Summary of today's events
That’s where I’ll leave you for tonight. Thanks for reading on what is a difficult night for everyone in Melbourne.
Here’s what we learned today:
- The greater Melbourne area will return to stage 3 lockdown from midnight tomorrow for six weeks after Victoria recorded 191 new cases of Covid-19, the largest number of positive cases since the pandemic began. Announcing the resumed lockdown, premier Daniel Andrews said he knew “there will be enormous amounts of damage that will be done because of this”.
- Under the lockdown residents cannot leave their home unless it is for care or medical reasons, shopping for essentials, work or study that cannot be done at home, and exercise.
- As previously during the lockdowns, retail stores can remain open subject to social distancing but cars and cafes will go back to takeaway only.
- Schools will return as normal for years 11, 12 and VCE, as well as for students in special schools. All other students will have an extra week of holidays as more data comes in, but Victorian education minister James Merlino has flagged that those students may resume remote learning late in July.
- The border between New South Wales and Victoria will close at midnight for the first time in a century. NSW police minister Mick Fuller said the 55 border crossings between the two states would be patrolled by 650 police officers.
- South Australia also announced it would toughen its already closed border with Victoria. As of midnight tomorrow night, only SA residents travelling from Victoria will be allowed to quarantine in the state for 14 days.
Updated
Victorian education minister flags possible return to remote learning for some Melbourne students
Perhaps unsurprisingly the Victorian education minister, James Merlino, has flagged a possible return to remote learning for students in Melbourne.
While premier Daniel Andrews said today that school holidays will be extended for another week for students from prep (or kindergarten, for New South Wales readers) to year 10, Merlino says staff and teachers will use the week “to prepare for a possible return to remote learning” from 20 July.
School holidays will be extended for a further week for other students who attend these schools. School staff will use this week to prepare for a possible return to remote learning for prep-year 10 from July 20.
— James Merlino (@JamesMerlinoMP) July 7, 2020
A helpful compilation of everything you need to know about the Melbourne lockdown by my colleague Luke Henriques-Gomes:
Federal education minister Dan Tehan has announced childcare gap fees can be waived for Victorians in lockdown areas.
In a statement Tehan said the government “will allow all services located in areas subject to stage 3 Covid-19 restrictions to waive parent gap fees if children are not attending child care for Covid-related reasons from Monday 13 July”. The government will also ease the activity test until 4 October for families whose employment is affected.
From Tehan’s statement:
This means that if a child is absent from care for Covid-related reasons, the child care service can waive their gap fee which means more money in the family’s pocket. It also provides certainty to families that they will retain their enrolment at the child care service.
Waiving the parents’ gap fees will also ensure child care services maintain their enrolments and continue to be paid the CCS, even if a child is absent for a Covid-related reason.
Our government wants to ensure that child care services remain open for workers and vulnerable families who need those services.
From Monday, services can access the $708m Transition Payment to support the return to the CCS.
The government will also ease the activity test until 4 October to support eligible families whose employment has been impacted as a result of Covid-19. These families will receive up to 100 hours per fortnight of subsidised care during this period. This will assist families to return to the level of work, study or training they were undertaking before Covid-19.
Updated
“Before Monday night, food delivery had been patchy and disorganised. Residents say their main support has come from volunteer and community groups, including the Australian Muslim Social Services Agency, based in North Melbourne, and Sikh Volunteers Australia.”
Margaret Simons and Matilda Boseley on the situation on the ground for residents of the Flemington public housing estate placed under hard lockdown by the Andrews government.
Updated
Australia risks a spike in poverty and homelessness if Covid-19 support measures such as the freeze on rental evictions expire in September, an inquiry has been told.
The federal parliament’s standing committee on social policy and legal affairs is conducting an inquiry into homelessness in Australia.
Jacqueline Phillips, the director of policy and deputy chief executive of the Australian Council of Social Services, called on the inquiry to focus on structural drivers of homelessness, particularly the lack of affordable housing, insufficient income supports and the impact of the jobseeker compliance measures.
Speaking at an inquiry hearing this afternoon, Phillips said federal, state and territory governments had shown in recent months an ability to respond quickly to the Covid-19 crisis. She said she understood that about 7000 rough sleepers had been housed temporarily in hotels - although there had been gaps and inconsistencies in the response, such as the exclusion of temporary visa holders from income support.
Phillips said the timing of the homelessness inquiry was “really critical” because of the scheduled expiry in September of several measures that were playing an “important role in preventing homelessness”. She said these included the temporary boost to the jobseeker payment, the moratorium on rental evictions, and the jobkeeper wage subsidy.
She said those factors “risk a spike in poverty and homelessness unless actions and decisions are made now to continue those measures in some form”.
“So the committee has an opportunity at this time to rethink our national response to homelessness in the context of economic recovery. We’ve got a very strong, compelling imperative for action on health grounds and also on economic grounds. And we urge the committee and the government to think boldly and to think systemically.”
She argued that the history of reforms in this area were that proposals were partially implemented and incomplete or under-resourced and often limited to the funding of pilot projects.
I’m on the NSW/VIC border in Timbillica about 50km South of Eden. No cops or road blocks here just yet - just a portable sign. 16 hours until the border closes to Victorian residents. @9NewsSyd @9NewsMelb #9news pic.twitter.com/uMN7TVwfFn
— James Wilson (@WesternWilson9) July 6, 2020
“A senior oncologist working in the twin border town of Albury-Wodonga said the lack of information about border permits had caused 20% of their cancer patients to cancel upcoming treatments, because the cancer centre is on the NSW side of the border.”
My colleague Calla Wahlquist reporting on the confusion around the looming border closure between New South Wales and Victoria:
Two Victorian paramedics have tested positive for coronavirus today, Ambulance Victoria has said.
They are the third and fourth paramedics to test positive since the pandemic began in late January and are both in isolation with contact tracing underway.
Ambulance Victoria chief executive Tony Walker said the paramedics had been wearing personal protective equipment.
We take every precaution to minimise the rate of infection amongst our frontline workforce and we remind the community of their vital role in stopping the spread of Covid-19.
This means staying at home, getting tested if you’re unwell, washing your hands, and if you must go out, keeping a safe 1.5 metre distance from others.
Updated
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has tweeted out a full list of the changes in metropolitan Melbourne. There has, of course, been quite a bit to digest today so hopefully this helps.
And here's a full list of the changes across the state: pic.twitter.com/WHIFI6Dfwj
— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) July 7, 2020
Updated
Seems not great.
A few hours out from the border closure and the permit website isn't up and running yet. https://t.co/hgPjqBdOSG🤨 pic.twitter.com/ilHdiCojX9
— Josh Bavas (@JoshBavas) July 7, 2020
Dr Adele Murdolo, the executive director of the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health, has called the Victorian government’s support for migrant women throughout the Covid-19 pandemic “manifestly inadequate”.
In a statement endorsed by a number of women’s groups in Victoria, Murdolo said she was “extremely concerned” about the health and wellbeing of migrant communities, particularly migrant women, in the 11 ‘hot zone’ suburbs in Melbourne now under stage three restrictions.
Throughout the crisis, the provision of multilingual information and support to migrant women has been manifestly inadequate. MCWH has strongly advocated for migrant women’s leadership in the prevention of Covid-19 transmissions. There is a need for trained peer health educators to positively engage communities with tailored, accurate and multilingual information and support. This type of support has never been more important.
While the Victorian government has engaged multicultural community leaders over the last month, women community leaders have been overlooked. It is time to listen to migrant women about their experiences and needs to ensure that they can access specific support throughout this crisis. Migrant women’s leadership is crucial to an effective, community-based, preventative response to the pandemic.
We are calling on the Victorian government to meet with, and listen to, migrant women and their representative organisations, and to recognise their central role in multicultural community leadership. Migrant women’s organisations should be supported to reach out to migrant women who live in the designated ‘hot zones’ and high-density public housing across Victoria with multilingual information, support and services and to play a central role in strengthening the community response to Covid-19.
Updated
Good evening. Thanks to Amy Remeikis for guiding us through what has been a tumultuous day. I’ll be with you for the next little bit. Solidarity etcetera to everyone in Melbourne.
Here’s what federal opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, has had to say about this afternoon’s announcements:
I think I speak for the whole country when I say that my heart goes out to every Victorian right now.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) July 7, 2020
This is going to be so hard for so many, especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of our community.
Though we’re apart, we’ll get through this together.
It has been another big day.
If you are in Melbourne, or have loved ones in Melbourne, I am so, so sorry. If it helps, you have my permission to eat and drink any of things tonight. Be gentle with yourself, because it is going to be a rough few weeks.
Thank you again for joining me today. I’ll be back tomorrow morning to take you through the day before Melbourne goes back into lockdown.
The wonderful Michael McGowan will be your guide for the rest of this evening.
The NSW-Victoria border closes at midnight tonight for the first time in 101 years.
Wherever you are, please, take care of you – and those around you. We need a bit more kindness in all of our lives.
Updated
Australians may be at risk of arbritary detention in China, says Dfat
And not that you can travel, but if you could, the department of foreign affairs says you should not be going to China.
It has just changed its travel advice:
Still current at: 07 July 2020
Updated: 07 July 2020
Latest update:
China will not allow most foreigners to enter China. Direct flights between China and Australia have significantly reduced. If despite our advice you travel to China, you’ll be subject to 14 days mandatory quarantine. Quarantine requirements may change at short notice. If you’re already in China, and wish to return to Australia, we recommend you do so as soon as possible by commercial means. Authorities have detained foreigners because they’re ‘endangering national security’.
Australians may also be at risk of arbitrary detention.
Updated
In terms of actual news, this is the scale of the oubreak in Victoria, as opposed to the rest of the nation:
Updated
Meanwhile, Pauline Hanson, continues to have her finger on the pulse.
Despite tweeting about the numerous media appearances (Sky and 2GB) she has been invited to make since Channel Nine booted her from the Today show for making Pauline Hanson-like comments about the residents in the Melbourne locked down towers (we’ve had two decades of warnings, guys, none of this is new), the One Nation president for life is claiming she has been “censored” and is asking her supporters to sign a petition to, I don’t even know. Have the right to exist on whatever screen she wants, apparently.
Updated
Victorian restrictions update
OK. There was a lot of information there. But it boils down to this:
Greater Melbourne will return to stage 3 lockdown from midnight tomorrow for six weeks.
You cannot leave your house unless it is for:
- Care and medical reason.
- Shopping for essentials.
- Work or study which can’t be done at home.
- Exercise.
You can not exercise outside of the lockdown zone – so no travelling.
You cannot leave your primary place of residence for a holiday home outside the lockdown zone.
Retail will remain open (subject to social distancing).
Bars, clubs, cafes and the like will go back to takeaway only.
You can gather with your household, or gather with up to two people
(We are checking on partners)
Schools will return as normal for Years 11, 12 and VCE, as well as for students in special schools.
All other students will have an extra week of holidays as more data comes in.
The contact tracing is almost at capacity, with health staff tracing 5,000 close contacts.
Additional Australian Defence Force staff will help police the lockdown.
There will be additional support coming for businesses.
