be brought under control.
“This is a good example of how things are going to work into the future,” Coatsworth said.
“[It is] an important example because it will show how a state can get on top of outbreaks of this nature in Victoria and then move forward.”
Family-to-family transmission seems to be the main issue, which has meant households will again be limited to just five visitors at a time and outside gatherings are limited to 10.
The rest of the states and territories, which are moving ahead with the easing of restrictions, are watching to see what happens – Queensland has already declared all of greater Melbourne a Covid-hotspot.
We’ll have all of the nation’s coronavirus news, and more covered off today. You have Amy Remeikis with you until mid-afternoon.
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