Residents in the “hard” lockdown towers will be subject to the same lockdown rules as the rest of the city once testing has been completed (police removed). Their tests will be given priority.
Daniel Andrews does not know NSW police minister, David Elliott, and does not have time to think about him.
The Victorian opposition has blamed Andrews for the second wave, but is willing to work on bipartisanship.
*A previous version of this post said you could have two visitors in your home. That may have been a miscommunication on my part (perils of live coverage) but we are checking on partners
Updated
He continues:
Clearly the premier is under pressure.
He is looking stressed. He is looking rattled.
He needs help, he needs help from the federal government and frankly I think it is time for the premier to invite other parties around Victoria to work with him and the government to fix this mess.
While I’m disappointed that the premier has got us to this position I’m willing to extend an offer of bipartisan support for trying to fix the problems that we are now in because I think that’s what Victorians want to see.
It’s a tough day for Victorians. My heart goes out to everyone whose lives are going to be turned upside down by being put back into lockdown for another six weeks.
We will do the best we can to get through this but we need to work together and frankly the premier needs to accept responsibility for the mistakes that have been made that have led to where we are today.
Updated
The Victorian opposition leader, Michael O’Brien, has taken all of two seconds to take aim at the Andrews government over the lockdown:
You have been let down by a government that has not done the right thing by you.
This failure, this lockdown, is a result of problems in hotel quarantine. Daniel Andrews let the Covid-19 genie out of the bottle with hotel quarantine bungles and now everyone’s paying the price for it.
This is going to be devastating for so many families, so many small businesses, so many jobs that just may not be there in six weeks’ time.
The premier’s tone today was really disappointing.
He was looking to blame Victorians, point the finger at Victorians instead of looking at the mirror and accepting responsibility for his government’s mistakes that have led to where we are today. We need to get on top of this virus.
The premier keeps saying we are all in this together, it would be great if he acted like it. It would be great if he admitted responsibility where he has got things wrong and he has let this virus spread into the community.
It would be great if the premier tried to bring in other people to help with this situation.
Updated
And in answer to questions in the comments – Scott Morrison is the prime minister, and is at work.
I didn’t say he wasn’t on the job, I said he hadn’t held a press conference since 2 July.
Updated
Victoria is unlikely to resume taking in international flights for some time.
Daniel Andrews finishes on a question about extending jobkeeper and jobseeker for Victorians and says:
I had a conversation with the prime minister just before this media event today. I am confident that the prime minister knows and understands that there will be different forms of hardship in different parts of the country, different industries, different sectors.
I’m confident the prime minister knows that and that he and his colleagues are looking to design whatever the next series of decisions that they make, whatever those new or different policy settings are.
I think he is going to be guided by that hardship just as we are, where there is hardship you have to have a response that is appropriate to that and that means that you have got a set of policies, a set of tools that where they’re needed most they will make the most difference.
That may well be, given our circumstances, that may well be of additional benefit because we have additional need now and of course into the future.
Updated
Brett Sutton is asked about the Covidsafe app (which, as Josh Taylor has reported numerous times, has not done any contact tracing work the manual process has not also done) and says:
As I said before, the Covidsafe app is of greatest utility if you are amongst strangers who you wouldn’t normally identify as household members, as friends, as family members who you visited.
They are closer contacts you are familiar with and having the details of them saved isn’t providing that additional population. If there was a case to pop up in other parts of Australia where there is much more mingling with strangers, where pubs and clubs are open, the Covidsafe would ping some strangers who are not known to a positive case so it has got, it’s definitely got utility and it is something that everyone should download, but we are in a situation where the close contacts that we are identifying are those that are already known to the individual.
Updated
Asked about whether or not people who are in one of the locked down towers who test positive for Covid-19 will be removed, Daniel Andrews says:
The key point is, anyone who tests positive is treated differently and if there are particular vulnerabilities in their household the public health team tries as best as they can to be able to respond to that.
Once we get the testing done – it won’t just be at the end but as we move through and get results – we will put in place the most appropriate public health policy but also the most appropriate care framework for each and every one of those families.
Updated
Victorian health authorities are dealing with 5,000 close contacts now – which is why the contact tracing has become such an issue for the state – it is rapidly reaching its capacity.
Updated
'I don't know him ... I'll talk to Gladys'
Daniel Andrews is asked about the NSW police minister David Elliott’s comments (which we reported a few hours ago) that contributing to the NSW border lockdown costs would be the “decent” thing for Victoria to do and delivers a fairly pointed smackdown:
I don’t know the NSW police minister and I have no interest and I simply don’t have time to be getting into it with him.
I will speak with Gladys about that issue and she hasn’t raised that with me.
He also said something about premiers not talking to police ministers about those sorts of issues – they talk to other premiers, but I missed the whole quote.
Updated
If you are currently on holiday in regional Victoria, you do not have to change your plans – but you can’t make new ones if you are in the lockdown area:
They will be able to complete their holiday but no one can go on holiday from metropolitan Melbourne because leaving your home for the purposes of a holiday is not one of the four permitted reasons.
Updated
In terms of how the virus came to be in the Melbourne public housing towers, Brett Sutton says:
I don’t think the genomics will tell us how it got into the high-rise towers. We will obviously ask all of those individuals in the high-rise towers who their close contacts are, where they have been in the previous days, but the reality is there is a significant network that all of us have with our friends and extended families and if we haven’t stayed at home, by and large, there are lots of opportunities for entry into new settings and I think the community cases that were out in those postcodes have been connected to some of the residents in those high-rise sets.
Updated
The chief health officer speaks a little more on the contact tracing difficulties:
Look, it’s not dissimilar in many ways to what we went through in the first wave. We still have to respond to those positive tests that we get back, get the details from every individual about when they first became symptomatic, take that period of 48 hours beforehand, find all of the close contacts from that 48 hours before right through that infectious period when they weren’t isolated.
It has been very challenging in terms of the rapid increase in numbers. That has been faster than in wave one and in many respects it is faster than in some other waves across the world. I think that’s a measure of some of the social disadvantage that’s been intersecting with the transmission in this wave.
He says he doesn’t believe there is more reluctance to give details this time round:
I think we are getting the close contact details pretty well. It does become more and more challenging the greater number of cases that you have to get all of those close contacts. We do have automated systems to let close contacts know that they need to remain in quarantine but we do want to go through a day-by-day check-in for all of those close contacts in quarantine to make sure they are doing the right thing, to make sure they have a symptom check and to make sure they are getting tested if they develop symptoms and so as the numbers increase that becomes more and more of a pressure point.
Updated
Prof Brett Sutton is asked about the transmission of cases in schools:
It was a measure of how much transmission was going on around those schools.
The great majority of cases that turned up in those schools were from kids who acquired it at home or outside of school and then be subsequently identified and the schools closed as a result. Al-Taqwa college is a different example.
There seems to have been transmission in the school that was quite substantial. They are older kids. They tend to have more transmission. It’s akin to adults if they are not doing the physical distancing appropriately so that’s been a big cluster in terms of schools.
Updated
I’m very sorry that we find ourselves in this position,” Daniel Andrews says.
I would, with the greatest of respect, put it to you getting this virus and dying from it is very onerous too.
This is challenging. I get it. I know that. I understand it. I didn’t want to be in this position. No Victorian does. Let’s not see it as simply an inconvenience.
It’s much more than that. It’s a pandemic.
And it will kill thousands of people if it gets completely away from us. That will be more than onerous. It will be tragic.
We don’t want that. We can avoid that, but we all have a part to play in that.
Updated
Still on contact tracing:
Contact tracing will always be important, no matter what rules you have in place.
You do get to a point and this is no criticism – they’re doing an amazing job and I’m very proud of them.
There are many thousands of people and I’m grateful to other states that have lent their most experienced people to lead teams of others.
Contact tracing will always be important. We will see – this is just a matter of logic – we will see more cases tomorrow and the day after.
This will get worse before it gets better – where we find ourselves not where anyone wanted to be, but it’s the reality of our circumstances.
None of us can afford to ignore it. Whether you’re in my position or you’re a hard-working citizen out in the suburbs of Melbourne, you have a part to play too. Don’t go out if you’re sick. Get tested if you’re sick. The rules are there for you and every family.
Updated
Daniel Andrews says contact tracers are reaching their peak, given the number of close contacts with the case numbers:
There’s still a concentration, whether it be in hot postcodes or adjacent postcodes if you look at it more as a corridor, there’s a significant representation there.
We will be able to provide more data, particularly as we move in to tomorrow. We’ve seen significant further cases. Whether they’re linked, that’s a matter of the investigation process.
But we’re certainly seeing other postcodes right across metropolitan Melbourne that have got cases.
You have to assume you’re finding even small numbers and there’s more there. Particularly given patterns of movement and the mere fact that we’ve got so many close contacts to deal with.
You get to that tipping point where you say we could kid ourselves that we could pull this off but we can do 1,000 cases a day.
Ultimately we can’t do 1,000 cases a day. Nowhere near that number. If we could then of course we would not spare any expense. We would have all the staff that we needed and we wouldn’t have to be shutting down businesses and sending people back to their homes.
If I could achieve that, that’s what we would do. The science tells us that simply won’t work.
Updated
Daniel Andrews continues:
Ultimately we have to take this as seriously as we take bushfire. This is binary. It is life and death.
If it gets away from us – and I don’t want to hear any more of this stuff from younger people or healthy people regardless of their age, that it won’t affect me. Well, it will affect you.
There are people across the world who have died who are otherwise healthy. Not one or two. Significant numbers.
All of us are part of families. Loved ones being gravely ill and potentially dying, that will affect you too.
And the restrictions will affect you, of course. It’s not about singling out one group.
I think there’s been complacency and a sense of frustration, and I get that and I’m not really criticising it. I understand it.
It has to change. It just has to change.
Updated
The Victorian premier says there is no one cause:
I’m not here to criticise or lecture Victorians.
Every Victorian knows at least one other person who perhaps hasn’t been following the rules as much as they should have.
We have allowed our frustration to get the better of us and that means that regardless of what the index case is, regardless of who patient zero is and how they became infected, the virus then spreads.
And I’ll take you back to an example – a person gets infected, they’re in a family of six, seven or eight or 10 people, they then go home, they’re unwell. They don’t get tested for quite some time. They’re wildly infectious and go and visit other families. Small, large, north, south, doesn’t matter where it happened, but you have a virus out there and it runs so quickly that even the delay in taking a test and getting it processed is enough to see a doubling and a doubling again.
What starts with one person is in the space of a couple of days something that is well and truly away with 50, 75, 100 people. That’s what we’re up against. And the mildness of it is the real devil to it. The fact that so many people can have it and not even feel unwell or, if they do, the symptoms are so mild they’re not a prompt to go and get tested.
Updated
Daniel Andrews says the government could have chosen a shorter lockdown period, but has chosen a longer period to work through incubation cycles:
I want to be clear with you.
We could have gone for a shorter period. The advice is – and it’s a genuine choice, you can go shorter and potentially have to extend it out – given people would want some notice, just as the rest of today and tomorrow, up until midnight, before the restrictions occur, if I said four weeks then you guys are going to be asking me on the Sunday before the fourth week, at the end of the third week, what’s happening in a week.
Three weeks is not enough data. The life cycle of this virus is about the 14-day period. The six weeks means we have three of those full cycles. If you are starting to see stability in low numbers, we’d have much greater confidence those are real numbers, rather than a false sense that the virus was not there any more or at such low levels that a suppression strategy would be able to work.
Updated
The Victorian chief medical officer, Prof Brett Sutton says this was not the advice he wanted to give:
What I do not want to see is any more deaths that are already predicted.
We have to drive our daily numbers down. What’s happened has been a very significant upturn in the last few days.
We did have two or three days where numbers were 60 or 70 a day.
We knew we had made new restrictions on gathering sizes. We knew we had gone through our really significant period of engagement with the communities most at risk and where transmission was greatest.
And that we really stepped up our efforts in testing. That was with the hope we didn’t have 92 to need to go to other public directions that would be imposed.
The last two days have shown that is not going to be adequate.
It is useful and needs to be part of our efforts, but it is insufficient to drive cases down and only through the imposition of these difficult measures that we really have any chance of turning this peak around and saving lives into the future.
Updated
Daniel Andrews says there will be more support for business coming.
If these steps were not taken and if we all don’t start taking this a little more seriously than we have been, we will see that. No one wants that at any point.
We can’t just go back to normal, despite the fact we all want to. We have got to find a Covid-19 normal. That means you can’t pick and choose which rules you follow.
You can’t let your frustration get the better of you. We’ve all got to do the right thing. Otherwise we will not just have tragedy but we will certainly have a prolonged period of really impactful restrictions.
These and potentially more. This is an opportunity to reset. This is an opportunity to work together. And we’re all obliged. There’s an obligation to do the right thing. For your family. For every family.
Please follow these rules. There’s simply no acceptable alternative.
Updated
'I know there will be enormous amounts of damage that will be done by this'
Daniel Andrews:
All of us have to be realistic about the circumstances we face. No one wanted to be in this position.
I know there will be enormous amounts of damage that will be done because of this. It will be very challenging.
The alternative is to pretend it’s over. Just like some Victorians have been. Wanting it to be over.
But we can’t pretend it’s over. It is not over in so many parts of the world and it is not over in metropolitan Melbourne and to a certain extent right across Victoria.
There’s no change to the rules in regional Victoria, but there are still rules and they need to be followed. We will do everything we can to support business, to support anyone and who is impacted by this.
Of course you’ve got the notes and the details but stage 3 means that those venues that had been cautiously opening up will have to go back to takeaway service only.
Other businesses that had opened will have to close. I know and understand how significant that will be and there will be a big job for us to continue providing support.
The responsible ministers will have more to say soon about further business support and I’ll be having further conversations with the prime minister about some of the very special needs that Victorian businesses are going to need met over these coming weeks and months.
Again, every Victorian needs to understand this is not over. It is not something you can pretend and wish away. It is here and it is going to be with us for a very long time.
Without a vaccine, without a cure, without better treatments, if we didn’t take these steps today, I will not be standing at this podium saying there’s 191 cases. I’ll be reporting hundreds and thousands more than that.
And that it will get right away from us and we will have thousands of people in hospital and we will all know what that means. That means tragedy.
Updated
The ADF will also help Victoria police keep the ‘hard border’ around Melbourne:
They will essentially support Victoria police, as Victoria police put in place roadblocks and other command centres to ensure that that hard boundary between metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria is not breached by people who should not be leaving metropolitan Melbourne because the purpose of their visit is not permitted under those four reasons to leave home.
It will not be every car being stopped, it will be similar to the approach Victoria police have taken in those 12 postcodes that are locked down.
It will be booze bus-type arrangements on main thoroughfares and I’ll appeal to Victorians, don’t for a moment think that you could flout these rules and travel into country Victoria.
There will be every chance you’ll be stopped and asked. If you don’t have a lawful excuse, then there are significant penalties that will apply.
Victoria police have always taken this seriously and they’ll continue to. That is what we need. We need to make sure that anybody and hopefully it’s a very small number, if any, but if there are any Victorians who do the wrong thing, Victoria police will be out there to make sure you’re not making selfish choices that put not only your own health at risk, the health of your family, but indeed the health of every single family at risk.
Updated
A further 260 Australian Defence Force personnel are on their way to Victoria to help with testing and logistics.
Updated
Priority will be given to tests from residents in the locked down towers, to move the process along, Daniel Andrews says.
There are ongoing conversations with independent and Catholic schools to try to ensure all students are on schedule.
Updated
On the towers under police enforced lockdowns
Daniel Andrews:
Can I send a very clear message to every resident and to every Victorian who is concerned for those residents, we all are.
The strategy here is to complete the testing and then as soon as possible, once that testing is complete, to have those nine towers removed to the same footing that the rest of Melbourne will move to at 11.59pm tomorrow night.
A stay at home with four reasons for leaving.
Now those who test positive, like any person who tests positive across the state, regardless of their postcode or landlord and their close contacts, they would need to be treated differently and we may have to put some very specialised and targeted supports and measures in to look after those people who test positive.
This is not going to last a moment longer than it needs to, to keep those residents safe and to have what I know are very, very challenging measures.
But they are proportionate to the risk when you consider, as we’ve said many times, the fact that so many people in those nine towers are among some of the most vulnerable people in our Victorian community.
Updated
On the students who will see five more days of holidays, Daniel Andrews says:
Teachers will be at work, at school and they’ll be doing two things – preparing for whatever the balance of the term may look like and we’ll make further announcements once we see more data and once things are a little more settled days – giving parents as much notice as we can. And the second function at least some of those teachers will be performing is for parent who’s are working in essential jobs that can’t be done from home.
Whether mum or dad are stacking shelves at Coles or Woolworths or whether mum and dad are a nurse or a police officer, those kids will be able to be taken to school and for next week there will be a supervised school holiday program for them.
We will before the end of this week, we will finalise what our plans are for flexible and remote learning, at the very latest early into next week – giving parents as much notice as possible.
Those arrangements will be in place – Year 11 and 12 back to school and specialist schools back to school on Monday. Business as usual. And for the rest of our kids we will make further announcements quite soon.
For those who are the children of essential workers or people who simply can’t work from home, there will be supervised school holiday programs for them and there is a week’s extension of the school holidays to give us some more time to plan, some more time to get more data and to see exactly the most contemporary picture of the challenge that we face.
Updated
On schools
Daniel Andrews is going into more detail about schools:
We’ve made a number of decisions and there are some others yet to come. Let me tell you what we have already decided.
From Monday, Year 11 and 12 students, VCE students and Year 10 students for the VCE component of their learning, if they are doing VCE subjects, will return to as-normal face-to-face learning.
That is principally a function that as older students they are able to be much more careful in getting to and from school and keeping physical distance.
They can continue to get to school on their own and won’t need parents taking them and picking them up.
That’s seen as a much lower risk and every day at school is important for those Year 11 and Year 12 students – we want to make sure their VCE is not any more disrupted than it already has been.
We want the certificate of education to be meaningful across both regional Victoria and metro and having two very different settings would potentially cause us issues there.
In addition to the Year 11 and 12 students and the Year 10s who do VC subjects, specialist schools will also reopen or will come back from holidays and there will be face-to-face programs as per normal from Monday.
That is in recognition of the very significant challenges those kids have and their families have, learning from home, flexible learning – the feedback from parents, teachers and those who know and understand those challenges best is that is not a practical option.
So they’ll return to school as well on Monday.
As for all other students, we will extend the school holidays for a further week.
There will be five pupil-free days next week.
Updated
You have to stay in your principal place of residence – there can be no movements to holiday homes:
Your principal place of residence is where you must be, except for the four reasons to leaving your home.
This is I know further than what we went last time, but we’re in a more precarious, challenging and potentially tragic position now than we were some months ago.
The notion of people continuing to move around the state from one residence to another is a risk that the public health team are not prepared to take and on that basis the stay-at-home order is about your principal place of residence. Your actual home, not a second residence wherever that might be.
Updated
Daniel Andrews:
There’s a couple of differences to the stay-at-home order this time as compared to last time.
You will be able to go out to go to work if you have to, to go shopping for the things you need when you need them, to study, to provide care or to get care. People are well acquainted with those rules.
Daily exercise will be treated differently. You can’t leave metropolitan Melbourne to get your daily exercise. There’s a number of now, on the advice of the chief health officer, very low public health risk activities that will be permitted that were not permitted last time but the most important point to make around exercise is that you can’t be going on a four-hour bushwalk hundreds of kilometres away from Melbourne.
You can’t be going fishing outside the metropolitan area, down into regional Victoria. Regional Victoria has very, very few cases and vast parts of regional Victoria have no cases.
This is designed to keep it that way. I hope very soon to be able to be before you again talking about further easing of restrictions in regional Victoria.
That’s not for today. I do hope that is quite soon. And we’ll only be able to achieve that if we continue to contain within metropolitan Melbourne and not see large outbreaks or additional cases in regional Victoria.
Updated
'I think a sense of complacency has crept into us as we let our frustrations get the better of us'
Daniel Andrews:
We have to be realistic about the circumstances that we confront. We have to be clear with each other that this is not over.
And pretending that it is because we all want it to be over is not the answer. It is indeed part of the problem.
A very big part of the problem.
We do have a chance to change that in the decisions we all make, in the way we conduct ourselves and in the way we reset and that is why the public health team have advised me to reimpose stage 3 stay-at-home restrictions, staying at home except for the four reasons to leave, effective from midnight tomorrow night for a period of six weeks.
There is simply no alternative other than thousands and thousands of cases and potentially more, many, many people in hospital and the inevitable tragedy that will come from that.
I think a sense of complacency has crept into us as we let our frustrations get the better of us. I think that each of us know someone who has not been following the rules as well as they should have. I think each of us know that we’ve got no choice but to take these very, very difficult steps.
It was a long night and we have been working throughout the day to get all the data we possibly could to make the best evidence-based, science-based decision about what the next steps should be.
Updated
- You cannot gather in groups of more than two or your household group.
- School holidays will be extended for at least a week.
- Retail will be open (subject to density) and markets are open for food and drink only.
- Cafes, restaurants, pubs, clubs and bars are back to takeaway only.
Updated
Melbourne to go into six-week lockdown from midnight tomorrow
From 11.59pm 8 July, if you live in metropolitan Melbourne or Mitchell shire, you will be unable to leave your home, unless it is for:
- Shopping for essentials
- Work
- Exercise
- Medical and care giving
- You can’t exercise outside of your shire
Updated
Scott Morrison’s personal popularity failed to carry the Liberal party over the line in the Eden-Monaro byelection, the NSW Nationals leader has said.
John Barilaro, who is also the NSW deputy premier and has not ruled out running for the federal seat at the next election, has also rubbished the Liberals’ argument that the primary vote swing against Labor was a blow to the opposition leader, Anthony Albanese.
The Labor candidate, Kristy McBain, claimed victory on Sunday but the Liberal candidate, Fiona Kotvojs, has yet to concede defeat. Latest figures from the Australian Electoral Commission show McBain is leading Kotvojs 50.85% to 49.15% after the distribution of preferences.
In a press conference today, Barilaro said he had made the right decision not to run for the seat and added that the “real winner” was the community because it had elected “a fantastic local member in Kristy McBain”.
“I know that the people of Eden-Monaro have actually elected a very good local member,” he said.
Some Liberals have pointed to the primary vote swing of 3.27% against Labor to suggest it spelled trouble for Albanese’s electoral prospects. Morrison also said in an interview last night that a protest vote against the government had not eventuated.
But Barilaro said today: “People are going to say this is a slap in the face for Albo, I disagree. Byelections are normally a protest vote – this was against a Covid pandemic. Byelections are normally about local issues [but] this time it was about Covid, the economy and jobs. This is one of the most unique byelections you’ll ever see. You’ve got a very popular prime minister whose personal brand you would assume would carry the Liberal party over, but there’s a disconnect.”
Despite making remarks clearly unhelpful to the Nationals’ Coalition partner, Barilaro added that the byelection was still a success for the Liberal party because of the positive swings it had achieved.
In a separate interview with Sky News, Barilaro called on Liberals to take responsibility for the defeat rather than engaging in a “blame game by Liberals that are gutless and can’t put their name to it”.
Updated
We are expecting to hear from the Victorian premier in the next half an hour – it is scheduled for 3.15pm, but these things usually run late.
Prepare for further lockdowns. Nothing is confirmed, but the numbers of community transmission are going in the wrong direction.
We’ve seen how quickly this virus can take hold of a city. If you are in Victoria, I am so sorry you are going through this. So sorry.
Updated
The ACT has announced updated travel guidelines for people entering the territory (as it relates to Victoria):
From 12:01am on Wednesday 8 July, the ACT will be enhancing travel restrictions for anyone travelling into the ACT from Victoria.
The Covid-19 situation in Victoria is a significant concern, and these measures will protect our community in stopping the spread of the virus from the Melbourne outbreak.
All ACT residents will be approved to return home, subject to entering quarantine for a period of 14 days from the day after leaving Victoria.
ACT residents will be required to notify ACT Health of their intent to return to the ACT, and provide details on how they intend to travel back to the territory and where they intend to quarantine. Any ACT resident that is unable to safely quarantine in their private residence will be provided with options of suitable accommodation where they can quarantine at their own expense.
For a number of days now our advice to any Canberran planning to visit Victoria has been clear – do not travel. You will have to quarantine for a full 14 days when you return to the ACT.
Victorians also should not be travelling.
If there is an exceptional need for someone to travel to the ACT, they will have to apply for an exemption at least 48 hours before they intend to travel. Anyone from Victoria trying to enter the ACT without an exemption will be denied entry.
Exemptions will be granted only in exceptional circumstances, such as:
- Visiting a critically ill or palliative care immediate family member.
- Essential services work (to be assessed).
- Attending a funeral of an immediate family member.
- Provide urgent care to an immediate family member.
- Receive urgent medical care.
- Leaving Victoria in air transit from another jurisdiction and did not leave the airport.
As part of its risk assessment, ACT Health will assess visitors’ proposed length of stay in the ACT. Other than for very short visits, a condition of entry will likely be that visitors must complete a full 14 day period of quarantine in the ACT (at their own expense).
An online system is being stood up to take exemption requests, further details are on the Covid-19 website.
The ACT Covid-19 Helpline 02 6207 7244 will also be available to any residents or travellers looking to enter the ACT from tomorrow.
Updated
Daniel Andrews will hold a press conference at 3.15pm.
Updated
Meanwhile, there have been some questions about when the last time the prime minister held a press conference, given the Victorian situation.
The last press conference Scott Morrison held was on 2 July, in Hume (ACT) as part of the defence spending announcement, ahead of the Eden-Monaro byelection.
He has appeared on 2GB, but there has been no other press conference in the last five days.
Updated
SA police commissioner Grant Stevens says he “understands there are announcements being made in relation to further lockdowns. But I don’t have the specific information” when it comes to Victoria.
Updated
The head of SA police says Victorians pose a significant health risk to South Australians at the moment, so the border will stay closed:
Based on the health advice we’ve received today, and obviously monitoring the performance of Covid-19 in Victoria, it is a significant risk to the community of Australia, and most jurisdictions are now reconsidering their attitude in terms of Victorians travelling from Victoria into other jurisdictions.
We’re no different. We are concerned about the impact of Covid-19 on the South Australian community.
Given that we have provided as much latitude as possible within our own community and relaxed the restrictions so that businesses can get back to trading and people can start to enjoy life as close to normal as possible, that level of movement within our own community does create risk if Covid-19 finds its way in.
The greatest risk of it finding its way in at the moment is through Victorian people travelling into South Australia.
Updated
South Australia is looking at a cap of 1,200 people for hotel quarantine. Currently, there are about 520 people in hotel quarantine in South Australia.
Updated
Commissioner Stevens continues:
New South Wales and ACT will still be able to travel to South Australia and undertake a 14-day quarantine period, given the level of risk associated with the community of New South Wales and ACT, and we’ll be continuing to monitor the potential for any seeding of the Covid-19 virus in New South Wales or ACT as a result of the current activities in Victoria.
Our goal is to relax the border restrictions for the New South Wales and ACT communities on 20 July, and we’ll continue to monitor that as we move forward.
It’s also important to point out that, as a result of the concerning activities that we saw in the CBD over the weekend, nightclubs will be restricted from trading until they have completed and have approved a Covid-management plan.
We saw significant concerns around crowd behaviour outside venues and also with over 120 venues being visited over the course of the weekend, several warnings were given in relation to the way they were managing their operations, and we understand, based on the health advice, that this is a high-risk activity.
And as a result of the need to ensure the community’s safety, we’ll be preventing nightclubs from trading until they have their Covid-management plan.
Updated
South Australia to strengthen Victoria border restrictions
The SA police commissioner Grant Stevens says the ADF is being called in to help:
As of midnight tomorrow night, only South Australian residents travelling from Victoria will be allowed to quarantine in South Australia for 14 days.
People not residing in South Australia who are returning from Victoria will not have that option available to them.
People travelling from Victoria who meet the essential traveller criteria will be required to be undertake quarantine activities when they’re not undertaking those essential traveller duties that they have been permitted to travel into South Australia for.
This will include the use of PPE, including masks, when they’re interacting with the South Australian community.
Cross-border communities will also be restricted in the number of kilometres that they believe able to travel when they come into South Australia as a cross-border traveller. All roads into South Australia from the south-east will have stronger controls as of midnight tomorrow night.
We will have static checkpoints on virtually all roads, and some roads will be closed, with physical barriers being put in place. We’re currently consulting with the Australian Defence Force in relation to supporting the South Australia Police in achieving this outcome.
Updated
The RBA has kept interest rates at 0.25%.
You can probably just copy and paste that update every month for the next two years.
Helen Sullivan has some New Zealand Covid-19 news from the international blog:
New Zealand rations places for citizens returning home during Covid-19
New Zealanders could be blocked at their own border after the government moved to slow the pace of international arrivals due to Covid-19, AAP reports.
Mounting pressure on New Zealand’s Covid-19 border regime has forced the government to ration places for New Zealanders entering the country.
Jacinda Ardern’s government has struck a deal with Air New Zealand to limit the number of places available for international arrivals, given the strain on compulsory isolation facilities. The housing minister, Megan Woods, said a ban on bookings had been implemented, and some Kiwis who have Air NZ tickets may not be let in.
“Air New Zealand has agreed to put a temporary hold on new bookings in the short term, as well as looking at aligning daily arrivals with the capacity available at managed isolation facilities,” she said.
“People who have already booked flights with Air New Zealand will still be able to enter New Zealand subject to availability of quarantine space.”
Air New Zealand said the hold would last for three weeks, and may move some customers to other flights. Woods said she was talking to other airlines “about managing flows”.
Updated
Financial analysts IBISWorld have been very quick of the mark in responding to an announcement which is yet to be officially made:
“The second lockdown of Victoria is an indication of just how quickly COVID-19 can return, after public discussion turned to talk of complete elimination of the coronavirus as little as one month ago,” said IBISWorld Senior Industry Analyst, Nathan Cloutman.
The latest outbreak, which led to 191 new cases of Covid-19 in Victoria today, is expected to postpone any plans for Australia to reactivate international travel with other countries that have contained Covid-19, such as New Zealand and Thailand.
Pilot programs to enable international students to return to Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory are expected to be postponed. Tourism and hospitality industries such as Restaurants and Cafes and Coffee Shops are expected to continue to struggle throughout 2020-21.
“The second outbreak in Melbourne is a vindication of those who have called for restraint in relaxing social distancing measures. While Victoria has been the first Australian region to experience a second wave of Covid-19, it is unlikely to be the last,” said Cloutman.
Updated
And if you have school children who are currently on holiday, for the last week or so, the government has said it will take their return on a ‘day by day basis’ for the impacted postcodes – and potentially further.
Right now, given the rate of community transmission, a return to at home learning is absolutely on the cards.
Updated
Given the meeting has broken, and health authorities have released the figures, and we still don’t have a concrete time – things are being put into place for an announcement.
It was around 3pm on Saturday when the Melbourne tower residents were told they were going into a police enforced lockdown.
.@DanielAndrewsMP Presser within the hour, hopefully, is the latest. @abcmelbourne @abcnews
— Richard Willingham (@rwillingham) July 7, 2020
Updated
Government services minister Stuart Robert has given fresh details of how it intends to repay 373,000 people who had unlawful debts levied against them through the robodebt process.
He told the National Press Club:
The average repayment is $1,900. One of the reasons there’ll be instalments – there’ll be about 7,000 give or take who will [be paid back in] instalments – is only because there is a check in the system, that it can’t pay out more than $6,999 in any one instance ...[This check] came about many years ago, when a human services staff member rather than putting amount to be paid, put the date and $4m was sent to an individual. That’s considered not to be the right thing, so the then Labor government put in a check. That’s still there.
Asked why this process will take until November, Robert said it will start paying from 13 July, but only has contact details for 190,000 current Centrelink customers, for 200,000 others it will need them to update their bank details in MyGov and the department believes this will take until November.
Robert also said that governments have calculated debts “partially or solely” based on income averaging for 20 to 30 years, including 16.6% of debts in 2009 and 24.4% in 2011.
Asked why the government isn’t refunding these debts, Robert replied that the sample tests it has run in those two years are “the only data sets we have in terms of where we sit”.
But why is the government only refunding customers from 2015 onwards?
Robert:
Because computing systems were built to do income averaging, we know who every single one of those individuals are, prior to that there was no computing system that existed.
So...there are 20 to 30 years’ worth of people owed refunds who the government can’t and or won’t refund because it doesn’t know who they are, but there is enough information to calculate the proportion of people robodebted in the past. Very odd.
Updated
Melbourne and surrounds reportedly heading back to stage 3 restrictions
The reports are now in the Age and the Australian, as well as social media (and contacts in Melbourne) that a four-week lockdown for metropolitan Melbourne, potentially spreading into regional areas, will be announced when Daniel Andrews fronts the media later this afternoon.
Reports that Andrews will announce a month long lockdown of Victoria this afternoon.
— Osman Faruqi (@oz_f) July 7, 2020
That would mean going back to where residents were in March - unable to leave except for exercise, work, food shopping or care.
We will bring you all the details as they come in.
Updated
For those who missed it in the Victorian data, the number of hospitalisations is up in the last 24 hours.
35 cases of coronavirus are in hospital, including nine in intensive care.
Updated
Roger Cook says the federal government has agreed to cap the number of international arrivals into WA to 525 a week – or 75 a day.
Updated
Western Australian health minister Roger Cook has reported no new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours.
All 12 active cases in that state are in hotel quarantine.
We are hearing the same reports you have seen on social media and the like that a four-week lockdown of wider Melbourne is on the cards.
We have not had that confirmed.
But the numbers of community transmission are not great – and hospitalisations have also increased in that Victorian health data we have posted – would suggest authorities are looking at the next step.
Updated
From NSW Health:
Murrumbidgee Local Health District is sending additional nurses and extending the hours of the pop-up clinic in Albury after a higher than expected turn out of local residents.
NSW Health wants to thank residents in the Albury area who have come forward to be tested and appreciates their patience as the district works as quickly as it can to conduct the tests.
An appointment to be tested is not required.
The clinic will extend its hours of operation from 9.30am until 8.00pm Tuesday 7 July and 8.00am until 8.00pm Wednesday 8 July. Additional clinics will be operational later this week if required.
We urge anyone with even the mildest symptoms to come to the clinic for testing.
Investigations are continuing after two suspected cases of Covid-19 in Albury returned positive results on preliminary testing.
The Murrumbidgee Local Health District pop-up clinic is located at Mirambeena Community Centre, 19 Martha Mews.
People can either make an appointment via the Murrumbidgee Covid-19 Hotline on 1800 831 099, or can drop in for testing.
Updated
It’s been a week since former competition watchdog chair, Graeme Samuel, delivered the interim report from a review of Australia’s national environmental laws (the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act) to the government.
The other parties are starting to ask why the independent report has not yet been made public yet.
The statutory independent review of Australia’s EPBC Act occurs once every 10 years and examines how the federal government has delivered on its duty to protect Australia’s environment.
A senate order had set a deadline for the government to table the report today, but that passed this morning.
In a letter, senator Simon Birmingham said production of the documents would reveal cabinet deliberations. But the Greens environment spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young has asked how that could be the case for an independent report.
“The Environment Minister has sat on the interim report into Australia’s environment laws for a week already and then today tried to claim releasing it would reveal cabinet deliberations. This is a pathetic excuse for keeping it hidden from the public,” she said.
“The 10-year statutory review into the EPBC Act is supposed to be independent of government and therefore any interim report cannot possibly reveal cabinet deliberations.
“The minister was handed the interim report a week ago, there is no excuse for holding onto it any longer, it should be released immediately in full.”
Cabinet is due to meet on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the environment minister, Sussan Ley, said the report would be released in due course.
The final report from the review panel is due in October.
State and territory officials are considering longer term ways to help rough sleepers who were temporarily moved into emergency accommodation during the Covid-19 pandemic, an inquiry into homelessness in Australia has heard.
The federal parliament’s standing committee on social policy and legal affairs has heard from federal government officials regarding what measures have been taken during the pandemic.
Numerous MPs on the committee asked whether there was a plan to help people who had been temporarily accommodated during the pandemic - and whether there had been any evaluation of issues such as the costs of housing rough sleepers in the long term.
While there was no hard data available, Sidesh Naikar, the housing and homeless policy branch manager at the Department of Social Services, said federal officials had met with state and territory colleagues during the pandemic to find out how each jurisdiction was responding.
Troy Sloan, the department’s housing and homelessness group manager, said the states had been “proactive in using accommodation such as hotels that were empty or much more empty because of the restrictions and hence have put a lot of otherwise, for example, rough sleepers into that accommodation”.
But when pressed about any long-term planning for people who were in short-term accommodation, Sloan said governments around the country were looking at the issue:
Given that they’ve now moved rough sleepers into temporary accommodation, how to make sure, or encourage that they are able to move out of the short-term accommodation provided in the pandemic and into longer term accommodation. So, for example, NSW has announced a $36m into Together Home program which will support rough sleepers into stable accommodation with wraparound services and it commenced on 1 July this year. ... The state governments, consistent with the roles and responsibilities we’ve outlined earlier, are looking at these things.
Federal officials had earlier told the inquiry day-to-day housing and homelessness services were primarily the responsibility of state and territory governments but the federal government provided funding to help.
Updated
Alan Tudge has responded to Labor’s calls for funding for communications for culturally and linguistically diverse communities (which was among the submissions to the Covid-19 committee and is something communities have been doing themselves) with this:
Acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, Alan Tudge, says Labor should not be blaming multicultural communities for the recent outbreaks in Melbourne #springst #auspol #COVID19Aus pic.twitter.com/glSKmjv3jj
— Political Alert (@political_alert) July 7, 2020
Updated
Victoria Health has included a breakdown by LGA:
Victorian cases by LGA: pic.twitter.com/eympvOJICA
— Amy Remeikis (@AmyRemeikis) July 7, 2020
So to recap, of the 772 active cases of Covid-19 in Victoria at the moment, 438 may be community transmission.
Of the 191 cases reported today, 154 have no obvious source.
With case numbers continuing to increase rapidly Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton said it was more important than ever for all Victorians – but particularly those in restricted postcodes, to follow the current health directions.
Victorians in these locked down suburbs are being urged to do their bit in the fight against coronavirus – stick to the rules and get to a testing station.
This virus is not selective – it will impact anyone it encounters, and personal contact is the clear source of its transmission. More than 300,000 people live across the hot-zone suburbs. We need everyone to do their part and ensure it is stopped in its tracks.
There is no excuse for not getting tested. We have people knocking on your door, coming to your neighbourhood – we are bringing the testing to you. There are also several drive-through and fixed sites where people can go.
Updated
Victoria Health continues:
Of the new cases which have already been linked to outbreaks, the breakdown includes:
- 13 cases relating to the North Melbourne and Flemington public housing towers, with the total now 69.
- 12 new cases linked to the Al-Taqwa College outbreak, with the total now 90.
- Four new cases have been linked to the Northern Hospital in Epping, with the total now nine. This is made up of eight staff and one household contact.
- One case linked to Aitken Hill Primary School in Craigieburn, with the total now 10. The case is a household contact of a confirmed case.
- The remaining new cases are linked to existing family clusters in Truganina, Patterson Lakes/Lysterfield, Fawkner and Sunshine West.
A new case has also been confirmed in a staff member at the Assisi Aged Care facility in Rosanna. The staff member did not work while infectious. Widespread testing of staff and residents at the facility will begin today.
Updated
Victoria Health confirms 191 new Covid-19 cases, 154 'under investigation'
The number of cases under investigation in Victoria – meaning most likely community transmission – has jumped to 154 in one day.
Victoria Health:
Victoria has recorded 191 new cases of coronavirus since yesterday, with the total number of cases now at 2,824.
The overall total has increased by 164, after 27 cases were reclassified – largely due to duplication.
Within Victoria, 37 new cases are linked to outbreaks and 154 are under investigation. No cases have been detected in a returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
There have been no deaths reported since yesterday. To date, 22 people have died from coronavirus in Victoria.
- 438 cases may indicate community transmission.
- 772 cases are currently active in Victoria.
- 35 cases of coronavirus are in hospital, including nine in intensive care.
- 2,028 people have recovered from the virus.
- Of the total cases, 2,469 cases are from metropolitan Melbourne, while 261 are from regional Victoria.
- Of the total cases, 1,481 are men and 1,319 are women.
- More than 979,000 tests have been processed to date.
Updated
Both the ABC and the Australian are reporting Victoria has recorded a 191 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours.
We don’t have the case breakdown as yet.
Another reminder, as you read this, that we don’t know what the legal parameters are, for the NSW-Victorian border residents.
This press conference is being held before the health orders have put in place.
People don’t know what the exemptions are just yet.
David Elliott:
This isn’t a punishment. We need to approach this operation knowing full well this was all about keeping the community safe.
And I think what the first message and the last message from the government today is if you don’t have to cross that border, don’t.
If you don’t have to come from Victoria to New South Wales, don’t do it.
Yes, there will be a significant military and police operation going on to monitor all cross-border activity.
Yes, there’s serious fines and indeed, a jail sentence, to anyone that wants to push the envelope.
But don’t think we’ll have police, military personnel, with big black sticks trying to punish people for doing something. You need to cross, go through the normal process, established hopefully by the end of today, through services New South Wales, the next 72 hours are going to be challenging.
The commissioner and I are very conscious of that. People will be confused, communities will be upset, local businesses will be interrupted.
But what we’ll always do as a government is to minimise the burden.
Minimise the burden to the economy, minimise the burden to people who have loved ones on either side of the border, and obviously, always work towards making sure we can get a return to normal life.
But to answer the question as to whether or not you need to live in that local area, I would encourage anyone to work within the spirit of what we’re trying to do here as well as the legal parameters.
Updated
Victoria contributing for NSW border closure 'would be the decent thing to do' says police minister
Asked if Victoria should be contributing funds to the NSW border closure, police minister David Elliott says:
I would think that would be the decent thing to do, given this is an outbreak that’s caused by a situation in Melbourne.
But we can’t rely on other governments to do the right thing all the time.
So as far as New South Wales government is concerned, we’ll be providing the financial support that’s necessary. Obviously with the defence aid, that comes within each individual agreement, the application that’s made.
But we’re all in this together.
Updated
While we are talking about essential work – the ABS’s latest report is out.
Here are the industries that recorded the biggest drops in revenue due to COVID-19. For more, see https://t.co/G2D3EIR4ar pic.twitter.com/Jsqb4aJzNi
— Australian Bureau of Statistics (@ABSStats) July 7, 2020
Updated
The problem at the moment though, is while Mick Fuller is saying those who do the wrong thing will be punished ($1,000 fine) there are no concrete rules on what the wrong thing actually is.
The health orders are not out yet.
Fuller is talking about “essential workers” such as health workers, being able to cross, but NSW has not defined essential work. Neither has the federal government. At the moment, anyone with a job is considered an “essential” worker.
Updated
If you arrive back in New South Wales, from Melbourne, including flights, you will need to self-isolate for two weeks.
There will be checks.
If you don’t have to cross the border over the next 72 hours, don’t do it.
Updated
Victoria records 191 new Covid-19 cases - reports
This seems right.
#BREAKING The ABC understands Victoria will report 191 new cases of coronavirus today
— casey briggs (@CaseyBriggs) July 7, 2020
Updated
Meanwhile, there is still no set time for the coming Victorian press conference.
In recent history, that has meant there is a big announcement coming.
Don’t be surprised if there is a wider lockdown of the state.
The NSW police commissioner says there are 650 police heading down to the border crossings (55 have been identified) and trucks will be randomly inspected.
We envisage the health orders will be ready sometime later this afternoon.
Services New South Wales has been working overnight to have the technical solution in place so that people can start to apply for exemptions early this evening.
We’ll put out warnings once that information is up on the New South Wales government website.
If there is a failure in any of the technology between now and midnight Tuesday night, and you need to cross the border, you will need to be patient.
But you should approach police and explain the situation and we’ll work with you.
Particularly those who have urgent needs around caring, health, and, you know, perhaps kids, schooling and other issues like that. So from my perspective, the next 72 hours from midnight, there will be challenges.
We’ll ask if you don’t have to cross the border, please don’t. ‘Cause it will be the most challenging phase of the operation, particularly whilst we are working through the exemptions, while we’re working through setting up the infrastructure, while we’re trying to get it right.
We have to work with the bridges and roads in place. These will all be assessed to make sure it’s safe for police and safe for those who are trying to cross the border.
Mick Fuller on who can cross:
In terms of the health orders that are currently being struck, there’s three key cohorts of people.
That is people from New South Wales who are currently in Victoria, or who’ll be in Victoria from midnight Tuesday night, if they return, they’ll need to fill out the exemption form, and they’ll need to self-isolate at home for 14 days.
So, anyone from NSW who returns after midnight Tuesday will need an exemption and they’ll need to isolate for 14 days.
There are the border towns, I know there’s an enormous amount of interest in the border towns, we’re trying to strike a good balance for those local communities, knowing full well people across the borders every day for health, employment, education, and many, many other reasons.
Can I say that bubble, or those postcodes, will be seen differently to other Victorians.
So we’ll make it, certainly easier, for those to travel across. They will need an exemption.
It will more than likely just need to apply for a simple exemption and that will see them through this crisis. In terms of other Victorians that aren’t in border towns, they are not allowed to come into NSW. You will need an exemption from that. And that will need to be for some urgent reason.
Updated
NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller is detailing how the border crossings will work:
We have categorised the roads from tier A, B, and C.
The tier A roads, there are the primary road crossings, Wodonga Place, South Albury, Hume Highway, Cobb highway, Stuart highway, Bongara and the Princes Highway.
These are the five primary crossingings where there’ll be enormous amounts of resources, not just police, but defence, and transport, and national parks and wildlife to ensure that you can cross as easily as possible.
There are 29 category B roads that will have police resources on them. You’ll be able to cross on those roads but there may be greater delays.
There are 20 other what we would class as dirt tracks and tracks that aren’t regularly used as a crossing. They’ll be patrolled, they’ll be aerial surveilled.
Updated
David Elliott:
We have already commenced deploying well over 500 police and the commissioner will go through further details.
An hour ago I discussed with the assistant defence minister, the Australian Defence Force deployment, and we will be provided with as much support as we need in the initial deployment with the ADF, something like 300, but I can easily forecast the fact we’ll probably see more troops on the ground there.
These joint operations are raised through well established protocols, under our defence aid to civil power and defence aid to civil community protocols.
They’re well exercised. The community needs to be reassured this is nothing untoward. This is a normal joint operation between police, defence force, and any other emergency services, combat agencies, that are required.
And we’ll probably be drawing on some of those other combat agencies.
Updated
NSW police press conference
Police minister David Elliott is using terms like “agile”as he explains the NSW police response to the border lockdown:
We will make no apologies for the fact that we have had to be agile and drawing on all our resources to ensure the people of this state remain free of any further outbreak like we’ve seen in Melbourne.
What that means is there is going to be a buttload of uniforms on the border.
Updated
Still in Victoria.
Victorian Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien says we may need to learn to live with coronavirus, and that there should be a "sensible, slow and safe reopening of sections of the economy”.
— MMM's Hot Breakfast (@mmmhotbreakfast) July 6, 2020
LISTEN HERE: https://t.co/JMEoBlZ4At pic.twitter.com/IiitQL3CHy
Updated
A reminder, as we wait for the Victorian numbers, (which are expected to be one of the highest daily totals, if not the highest we have seen yet), that these positive tests are from people who picked up the infection a week or so ago.
It will take another cycle of the virus’s incubation period – two weeks – to see if there has been any impact on the spread.
Updated
You may recall, a few weeks ago, the bushfire royal commission heard that some farmers on the NSW side of the river in the Upper Murray cannot leave their farm without driving into Victoria.
Many others have property on both sides. So, as you can imagine, the news of the border closure is causing a fair amount of stress. It is made worse by the lack of information.
David Jochinke, the president of the Victorian Farmers Federation, says his organisation has been on the phone to the state agriculture minister, the federal agriculture minister, and the NSW farmers federation trying to figure out what’s going on. He says a hard border will severely impact farmers, operating all along the Murray River.
If they don’t own a farm on both sides of the border they would have services they need on both sides of the border.
Farmers managed to negotiate the necessary exemptions in the South Australian and Queensland border closures, so they’re hoping that NSW will learn the lessons of those earlier border restrictions.
Jochinke says:
What we saw with South Australia, I think the terms and conditions changed three to four times within two days to make it more workable. We are hoping that the first cut of this is taking the lessons that we learned from the SA experience so people can readily get a permit.
At the moment, the farming community – like everyone else on the NSW/Victorian border – is just waiting for more information. He says:
That lack of information is definitely hurting at the moment.
Updated
NSW Health has a focus on Albury, ahead of the border closure:
(Via AAP)
Two probable coronavirus cases are being investigated in the Albury area as New South Wales prepares to close its border with Victoria over the Covid-19 outbreak in parts of Melbourne.
NSW Health on Monday evening said the two cases had returned positive results on preliminary testing in the Murrumbidgee Local Health District.
The department on Tuesday said the two cases were undergoing further testing but had not yet been included in the state’s confirmed case load.
One suspected case had recently been to Melbourne but returned before hotspot travel restrictions came into force.
NSW Health is setting up a pop-up clinic in Albury from Tuesday and is urging residents in the area with even mild symptoms to get tested.
NSW reported seven new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday from 9,746 tests, including a man who tested negative in hotel quarantine before returning home to Newcastle on Sunday and developing respiratory symptoms. He and his close contacts have been placed into isolation.
The other six cases were in travellers in hotel quarantine.
Updated
Well, we know how Bill Shorten will be spending the next couple of hours.
If you want to hear about digital security from the man who presided over the great MyGov crashes of July 2019, March 2020 (the one he blamed on imaginary hackers) & July 2020, please tune in for Stuart Robert at the National Press Club today. #NPC #auspol
— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) July 7, 2020
Updated
Margaret Simons is reporting from on the ground outside the Melbourne towers.
This was from Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton to workers involved in the effort. @AmyRemeikis
— MargaretSimons (@MargaretSimons) July 7, 2020
Seven new Covid-19 cases in NSW
NSW has reported seven new positive tests for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours. Six are in hotel quarantine and the seventh was the man who was released from quarantine and developed symptoms after release.
The state tests at day 10 and releases people if they test negative and don’t display symptoms.
The man and his close contacts are in self-isolation in Newcastle.
Updated
The Age is reporting that the security company “linked to the biggest coronavirus outbreak in a quarantine hotel also provided guards for the North Melbourne and Flemington public housing estates now under a hard lockdown”.
MSS Security was guarding the Stamford Plaza, the city hotel at the heart of an outbreak in which 42 people comprising guards, their families and close contacts have now been infected …
With hundreds of police currently stationed at these towers, MSS is no longer operating there.
A Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman said it was unlikely MSS guards had been the cause of the spread of coronavirus in the locked-down public housing towers – where Premier Daniel Andrews said on Monday there were now 53 positive cases.
You can read the whole story here.
Updated
The mayor of Wodonga, Anna Speedie, told ABC24 the lack of information from the NSW government on how the Victoria/NSW border closure would work was “disappointing”:
I guess what the disappointing thing is, is this hasn’t happened overnight — ie, we have known that this pandemic could go sideways for five months, and there hasn’t been a plan in place that has been picked up and put into place very quickly when we’ve only got hours until our borders close.
How are our businesses, how are our people going to continue to be able to access the things that they need? I guess that’s the disappointing part. So the sooner we can get information, the better.
Speedie said NSW, which is policing the border closure, could have learned from the border closures in Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia and picked up something “off the shelf” to put into place.
In particular, she said, people should be able to apply for a permit already:
So not having a website open where people could access their permits as of the announcement yesterday, I think is fairly poor.
As of 11am, the form to apply for a permit had not been put on the Services NSW website, and the permit conditions had not been announced.
Speedie said more than 10,000 people work across the border in Albury-Wodonga alone every day, and there are 50,000 car movements a day between the two cities.
The health service is split – the maternity ward is at Wodonga hospital while oncology is in Albury.
Updated
Afternoon press conferences are never a good sign:
Set to be another record day of new Victorian covid cases.
— Richard Willingham (@rwillingham) July 7, 2020
Sources say in the low 190s... @abcmelbourne @abcnews
Premier's presser due after lunch, no time advised yet.
Updated
“The NSW government has announced it will work with Football Federation Australia to help relocate the three Melbourne A-League sides who failed to cross the Victoria-NSW border last night. Melbourne Victory, Melbourne City and Western United made a last-ditch attempt to fly to Canberra to join the competition’s NSW hub but were thwarted by bad weather.”
Updated
If you have headed to a supermarket in the last couple of weeks, you may have seen some of the item purchase limits back in force.
AAP has an update on where the major supermarkets are at with that:
Coles and Woolworths have lifted limits on grocery purchases, but Woolies has opted to keep its loo paper restrictions in place for now.
Both chains began reinstating limits on essentials on June 26, after a surge in demand driven by fears of a second wave of coronavirus cases.
All limits have been lifted nationally as of Tuesday, except for a Woolworths limit of two packs of toilet paper per customer.
Woolworths has warned limits could be reinstated if there’s evidence of people panic buying supplies.
Coles has urged its customers to buy only what they need.
NSW has an example today of someone who tested negative to coronavirus on day 10 of hotel quarantine but then developed symptoms "on his return home to Newcastle on Sunday, after being released from hotel quarantine. He and his close contacts are in isolation."
— casey briggs (@CaseyBriggs) July 7, 2020
The Victorian Public Tenants Association has been in touch – it is following along with your comments and social media posts asking how to help those who have been locked down in the nine Melbourne towers:
We know lots of people are looking for ways to assist, this is what we’ve been saying/what we know so far –
We’re aware that the government is coordinating central donation points/information for people wishing to donate but are unsure how. At the moment they have an email address, which is sccvic.ooa@scc.vic.gov.au.
For people that for whatever reason (cost, distance, logistics) can’t donate, we’re asking people to post a photo to social media with a sign saying “I Stand With the Towers”, using the hashtag #IStandWiththeTowers and tagging us (@PublicTenants on FB and Twitter) as an expression of support and solidarity with residents.
We have this page on our site which we’ll continue to update as we get more information, https://vpta.org.au/public-housing-lockdowns/, and not so long ago we tweeted the I Stand With the Towers ask also.
Updated
The NSW police minister, David Elliott, and the NSW police commissioner, Mick Fuller, have a press conference at 12.30pm ahead of the launch of the “ high-visibility policing operation” at the border.
Updated
People living on the NSW and Victorian border are still waiting for information about how to apply for a permit to travel across the border, which will close in just over 12 hours.
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has repeatedly said people will be able to apply for a permit on the Service NSW website, but as of 11am the form for those permits has not been uploaded on the website.
This is all Services NSW says right now:
From Wednesday 8 July, NSW will temporarily shut its border with Victoria to contain the spread of COVID-19 and to protect the health and jobs of NSW citizens.
If you’re travelling from Victoria to NSW, you’ll need a COVID-19 NSW border declaration permit.
There will be provisions in place for residents of border regions, such as Albury-Wodonga.
More information, including details on how to apply for a permit, will be available on this page soon.
ACT health authorities have updated the travel information for residents heading to or from Victoria (as well as visitors from Victoria).
- 12.01am Wednesday 8 July 2020: Anyone (other than ACT residents) travelling into the ACT from Victoria will be denied entry unless they are granted an exemption. ACT residents will be able to return home, but they will be required to enter quarantine until 14 days after leaving Victoria.
Passengers on inbound flights from Melbourne will be asked to provide identification and details of their planned quarantine location when they arrive at Canberra airport.
Updated
Queensland reports one new Covid-19 case
Queensland has reported one positive diagnosis of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours – a returned ADF member who was in quarantine.
That’s the first reported case in the state for 10 days.
Updated
The Labor MP Peter Khalil is now being attacked on social media for his comments (as reported by Luke Henriques-Gomes) questioning the “hard” (police-enforced) lockdown of 3,000 residents in nine Melbourne public housing towers.
We demand politicians speak their minds and represent their constituents instead of their party lines. Then, when they do, they are accused of working against the party.
It is possible to question an extreme “public health” measure, which has not been applied anywhere else, other than to residents of public housing (so far) and not be a traitor to your party.
Did you watch my i/v? I said clearly I support the state govt health responses and that they have done terrific job but that does not preclude us from asking questions of all levels of govt of where we could do better and they and I won’t be silenced Re the disadvantage of Housos
— Peter Khalil MP (@PeterKhalilMP) July 6, 2020
Updated
The federal health department has updated its “restriction checker”.
You can head there to see where you are allowed to travel to, or from, and what you need to do (in terms of self-isolation and so on) if necessary.
The federal government is in support of the NSW decision to lock down the border to Victoria. It is still a party to the court challenge Clive Palmer and some Queensland tourism operators have brought against the border closure (Palmer also has a court challenge against the WA closure as well) which Christian Porter says is expected, given the involvement of the commonwealth.
The WA premier, Mark McGowan, asked the prime minister to drop the commonwealth’s involvement, as it was time to “end the nonsense” as he said the court action was taking up too much time for people, including the chief health officer and state attorney general, who had better things to do. Like manage the response to a pandemic. That hasn’t happened, although the borders will most likely be opened before the court makes its ruling.
Updated
Never great when your committee has “crisis” in the title:
The Vic Government's Covid Crisis Council of Cabinet is currently meeting. @abcmelbourne
— Richard Willingham (@rwillingham) July 7, 2020
Numbers and gov presser slated for after lunch. @abcnews
Updated
As we wait for the Victorian update (which should be soon), let’s take a look at where the situation was yesterday:
• 31 people in Victoria are in hospital with Covid-19
• Five patients are in intensive care
• Two men have died in hospital – one aged in his 90s on Sunday and the other aged in his 60s on Monday
• Victoria’s virus death toll is now 22
Hospital staff infections:
• Seven emergency department staff at Northern hospital Epping have tested positive
• One healthcare worker at the Royal Melbourne hospital – a close contact of a known case
• One employee at the Alfred hospital has contracted Covid-19 and contact tracing is under way to determine the source
• An Epworth healthcare worker has tested positive in the last week
• A healthcare worker at the Joan Kirner women’s and children’s hospital at Sunshine hospital also has tested positive
Hospital contingencies:
• A 30-bed urgent care clinic at the Melbourne showgrounds has been set up by the Royal Melbourne hospital and St John Ambulance to provide critical care and first-aid to residents locked down in Flemington and North Melbourne public housing
• Two field emergency management units have been set up for people in the towers who have medical needs
• These are staffed by medical workers, GPs and nurses, with pharmacotherapy and medicines available on site, including mental health and drug and alcohol support
• Residents who need to continue treatment and recovery during lockdown will have access to pharmacotherapy and support programs
(via AAP)
Updated
Virgin and other companies in the aviation sector have joined hands with unions to plead for the Morrison government to extend jobkeeper support for the stricken industry to be extended beyond the end of September.
Jobkeeper is due to expire then and, despite warnings from the Reserve Bank that the economy could fall off a cliff if it is not extended in some way, the government has yet to announce any concrete plans for October and beyond.
In a statement, the Transport Workers’ Union said the closure of the border between Victoria and NSW was piling pressure on the already besieged aviation sector.
The union said it, the Australian Services Union and Virgin, Dnata, Menzies, Cabin Services Australia, Gate Gourmet, Swissport and SNP had written to the prime minister, Scott Morrison, seeking an extension of jobkeeper for the sector (something they’ve dubbed aviationkeeper).
The TWU national secretary, Michael Kaine, said: “The federal government needs to urgently decide if it will risk mass redundancies in aviation and the knock-on effect of impeding a bounce-back from the pandemic.”
More from the statement:
ASU Assistant National Secretary Linda White said workers were being left in limbo about their future income and job security.
“Our aviation industry is in freefall,” she said. “Millions of businesses, jobs and livelihoods depend on this critical industry,” she said.
“We cannot allow this once-in-a-lifetime pandemic to completely demolish an industry which is so central to our community and businesses.
If the Morrison Government cuts JobKeeper, the planes won’t be there when we need them, grounding the whole economy.
Updated
As my colleague Calla Wahlquist points out, given the border ban, this is not surprising news:
The NSW-run XPT will not operate in Victoria with the border closed. The usual Sydney to Melbourne service will now terminate at Albury. Travellers this morning were put onto buses for the Victorian section of their journey. @bordermail
— Shana Morgan (@shana_morgan) July 6, 2020
Updated
Greg Hunt told the ABC the “ring fencing” strategy, which is a nice way of saying “police lockdown of residents” was part of the national cabinet plan to contain localised outbreaks. Of the “sadly necessary steps”, he says:
What we’ve done is follow the medical advice, both at state level and at federal level.
As a country, one of the things we’ve been able to do is to flatten the curve, to stop that spread, and, in light of the number of cases in Victoria, the decision was taken between the prime minister and the Victorian and New South Wales premiers, often the back of medical advice, to do this now.
It represents a ring of containment for Victoria, which fits in with what we’ve also been doing at the local levels, so these are the steps that we always in the case of outbreaks, and now is the time to enact them in order to contain that spread.
At the same time, to provide the support. Contain the spread, provide the support. They’re the things that we’re doing. And we’ve been through this, sadly, as a country, before. We are now going through it in particular as one state.
Right from the start, in February, we’ve talked about the concept of rings of containment, whether it’s been suburbs, broader areas such as north-west Tasmania, or when it’s required to take that step.
Now is the moment when we believe that step, for the first time, is required, and necessary and it relates specifically and exclusively to the challenges that Victoria is facing. And so the concept of rings of containment, of isolating areas, has always been part of it.
This is the first time that we believe that the triggers have been met and the challenges are such, with numbers, that it’s appropriate, required and necessary.
Updated
Federal Labor MP says tower residents deserve answers
The federal Labor MP Peter Khalil, who represents Wills in Melbourne’s north, says residents in the nine public housing towers in hard lockdown “deserve to know what pre-emptive actions were taken to avoid these extreme steps from being necessary”.
Khalil, who noted he grew up in public housing, said he understood the need for a health response from the Victorian Labor government and the difficulty of policing suburban lockdown areas.
“However, I also understand the anger and fear being expressed by residents,” he said.
Khalil said residents were already disadvantaged and were now facing “another layer of disadvantage based on their residence being high-density housing”.
He said they had a right to question the government’s response, including why elders and community leaders weren’t consulted and asked to channel relevant health information.
“While I have no doubt that residents want to do the right thing for their health, the health of their family and that of the broader community, they also deserve to have their questions answered,” he said. “This is what I have clearly heard from community leaders.
“What, if any, other responses could have been pursued by government to mitigate the pandemic risks to high-density public housing?
Updated
Stuart Robert will be delivering a speech at the National Press Club today on Government services in the digital age: the challenges, the plan and the delivery.
Anyone who has ever had anything to do with Centrelink, particularly robodebt, is well aware of the “challenges”.
Updated
You can follow along with what is happening with the pandemic, internationally, with Helen Sullivan, here:
Doing it for the ’gram …
A social media influencer who escaped from hotel quarantine in Sydney has been fined for her health order breach. pic.twitter.com/2VabTOFmwS
— 10 News First (@10NewsFirst) July 6, 2020
Updated
We have a bit more information on the three A-League teams from Melbourne who were turned away from the NSW border yesterday:
Following yesterday’s announcement by the NSW Government to close the NSW border to Victoria, Football Federation Australia (FFA) today confirmed that they will be applying for exemptions to allow the Players and High Performance coaching staff from Melbourne City FC, Melbourne Victory and Western United FC to enter NSW for the remainder of Hyundai A-League 2019/20 Season.
FFA Head of Leagues, Greg O’Rourke, said that every effort was made to relocate the clubs out of Victoria before the closing of the borders, but unfortunately, despite all the players boarding a plane to the ACT, weather closed Canberra Airport which then made it impossible to leave Victoria before the borders closed.
“As a result, we will now begin the process to seek exemptions from the NSW Government to allow the teams to enter NSW for them to continue their season,” said O’Rourke.“If we find it necessary to revise the match schedule we will do so accordingly and will announce once confirmed, however at this time the schedule remains the same,” concluded O’Rourke.
There has been some talk of removing residents who have tested positive for Covid-19 from the locked-down Melbourne towers to help limit the spread of the virus.
Dr Nick Coatsworth says that is one option under discussion, but that the forced isolation of the residents may mean it is not necessary:
So all options will be on the table for the Victorian public health officials.
What I might say in response to that, though, is that people are within their homes, they’re within their flats, and the virus isn’t going to travel from flat to flat if people are remaining within there, as hard as that is.
Then the issue of outbreaks within households is critical, but in vulnerable situations, separating households has its own negative effects that need to be considered above and beyond the virus.
So, the most important thing, is that medical care is available to those with Covid-19 who become unwell and need hospitalisation.
And we heard that there is a pop-up hospital there down in Victoria, near the public housing towers, to provide exactly that sort of urgent assessment, primary care, and then if necessary hospitalisation.
My view is that that’s the most important aspect of that treatment.
Updated
One of Australia’s deputy chief medical officers, Nick Coatsworth, was asked how troubling the Victorian situation was. He told the ABC:
It’s deeply concerning. The numbers are obviously in three figures now, and there’s a significant amount of community transmission.
In fact, now the vast majority of cases are occurring within the Victorian community, the Melbourne community, rather than from overseas travellers.
And obviously we just heard from one of the residents of the public housing towers, and it’s so important for us to hear those voices, that this is a real partnership between people in those towers, between Victorians and the rest of Australia and its government to get this under control. This is an issue that we all share.
Updated
Three Melbourne A-League teams were unable to get across the NSW border, where they were to play games overnight.
Crazy situation last night trying to get @MelbourneCity @gomvfc and @wufcofficial players over the border. Back home in Melbourne at 1am.. what next?
— Michael Zappone (@Michael_Zappone) July 6, 2020
The entirety of Melbourne was declared a hotspot by NSW authorities, who banned anyone from the city crossing the border from midnight last night.
Updated
Seven staff at Northern hospital Epping in Melbourne test positive to Covid-19
AAP reports a Melbourne hospital has closed its emergency department for deep cleaning after seven of its staff tested positive for Covid-19:
Seven emergency department staff at Northern hospital Epping tested positive to Covid-19 over the past five days, a spokeswoman said.
Contact tracing is under way and the emergency department is undergoing a deep clean, with all its staff being tested as a precaution.
While the emergency department remains open, there is a temporary reduction in non-urgent elective surgery and outpatient appointments to free up resources to keep the ED operating.
Visitors to the hospital have also been restricted as a precaution.
Updated
Residents within the towers are also mobilising themselves to help their neighbours where they can, as Melissa Davey reports:
Residents inside the nine public housing towers under lockdown translated an information sheet about the restrictions and public health measures needed to contain Covid-19 into 10 different languages. This information was distributed within the affected buildings via social media and text messaging in just 24 hours.
An infectious disease physician, Dr Chris Lemoh, who works with culturally and linguistically diverse communities at a Melbourne public hospital, said he had been in contact with several people inside the tower blocks in Flemington and North Melbourne which are now being surveilled by police to ensure residents do not leave while they undergo Covid-19 testing after a cluster of cases in the buildings.
“Some residents put together an information sheet and they translated that into 10 written and five oral languages within 24 hours and distributed it among their networks in order to help get government messaging across,” Lemoh said.
“I’ve been involved in public health projects like this and if the government had to do this on their own, it would have taken them at least six months to get that kind of translation work done.”
Updated
A reminder that residents were given barely half an hour’s notice of the lockdown – and many found out from the media.
Updated
[Cont from previous post]
The state government said it had given out 3,000 meals, 1,000 food hampers and 250 personal care packs to residents, while charities and community groups help with meals and supplies.
Residents have shared images on social media of out-of-date meals, food left on the floor and Muslim families given pork.
The Victorian Council of Social Services chief executive, Emma King, was concerned that culturally appropriate meals weren’t being provided by the government.
“We need to save lives first and foremost but we need to make sure people get the support that they need and they aren’t terrified through the process,” she said.
Community groups and volunteers have been organising to provide residents with groceries after hearing some lacked necessities.
The premier, Daniel Andrews, said people in the towers would be looked after.
“There are literally hundreds and thousands of people working – from police to social workers, to nurses and doctors, all the way through to people working in our supermarkets, people working in commercial kitchens ... they are all doing their absolute best,” he said.
He added halal meals have been handed out by the Victorian Trades Hall in partnership with the social enterprise Moving Feast.
Updated
AAP has a little more on that:
A father of five young children living in Melbourne’s public housing towers hasn’t been given enough food to survive in the virus lockdown.
Abdiraham Ibrahim, who lives in a Flemington tower after fleeing his war-torn homeland of Somalia, said the state government hadn’t yet dished up enough food for the 3,000 residents of the towers.
His friends have delivered him necessities such as milk and formula.
“We are doing the right thing, we are staying at home,” he told AAP. “If the government are not providing what we need they shouldn’t be stopping people from bringing it.”
Volunteers and residents have reported problems with the logistics and process of getting food to those who need it, which are being fixed.
Ibrahim’s family has been tested for the virus; his wife has tested negative while he awaits his result.
The family are among thousands of residents living in nine towers in Flemington and North Melbourne that were put into hard lockdown on Saturday in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus.
The 3,000 residents are unable to leave their apartments for any reason for at least five days, and could be scaled up to 14 days.
There were 53 confirmed cases of Covid-19 inside the living quarters on Monday, as police patrolled entrances and corridors.
Updated
Dima Abdu, one of the 3,000 or so residents in those nine public housing towers, thanked the local community through the ABC for bringing food and medicine to those locked up under police guard inside.
She said there was not enough communication:
Well, I’m very worried about the lack of communication, because we learned last night that there is a hospital – a pop-up hospital set up at the showgrounds, from the news.
This has not been communicated by local authorities. Especially when it concerns us, it’s not concerning the wider public, it’s something that directly affects us, and we’re not being notified.
Our building, at 33 Alfred, has received a letter saying that it’s not for five days, it’s for 14 days. And if we refuse testing there, will be an extra 10 days …
I would like more phone calls. You do have our numbers, obviously. And we would like more mental health support, more social workers, because I haven’t seen any, to be honest. And we want more – at least door-to-door, or calls, going out to people.
Because I did hear there are people really, really suffering and isolated, potentially also young mothers, who also don’t understand English and feel like they’re being criminalised.
Updated
The “hard lockdown” continues in the Melbourne towers – residents say they are still not getting enough information:
Updated
AAP has detailed some of what those critics have been saying:
The Australian Industry Group chief executive, Innes Willox, said the closure would pull the rug out from under the economic recovery and spark chaos.
“The border closure puts up a Berlin Wall between our two biggest states which represent more than half our national economy, and cuts in two our country’s main economic artery,” he said.
“It is a sledgehammer approach when what is required is focused strategy that is community- and hotspot-based and not based on arbitrary borders that split communities.”
Updated
To those who say the NSW decision will set back plans to reopen the economy, Gladys Berejiklian says:
Look, I say to them – fair enough. But consider this: what if New South Wales then had to shut down as well?
Then where would the economy be?
Yes, Victoria is the second-largest economy. But this is about not just protecting the health and safety of our communities across the states and across the broader nation, but also making sure that we are keeping the jobs going and the economy going.
The last thing that you would want to see is the two largest states having to shut down their activity, and that was a risk posed to New South Wales had we not taken this action.
And that’s why I say to all business groups who might be concerned: yes, it is concerning about what’s happening in Victoria. Yes, it’s going to thwart our ability to grow the economy and to try to get back some of the jobs that have been lost.
But imagine what could happen if we hadn’t taken this action and New South Wales went down the same path?
It would be an extremely difficult position for our nation, because all of the other states rely on New South Wales and Victoria to support them.
Updated
Does Gladys Berejiklian have a time frame in mind for how long the border will be closed?
We don’t, actually. What we look at is what’s happening in Melbourne and its surrounds is unprecedented in Australia.
Until this point in time, until this latest outbreak, the vast majority of cases around Australia, including New South Wales, even when we were getting more than 200 case as day, the vast majority of those cases were from overseas travellers or their direct contacts.
And now what we’re seeing in Melbourne is that the vast majority of new cases are from community transmission. And that’s a concern.
Because once it spreads in the community, it’s very difficult ... It’s more difficult to control.
And that was the trigger for us closing the border. So when we see evidence that the community transmission is suppressed, that the spread is stopping – that’s when we can consider reopening the border.
And we don’t know when that will be. That’s why we’ve been monitoring the situation in New South Wales very closely for the last fortnight.
We’ve been making sure we have daily health advice. The experts have been briefing us to the best of their ability and they’re doing an outstanding job.
And yesterday morning, when the advice that I received from them was that the border should be shut, I didn’t hesitate.
Because I anticipated this could be the case. We’ve been looking at it for a period of time. And the fact that the community transmission is where it is, has made us make this difficult decision.
Updated
NSW is setting up a permit system for people who want to get across the border from Victoria. This is mostly for those in the border towns, but also for those who are citing compassionate reasons.
(There is no problems for Victorians in NSW who are trying to get home – the border closure is one way.)
Gladys Berejiklian said she hoped the permit system would be up and running through Services NSW today. She told the ABC:
I know we’ve had people working through the night to make that possible. We always knew once we made the announcement, the first two or three days would be extremely difficult for the border communities, which is why the decision wasn’t taken lightly.
As you and your viewers know, there are around 55 border crossings. It’s the busiest border in all of Australia, and certainly, we appreciate those challenges and I want to thank everybody in advance for their patience.
There will be queues. There will be frustration. There will be lots of questions. But we’re doing this to keep everybody safe.
And to also make sure that the Victorian government has the resources it needs to focus on containing the spread.
And that’s why we’re making sure that all of our resources in New South Wales will be dedicated to this border protection and taking heat off some of those health officials and authorities on the other side of the border.
Updated
The federal government should provide funding to leaders of culturally and linguistically diverse (Cald) communities to help ensure vital public health messages reach all communities, the opposition says.
Labor is today calling on the government to make communications grants of up to $5,000 available to Cald community leaders and providers, saying the Covid-19 pandemic “is a difficult time for all Australians and it’s essential everyone know how to look after themselves and those around them”.
The grants would aim to break communication barriers within existing official health information, provide translation of important messages, and build resilience and improved engagement with emerging Cald communities. Labor says the grants – worth $500,000 in total – should be directed at smaller, grassroots organisations.
Guardian Australia reported yesterday that residents inside the nine public housing towers under “hard lockdown” in Victoria translated an information sheet about the restrictions and public health measures needed to contain Covid-19 into 10 different languages, distributing it within the affected buildings via social media and text messaging in just 24 hours.
The call for grants follows a report by the national Covid-19 health and research advisory committee that argued “community representatives and trusted intermediaries that have long track records and capacity to engage with groups at high risk are essential to Covid-19 communication efforts”.
Labor’s immigration spokesperson, Kristina Keneally, said the grants would provide “more resources to translate and print Covid-19 newsletters, publications, signage, websites, advertisements, brochures, video, radio and public service announcements from existing official information services”. Successful applicants could also participate in Covid-19 training offered by local, state or federal governments.
Keneally said in a joint statement with her Labor colleagues Andrew Giles and Anne Aly that the Morrison government needed to “better support Cald communities and engage with community leaders who represent emerging communities during this public health emergency”.
“We must ensure no one is left behind during this ongoing pandemic – a virus does not check someone’s cultural background before it infects them.”
Updated
Good morning
Yesterday the NSW police commissioner warned there would be Australian defence force help in patrolling the NSW-Victorian border (he mentioned concerns people could swim across) and so today, up to 500 troops are on their way to NSW.
The border closed to anyone from Melbourne at midnight just gone. From midnight tonight, it will be closed to anyone in Victoria.
The last time the border was closed was 1919, during the Spanish flu pandemic (the Spanish flu was actually first recorded in Kansas, a fact I will keep repeating until I die).
The troops will support the police operation, which is being carried out on the NSW side. That’s because the decision to close the border was led by NSW. After months of criticising states (mostly Queensland) for shutting their borders, when the chief medical officer, Dr Kerry Chant, told the NSW government the situation in Victoria meant NSW had to protect itself, Gladys Berejiklian followed the advice (which is what the other states said they did too).
Victoria recorded it’s biggest single day of Covid-19 case numbers yesterday, with 127 people testing positive for the virus.
The Northern Territory has declared all of Melbourne a hotspot and won’t be allowing visitors from the city in. Queensland has kept its border closed to Victorians, as has South Australia. Western Australia hasn’t budged and has the border closed to everyone.
We’ll bring you all the updates as they come in. You have Amy Remeikis with you until mid-afternoon.
Updated
